Have Salt Systems fallen out of favor?

[rpoldervaart]

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

[chem geek]

My light rings are fine after 6 years of salt pool. So I wonder if it needs air for the rust to form.

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).

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.

[PoolDoc]

Richard, do you know of products that have worked for sealing stone?

[Poolsean]

PoolDoc,
I think that would depend on the type of stone used and the environmental conditions the pool is in.

[chem geek]

Richard, do you know of products that have worked for sealing stone?

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.

[steveinaz]

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.

[PoolDoc]

and seems to be just fine, despite my grand kids efforts to empty 1/4 of the pool on it.

[rpoldervaart]

We're in our 7th season of our salt pool, and haven't seen any degradation in ... the stone coping/waterfall.

Hi Steve. I'm curious as to what kind of rock you have on your coping and waterfall. My moss rock waterfall has some rocks that have deteriorated to below the mortar. My flagstone coping is very gradually degrading. But with my pool being 7 years old, the moss rock is the worst problem, and the coping is the lessor problem, but still noticeable. I'm in Houston.
Robert

[chem geek]

Keep in mind that the problems aren't just having saltwater splash out onto softer stones, but also having fast enough evaporation and not having summer rains dilute the water. It's the combination of splash-out and evaporation that leads to salt recrystallization pressure that puts stress on softer stone. This is probably why more problems are seen in dry and hot Texas compared to wet Florida, for example. The local stones used also matter and some builders use materials that would be a problem for a non-salt pool as well, though it may take longer to notice in such a pool.

[steveinaz]

Robert
Not really sure what the rock is, around here it's known as rip-rap. It's colorful and not at all smooth, has alot of purple, browns, reds in it.