Keeping your pool clean can be a real challenge at times. Once you’ve figured out how you’ll remove the debris you may start considering alternatives to disinfection. The standard swimming pool is kept sanitized with chlorine, either liquid or tablet form. You may be sick of handling chlorine and want to look into an alternative like salt chlorination. How do you make the change from typical chlorine? Ultimately, you’ll wonder how to convert pool to salt water?
How To Convert Pool To Salt Water?
In this article, we will explain the process of how to convert pool to salt water. We have designed many salt and non-salt water pools across the country. Know that you want a salt water pool, is half of the battle. Now we explain the process of converting your pool to salt water.
Step 1: Evaluate Putting In Salt System
First you must consider whether you want to put in a salt system at all. The in’s and out’s of how a salt system works can be surprising. Initially many people believe the salt system is just added salt to the water, but there’s much more to how salt water pools work than that. Salt pools are chlorine generation systems. This means there is a mechanism at your pool equipment which converts salt into chlorine to disinfect the pool.
One added benefit of a salt system is the soft water you get to swim in. The soft water feels great on the skin, and doesn’t tend to dry your skin like a typical chlorine pool would. However, you are still swimming in a chlorine pool. You still need to shock the pool occasionally, and will need to add a lot of muriatic acid to keep the PH in check.
Step 2: Choose A Salt System
Once you’ve decided a salt system is for you, the next step is to consider which system you’d like to add to your pool. We’d recommend a system which also balances your PH automatically, so you don’t need to physically handle muriatic acid multiple times per week.
One such system is the Pentair Intellichlor combined with the IntelliPH. This system will both produce chlorine and prevent your PH from getting too high from the chlorine generation process.
Step 3: Find Pool Professional And Install
Once you’ve selected a system, installation is not too difficult for a seasoned professional. Follow the instructions in the manual for where to install the salt chlorination cell, the electrical connections, the acid feed system, and the PH controller and sensors. Often it’s easiest to hire a professional to do this since it will require cutting into some PVC pipe and doing some re-plumbing of the pool equipment. Once the system is installed, you’ll need to fill the acid tank and also add salt to your pool.
How Much Salt Should You Add?
First, you need to know how many gallons your pool contains. Then you need to read the manual for your system, and find out the ideal pars per million (PPM) of salt you should add to your pool. The manual will have a lbs / 1000 gallons method for estimating how much salt to add to the pool. Usually people use the salt intended for water softeners to add the salt to the pool. This salt will dissolve quickly and be easier to deal with than rock salt or table salt.
How To Convert Pool To Salt Water Final Steps
One you have the proper amount of salt added to the pool, you are ready to start up the salt chlorine generator. You will want to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the start up process. Additionally, you will want to test your water regularly in the first months of ownership. This is to make sure your system is operating at its best. Once you’ve balanced the system and it’s operating in a predictable manner, you can go back to testing the water twice a week, making minor adjustments as required.
How To Convert Pool To Salt Water Summary
The steps for converting your pool to salt water are simple. You should first make absolutely sure that you want a salt water pool. Then, you must select your salt system. Finally, install the new system via a trusted pool company. Afterward, it’s important to add salt and test your water regularly.
