Downsides to salt pools

[chem geek]

I brought one of his ladders back to my shop so I could try to do some kind of test on it. I was thinking of setting up 2 buckets, one with high chlorine and one with high salt and setting each leg of the ladder (because they are evenly corroded at this point) in it's own bucket. I would take pictures before and after and compare the effects. I would also test the water every day or two and keep it balanced. I wish I had a way to test a third part so I could do high chlorine with CYA. Does anyone think this test would be worthwhile, and does anyone have any tips to make the test better?

If anyone can tell me how to post a picture, I will post a couple pics of the ladder.

Brad, I think that this forum is now limiting uploading of pictures, but if you send them to me (via E-mail -- click on my name on any post and there will be a link to E-mail to me) then I can host them on the website I use for the other pool stuff I have and then your post can link to that.

Sorry to hear about this customer, but man, that much chlorine with no CYA is horribly corrosive. As for what test to do vis-a-vis salt, part of what you want to compare is moderate chlorine levels (say, 5 ppm FC with no CYA) with salt at 3000 ppm vs. the same chlorine levels with salt at around 300 ppm. We already know and understand the effects of CYA on chlorine so that isn't as useful. What we really want to know is whether the salt in the presence of chlorine accelerates the corrosion so you want the same chlorine level in both buckets with the only difference between the two being the salt level. To make this a reasonably fair test, go ahead and add baking soda to raise the TA and maybe even some calcium chloride for CH. That would make it very much like pool water (so try and keep the pH around 7.5 as well). Whenever you test or add chemicals, be sure and do the same sort of mixing (circulation) in the two buckets as that also affects corrosion (if there is no circulation, then the buildup of "rust" products probably slows down additional corrosion).

This story really emphasizes the need for customer education about SWG and especially about testing your water regularly. I can hear Carl's words now...

Stay ahead of your water!
Take 2 to 5 minutes every day for pool maintenance!

Richard