Managing and maintaining your salt water pool doesn’t need to be hard. It does take work of course, just like any pool but the automation aspect of having a quality salt water chlorinator really helps. A few things I’ve learned along the way as a salt water pool owner have made my life easier, too.
Here are 7 tips and tricks for your salt water pool for you to consider.
Shock your salt water pool early
When your salt water pool gets cloudy, it’s best to take care of it as soon as possible.
Many salt water pool owners are surprised to find out that their pool still needs and uses chlorine. You can check out my page on chlorine and pool chemistry to learn more about that. A salt chlorinator system simply converts dissolved salt that is manually added to the pool into chlorine, albeit a milder form than what is found in other pools that uses a chemical chlorine product.
Since a salt water pool does use chlorine – produced through the chlorinator – it may from time to time require more chlorine than is currently being produced: Hot sunny weather, heavy rain (which dilutes the chlorine in the water) and heavy pool usage are three such reasons why chlorine usage will suddenly increase.
Algae growth increases chlorine need too.
You can shock your salt water pool in one of two ways:
- Use the Super Chlorinate or similarly named feature of your chlorinator to raise chlorine levels slowly over 24 hours or another set period of time.
- Manually adding chemical chlorine to the pool by way of a shock product or liquid chlorine, chlorine powder or a chlorine puck to slowly dissolve in the side skimmer.
Which method should you use?
Chlorinator: If you rely on your chlorinator to bump up chlorine production using the salt in your water, understand that every salt cell has a lifespan and once it is used up, you have to replace it. The more you rely on your chlorinator the quicker you will have to replace it.
Adding chemical chlorine: Adding chemical chlorine does cost money but could be cheaper in the long run if your salt cell is less taxed and lasts longer. It does mean purchasing chlorine and storing it at home. But it also works quicker than using the Super Chlorinate feature which produces an increased level of chlorine over time.
Be careful not to put highly concentrated chlorine directly into the side skimmer as it can damage the salt cell. Better to follow manufacturer instructions.
The sooner you address slightly cloudy water, the better, regardless of which option you choose.
Get a variable speed pool pump and run it at low speed
As the name would suggest, a variable speed pump is one that enables you to run it at different speeds rather than one constant speed like most older style pumps.
What’s the benefit?
Lower energy costs for one. A variable speed pump means that you could potentially run the pump 24/7 (for example) at a low speed and possibly produce enough chlorine while also keeping the pool cleaner since with the pump running all the time the water is constantly being filtered.
Alternatively you could run the pump for less time than that. The question is, for how long?
The Hayward Aqua Rite system requires a minimum flow rate of 15 gallons per minute (gpm) and a minimum flow rate of 11 gpm for the XL model depending on the release to properly produce chlorine. The Pantera chlorinator by Intellichlor requires a flow rate of 25 gpm to properly produce chlorine.
So you would run your pump at a high enough speed that enables you to meet the minimum (and preferably higher) RPM to produce enough chlorine.
While a single speed Hayward Super Pump will for example run at a consistent 3450 revolutions per minute (RPM), the Hayward VS Variable Speed pool pump runs from 600 RPM – 3450 RPM depending on what speed you choose. You can choose a speed that enables you produce enough chlorine and possibly save on electricity too.
So you can figure out – depending on your chlorinator model and pump type – how long you’d have to run your variable pool pump each day to produce enough chlorine to keep you within the 1 ppm – 3 ppm range.
Run your pump and chlorinator at night
Assuming you don’t have a variable speed pump and aren’t looking to replace your current pump, here’s another suggestion for saving money. This option is worth a try especially if you live in an area that has time of use electricity where you pay more for it during the day and less at other times which are typically at night, weekends and statutory holidays.
I have run my pool pump at night and then shut it off during the day for a few years and have had no trouble. My pool company and online sources you may have read will tell you to run your pump during the day during the hot direct sun. That makes sense.
But in my experience, I have run the pump during the night when the electricity charge is much lower and then run the pump during the daylight hours only on Saturday and Sunday when it’s cheap all weekend. It works for me and helps to save money on energy usage.
If you find that that’s too extreme, set your chlorinator to run say 4 hours at night during off peak hours and then another 4 hours during the hottest daylight hours, for example. Play around and see what works for you.
