A huge change has occurred in the swimming pool industry over the past ten years. Almost every day I get questions about salt pools, salt water pools, salt filters or salt pumps – each question is a realization that the era of salt water chlorination has arrived to stay.
To best understand what happens in one of these pools, it is important to understand that salt – simple table salt – is a combination of the chemicals sodium and chloride. We learned this in school, but it had no significance to me until I first saw it demonstrated, and then I immediately knew this was a big change.
It is also important to understand that a salt water pool is still a chlorine pool – same thing only different, right? If we add salt to our swimming pools – we can use the salt to make chlorine. Salt water pools won’t taste salty to most of us, and actually the water feels soft as if we added “bath salts”.
Once the salt is dissolved into the water, it is passed through a “cell” that is part of your salt system. A very small current is passed through the blades inside the cell, and the system produces pure chlorine. Some of the better units are capable of producing a pound of chlorine, or more, each day.
With a salt water system, you will find that your swimming pool will be much more easy to maintain, and will not require as much day to day attention as in the past. It is still important to ensure your chlorine residual is still 3 parts per million, but you will no longer have to throw powdered chlorine into the pool, or deal with chlorine tablets.
A salt water system is included in all fiberglass swimming pools ABLE Pools and Spas install, as we no longer consider this an optional item but an integral part of your new swimming pool.