Salt water pools are generally regarded as being easier to maintain than regularly chlorinated pools due to the automation that exists and the fact that water chemistry is generally easier to keep balanced. This can reduce the cost and time spent on chemicals being manually added to the water.
Salt water pool overview
In August 2007 my wife and I bought a resale home that had a salt water pool. It was at that precise time, I discovered that salt water pools were a thing. I’d never owned a pool and had no idea that salt water pools existed at all let alone for home use.
If you are new to salt water pools, remember that we all were at one point, too. None of us began as an expert on anything and I knew nothing about pools other than swimming in them and knew even less about salt water pools.
With that in mind, I’m going to take a few steps back and recall all the words, phrases and concepts I discovered when we first moved into the home and I suddenly had a salt water pool to take care of. I took responsibility for it and was happy to do so as I like technology and figuring out how things work.
But I had to start from scratch and learn things myself. It was mid September when we moved into the house and although the pool was still open and running, it was already too cool to swim in.
How to learn more about your salt water pool
How can you learn more about your salt water pool if you’re completely new to pools and are starting fresh? The good news is that there is plenty of information available even for your specific situation.
Hopefully you find the content here at Salt Water Pools Report helpful. I suggest you check through the site and search for whatever information you might require as I’ve tried to cover all the relevant aspects of salt water pools including my personal experience with each.
How else can you learn about your pool?
- Pool company: Don’t be afraid to ask them for help and advice especially if they were the ones who built the pool. Our pool company was helpful as I got started and since they built the pool, they were familiar with the layout, size and other specifics, etc. Having said that, watch that they don’t try to sell you every chemical under the sun because they might try to do that if you rely on them too much.
- Fellow pool owners: If you have neighbors with salt water pools like we do, you might pick their brain and get some advice from them. You can share information and learn from one another.
At the end of the day though, you’ll end up learning the most about your salt water pool over time by using and managing it yourself. You’ll find out through your own personal experiences what makes your pool tick. Your experience in terms of balancing your water might be a bit different from a neighbor for many reasons such as water volume, pool type and shape, and chlorinator brand and model.
Then again, you might also experience the exact same thing they do.
Salt water pools need maintenance and cleaning
The good news about a salt water pool in my experience is that short of a green algae outbreak which admittedly can be a pain, I’ve found water chemistry fairly easy to maintain over time. Pools are getting more automated with many options now available that didn’t exist years ago including automatic pool chlorine management and even self cleaning pool technology.
The actual work you need to do on a pool is potentially significantly lower than what it used to be given these advancements in technology.
You do have to watch pH levels in any pool but particularly in a salt water one. pH has a tendency to drift higher in salt water so chances are you will be lowering pH rather than raising it. That has certainly been my experience.
And of course unless you do go for the automated cleaning option, vacuuming and skimming your pool weekly or more frequently is something you’ll have to do in addition to checking chlorine levels with test strips.
Salt water pools vs regularly chlorinated pools
One common question that pops up for salt water pools owners is whether or not certain technologies and products can be used as with other pools.
Questions like….
| Can I heat my salt water pool? | Yes, you can use the exact same heating methods that are used in other pools. |
| Can I filter my salt water pool? | Yes, in fact you can use a filter to clean your pool just like all pools. Salt water pools need a filtration system just like any other pool. |
| Does my salt water pool have chlorine? | Yes, a salt water pool is still a chlorine pool but it creates its own chlorine through a salt chlorination system rather than adding it manually. The chlorine produced doesn’t leave a strong chemical smell however. You may also find it easier on the skin and eyes when swimming in salt water. |
| Do I need to use chemicals in my salt water pool? | Other than salt which is specific to salt water pools and cyanuric acid to protect the chlorine, you will use the same chemicals as with a regularly chlorinated pool but may use less of them. Commonly you may need to add chemical chlorine several times per year, you may need algaecide from time to time and will probably become familiar with muriatic acid to lower pH among other chemicals. |
| Do I need to maintain my salt water pool? | You certainly need to vacuum your salt water pool and skim it just like any other pool, unless you install a self cleaning pool system which is a relatively new and costly phenomenon. You also need to clean your salt cell unless you have an automated feature such as reverse polarity to do it for you. |
| Can I build a concrete pool and use a salt water chlorinator? | This is an interesting one because it depends who you ask. Some pool builders won’t build a concrete pool with a salt water system. Others may build it but won’t recommend it. Other pool companies may be perfectly fine with doing this sort of install. The problem is that concrete pools need to be resurfaced usually around every 10 years or so. The pool water gets drained, the resurfacing work is done and then the pool is refilled. Salt water is corrosive and can speed up the need to resurface your pool. The fear is that you’d simply be better off with a regular chlorine pool if you really want a concrete pool. Or if you definitely want a salt system, you may be better off with a fiberglass pool or vinyl liner pool as they both work perfectly fine with salt water. |
Summary
Are salt water pool easier to maintain than regularly chlorinated pools? It really depends on who you ask and it would help if you speak with people who have in fact owned both. Modern salt water chlorination systems have varying levels of automation that you can read more about here in a long article I wrote on the subject.
Pump timers, live salt level readings, live water temperature measurements, integration with waterfalls and pool heaters are all features among others that can be automated through your salt chlorination system. The less work you do to manage and maintain any pool, the more you can enjoy it.
Having said that, regularly chlorinated pools now offer varying levels of automation too. The days of having to turn your pool on and off manually are over and you can even manage some systems through a cellphone app.
Want to keep reading on this subject? Check out my article on salt water facts and figures.