I get to discuss the pros and cons of saltwater pools vs. chlorine pools on a regular basis with my customers.  I am not a chemical expert, but I think that I have been around the pool industry long enough to have seen some of the pros and cons of both systems of sanitizing pool water, and I will discuss some of the things that I have noticed. I will also include some of the research that I have found from talking to experts in the pool industry as well as share the information that I have found on the internet.

First, a little background

A salt generator does not eliminate the need for chlorine. The salt cell ionizes the salt to produce chlorine. This is accomplished by maintaining the appropriate salt levels and by running the pool filter for the necessary amount of time based on the gallons of water in your pool. Second, the cell must be maintained and cleaned regularly, as recommended by the manufacturer to ensure optimum performance of the system. Third, the salt system does not eliminate the need for other chemicals and you need to keep you pH between 7.2-7.6.

What a salt generator is doing is eliminating the big chlorine tablets and shock that you need to put into your pool, if done properly. Instead of adding 3 inch chlorine tablets into a chlorine feeder you add bags of salt into your pool and have that level tested. Most salt systems check the level of salt for you, but you can buy testing strips for this too, or go to your pool professional to have it done. Either way, you still need to keep control of the rest of your pool water.

 

Chlorine Pros & Cons

Chlorine is relatively easy to buy, an inline feeder is inexpensive, or you can use floaters to put your chlorine in and they are not expensive. Shocking the pool is easy with convienientyly sized 1 pound bags that most pool stores sell, making rainbow inlineapplication fairly simple. Most chlorine shocks don’t need pre-mixing and also come with clarifiers to help keep the pool looking extra clean as an added bonus.

Chlorine pools can clean up bacteria quicker than a salt pool, roughly 24-48 hours vs. 72-120 hours for a salt pool. This is because in a chlorine pool, if you have a ‘messy diaper’ problem, or something similar, you can just go throw in some bags of shock to take care of the pool. This will get the level of chlorine up very quickly and take care of the problem faster. A salt pool will take longer to generate that amount of chlorine.

A problem with chlorine that you don’t notice as much with a salt generated chlorine pool is that the pH tends to be lower because the tablets in chlorine are lower in pH. You need to be careful about your pH levels because if the levels drop too low you can ruin your heat exchanger (if you have a heater) if the pH stays low for too long. Ruining a heat exchanger is what typically puts copper in pool water turing blonde hair green. Salt pools tend to stay on the higher side of pH, but regardless of which system you use it is wise to check your pH regularly.

Another problem with chlorine tablets is that cheaper tablets (usally found at Big Box stores) dissolve rapidly and end up putting too much other chemicals, like stabilizer, into your pool water, giving you other problems. Read my Cyanuric Acid page for more information about the problems associated with too much stabilizer. In the end, cheap quick dissovling chlorine will cost you more money. The tablets dissovle too fast (costing you more…so that cheaper price really isn’t so cheap) and they lead to having to drain your pool water, which costs you a higher water bill.

 

Saltwater Pros and Cons

 

Saltwater System pools are easy to use, usually a push of a button to set the level of chlorine generated, and the water feels soft.  With Arizona’s hard water, the soft water feel of a saltwater pool is a really nice feature.  You also don’t need to deal with a big bucket of chlorine tablets, that are really harsh chemicals to have laying around in case you have kids that could get into them.  I accidently inhaled while opening the bucket once and it nearly knocked me out, so getting rid of chlorine tablets can be a good thing.  Additionaly, like mentioned above, you are not adding extra chemicals to the water every time you add chlorine tablets, so the water is less like a chemical soup with saltwater system.

The saltwater system also shocks or superchlorinates the pool for you, so you can shock the pool as often as you want after a big bather load or a really hot or rainy day that depleted your chlorine levels. It is really easy to use, and if you happen to have the remote control device you can do it from inside your house without ever having to go outside to your pool equipment.  Easy and a more natural are words that come to mind when I think of a saltwater system.

There are a few cons though, or at least some things you should know beforehand. First, they are more expensive, (it depends on the gallons in your pool) but you are paying for the ease and getting rid of the chlorine tablets and shock.  What many consumers fail to realize is that the salt cell, the part that is generating the chlorine, will need to be replaced eventually.  This is because the metal on the cell eventually erodes away, but proper maintenance will make it last longer. Another issue is the control board which could need to be replaced, but not necessarily the whole salt cell, it depends on the brand.

PH tends to run higher in a salt pool, so generally you will be adding more acid, but not always, just keep checking your pH levels as recommended, and your salt cell will last longer if you keep your calcium levels in check.