Maybe we can come up with a list of possible problem components?
I've mentioned heaters and aluminum ladders anchors before, but would have never thought about the auto covers.
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Maybe we can come up with a list of possible problem components?
I've mentioned heaters and aluminum ladders anchors before, but would have never thought about the auto covers.
Stone Degradation (soft stone)
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Splash-out and evaporation in areas without a lot of summer rains. So stone coping, mostly.
Possibly outer areas of waterfalls (where water splashes and evaporates).
In particular (as waterbear pointed out), limestone is the worst, though flagstone and really most stones have a variety of hardness so this varies by quarry (so, location).
Metal Corrosion
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Aluminum top rails for auto-covers
Aluminum header bars immersed for "vanishing" auto-covers
Aluminum or steel filters (rare these days as they are mostly plastic now)
Diving board base (and screws/bolts) from dripped water
Furniture (mostly screws) from dripped water
Inferior stainless steel or zinc-coated materials (such as screws in Intex pools)
Screws, rails, pool cleaner parts (some are metal, such as threaded gears powering the wheels)
Copper heat exchangers (cupro-nickel and titanium are more resistant)
Galvanic corrosion at bonding wire where dissimilar metals meet (occurs anyway, but might be accelerated by positive voltage on bonding wire)
Not all of the above are equal in susceptibility. Problems with heaters, for example, are more rare.
Also note that metal corrosion is significantly exacerbated if there are stray voltages which can occur in some areas. The higher conductivity of the water just makes an existing problem occur more quickly.
Thanks, Richard.
I forgot light rings that should be added to the list (really wish I could edit older posts!).
My light rings are fine after 6 years of salt pool. So I wonder if it needs air for the rust to form. Salt is really bad on my natural stone. Flagstone coping needs to be sealed. I have moss rock waterfall/grotto and the salt is doing major damage to some of the softer boulders. Some don't show any wear, and others are really bad. I'm trying to seal them with impregnable sealer to see if I can slow it down.
That said, I really love the salt water feel and low maintenance. My son has skin that gets dry and irritated from normal chlorine pools, but he has no dryness with our pool.
If I had to do it again, I would try to find a harder rock for any water feature and coping, and maybe a concrete coping. I really don't see any damage to my concrete deck due to salt.
I'm in Houston.
Robert
It has more to do with the quality of the material. High quality stainless steel is not usually a problem. However, some less expensive pools use inferior materials, most often with screws but sometimes with light rings. We've seen a small number of such reports for light rings and quite a few more with screws. As I noted earlier, this can all be mitigated through use of proper materials or when that is not possible (such as when using aluminum), then using a sacrificial anode. For stone, one can use harder stone or can seal it regularly. One can also wash off decks regularly to remove/dilute the salt (that's what rain does and is why some areas of the country don't have this problem even with softer stones).Quote:
Originally Posted by rpoldervaart
The vast majority of SWCG do not see problems. However, as they get lower in price and are used on lower-end pools, such problems will increase unless manufacturers takes such trends into account and improve the quality of the materials used. Also note that even non-SWCG pools have the same corrosion and stone degradation issues -- they just take longer to occur due to the lower salt level.
Richard, do you know of products that have worked for sealing stone?
PoolDoc,
I think that would depend on the type of stone used and the environmental conditions the pool is in.
Not for stone specifically, but for concrete, yes. We have troweled concrete made to simulate flagstone and use Glaze 'N Seal Multi-Purpose Clear Sealer (with a fact sheet here) every year as recommended by our concrete installer. Stone is trickier and as Sean noted the proper product depends on multiple factors. John Bridge Tile Forum is an excellent forum on tile but also talk some about stone and sealers. Other forums such as Stone Forums aren't as busy and I'm not so sure the information is as reliable.Quote:
Originally Posted by PoolDoc
We're in our 7th season of our salt pool, and haven't seen any degradation in either the stainless light bezel, nor the stone coping/waterfall. We do have a pronounced white line on the stone, which I suspect is more calcium build-up than anything. We haven't had to replace any equipment due to salt being a factor (knock on wood). Our deck is Kool-deck, and seems to be just fine, despite my grand kids efforts to empty 1/4 of the pool on it.
I'm in extreme Southern Az, where humidity is very low, year round with the exception of monsoon season.