Considering Adding Water Softener Salt to Pool...

[Lenny]

No reason to use a chlorinator. Just dump it in. It'll dissolve in an hour or so.

Go ahead and do it. It feels great. Just buy a test kit and test your salt content first so you can confirm whether you currently have any salt in there.

[psbailey]

I'll get a saline test kit tomorow. What levels should I be shooting for? I have a 45,000 IG plaster pool. My numbers are:

Cl: 6
FC: 0
TC:6
PH:7.4
ALK: 120
CAL: 320
CYA: 53(ish)

Thanks,

Paul

[brent.roberts]

Paul

I hope your test results were posted wrong.

FC = 0 and TC = 6 is a warning of an impending frog pond.

check it out.

[psbailey]

Yup. Sorry, I transposed those two numbers.

[psbailey]

My FC and TC is 6 ppm.

[Bleach=Chlorine?]

Paul,
I have heard that people shoot for approx 1000ppm which would translate to 375 lbs of salt. I would add 1/2 - 3/4 into the pool, help it disperse and then test the salinty and the way it feels the following day. Add slowly to reach your ideal ppm because you have to drain the pool to remove salt. Also, this is assuming you have no salt in the pool already... you might want to have the pool store check the salinty if you don't have a salt test. FYI - Download Michael's BleachCalc as it will do these calculations for you.

** You want the most pure - 99.something% solar/water softener salt. You can buy 40# bags for ~ $4 at Lowe's or HD.

[mer1844]

Also, this is assuming you have no salt in the pool already... you might want to have the pool store check the salinty if you don't have a salt test.

Well, I went to Lowes today and purchased my salt (3-40lb bags) and took the above advise and went to the pool store and purchased a salt test kit. Boy, I'm glad I bought that test kit. My pool already had 600 PPM of salt in it already. Had I not tested FIRST, and followed the clacualtor figures, it would have been too salty. My pool is small; 14 x 28, so I added a 40 lb bag and tested a couple of hours later; 1000 PPM. I think I'll stop with that amount and she how it holds up.