SWCG (Salt Water Chlorine Generators) - Pro & Con

[JimK]

Wow. I guess my 14 year SWCG experience is an outlier. I do find it more convenient than manually chlorinating and haven’t experienced the cons. My experience has been quite the opposite of what Ben describes.

I think perhaps Ben touches on why many don’t have a good experience; improper use and unrealistic expectations (the marketing doesn’t help!).

[PoolDoc]

Jim,

What size AquaRite do you have?
How long does your pool stay uncovered each season?
What CYA level do you maintain?
How do you 'shock'? (SWCG or manual)

. . . it may be, I need to add a "How to have an SWCG and NOT regret it!" section.

[JimK]

Jim,

What size AquaRite do you have?
How long does your pool stay uncovered each season?
What CYA level do you maintain?
How do you 'shock'? (SWCG or manual)

. . . it may be, I need to add a "How to have an SWCG and NOT regret it!" section.

1. T 15 cell (rated for 40k gal pool). “Oversizing” is important, IMO.

2. Pool stays uncovered all season; 5 - 5.5 months here.

3. I keep CYA 70-80

4. The only time I “shock” is at opening and closing, using plain bleach. If I ever need to increase FC during the season, I do so with bleach. The SWCG is only used to maintain the FC level.

Btw, I thank you for my good experience. Before finding this site many years ago, I was relying on my pool store for testing, advice, and chems. After a couple seasons or so it was obvious what I was doing wasn’t working well (and was expensive!), so I started searching the internet and found this site whereI learned proper care of my pool and proper SWCG use.

(Edit: Sig updated with cell size)