How Do You Add Salt To Your Pool

Whats The Right Level Of Salt For Your Pool

The optimal range for salt in your pool is 2,700-3,400 ppm , with 3,200 ppm being ideal.

Whats parts per million mean? Its just a scientific unit of measurement, but dont worry, you dont need to know the ins and outs of ppm. The only thing you need to do is test your pool water to get a reading of the current salt ppm levels.

Salt Water Pools Cost Less To Maintain

While you may have been led to believe that all you need to do to maintain a salt water pool is throw in some salt every few weeks, its actually a bit more involved than that.

The good news is, salt water pool maintenance can cost a lot less than caring for a chlorine pool, which can be one of the most important deciding factors in making the switch. Exactly how much less expensive salt water is than chlorine over the lifetime of your pool depends on several factors such as where you live, the size of your pool, the quality of the equipment you use, and how well you maintain it.

The up-front cost of a chlorinator ranges from a few hundred to a thousand dollars or more. Long-term costs include replacing the chlorinator cellthe part that actually converts salt to chlorineevery five years or so, provided you maintain your chlorinator well.

Youll also still need to keep your water balanced, but another positive aspect of a salt water pool conversion is youll likely require fewer chemicals to keep the water balanced.

So while things like test strips or digital testers and a few chemicals will still have to be part of your maintenance budget, your monthly chemical costs will still be lower with a salt water pool, than with chlorine.

What Is Pool Salt

Pool salt is functionally the same as table salt, except with a coarser grind and larger crystals that work well with chlorine and bromine generators. Most pool supply places sell pool salt in bulk, rather than forcing you to get small canisters suitable for the kitchen.

Salt is a popular source of chlorine because its affordable and easy to get. It also doesnt have the same risks as some other sources of chlorine or pool cleaners.

However, pool salt is not the same as some popular kitchen varieties. People use Himalayan salt, Epsom salts, Kosher salts, and other salts in their food, but these often have additives or minerals that give them their distinctive flavors and properties that are bad for pools.

The best pool salts are as close to pure sodium chloride as possible. Its prohibitively expensive to get 100% pure salt because there will always be trace minerals and impurities, but up to 99% pure is both easy and affordable.

Also Check: How To Lower Cya In Pool

Procedures On How To Add Salt Onto The Water

• Know first what level of salt chlorine generators work in your pool. You can refer to the salt generator manual.
• Next is to determine your pools salt current level. If your pool is newly installed, the salt level must be at 0 ppm. If you are converting to a standard chlorinator, the salt levels must be at around 500 ppm.
• Using a saltwater test strip, measure your pools current level. You can as well bring a water sample to pool stores for them to verify the salt level. Dont worry as it is free of charge.

How Do I Calculate Salt In My Pool

How do I calculate salt in my pool?

How much salt should I put in my pool per Litre?;It is simple math. For every 1000 ppm increase in salinity level, you need to add 0.5 bags of salt to 10000 liters of water. In case your pool contains 20,000 liters, you need to add one full salt bag.

What happens if salt is too high in pool?;Having too much salt in your pool water can result in unnecessarily increasing chemical expenses. But having too little salinity restricts the amount of chlorine being generated and can lead to algae and bacteria growth.

How often should you add salt to your pool?;How often do I need to add salt to my pool? There is no set timeframe of when you need to add salt to your pool. Because salt does not dissipate from your water, the only time you would add salt to your pool is when you add fresh water or after heavy rain that dilutes salinity levels.

Don’t Miss: How To Get Iron Out Of Your Pool

How To Reduce Chlorine Exposure This Summer

Learn how to reduce chlorine exposure this summer while swimming. ;After swimming, detox spray and protecting lotion recipes included.

Do you spend a lot of your summer in the pool? ;I know we do! ;Sounds harmless, right? Well, not exactly! Most pools are full of chlorine, and overexposure can be harmful.

In my home, I work hard to minimize the amount of chlorine we are exposed to. We use a Berkey water filter for our drinking water and a crystal ball bath dechlorinator for our bathwater. So it made me wonder, what could I do to help with the chlorine we are exposed to in the pool?;

Before you go drain the pool or cancel the pool membership, let me tell you the good news! ;There are several ways you can protect yourself and reduce chlorine exposure this summer.;

Salt Water Pools Are Gentler To Your Body

Switching away from harsh chlorine has to be a positive, right? Sure. But the most important thing to understand is that salt water pools are not actually chlorine free. However, the presence of salt in the water reduces the kind of eye and skin irritation you may experience by swimming in a chlorine pool.

A salt chlorine generator creates the same kind of chlorine used in a chlorine pool. Its imperative to keep chlorine levels stable to inhibit the formation of chloramines.

