What Are Salt Water Pools?

Salt water pools have been around for a long time, but they have become more and more popular in recent years. In the past, only commercial pools where on salt chlorine generators. Nowadays, you can afford your very own and it's not just for the big pools anymore.

Even if you have an above ground swimming pool you can still enjoy the benefit of owning a salt water pool.

Why Are Salt Water Pools So Popular?

If you haven't heard, salt water pools are very popular. Everyone who owns a pool has probably asked about it at some point in time.

The idea of never having to handle chlorine pucks again is appealing to a lot of pool owners. Just by adding a little bit of salt to your water, you can create chlorine by electrically charing the salt particles. So, your pool is constantly generating chlorine without addng pucks to your skimmer or adding chlorine to a chemical feeder.

How Does It Work?

The salty pool water is ran through your filter and then through a pipe that houses two titanium plates. These plates generate electricity as the water passes through. The electric current turns the salt into chlorine.

The amount of chlorine that is generated is controlled by a digital panel installed near your pool or on the pipe itself, much like Pentair's Intellichlor.

How To Control It

The same pipe that generates the chlorine also can read how much chlorine is in the water. With that reading you can determine whether you need to increase the chlorine or stop it from being produced. Most units will control this automatically.

Also, most units will have an option to super-chlorinate, which will bring your chlorine level up high to oxidize, much like shocking your swimming pool.

With that said, salt waters pool are just like all other pools. You still need to control the pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness levels.

It’s recommended that you use regular chlorine or non-chlorine shock once a week. The more usage the more often you should shock.