Salt or Chlorine? Keeping Your Pool Clean
Posted by Calum and Kathleen MacKenzie on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 2:48pm.The addition of chlorine has long been the traditional method of keeping swimming pools fresh, clean, and sanitary. For increasing numbers of people, however, it’s no longer the preferred method. Salt water swimming pools are steadily increasing in popularity as people realize that there are practical alternatives to the old standby. It is important to understand that salt water pools are not chlorine free pools. It’s chlorine is generated by a chlorine generator as opposed to being added by hand.
Chlorine is Traditional but is it the Best?
Chlorine pools work on a fairly simple basis. Chlorine kills bacteria and algae, and prevents these pesky microbes from growing colonies in your swimming water. Algae in particular are the problem to watch out for, and a pool that doesn’t contain sufficient chlorine will start growing algal colonies pretty quickly.
When keeping a chlorinated pool, it’s not enough to dump in the required amount of chlorine at the right intervals—you’ve also got to use test kits to monitor chlorine residue levels, and other chemicals, to make sure you have enough free available chlorine (meaning active chlorine that can sanitize the water) to keep up with sanitation requirements.
Keeping the pool sufficiently clean means watching PH levels as well as chlorine levels, because if the pool’s PH is too high, the chlorine it contains won’t be as active. On the other hand, if the pool’s PH is too low, it means the water is much more likely to irritate the eyes and skin. Keeping the PH at just the right level is a very delicate balance, since there’s a fairly narrow range at which the level is just right. Factors such as rain can quickly throw it off balance.
The main problem with chlorine is that many people find the harsh chemicals in pre-packaged swimming pool chlorine are irritating to the eyes and skin. Often, people believe they’re allergic, or over-sensitive to chlorine, when in fact what they’re reacting to is those harsh chemical additives.
How Does a Salt Water Pool Compare?
The main benefit of a salt water pool might not be what you’re thinking. Salt water pools do in fact use chlorine for sanitation, so it’s not the absence of chlorine! The real advantage is that to keep a salt water pool clean, you don’t need to add pre-packaged chlorine. That removes one of the major sources of irritation for people who experience discomfort when swimming in a chlorinated pool.
There are other benefits, too. In the long term, it’s possible to save some money by switching to a salt water system. However, you won’t see any savings for two or three years, simply because to convert to a salt water system you’ll need to outlay some cash during the conversion. This conversion will run $1000-$2500 depending on the system. Over two or three years of regular pool use, you’ll recoup the cost in the money you don’t have to spend on chlorine.
Another benefit is that salt water pools tend to have softer water than chlorinated pools, meaning it’s not as harsh on your skin, and is therefore more comfortable to swim in.
Salt water pools use chlorine for sanitation, but under normal circumstances, you’ll never actually add any chlorine to your pool. So how does it work?
The answer lies in the salt, or rather, in its chemical composition. Salt is sodium chloride, which contains chlorine atoms bonded to sodium. The salt water system contains a unit called a salt-chlorine generator, which uses a process called electrolysis to separate the salt molecules into separate atoms of sodium and chloride which is then released into the pool. The generator alleviates the need to buy, store or handle chlorine.
The beauty of the system is that the the pool ends up with a much lower concentration of chlorine than in a standard chlorinated swimming pool. However, you do still have to check PH levels, and carry out other quality tests, to keep the pool in good shape. This does not need to be difficult and often there are many pool stores that you can walk in with a water sample in and they will analyze it and let you know what you need to add, so you don’t need to be a scientist!
A properly maintained salt water swimming pool is definitely a pleasure to swim in. It won’t taste salty at all, as its concentration of salt is only around 3,000 to 6,000 parts per million (as a comparison, the salt concentration of the ocean is around 20,000 to 35,000 PPM).
Softer water, easier on the eyes and skin, less handling and purchasing of harsh chemicals all add up to a better pool experience.
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