Salt water pool and spa

[Chad]

Last weekend I went to my aunt and uncle's house for a Father's Day celebration. They have a 20 x 40 inground, vinyl lined pool and a 2006 D1 spa. Both use some sort of salt water system. I had never heard of such a thing before and would like to get your feedback on this type of system.

Thanks,

Chad(soaking in unsalted water for now)

[Vinny]

Salt water generators are becomming popular with in ground pools. Basically you dump a pre determined amount in the water ( there is a range for the amount of salt level) and a salt water cell breaks down the salt to chlorine. I think it's regenerative where as long as a massive amount of water doesn't leave the pool and you stay within the salt level, the chlorine goes back to salt.

As far as spas, I think someone brought it up a while back. The only thing I would caution is the amount of corrosiveness a salt system can generate. I looked into a salt water generator for my above ground pool and I was advised not to get one (even though they do sell them for AG pools) because of this reason. The splashout could destroy the pool walls in a few years, this might be different in a spa.

I actually think it's a good idea.

[Chad]

Thanks for the feedback Vinny.
So is there really no need to add chlorine ever?!  I wonder how it would effect the warranty for a spa. I'm with you, it seems ideal from what I've heard and read. Would one be able to use regular pleated filters or do they make "special" filters for these types of systems? Maybe someone here has one....

[Renee]

I've done some research on salt water spas in our quest for a hot tub.  There is a place about 100 miles away that makes the salt water hot tubs, but he only warranties them for a year.  From what I've found out, the salt is very hard on the heater and other components.  The local Hot Springs dealer told us that Hot Springs, in fact, tried the salt water system several years back, and it ruined the heaters within 2 years.  They couldn't afford to keep replacing heaters, so they scrapped the system.   (If the Terminator has been a Hot Springs dealer for 22 years, I would guess he would know something about that if it is true.)   While it sounds like a great idea, we decided to go the conventional route, and not use the salt water system.  By the way, I believe if you convert to a salt water system on your current spa, it WILL void the warranty.  

[Gomboman]

Most of my neighbors have inground pools. I'm the poor guy on the street with a portable spa. They call my spa the "White Trash Special". Almost everyone in my area has gone with the salt water routine

The kids love these pools because it doesn't burn their eyes for some reason. I was told that the PH from the water is very close to the PH of your eye ball. I'm not sure if this is true but they have become very popular....  

[tony]

Thanks for the feedback Vinny.
So is there really no need to add chlorine ever?!  I wonder how it would effect the warranty for a spa. I'm with you, it seems ideal from what I've heard and read. Would one be able to use regular pleated filters or do they make "special" filters for these types of systems? Maybe someone here has one....

Salt water generators are very popular for pools.  As has been said, they have been tried in portable spas with poor results.  There are also bromine generators available for spas.  With a salt system, you do not add chlorine (except to boost or shock), but you must add salt.  There are maintenance issues with salt.  Another plus (vs trichlor) is no CYA in the chorine generated.  Filtration is the same because you are not changing to salt water in the pool.  The salt just creates chlorine (like bleach).

[Vinny]

Most of my neighbors have inground pools. I'm the poor guy on the street with a portable spa. They call my spa the "White Trash Special". Almost everyone in my area has gone with the salt water routine

The kids love these pools because it doesn't burn their eyes for some reason. I was told that the PH from the water is very close to the PH of your eye ball. I'm not sure if this is true but they have become very popular....  

This is a common misconception. A pool 's requirements are the same if it has salt or not. The PH, alkalinity, calcium, chlorine and cya are all the same, just like a spa too. The problem comes from people not knowing their water chemistry and allowing the combined chlorine (CC) to get too high. The other problem is usually people put in trichlor pucks and don't measure the cya level or are given the wrong info about cya. As cya builds it protects more and more chlorine, if free chlorine is too low then it protects the CC and as CC builds, there are the irritated eyes. At 100 PPM cya, the chlorine has to be really high in order to work, cya at around 30 to 50 PPM is correct for pools.

