Salt Pools Are Chlorine Pools

If you are shopping for a pool then you’ve certainly heard about salt pools. And if you’ve heard about salt pools then what you’ve heard is almost certainly wrong.

Salt systems are sold as “salt pools” and boy have the marketing people done a job! In my time selling pools, I was amazed how the $2500+ salt generator upgrade sold itself. Easily 4 out of 5 people demanded a salt pool without even being asked.

I even tried to save a person the cost of the salt generator, for a man who couldn’t afford it and he said “I would rather not have a pool than have a chlorine pool.”

The idea of being one of those people with that horrible chlorine in their pool water just wasn’t worth it.

I have bad news and good news all wrapped in one statement; salt pools are chlorine pools!

Salt generators make chlorine gas right there in your pool equipment. That gas then turns into HOCL – hypochlorous acid – which, in plain terms, is the **exact same active chlorine** you get from any other chlorine product.

And that chlorine is no less "itchy" than any other kind, because, well, it's all just chlorine. But here’s the real kicker: it’s usually not the chlorine itself making your skin itch. More often, it’s unbalanced water chemistry – things like high pH or too many chloramines (that's spent chlorine, by the way) – that are the actual culprits.

At proper levels, chlorine is actually quite beneficial for keeping your pool water clean and safe. Personally, I've even found it helps clear up skin issues and keeps toenails healthy.

But the industry is content to repeat the lies, and at this point it’s not ignorance it’s lies, because it is an easy upgrade for the builder and thus easy money.

I’m not anti-salt system but I am anti-lies and it pains me to listen to the same falsehoods being repeated over and over again.

Salt systems deliver one thing; convenience. It makes the chlorine for you instead of you putting chlorine into a feeder. Sure, the initial setup means hauling and dissolving all those 40lb bags of salt – which, yes, is a lot more work than just dropping a few tablets into a feeder. But the good news is, you don’t have to do it nearly as often. A salt system will also prevent you from going to zero chlorine if you go out of town for a long while.

Those are the benefits of the salt generator.

The downsides? Money. Salt generators almost always have a significantly higher upfront cost than using powder or tablets of chlorine. But if you’ve already gone to the expense to buy the system then it is better to keep it than to switch at this point.

Also the 40LB bags that I already mentioned are a pain. And you will need a lot of them to get started; think 25 plus bags.

You will need to clean your salt cell 3 to 4 times a year in Florida or else it will not work at its capacity or it will stop working all together. This is bad because then your pool will go to zero chlorine, usually before you notice anything, and then you will get a green pool, and that will cost $150+ in chemicals if you do green-to-clean yourself, and at least $300 for someone else to do it.

The biggest downside to a salt system is that salt is a corrosive. It will corrode your decking if you have anything other than concrete, such as pavers. It will corrode your ladder and handrails, or you will need to buy much more expensive ones that will still corrode much faster than if you used a salt system.

The salt can also cause staining and corrosion on your plaster. This is why you should predissolve your salt in a bucket before adding it to your pool – especially if you have plaster, quartz, pebble, or whatever-your-pool-builder-told-you-that-you-didn’t-have-to-worry-’bout-because-of-their-super-expensive-plaster.

Water is the universal solvent. No, they didn’t invent something that water won’t dissolve to plaster your pool with. They just invented new lies.

Pool builders are telling you to spend more money on rough surface pools because they don’t want the risk.

Some of us would like a smooth pool surface, thank you very much!

But what about when you hear people say that it makes the water quality better? There is some truth to that. Some salt can add to the “feel” of water that people like.

The good news is that “feel” can be achieved with a tenth or less of the salt needed for a salt generator. You can throw a couple bags worth in your pool and get the same effect.

If a salt generator is worth the convenience then by all means buy one and take care of it. But I hope this clarifies the matter for you.