If you are interested in learning about salt water pools then you have come to the right place. Salt water pools are becoming more popular because of the ease of maintenance and because the equipment is becoming more affordable. Pentair makes a very compact unit that you can easily install to get a salt water pool going – Intellichlor.
How Does It Work?
Salt water pools work by using the salt in the water to generate chlorine. So technically your pool is still being sanitized by chlorine but without the tablets. The salty pool water is ran through your filter like normal but now you have a piece of equipment that is a pipe that has two titanium plates that generate electricity as the water passes through. This electric current turns the salt into chlorine therefore, adding chlorine to your pool when it flows back in. The amount of chlorine that is generated is controlled by either a control panel attached to your pipe or on the pipe itself like the 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 to stop it from being produced but 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 being said salt waters pool are just like all other pools. You still need to control the pH level and your calcium hardness. Also it’s recommend that you use regular chlorine or non-chlorine shock once a week or every two weeks depending on usage. The more usage the more often you should shock.
