The Advantages Of Salt Water Pools. Why Are They Better?

In Blog, Salt by Timothy Petsch

Why do swimmers leave a swimming pool or spa and head straight for the shower? Heck, they have just been immersed in water! It’s not to wash off the pool water, but instead is to rinse that irritating chlorine feel off of their bodies!

Chlorine is required by Health Code in all commercial pools, so one would think that it is something that swimmers just have to put up with. They always have.

The good news is that there is a solution and it is available for your pools and spas right now.

More good news: it will probably save you money, remove the need to use so many toxic chemicals, and best of all, it will please your members who won’t need to head for the shower directly after exiting the pool. Instead, after swimming in salt water their skin will feel soft, their hair will feel silky, and they won’t have stinging eyes.

So how does this work? It’s called an in-line Chlorine Generator, frequently referred to as a “Salt System”. Salt Systems are very simple. Simply add a little salt into the pool water (about half as much as the salinity of tears), add 2 pieces of equipment to the mechanical room, and you are in the business of making your own natural chlorine. (Just so you know, all chlorine is made from salt, but to meet the needs of safe transportation, and shelf life, the manufactured chlorine needs to be augmented with binders and stabilizers, while the chlorine made in a Salt System is 100% pure and natural.) Salt Systems are said to be the most popular residential pool product in US history. Why? For the reasons mentioned above and because, unlike traditional chlorine, they actually make a pool easier to manage!

As with any product, there are downsides, and the primary ones are the upfront costs and the cost of replacement cells. These can be justified if the company providing you the bid runs a cost comparative and ROI (return on investment), using your actual monthly chlorine costs.

Another consideration is to choose your Salt System and provider very carefully. You might have a good relationship with your pool provider, but that does not mean they are qualified to support a Salt System. The following are key indicators of a professional provider:

  • Do they have a real commercial unit, or do they use a number of little residential cells that are grouped together to make the chlorine required?
  • Are they a commercial pool company? Commercial pools have state legal requirements that a primarily residential dealer may not be aware of.
  • How many commercial salt system references do they have for you to contact?
  • Do they understand the working relationship between the Salt System and chemistry controllers?

Adding a Salt System could dramatically upgrade your water and win you accolades from your member base, but be careful to do your homework thoroughly, and remember that with today’s technology local is not necessarily better.