Finally! Got to tear out the pool.

[dodge man]

We enjoyed our pool and I don't regret putting it in. I had heard about the saltwater set up and after hearing your story wish I had put on in.

 

[txdon]

Moss which saltwater chlorine generator do you have? I need to look into the possibility of converting. Does the salt water kill the grass or cause anymore corrosion than just the chlorine? Is it just putting a chlorine generator in-line and plugging it in? Can I still use the same sand filter and 2 speed pump?

 

[Powereng]

txdon - And if I lived in your neck of the woods I would have kept mine. I don't know how you Texans do it.

 

[txdon]

txdon - And if I lived in your neck of the woods I would have kept mine. I don't know how you Texans do it.

We go outside early morning and late evening and a long nap in the middle of the day.
If the water volleyball ever gets disbanded I'll probably turn mine into a garden also but they have continued it now for 21 years - we just joined the last 9 years. In Texas's summers when you have a pool and a frozen margarita machine you have lots of friends.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss which saltwater chlorine generator do you have? I need to look into the possibility of converting. Does the salt water kill the grass or cause anymore corrosion than just the chlorine? Is it just putting a chlorine generator in-line and plugging it in? Can I still use the same sand filter and 2 speed pump?

To quickly answer your questions:
- I have an Intex unit for 15,000 gallon pools (see link below).
- The salt water does nothing to the grass. My backwash area grass is no different than the rest of my yard.
- Metal parts can corrode with salt. Cheap bolts around skimmer come to mind. So does a painted metal ladder. Stainless steel doesn't seem to be affected. Contact your pools manufacturer to see if they have any thoughts on converting to salt water.
- It goes in the return line from the pump back to the pool, so water is filtered first, then shot through the SWCG and back into the pool. As the water passes over the metal plates in the SWCG, a current converts the salt to chlorine. There's a flow sensor in the SWCG, so if your filter stops, the SWCG turns off.
- I use my same sand filter, but I only have a single speed pump. I don't know if the flow sensor on the SWCG is affected by the high or low flow on a 2 speed pump, so I can't answer that.

Ok. Here's the long scoop. There are good SWCGs (salt water chloring generators), there are cheap SWCGs, and then there's the one I have... :laughing:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Intex-Kry...fault&beacon_version=1.0.1&findingMethod=p13n

Its made by Intex. That company that makes very cheap above ground pools and pool toys.
Pros of this unit:
- It is CHEAP! I've seen good SWCGs for a thousand bucks.
- It works!
- Its small.
- Its 110v.
- It plumbs into the return line from the pump to the pool with band clamps.

Cons of this unit:
- It is CHEAP! :laughing:
- It does not have a timer memory. This is the biggest problem with this unit. Lets say you have your pool pump on from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily. And you've determined that running this SWCG for 3 hours will maintain the level of chlorine that you desire. Well, you have to go out there at, say, 10:30am and turn the unit on for the first time, set it for 3 hours and off you go. Then it works just fine. Tomorrow and every day after, it will come on at 10:30am and run for 3 hours and go back into standby.... unless the power is interrupted. Then it loses its memory and never comes on again until you set it again. This is a real pain in the skimmer if you know what I mean. You gets what you pays for.
- The LED panel, after 4 years in the sun, becomes impossible to read. Fortunately, it beeps when you hit keystrokes, so I know how to program it by ear.
- Rumor has it that the metal plates inside it will wear out after several years, making it less effective. Mine are still like new.

It can build up calcium on the plates. It is supposed to switch polarity after X hours of operation so that it blows the calcium off the plates automatically. However, if it loses its memory, it never switches, calcium can build up after several weeks and you have to pull the hoses adapters (they are threaded) off, place a threaded cap on one end, tip it up and pour vinegar into it and it will dissolve the calcium in a couple hours. Pour the vinegar back into the jug, remove the end cap, hook up the hoses and off you go.

There's an indicator that will say "low salt" but that usually ends up meaning calcium buildup.

Anyhow, when and if mine ever goes out, I will look for a better unit that remembers its settings and actually does the polarity switch automatically. I bought this unit to experiment with and I am very happy with the pool.

One more note. We have hard water. So it already has high calcium levels when we fill the pool. You have to be kinda careful as to maintaining hardness or you can get scaling and buildup on the vinyl liner, which can make it crusty feeling and can also lead to premature liner failure. I don't know for sure, and I'm studying up on it in the coming weeks, but I wonder if its just that our water is so hard to begin with or that the salt is contributing to the hardness. Anyhow, this is a good resource and where I'm going to start looking at it.

Pool School - TFP Home Page

Enough with the threadjacking, though..... TEAR OUT THAT POOL! :laughing:

 

[txdon]

Moss, thanks for the good info. It sure is tempting. Is maintaining the PH about the same?

 

[MossRoad]

I haven't adjusted my PH in 4 years. Seriously. It just sits there. I dip strip test it weekly. I'm out of strips this year (really, they're just lost in the shed somewhere) and we just opened the pool up a week before Memorial Day. I'm planning on picking up some more tomorrow and some salt test strips and some chlorine stabilizer. I haven't added any salt yet and don't have the SWCG running yet. The salt test strips are calibrated per batch and come with a chart that tells you something like if salt level reads X, add Y pounds of salt for pools of Z size. I've never added more than two bags to start the pool up. SQCG requires 99.9% pure solar salt, which is about $4.00 per bag. You just tear open the bag, pour it in while walking around the pool and then sweep it around for about 5 minutes until it dissolves. Once I add the recommended amount, I check the level again to be sure, then its good for the rest of the summer unless we get torrential rains that overflow the pool and dilute it. That only happened to us once. Then you just test and add again. If, by some chance, you'd over-salt the pool, you just drain it down and add fresh water. Really simple.

I'd suggest you ask around your area and find someone with a salt water pool and see how they like it and how they maintain it.

As for that cheapy SWCG we have, I've disabled the flow switch once it went bad. I've also read that some folks open the circuit board up, bypass the timer and just run it with their pool pump or off of a separate timer. I wouldn't want it running all the time that the pool filter pump runs because ours only needs to run about 3-4 hours per day to keep the chlorine level at optimum. If I'd run it longer, I'd over-chlorinate the pool and that's no good. I may look into a timed relay where it will come on when the filter timer comes on, but then shut itself off after 3-4 hours while the filter keeps running another 2-3 hours. Hmmmm..... gotta think about that one now.

 

[txdon]

Moss how about a gated bypass to the chlorinator. You just have to remember to switch it back - just set a reminder alarm on your phone. I have a bypass that went to my solar heater (before it blew off the roof) that I would use if I went salt.

I have added no water this year but I have had to dump water 8 times with all the rain last month in Texas.

Water Temp (with no heater or cover) got to 82˚ earlier this week before the rains started again.

I think we have sufficiently hijacked this thread - back to see how that garden grows where the pool once was.