Winterize your salt water chlorinator and salt cell
If you get cold, sub zero weather along with snow and ice in winter, you’ll need to winterize your pool. I’ve written a whole page on winterizing your salt water pool but you can always hire your pool company to do the job to be safe.
One aspect that is specific to winterizing a salt water pool of course concerns your salt chlorinator and salt cell. The chlorinator should be turned off and unless your pool company or manufacturer says otherwise, you might want to turn the fuse off at the breaker to ensure it doesn’t accidentally get turned on in winter.
You also definitely want to unscrew your salt cell and bring it indoors and keep it at room temperature over the winter. Leaving your salt cell outside in the winter can destroy it and will most certainly damage it especially if you get very cold sub zero temperatures.
It’s also a good time to inspect the salt cell and the metallic plates inside the cell for damage and debris that has collected. If your chlorinator has a reverse polarity function to clean the cell, it’s possible your cell will be completely clean inside.
If not, you may have to clean your salt cell manually according to manufacturer instructions. This often results in you soaking it in a bucket full of water and muriatic acid solution.
Draining pool water without a pump
There may be times during the pool season when a rain storm can quickly raise the level of your water higher than it should be. A good rule of thumb is to monitor the water level at a specific area of your pool, namely the side skimmer.
The side skimmer is a good indicator of desired water level as the water should be high enough to flow into the skimmer but not too high that the water is above the top of the skimmer opening.
The skimmer draws water into it by way of the pump. As it sucks water in, leaves and other debris get trapped in the basket and thus removed from the surface of the pool. This won’t work if the water level is too high. Debris will collect around the skimmer and may even dry on the pool walls meaning you have to clean it off.
Try to keep your water level no higher than 3/4 of the way up the height of the skimmer opening. When it gets too high, you may have to drain pool water.
Here’s an easy way to do it if you don’t have a pump or don’t have a sand filter with backwash feature. Check out the steps below:
- Take your pool hose and lay one end near the pool by the water return jet closest to your backyard gate.
- Drag the other end of your pool hose out of your backyard ideally onto your driveway or wherever you normally drain water to. So now you have one end of the hose near the edge of the pool and the other end of the hose is outside the backyard on the driveway.
- With the pump running, hold the end of the hose near the pool under the water so the water is now running through the hose rather than into the pool. This will force all the air out of the hose, fill it with water and begin pumping water out of your pool.
- After 20 seconds or so, you can move the hose from the water return and the water should continue siphoning out of the pool as long as the end of the hose remains underwater. Pin the hose down with a rock or something heavy if needed.
- Keep an eye on the draining water until it has drained to the desired level.
- Remove the hose from the water.
Fixing a sagging vinyl pool liner
Parts of a vinyl liner can often pull away over time from the wall of the pool. If you have kids who decide to yank on the liner or have a dog who likes swimming who paws at the side of the pool to climb out, the vinyl liner can become loose in parts.
It’s best that you address this issue sooner rather than later. Small parts of the vinyl liner coming loose eventually become bigger. When water gets splashed, it will go behind the liner and possibly cause the liner to separate even further.
What should you do?
Hopefully you have relatively strong and large hands or have access to some! You want to boil some water in a kettle and carefully pour some on the area of the liner that has come loose. Then equally carefully, grab the now hot and somewhat soft liner, pull it up and shove it back in the slot around the wall of the pool where it came loose from.
The boiling water softens the hard, thick plastic liner temporarily so you can pull it back into place. Having strong hands really helps.
Sometimes the liner will come away from the wall but the area that came loose is so short that you can’t pull it back into place. There is an alternative option for this situation. Your pool company should be able to supply you with a piece of malleable plastic cord that you can cut into pieces that is used to hold the liner in place. It’s designed to be shoved into the slot on the wall of the pool on either side of the part of the liner that has come loose. It prevents the liner from loosening more by effectively locking it into place.
Pulling a pool liner back into place really does require strong hands so you might need some help.
Mopping up pool water debris with a tennis ball
A new, clean tennis ball isn’t just good for tennis and road hockey. You can toss one in your pool to mop up oils and other debris like dog hair.
The outer fibers on the tennis ball attract oils, lotions and other liquids that have made their way into the pool but can also attract pet hair and human hair that has fallen in, too.
It’s a simple fix to help keep your pool clean of debris that might not otherwise remove. You can wash off the ball and use it again in the future or use it for its intended purpose once it’s dry.