Considering change from Baquacil to salt water

[frankan9]

Hi from New Jersey

I just bought a home with a 20'x40' 30,000 gal in ground pool.Unfortunately it is baquacil right now.I plan on changing to clorine next season, but am considering a salt water system. the pool has a vinyl liner and painted metal coping.It also has an uncoated cement decking. I think the pool was installed in 1983. I'd like opinions on whether I should switch to clorine or salt water. I am worried about corrosion, mostly on the copings.

thanks,
Frank

Hayward Superpump 1hp
Hayward C4030 cartridge filter

[Watermom]

A salt pool is a chlorine pool.

Copied from another post PoolDoc wrote:

"How a SWCG works
The difference between pool chlorine and salt is 2 electrons: pool chlorine is Cl+ and salt is Cl-, more or less. (Gimme a break, all you chem nuts -- do NOT make this explanation more complicated than it needs to be!)

A salt system simply passes electrical current through salty water, and provides those 2 electrons."




I'll let someone else who knows more about SWCGs discuss this further with you.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[BigTallGuy]

Please see the SWCG FAQ's in the Salt Water Section for some good information. Simply stated, Salt Water Chlorine Generators are not cheap. Depending upon the unit you are looking at, it will usually take 3-5 years to break even over other chlorinating methods. Salt water will corrode metal, but it has its upsides too. It all falls under personal preference.

[frankan9]

Thanks for the quick replies.
I'll read the FAQ before I make any decisions.

Thanks
Frank

[PoolDoc]

Also, I'd recommend you determine what metal your coping is; I'm guessing aluminum. If it were stainless, I'd say, don't worry about salt. But, I'm not sure about aluminum.

If it's aluminum, I'd recommend poking around the Internet, and doing some Google searching for "aluminum coping" + pool + "SWCG" | "SWG" | "salt water pool" | salt