Tonight I add salt to my non SWG above ground pool

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Originally Posted by The Raddish

Cleancloths, I'm not sure I understand your objections here. Many people use salt water chlorine generators to generate chlorine in their pools. They keep a salinity level around 3000ppm. Not all of that salt has been processed into chlorine at one time, so there will be salt in the pool.

Aside from the chlorine generating aspects of the equipment, I gather that the rest of the chemistry is identical to a non-SWG pool. In other words, it has no effect on the rest of the pool chemistry.

I'm shooting for roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the levels of salt for my non-SWG pool. I don't worry at all about corrosion, since everything in a pool is designed to be around chlorine. Since the reason salt is corrosive is because of the the reactance the world has to the chlorine in the salt molecules, there is no 'additional' corrosive effect from salt in the water.

As for a chemical that is not needed, as you have already pointed out, there is already salt in every chlorine pool, just at much lower levels. I don't need salt in my water, but salt in my water will make the water feel better on my skin and hair and eyes. Since my skin and hair and eyes are all important to me, adding salt to my water to make them feel better is a benefit. Since (as you have already pointed out) salt is a 'buffer' and has no adverse effects on the rest of the pool chemistry, I fail to see one single drawback of putting a modest amount of salt (approx. 1000ppm) in my pool water.

For everyone else, I'll post how much difference adding salt to the water feels after a few days of swimming in it.

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GOOD Points, maybe it won't hurt anything. Won't you end up with white stains on everything once water splashes dry. Also doesn't salt dry out your skin.

Are you eyes dried out? There's salt in tears.

Do you have white patches on your skin? There's salt in sweat.

Adjusting the salinity of pool water to more closely resemble the bodies natural salinity to make the water "feel" better doesn't take as much salt as I think you're imagining.

Post salt my skin and hair feel much better after getting out, and I've yet to see any hint of white residue.

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Originally Posted by JohnInSoCal

I would worry about an above ground pool though as you have metal and more salt means quicker corrosion. Any water is going to corrode metal, add salt and it will do it quicker.

-- john

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Not any quicker than chlorine since it is the chlorine in a salt molecule that makes salt corrosive. Salt by itself is not corrosive. Salt has to react with something else (like certain kinds of metal) to be corrosive. When salt comes into contact with something that reacts with it, what happens is that the Na is split from the Cl in the salt molecule. When the Na is split from the Cl, it is the Cl that reacts to the world around it and corrodes metal. Since Cl is easily split from Na, that is the very reason that 'salt' is considered corrosive.

Pools are designed to be around Cl. All the metals in an above ground pool are designed to exist in a Cl environment. Simply adding NaCl to a Cl environment won't have any more effect on those metals than the Cl that is already in and around the pool. Make sense?

I'm not sure I understand the salt doesn't add to the corrosiveness. Boats are designed to be around water, however when used in salt water they have much more and quicker corrosion. Perhaps it's something else in the ocean water but it's far more destructive to equipment, pumps, engine water jackets, hoses, etc. than fresh water is. I used to live on a boat in the ocean and the water is incredibly destructive.

Also doesn't areas that use road salt cause more damage to car undersides ? I understand that the car is not treated to handle a chlorine water environment or salt.

But I would think that any type of protection/galvinazation for pool equipment metal will eventually breakdown or have a few places that protection wasn't applied correctly and when that salt does get into contact with the metal that it might corrode quicker than if it was just water with very low salt levels would ?

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Originally Posted by JohnInSoCal

But I would think that any type of protection/galvinazation for pool equipment metal will eventually breakdown or have a few places that protection wasn't applied correctly and when that salt does get into contact with the metal that it might corrode quicker than if it was just water with very low salt levels would ?

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This is true. However, the galvanized metals are designed to exist in a Chlorine environment. It is the Chlorine in the salt that makes salt corrosive.

The examples you gave are indeed good examples, but the concentrations of salt we are discussing are minuscule compared to sea water or road salt. In perusing the documentation about SWGs, I haven't come across anything that states any additional corrosive properties or warnings when using them. Frankly, I think that the levels of salt we are talking about are just so low that it really doesn't make that much of a difference.

oh yes, I understand that SWG is much lower level of salt than the very harsh ocean, orders of magnitude. And if all you want is the "feel of softer water" then you don't even need the 3000 ppm that a SWG might need. So far I like the feel and so does the rest of the family. I haven't heard of anybody that added salt to their pool but then wanted to undo it. I may eventually go to a SWG but for now I just added the salt ot get the feel and make it nicer on the eyes for the kids.

In the 8 years that I have been using a SWCG, I have never had any problems with corrosion from salt, from any equipment at all.

My wife who was a pediatric nurse, appreciates the "silky" feel that salt can give, no itchy eyes, no scaling on the skin.

John, with all due respect, you do not take your car for a swim in your pool, but you are fully prepared to drive it on salty roads, knowing that you will have corrosion if you do not wash the undersides with fresh water. Been there, done that.

Seawater has a concentration of 3% salt, whereas a pool has 3,000/1,000,000* 100 = 0.3%. This is apples and oranges.

If you have to talk corrosion, then aluminum, copper, carbon steel, iron, brass are the metals you have to worry about. On a boat at sea, you had to have zinc anodes to reduce the corrosion on other metals.

The only areas that salt will give a problem is with a concrete border next to the pool, and aluminum rakes. Beyond that there should be no other effects.

Hope this helps.

Pat

The reason you want to add salt to a non SWCG pool is the same reason contact lens solution and IV's are saline solutions. If you put purified water into your eyes it "waters down" the salt in your eye's cells and causes them to sting, swell from excess water and sometimes burst. The cell becomes waterlogged because the low salt water is moving into the cell to water down the salty water that is naturally inside the cell. (This is known as hydrostatic pressure.) Contact lens saline solution is normally about 9000ppm because that's what feels good and it's approximately what's in your eyes. The closer your pool water gets to this point the less it stings your eyes and the more it tastes like sweat. Thus giving us a balance to work with.. :D The end result is that salty pool water is kinder to your body because there is a smaller differential between the saltiness of the water and the saltiness of your body.

Also, if you add salt to your pool you will increase the corrosiveness of your pool because NaCl contains chlorine.

Well, my wife and I dumped 80 pounds of 99.8% pure water softener salt pellets into the pool this evening. She had a lot of fun playing with the pellets, piling them up and noticing the temperature differential around the salt. Adding this much salt actually dropped the temperature of the water by a couple of degrees.

My immediate impressions are that everything is definitely more buoyant. Prior to the addition of the salt, I could walk on the pool floor on my knees. This is no longer possible, as I tend to float away instead.

My hair and skin were both smoother after I had been out of the water for a while, and my wife says her hair was much more manageable to deal with when she took a shower.

There was no discernible taste to the water at all. Of course, 80 pounds is only about 760ppm increase. My wife wants me to add one more bag, so I'll probably pick up another bag this week.

All in all, I think this was definitely a good decision. :)

Well I am interested, how do you add it, just pour the bag of pellets in? Then get in and stir them around? What do you get, just water softener salt? I have an 8000 gallon pool, how much would a bag raise it approximately? Would a pool store be able to test for it?