SALT POOLS feedback please

[Poolsean]

Hello PoolForum-ites,

Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.

How old is your system?

What Salt level do you maintain?

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?

How often do you test your water?

Thank you!

[waterbear]

Hello PoolForum-ites,

Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.
Fiberglass inground
How old is your system?
2 years
What Salt level do you maintain?
3200-3500 ppm
What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
minimal maintenance, except for addition of acid approx. every 5 weeks and vacuuming.
What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
non to speak of
How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
have not had to since installation (I inspect it about every 3 months)
How often do you test your water?
Weekly or more.
Thank you!
Hope this is helpful.

[Davenj]

Hello PoolForum-ites,

Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.
Vinyl In-ground
How old is your system?
18 months
What Salt level do you maintain?
3000ppm
What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
maintenance/ feel of water
What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
Getting people to believe its really works well
How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
Never, check it once a month
How often do you test your water?
Once a week
Thank you!

Glad to help out
Dave

[hzz]

Hello PoolForum-ites,

Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.

Vinyl inground

How old is your system?

3 years

What Salt level do you maintain?

about 3300

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?

easy to maintain, water feels better, no algae outbreaks

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?

none

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?

haven't had to yet

How often do you test your water?

weekly

Thank you!

Glad to help you out Sean!

[INLANDSMOG]

Hello PoolForum-ites,

Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.
Inground Plaster
How old is your system?
1 yr
What Salt level do you maintain?
3000 ppm
What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
Been salt since new
What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
N/A
How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
6 mos
How often do you test your water?
Weekly
Thank you!
There you go.

[mas985]

Hello PoolForum-ites,

Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.
Gunite/Plaster

How old is your system?
A bit over a year old.

What Salt level do you maintain?
Currently it is 3500ppm. Next year, I am going to lower it to 2900 to avoid problems with my solar. When solar turns on, the water is very hot and makes the salt reading go up and turn off the SWG.

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
Don't have to handle chlorine and maintenance is reduced.

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
Solar issue above and I get salt on the edge of the pool (white residue)from splash out.

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
I have only had to spray the cell out every three months. I have not yet soaked it in acid. I have tried to keep the chemistry right to limit amount of cleaning.

How often do you test your water?
Once a week in the summer and once every two weeks in winter.

Thank you!

Just curious as to your objective.

[dawndenise]

Hi Sean,

What type of pool finish do you have?
PebbleSheen

How old is your system?
Pool: 6+ months, salt system: 5 months

What Salt level do you maintain?
Initially, 3400 but now have 4000-4100 due to using lots of bleach during a fall mustard/yellow algae outbreak. I'm letting this fall naturally, as system still seems to work fine at this higher level - although the system is now off due to cold water temps.

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
No need to lug bleach jugs, better feeling water, can go on trips with no maintenance worrries.

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
None. However, I can't quite bring myself to operate the high stabilizer/low chlorine levels recommended because I haven't read a convincing rationale. Perhaps following the recommendations would have prevented my algae outbreak. But having that high of a stabilizer level would have resulted in many, many more bottles of bleach above and beyond the mound I already had to use. Up to this point, I've followed the Best Guess chart as if I were manually chlorinating with CYA of about 50.

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
I've only inspected the cell when the system prompted me at the 3-month mark. No visible deposits at that time.

How often do you test your water?
Daily for pH and free chlorine. Weekly for everything else unless I've had to adjust. Maybe I'll "slack off" a bit after a year when I'm more familiar with how my pool responds.

[/QUOTE]

[Poolsean]

Hey Mark,

Within the salt industry, we hear a plethora of issues blamed on salt systems. As I have been dealing with salt systems since 1986, I have not experienced these issues. However, with more and more salt systems being sold, I wanted to see if there were unusual operating conditions that builders recommend or pool owners are doing that are different from the norm...such as the high cya/high chlorine that Denise mentioned.

But I'm also looking to find new "material" for my presentations that I am doing over the next few months at the major Pool Industry trade shows.
(I finally met Mark from Watermaid Canada at the International Pool and Spa Expo in Las Vegas time last month).

It's always good to share pool owners comments that are different from the standard "Soft Water feel", or "No more burning eyes"...

Then on the other side, since a portion of my presentations involve problem solving, I'm interested in seeing if there are other pecular scenarios that are different, chemicals being used that are beneficial, or product specific issues that I can learn about, so that when a question arrises, I can be the most informed as I can.

I'm probably going to compile a spreadsheet of all the responses.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

[chem geek]

Sean,

As you know from other posts on this forum, many (but not all) SWG users experience rising pH which requires regular additions of acid to maintain pH (and possibly adding baking soda to maintain TA over a longer period of time). Non-SWG users using BBB or liquid chlorine do not generally see the pH rise unless they have high TA, low pH, aeration from water features, or a new plaster pool (that is curing). waterbear (Evan) has found that using 50 ppm Borates significantly reduced this acid demand, possibly by reducing chlorine demand and allowing for lower power levels or run times of SWG generation. We never definitively determined the cause of this pH rise but I believe it due to the hydrogen gas bubbles causing aeration to outgas carbon dioxide (the other primary candidate is outgassing of undissolved chlorine gas bubbles, but I find that less likely). Users who have tried running at lower TA levels (and avoided lower starting pH) have had less acid demand as well which is consistent with the carbon dioxide outgassing theory. I suggest that SWG manufacturers experiment with different approaches to managing the hydrogen gas bubble production, possibly segmenting or otherwise capturing the flow of hydrogen bubbles through the outlets so that they have less contact time with pool water or varying bubble size (if possible) since larger bubbles should be less effective at pulling carbon dioxide out of the water.