Many people buy pools and probably spas and don't learn or care to learn about them. They also trust dealers (which can be good or bad) and if the dealer has no clue about water care - they have problems. I am helping someone at work who just put up a pool and went to a couple of places, one told her to dump this in another told her to dump that in and she is at a loss. Also, her pool smelled of chlorine (the #1 sign that the CC level is way high - chlorine pools don't smell like chlorine) and I asked her to bring in a sample of her water and I would test it with my Taylor kit. Her PH was good, her cya was about 90 PPM and her chlorine was around 5 PPM. As I added drops to the chlorine tester the water was clouding up, an indication of calcium in the water. I didn't test CC since I didn't have distilled water to dilute the pool water. She was following instructions of people she thought knew what they were talking about and she has no clue what she put into her water. I told her to buy non chlorine shock and dump it into her pool, it will break up the CC, she claims the smell decreased and was still there , I told her to hot it again with non chlorine shock and see what happens.

I got a little long winded but basically people can have problems with chlorine generators if they don't pay attention to their pool. I think everyone's eyes will turn red and irritated after being in the pool for a while. The salt that is added to a pool is less than the salt that's in our body and chlorine is chlorine. The only difference as tony said is other that salt, nothing else is being added to the pool.

[Gomboman]

Very good info Vinny. What is the advantage of a salt water generator if it produces the same type of chlorine? Is a salt water generator more economical or is easier to maintain? Do you have to run your filters more with a salt water system?

[Vinny]

I think it has to do with not having to add chlorine on a daily or weekly basis. The generators don't add any other "stuff" to the water. And I would think a lot has to do with hype.

We all want to have "set it and forget it" (reason I was looking into it) items and with the correct generator on a pool it is pretty much that. Not having any experience with them I really don't have many answers. I run my filter approx 8 hours a day and I would imagine that if the correct amount of chlorine can't be generated in that time, I would have to run it longer, there are cells that need to be replaced and I would imagine that the pools are being taken care of by some type of service ... us white trash people can't afford such luxuries LOL!!!

Please remember that chlorine is chlorine in water. The ONLY difference is what is it's compostion before being added to water. You can add cal hypo to a spa and it will add calcium but you better watch the calcium levels and PH (cal hypo has a PH of 13) very closely to not get too high, Bleach will work too but it will add TDS quickly and also has a PH of 13. Trichlor is being OKed by some manufacturers (Emerald Spa) but has a PH of 4, again it adds chlorine but can be very corrosive if you don't watch.

Like a spa, a pool has many more people who own them that are not worried about them. Coming to a site like this and reading people's experiences gets us to tune into what is going on, the same with pool forums. I think we are a handful of people compared to all the others out there, Hot Springs alone has sold 600,000 spas over the years.

When I was giving advice to the person, someone who owned a pool heard me and said what I was saying was a bunch of BS. He had a pool in the past and never had a problem and never added what I do, I believe him but I still do what I do.

[hottbpete]

I have a salt water pool....very nice. People who have chlorine pools tell me that the water seems softer and not as irritating as theirs.

All I know....my pool has been open since April 1st and I have added a few bags of salt ...$5 each and that's it.  It's crystal clear with little work.  

[J.C.McGILLICUDDY]

 i have been using a bromine generator in my spa for 4 years. i really enjoy the water quality and the ease of maintenance. warranty and corrosion are not an issue . a chlorine generator is basiclly the same except it uses common table salt and produces chlorine instead. i posted my thoughts and opinions on the system in response to "salt water spa" within the last 6 mths, if you try searching that title you will find a fairly detailed report on my system

                            J.C.

[Chad]

i have been using a bromine generator in my spa for 4 years. i really enjoy the water quality and the ease of maintenance. warranty and corrosion are not an issue . a chlorine generator is basiclly the same except it uses common table salt and produces chlorine instead. i posted my thoughts and opinions on the system in response to "salt water spa" within the last 6 mths, if you try searching that title you will find a fairly detailed report on my system

                            J.C.

I found it.http://www.whatsthebest-hottub.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1173291384/0

I must have been in a cave during this thread because I don't remember any of this. Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed post. It helped alot.

Cheers,

Chad

[ptann]

Count me as a happy salt water hottubber, Its been one year now and no problems and the water is always company ready