Advantages Of Salt Water Chlorinators

If you are thinking about building a new swimming pool or have an existing pool and you are thinking of converting your pool to salt water then you should read these top 5 reasons to use salt water over traditional chlorine treatments for your pool.

1. No liquid chlorine needed
2. Reduced chemical costs
3. Softer on the skin / eyes
4. Less chlorine smell
5. Easier to balance chemical levels

No More Adding Liquid Chlorine

The biggest advantage right off the bat is the lack of sodium hypochlorite, or liquid chlorine as it is more commonly known.  Most swimming pool owners without a salt water chlorine generator system use liquid chlorine to maintain sanitizer levels in the pool.  While effective, buying, transporting, storing and using liquid chlorine is not a fun process as the liquid is volatile, loses potency extremely quickly, and is dangerous to skin, eyes and to breathe.  Not an ideal product to handle on a daily basis to be sure.

While a salt water swimming pool may need to occasionally have the chlorine levels manually adjusted you can usually accomplish this using puck or granular forms of chlorine so that you do not need to use liquid chlorine at all.

How Does It Work?

Salt is the base ingredient that chlorine is derived from.  Since salt does not dissipate in the water like other chemicals that you use, the initial dose of salt that you put into your pool will continue to be there throughout the season and into the next.  Only when you physically remove water from the pool do you lower the salt concentration levels.

In a regular pool season you may need to add a single bag or two of salt to top off your system and keep the salt in the range of 3000ppm.  Even the next season you may only need to add one or two bags to start off the year.  This is a much easier process than adding chlorine in liquid form every other day.

Easy On The Eyes

The biggest single advantage that salt water pool owners commonly reference is the fact that salt water pools are much softer on the eyes and much less drying to the skin than traditional chlorine pools.  There are a few reasons why this is, with the first being that salt in the pool water near to 3000ppm is soft on the skin and actually will help to hydrate you as opposed to severe drying effect like typically experienced with chlorinated water.

People with skin problems, or swimmers with a sensitivity to chlorine such as red eyes, specifically notice the soothing benefits of salt water systems.  If you are used to swimming in regular pools then you will notice less red eyes, less itchy and dry skin as well as less bleaching to clothing and bathing suits worn in the water.

Hate that Chlorine Smell?

One of the biggest complaints of chlorinated swimming pool water is the fact that you can carry the chlorine smell on your skin and especially in your hair for long periods of time after you get out of the water.  While this chlorine smell is usually attributed to a buildup of chloramines in the water and in theory can be avoided in any swimming pool by using breakpoint chlorination, and proper pH balancing, salt water pool owners note specifically less chlorine smell after bathing than regular swimming pools and spas.

In Conclusion

The final point about the advantages of salt water pools versus traditional chlorine pools is that it takes much less time to balance and maintain the water chemical balance in a salt water pool.  Most of this has to do with the fact the sanitizer is mostly automated through the salt water system leaving you to worry only about the calcium harness, pH and total alkalinity under regular conditions as well as stabilizer levels also.  Since the chlorine (which is what typically causes variations in pH and total alkalinity) is automated and released into the system in small and steady doses you would notice less overall fluctuations in your pH and total alkalinity levels making the water much easier to manage overall.