yamahaha

Alrighty folks how are you all today?

I was wondering, I couldnt help noticing that a lot of houses in Oz that have swimming pools have salt water ones. I guess one reason for this is fresh water shortage or law? Is the salt-water in the swimming pool literally just filtered seawater or is it more like brackish freshwater? Is it treated in the same way as fresh water ie full of Chlorine so it makes your eye puffy and swollen?

Would be interested to know from those of you who have swimming pools like this or indeed work in the business...

Ta

Luke I Amyofath

you can have a fresh water pool and buy "sea salt" to add to it if thats your thing

cadman

I think it's freshwater that has salt added to it and that the salt is used instead of chlorine

DagBoy

It is nothing to do with freshwater shortages - a saltwater pool is a pool fitted with a salt water chlorinator. 20 years ago, most pools and spas were kept sanitised by dosing them with liquid or powdered chlorine (the stuff that gives you puffy eyes etc). A lot of commercial and public pools will still use chlorine as they have so many people passing through. For private pools, most modern ones use saltwater chlorinators. The pool is filled with water and then salt is added (not a whole lot - enough to taste, but nothing like the sea). When the water is being pumped through the filter (usually either a "paper" cartridge or a sand filter) it goes through the chlorinator which passes a current through the water between some electrical plates. The current causes a reaction with the salt and chlorine is produced. This means that the pool is constantly being topped up with a little chlorine rather than being dosed with a lot. Considering that chlorine is degraded in the sunlight, that is a good thing.

Hope that is clear - I am not a chemist so have no idea how it works

Cheers,

DagBoy

Hutch

Couple of the reg's on the board actually build pools and I'm sure will give you the full story - but as far as I understand, it's an maintanence issue. Freshwater pools require a lot of work to keep clean, but with saltwater, you bung a bag of salt in once a month and that's about it apart from the usual vacuum ....

NickyC

Saltwater pools are have chlorine just like other pools - they're not sea-water. It's just that the chlorine is obtained from the salt - rather than chlorine being added directly into the pool. Electrolysis converts the salt (sodium chloride) into liquid chlorine.

ginaf

So are you able to maintain the pool all year round by yourself rather than have a pool cleaner come in, what is the vacuum part (please)?

hutchy

Ihave a saltwater pool and it is easy to keep clean, like the others said, bag of salt in once a month and a few cleaning chemicals now and again,vacuum it out with an attachment that fits onto the sand filter pipes and it takes all the leaves etc out, never had a pool guy in since i had it installed 18 months ago and it looks as fresh as the day it was done, can hardly smell the chlorine and the kids have never had any trouble with red eyes etc......jan hutchy......

yamahaha

Totally clear! Thanks for that and all the other answers folks.

Funnily enough DagBoy I am a Chemist (well i did a degree 10+ years ago!) I was never any good at it though can you tell?

MrsDagboy

Yep, as Jan said, they are (or should be) very easy to maintain, we have had ours since March & apart from a couple of bags of salt & a bit of acid & clean the filter occasionally we've had to do pretty much nothing to it. We have an automatic pool cleaner which vacuums the bottom, so we rarely even have to vacuum it ourselves. Its crystal clear & looks great.

I have heard stories about how much work a pool is to look after & how you have to do this & that & horror stories about pools turning green etc, but ours has been an absolute breeze so far.

wanderingwombat

Some certainly do 'pass' through. Funny how they dont want to swim in my toilet thought......

WW

Worst case scenario is Caddy Shack!

renth

Mine is a regular chlorinated pool, not salt. I find it easy to maintain but like anything - it's easy when you know how. I can imagine if you are new to pools there would be a steep learning curve. You have to balance PH, Chlorine and "total alkalinity" which confused me for a while - it's basically baking soda.

Things like shocking the pool frequently using unstabilized chlorine are important which you can either buy in tiny $12 sachets or huge 5 kilo tubs for about $30 - it's the same stuff with different packaging/labels.

Anyway, my pool has turned green twice, most recently 4 days ago - if/when it happens I can always get it back to sparkling blue in under 3 days.

MrsDagboy

I spoke too soon, my pool is horribly cloudy this morning, but not from going green or chemical levels being wrong etc, it filled up with silt & compost from the garden beds in last nights storm .

Filter now working overtime to clear it up .

Scossie

We fit self cleaning saltwater chlorinators as standard on all our pools.
There is also a very clever wee thing called an acid feeder that we offer as an option. It keeps the PH level of the pool spot on all the time, so you end up with a virtually maintenance free pool..

Have a look at my website, (on my BE sig' below), go to the Link's section, & click on 'Hurlcon'

They provide us with all our pumps, filtration, & chlorination equipment, and all their products are top quality. Their site has a section that explains all about the workings of saltwater pools...

Cheers... John....

MrsDagboy

Hi John, can you tell me, are you able to fit the acid feeder as an after sales product or does it have to go in at time of construction?