The issue that dawndenise has raised is valid in that normally SWG systems do not experience algae, but when they do you need to shock with a heck of a lot of chlorine due to the high CYA (70-80 ppm) recommended by most SWG manufacturers. Though the superchlorination effect in part of the volume of water through the cell seems to keep algae at bay for most users, it isn't perfect and the high CYA and typical recommended FC level (3 ppm) from the SWG manufacturer means a disinfecting chlorine level that is sufficient for sanitation, but not ideal for algae prevention if for some reason algae takes hold on pool surfaces and does not circulate through the cell. I would like to see the SWG manufacturers consider using larger (longer) plate areas (probably in longer cells) so that the power per unit area can be cut down which should allow for lower CYA levels to be used. A doubling of plate area (and a lowering of voltage to keep the total current the same or a reduction in "on" time to keep the total FC production rate the same) should allow the cell to operate efficiently at 35-40 ppm CYA instead of 70-80 ppm CYA.

That's my two cents worth. I don't own an SWG system (yet) so can only comment on what others have said.

Richard

[nater]

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl Inground

How old is your system?
System is 2 years old, has been in use for 10 months.

What Salt level do you maintain?
3000-3400

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
No algae. Consistent Chlorine levels. Easy maintenance. Freeze protection feature is very handy this time of year as I don't "close" my pool.

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
No Pool issues. I have been going through cooling fans (bearing failures), but my unit is an older model. New fans are cheap at Radio Shack and easy to replace, just a minor annoyance I think that owners of newer systems don't experience.

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
Never, even on the longest reverse time setting. I check it once a month.

How often do you test your water?
Every 2-3 days during swimming season, once a month during off season.

Thank you for your involvement on this forum Sean!

[Phillbo]

What type of pool finish do you have?
Inground Plaster

How old is your system?
9 months

What Salt level do you maintain?
3200 PPM

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
lower maintenance ( just add acid every other week). Love the soft water feel and no need to wash chlorine off after a long swim.

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
None

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
I check it every 3 months or so but have yet to need to clean it

How often do you test your water?
Weekly in the summer, Monthly in the winter

[tonyl]

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl Inground

How old is your system?
Four years. Pool is open 6 months a year.

What Salt level do you maintain?
3300-3400

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
Ease of maintenance. Consistant chlorine supply. Much easier on the skin, especially noted by my kids with skin dryness prior to switching.

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
None.

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
Never, but I check it every 3 months. It's always been scale free.

How often do you test your water?
Weekly during the swim season

[waterbear]

Sean,

As you know from other posts on this forum, many (but not all) SWG users experience rising pH which requires regular additions of acid to maintain pH (and possibly adding baking soda to maintain TA over a longer period of time). Non-SWG users using BBB or liquid chlorine do not generally see the pH rise unless they have high TA, low pH, aeration from water features, or a new plaster pool (that is curing). waterbear (Evan) has found that using 50 ppm Borates significantly reduced this acid demand, possibly by reducing chlorine demand and allowing for lower power levels or run times of SWG generation.


Richard
Sean,
Richard is correct. Since adding the 50 ppm sodium tetraborate my acid use has decreased from about 24 oz every 2-3 week to about 6 oz evey 5 weeks and my pH tends to stay right around 7.6. I have also found that by lowering my adjusted TA to about 70 ppm has been beneficial. Since I have done that I have not seen my pH rise above about 7.9 while before it was not uncommen for it to read 8.2. I have also seen a huge decrease in chlorine demand since I can now run my cell at between 4-10% output depending on temperature (Goldline Aqualogic PS-8) to maintain my FC of 4-5 ppm while before I added the tetraborates I ran the cell at 15-25%! Also, my pool gets constant aeration from the spillover spa and water features (deck jets and spillover pots). I maintain my CYA at about 70 ppm and am located (as you know) in N. FL.
Evan

[river-wear]

What type of pool finish do you have?
in-ground concrete with fiberglass finish

How old is your system?
about 8 months

What Salt level do you maintain?
about 3000-3200 ppm

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
I fired the pool $ervice!:D (Easy to maintain)

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
:mad: My new solar landscape lights are badly corroded from my pool sweep's splashing around. I need to find cheap plastic replacements.

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
Hmmm.... gotta see if my husband has been doing this...! :eek:

How often do you test your water?
Cl & pH weekly; the rest every 4-6 weeks

[Gunslinger]

What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.

How old is your system?
>>4 yrs

What Salt level do you maintain?
>>3200ppm minimum

What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
>>Better "feel" to the water.
>>No more burning eyes underwater.
>>Noticeable increase in bouyancy.
>>No more lugging bleach home from Wal-Mart!

What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
>>Absolutely NONE.

How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
>>Generally once mid-season.

How often do you test your water?
>>Twice a season to re-calibrate salinity (using a Taylor test kit).
>>At least once a week for FC and Ph.
>>Maybe twice a season for everything else.

This is the absolute best piece of equipment I ever bought --with my Polaris 280 cleaner just one step below!