Hello PoolForum-ites,
Looking for feedback from salt pool owners to the following questions:
What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl In-ground, Vinyl Above Ground, Inground Plaster, exposed aggregate, tile.
How old is your system?
What Salt level do you maintain?
What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
How often do you test your water?
Thank you!
Sean Assam
Commercial Product Sales Manager - AquaCal AutoPilot Inc. Mobile: 954-325-3859
e-mail: sean@teamhorner.com --- www.autopilot.com - www.aquacal.com
Mark
Hydraulics 101; Pump Ed 101; Pump/Pool Spreadsheets; Pump Run Time Study; DIY Acid Dosing; DIY Cover Roller
18'x36' 20k plaster, MaxFlo SP2303VSP, Aqualogic PS8 SWCG, 420 sq-ft Cartridge, Solar, 6 jet spa, 1 HP jet pump, 400k BTU NG Heater
Hi Sean,
What type of pool finish do you have?
PebbleSheen
How old is your system?
Pool: 6+ months, salt system: 5 months
What Salt level do you maintain?
Initially, 3400 but now have 4000-4100 due to using lots of bleach during a fall mustard/yellow algae outbreak. I'm letting this fall naturally, as system still seems to work fine at this higher level - although the system is now off due to cold water temps.
What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
No need to lug bleach jugs, better feeling water, can go on trips with no maintenance worrries.
What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
None. However, I can't quite bring myself to operate the high stabilizer/low chlorine levels recommended because I haven't read a convincing rationale. Perhaps following the recommendations would have prevented my algae outbreak. But having that high of a stabilizer level would have resulted in many, many more bottles of bleach above and beyond the mound I already had to use. Up to this point, I've followed the Best Guess chart as if I were manually chlorinating with CYA of about 50.
How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
I've only inspected the cell when the system prompted me at the 3-month mark. No visible deposits at that time.
How often do you test your water?
Daily for pH and free chlorine. Weekly for everything else unless I've had to adjust. Maybe I'll "slack off" a bit after a year when I'm more familiar with how my pool responds.
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Sandy
15,600 gallon, screened 15x30 IG plaster sport pool with 6x8 tanning area, Aquarite SWCG, Hayward cartridge filter, Polaris 280 cleaner
Hey Mark,
Within the salt industry, we hear a plethora of issues blamed on salt systems. As I have been dealing with salt systems since 1986, I have not experienced these issues. However, with more and more salt systems being sold, I wanted to see if there were unusual operating conditions that builders recommend or pool owners are doing that are different from the norm...such as the high cya/high chlorine that Denise mentioned.
But I'm also looking to find new "material" for my presentations that I am doing over the next few months at the major Pool Industry trade shows.
(I finally met Mark from Watermaid Canada at the International Pool and Spa Expo in Las Vegas time last month).
It's always good to share pool owners comments that are different from the standard "Soft Water feel", or "No more burning eyes"...
Then on the other side, since a portion of my presentations involve problem solving, I'm interested in seeing if there are other pecular scenarios that are different, chemicals being used that are beneficial, or product specific issues that I can learn about, so that when a question arrises, I can be the most informed as I can.
I'm probably going to compile a spreadsheet of all the responses.
Thanks for all the feedback so far.
Sean Assam
Commercial Product Sales Manager - AquaCal AutoPilot Inc. Mobile: 954-325-3859
e-mail: sean@teamhorner.com --- www.autopilot.com - www.aquacal.com
Sean,
As you know from other posts on this forum, many (but not all) SWG users experience rising pH which requires regular additions of acid to maintain pH (and possibly adding baking soda to maintain TA over a longer period of time). Non-SWG users using BBB or liquid chlorine do not generally see the pH rise unless they have high TA, low pH, aeration from water features, or a new plaster pool (that is curing). waterbear (Evan) has found that using 50 ppm Borates significantly reduced this acid demand, possibly by reducing chlorine demand and allowing for lower power levels or run times of SWG generation. We never definitively determined the cause of this pH rise but I believe it due to the hydrogen gas bubbles causing aeration to outgas carbon dioxide (the other primary candidate is outgassing of undissolved chlorine gas bubbles, but I find that less likely). Users who have tried running at lower TA levels (and avoided lower starting pH) have had less acid demand as well which is consistent with the carbon dioxide outgassing theory. I suggest that SWG manufacturers experiment with different approaches to managing the hydrogen gas bubble production, possibly segmenting or otherwise capturing the flow of hydrogen bubbles through the outlets so that they have less contact time with pool water or varying bubble size (if possible) since larger bubbles should be less effective at pulling carbon dioxide out of the water.
The issue that dawndenise has raised is valid in that normally SWG systems do not experience algae, but when they do you need to shock with a heck of a lot of chlorine due to the high CYA (70-80 ppm) recommended by most SWG manufacturers. Though the superchlorination effect in part of the volume of water through the cell seems to keep algae at bay for most users, it isn't perfect and the high CYA and typical recommended FC level (3 ppm) from the SWG manufacturer means a disinfecting chlorine level that is sufficient for sanitation, but not ideal for algae prevention if for some reason algae takes hold on pool surfaces and does not circulate through the cell. I would like to see the SWG manufacturers consider using larger (longer) plate areas (probably in longer cells) so that the power per unit area can be cut down which should allow for lower CYA levels to be used. A doubling of plate area (and a lowering of voltage to keep the total current the same or a reduction in "on" time to keep the total FC production rate the same) should allow the cell to operate efficiently at 35-40 ppm CYA instead of 70-80 ppm CYA.
That's my two cents worth. I don't own an SWG system (yet) so can only comment on what others have said.
Richard
Last edited by chem geek; 12-13-2006 at 03:20 PM.
What type of pool finish do you have?
Vinyl Inground
How old is your system?
System is 2 years old, has been in use for 10 months.
What Salt level do you maintain?
3000-3400
What are the benefits you're experienced from switching to salt?
No algae. Consistent Chlorine levels. Easy maintenance. Freeze protection feature is very handy this time of year as I don't "close" my pool.
What are the problems you've experienced since switching to salt?
No Pool issues. I have been going through cooling fans (bearing failures), but my unit is an older model. New fans are cheap at Radio Shack and easy to replace, just a minor annoyance I think that owners of newer systems don't experience.
How often do you have to clean your cell from calcium scale?
Never, even on the longest reverse time setting. I check it once a month.
How often do you test your water?
Every 2-3 days during swimming season, once a month during off season.
Thank you for your involvement on this forum Sean!
Nater
16x32 Vinyl IG, 20,000 gal, Autopilot DIG-220 w/60 series cell, Dolphin Diagnostic Pool Boy
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