Quote Originally Posted by Smorgado View Post
I have been thinking of switching to salt system next year but have a few questions. Should I move? How easy is the maintenance? I have a dyed concrete deck surrounding the whole pool and wonder if it will it be effected by the salt system? What systems should I look into?
+ Salt systems are easier than hand feeding, but not easier than a 1x week system you already understand.

+ Salt systems ALSO may not be cheaper than Sustain, once you factor in the initial cost + cell replacement every 2 - 4 years. Compared to Sustain, you could probably reduced your chemical costs substantially using manual treatment, but I wouldn't bet on an SWCG being cheaper.

+ Salt has cause problems with some deck materials. The cases I know about involve natural stone. It doesn't seem to effect every type of stone, and many of the problems seem to be in Texas or the Southwest, where there's not enough summer rain to regularly wash the salt off the rocks or deck. You might want to take a chip or flake of your deck material, take a digital photo of it, set it in the sun, mix a 4000 ppm salt solution, and put a dropper full of the solution on the flake every day for a month, and then wash it off, dry it, and take a new photo. Compare the two. It there's no change, your deck is probably salt compatible.

+ BUT, salt is NOT compatible with pool heaters made a number of years ago. If you have a heater, check that out.