In a salt water pool, when chlorine levels are stable, and chloramines are not present, the salinity of the water is much closer to the salinity of your natural tear ducts.

This is why it doesnt hurt to open your eyes in a salt water pool, and why your skin and hair wont feel as dry after swimming.

Read Also: How Do You Get Iron Out Of Pool Water

What Is Pool Salt Exactly

Pool salt is regular salt that has been specially prepared for use in pools and to work well with salt chlorine generators.

Its special for 3 reasons:

In theory, you could use everyday table salt, but it likely wont meet the criteria above, and many contain unwanted additives that will stain your pool. Since these additives arent always listed, its hardly worth the risk in most cases.;

A Few Facts About Saltwater Pools

The salt added to your pool will never dissipate on its own. Only during backwash, splashing, or draining your pool will salt need to be added.

Salt will not leave your pool from evaporation or running your salt system.

Always keep an eye on the overall salt level of the water but keep in mind that once you reach your ideal levels, it will be hard to lose them. Thats the beauty of having a saltwater pool.

You May Like: Wasps Invading Pool

Converting Your Pool To Salt Water

If you do decide to convert your pool to a salt water system, there are some basic things that will help you out.;

For example, choose your salt water generator based on cost and pool size. These babies can get expensive, so dont go overboard with the biggest one when a smaller model will serve your purposes.

Make the decision upfront as to whether you’ll be installing the system yourself or hiring a professional.

Read up on exactly how its done and decide whether or not you have the time, patience and willingness to learn to get the job done right.

If you think you need a professional, get estimates and include that in your financial decision.

Know that you’ll sometimes still have to use regular chlorine.

While salt chlorinators do usually have a super chlorinate function that will give it a boost, its not a substitute for pool shock.

Usually, your pool will still need to be shocked at least once a month to keep algae at bay.

Test Pool Water With Salt Chlorinator

Hold a test strip underwater for 10 seconds. Hold the strip so it is below the water line, but not in the stream of the jet-returned water from the filter. Test kits typically come with a test tube or small glass jar. If yours did not, use a small, clean juice glass. For instance, if you have a 20,000-gallon pool and your chlorination system requires you to have 3,500 parts per million of salt, that is equivalent to 834 lbs. If your salt reading is 5,000 ppm, it is recommended that you drain water from the pool, add fresh water from your garden hose and adjust the water accordingly.

Don’t Miss: Does Target Have Pool Supplies

Why Pool Salt Is Important

Pool salt is important for several reasons:

• Using the right pool salt helps a salt chlorine generator work efficiently.
• Maintaining the right salt levels helps to maintain the right chlorine levels, and therefore a clean pool.
• Low-quality pool salt can have mineral or organic contaminants that may cause stains, scaling, or cloudy water.

Can You Put Chlorine Tablets In A Saltwater Pool

Yes, you can use chlorine tablets, liquid chlorine or granular chlorine in a salt water pool if required. This is normal when you first start up a salt pool because you may not be able to add the salt until the pool surface has fully cured as with plaster and paint. If ever the saltwater chlorinator has not generated enough chlorine you may need to manually add additional chlorine.

You May Like: How To Heat Above Ground Pool Fast

Are Saltwater Pools Costly

We’ve covered several aspects, but before wrapping up, it’s critical to discuss the cost of having a saltwater pool. Although the difference in price with chlorine-tablet pools is negligible, saltwater pools tend to be more expensive on account of its many components.

The price of chlorine generators can vary from $250-1,250 while replacement salt cells don’t come cheap either. If your salt cell malfunctions, it might cost up to half or even more than the total cost of the pool to change the metal plates.

Plus, you need to factor in the expense of salt lost due to backwashing, splash out, and reduced water levels. To counter this, most people use annual boosters, bought separately.

On top of that, some components have a short lifespan of 3-5 years, after which it’s essential to make changes. So, you need to have a flexible budget to enjoy the comforts of a saltwater pool.

How Much Salt To Add To Your Swimming Pool

If youre asking this question, youve probably already invested in a salt chlorine generator. Once you familiarize yourself with your new chlorinator youll enjoy higher water quality with less effort. Don’t have a salt chlorine generator yet? , or , then return to this page to determine the amount of salt you require.

How Much Salt Do You Need?

The salt level required to maintain a safe, salt water chlorinated pool is between 2500 and 3500 PPM . The human tongue cannot taste salt until the parts per million of salt is close to 5000, and the ocean has a salt content of approximately 40,000 parts per million. To identify how much salt you should add to your pool, you first need to…

Size Your Pool

To size your pool in gallons , take the area of the pool and multiply it by the average depth , then, multiply that number by 7.48.

