Switching to salt

[Muttley]

How much can I expect to pay, switching over to salt?
Thx

[CarlD]

Depends on the size of the pool and the quality you desire.

[PoolDoc]

Membership updated.

Muttley, I can only guess that you are looking for a cheaper method of pool care. If that's so, you may want to stick with basic chlorine: using an SWCG (Salt Water Chlorine Generator) is NOT necessarily cheaper than standard chlorine methods, and if you use the methods we teach here, SWCG use probably costs more!

The real benefit of an SWCG is two-fold. First, it makes it easier to consistently maintain good chlorine levels. (If being consistent helps you avoid algae, compared to your previous method, than an SWCG may save you money indeed.) Secondly, if you are away from your pool frequently, an SWCG provides a method of unattended chemical treatment, and THAT can save you a lot of trouble.

[CarlD]

Muttley, I would go one step further than Ben. An SWCG system will NEVER pay for itself versus using bleach and liquid chlorine and our methods. Not unless the price of SWCGs and replacement cells come WAY down in price.

I have an SWCG and I love. I've had pools since 2000 and this year was the first with my SWCG. But a replacement cell is between $500-$700 and you have to buy one every 5 years. For $100/year I can EASILY chlorinate my pool. But, the rest of my SWCG cost about $700 (with the cell it was about $1200) and I'll NEVER recoup that starting cost.

But that's not why I bought it. It was for the OTHER reasons Ben mentioned.

[Sumo1]

I switched to salt chlorination about 8 years ago and haven't looked back. Look at the initial cost as pre-buying chlorine for the next 4-5 years. Beyond that, your costs are minimal, mostly an occasional bag of salt for replenishment, and acid to control pH. I prefer muriatic acid to dry acid. When my 1st gen Polaris swcg cell died, the cost of a replacement was as much as a new system, so I took the opportunity to upgrade to a system with more bells & whistles. Everyone I've talked to who switched from granular chlorine delivery to salt chlorine delivery has wondered why they didn't do it sooner. Also, search the internet. I bought my 1st swcg on eBay for $400 and paid someone about $200 to install it. It doesn't always have to cost $1500. Good luck!

[CarlD]

I switched to salt chlorination about 8 years ago and haven't looked back. Look at the initial cost as pre-buying chlorine for the next 4-5 years. Beyond that, your costs are minimal, mostly an occasional bag of salt for replenishment, and acid to control pH. I prefer muriatic acid to dry acid. When my 1st gen Polaris swcg cell died, the cost of a replacement was as much as a new system, so I took the opportunity to upgrade to a system with more bells & whistles. Everyone I've talked to who switched from granular chlorine delivery to salt chlorine delivery has wondered why they didn't do it sooner. Also, search the internet. I bought my 1st swcg on eBay for $400 and paid someone about $200 to install it. It doesn't always have to cost $1500. Good luck!

Notice that under our B-B-B system the FIRST choice for chlorine is bleach or liquid chlorine, not dry forms of chlorine. One carboy of LC costs me about $18 and is the equivalent of over 10 gallons of 5% ultra bleach. I rarely use more than 5 gallons a summer CORRECTION: 5 Carboys, not gallons!, so your $600 for your new cell is 6 years of LC. If your cell only lasts 6 years, you break even, not including amortizing your original system.

It's not that I recommend against an SWCG--I put one in last summer and love it! But no matter HOW I do the math, I cannot COST justify my SWCG, yet I have new priorities that came up this year that outweighed the extra cost.

That's just how the numbers break, even using YOUR reduced cost figures. SWCGs are GREAT--but they are NOT cost-effective compared to bleach and LC.

[JimK]

I have to agree with Carl. No matter what a dealer may tell you a salt system is not cheaper than manually chlorinating, and perhaps costs more.

That said, I love my salt system because of the convenience it offers. This past season my main pump died and I had to manually chlorinate for about a week or so. I was so happy to get my salt system back up and running once the pump was replaced!

Btw, to answer the original question, we got our Aqua Rite at the same time we had our pool installed in 2004. I believe it ran about $1000 installed. Since then the cell has been replaced once and a circuit board had to be replaced (about $650 combined). So I figured that comes to about $165 per season, not including electricity costs to run it.

[Pool Clown]

You can expect to pay about 700-900 dollars depending on who you go with. You can pay up to 10 dollars a #40 bag for salt, again, depending where you get it. Best place to get the unit is going to be on line, look around for the best price and don't forget shipping charges ($$). I would purchase the salt locally due to weight/shipping. You will need hundreds of pounds of salt depending on the size of the pool, so you can see that getting salt on-line may not be the most economical way to go. Get the unit first before buying salt as different manufacturers require different salt levels.