G = A x AD x 7.48

To find your average depth , add your deep end and your shallow end measurements, then divide that sum by two.

AD = / 2

The table below will give you an idea of how much salt may be necessary to reach the desired level of 3500 ppm.

*Important Note: All pool sizes above are based on a constant depth and shape; the actual amount of salt required may vary.

Where to Find Pool Salt

Add Salt to Your Pool in Four Simple Steps

Now that youve gathered all the relevant information, its time to start adding the salt to your pool.

Step 1. Measuring the Current Salt Level

Orders

Read Also: Best Sealer For Stamped Concrete Pool Deck

When To Add Salt To Swimming Pool

Like any other chemical, salt should be used only when the pool is closed. Add salt when the chlorine generator is not producing enough chlorine or not producing at all. The chlorine generators do not function correctly when the salinity level of the pool drops. This drastic swing results in undue stress and shortens the lifespan of the chlorine generator.

Avoid this problem by checking the salinity levels in your pool from time to time. Make it a daily routine to check the water using salinity strips or the digital meters available in the market.

What Is A Salt Water Pool

Most people think of the ocean when they think of salt water, but a salt water swimming pool is not the same thing.

In other words, when you get a mouth full of ocean water, you can taste the salt.

But in the world of swimming pools, a salt water pool is one that uses a salt chlorine generator instead of traditional chlorine for sanitizing. This means that the pool is still chlorinated, just with a different type of chlorine.

The way the salt generator works is by creating its own chlorine with an electrical reaction between the salt in the salt cell and the electrode in the generator.;

So, instead of pouring chlorine into your pool or adding tablets, the generator is constantly creating it.

And if it’s working right, it will also monitor the levels you set it to in order to keep your sanitizer levels balanced.;

Read Also: Can Lice Drown In A Pool

How To Fill A Saltwater Swimming Pool & Add The Salt

Once you have calculated how many bags of salt you need for the volume of your pool you need to add the salt to the water.

Do not add salt into the skimmer box as this will clog your plumbing, increase pressure and potentially damage the filtration system.

Turn on your pump with the chlorinator switched off.

Place the bags of salt evenly around the edge of your pool. Cut open each bag and empty the contents into the pool water.

At the same time add the recommended amount of pool stabilizer into the pool. Its important to add stabilizer especially during summer to slow the evaporation of chlorine from the pool. Your saltwater chlorinator unit may not operate efficiently without the correct level of pool stabilizer dissolved in the water. The recommended level is 30 to 60 ppm. The start-up quantity of stabilizer will be around 2kg for a normal inground pool.

Use your pool brush on the long pole to push the salt around the pool until it is dissolved. You will need to repeat this a few times.

Operate the pump for a complete cycle to fully dissolve the salt and stabilizer. A complete cycle is when the pump has pumped over the entire contents of the pool which usually takes at least 8 hours .

The following day when all the salt has fully dissolved switch on the chlorinator unit to start generating chlorine.

Why Do A Salt Water Pool Conversion

Chlorinated pool water can be hard on you because of chemicals called chloramines. These compounds are created when the chlorine in your pool water comes into contact with things like urine and sweat, and they can be harmful in two ways.

First, they arent effective at disinfecting the water like chlorine, so water cleaning is inhibited. Second, they cause irritation of the eyes, skin, and lungs. Strong chloramines can build up in the air surrounding a pool, especially indoor pools. When the air is thick with these chemicals, it can even cause coughing or trigger an asthma attack.

Frequent exposure to chlorine can even cause some people to develop an allergy or sensitivity to the chemical. And for those who are already sensitive to it, swimming in a chlorine pool can cause rashes, hives, and itchy skin beyond the simple dryness you may experience from chlorine exposure.

If you have respiratory problems, such as asthma or allergic rhinitis, you may find your symptoms exacerbated by frequently swimming in a chlorine pool. If your pool is causing you discomfort, a salt water pool conversion could be just the solution youre searching for.

On the less serious side, if youre a blonde, youve probably experienced your hair turning green in a pool sanitized with chlorine. Colored hair can look great, but this probably isnt exactly the look youre going for. So why does it happen? Science!

Also Check: Cya Reducer For Pools

How Do You Add Salt To Your Pool

To add salt to your pool first, measure the current salt level and take the amount into account when calculating how much salt to use. Then, turn off your salt chlorine generator and dont turn it on until the salt has completely dissolved into the pool water. Leave your pool pump on while you add the salt to keep the water moving and help the salt dissolve more quickly. Next, add the salt to the shallow end of your pool. Add less than your calculations recommend its easier to add more than to compensate.