Salt Chlorine Generators

[Anonymous]

We are having a villa built in Monte Pego with a swimming pool. As we don’t know anything about pools and how to maintain them, I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has a Salt Chlorine Generator Type.

I believe they are easier to maintain and with no nasty chemicals to add.
Roughly how much more do they cost to install than the chlorine type.

Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Goju ❓ 😕 😆

[Anonymous]

We have a salt water pool, i.e. we have a chlorinater in the Pool Room which converts the salt in the water to chlorine by using electrolysis. A chlorinater costs about 1,000 – 1,500 euros and you have to top up the salt each year. Bags of salt can be obtained from your local Pool shop. Sorry can’t remember the price.

The pool still uses chlorine, but not in the form of tablets, the chlorine is made by the chlorinater.

You still have to check the acid/alkaline levels and the salt and chlorine levels to make sure everything is working OK. Lots of pools near where I live have this system and it seems to work well.

Sometimes you see the system advertised as being chemical free, because you don’t use chlorine tablets, but in fact it just uses a different way of getting the chlorine into the water.

[Anonymous]

Barbara,

Thank you for the above information, I think it will be worthwhile going for the Clorinator.

I have also found an interesting article with Citrus Iberia (International) Ltd., on SWG which seem to suggest that it is maintenance free (although I doubt it to some degree).

As we will not be living in Monte Pego and only going there for holidays, I would be interested to know how often do you have to check the levels.

Best Regards,

goju.

[Anonymous]

Maintenance of chlorine generators or saltwater pool systems varies acording to the pH level in the pool the better the pH is maintained the less maintenance you will have to do.

It can vary between 2~3 months or a little more frequently in summmer or on heated pools some systems require a simple 5 minute clean.

All systems are slightly different and you need to get to know your system and then judge how often you clean it.

Salt needs checking and adjusting at the start of the season each year, unless you really backwash the filters excessivily or splash a lot of water out of the pool it should not require any additional after that.

Remember to test your stabiliser levels which should be around 40ppm

Regards,
Dave

[Anonymous]

We had a salt chlorinator and we eventually disabled it as it was more trouble than it was worth. As a previous poster says, you still have chlorine in the pool, it is just made a different way. Apart from the high capital cost, what they don’t tell you is that you have to run the pump far more than with a conventional system, which itself is expensive on electricity and it wears it out faster.
Also if your water is particularly hard it presents problems in terms of crystalisation on the walls of the pool.
Looking after a conventional system really is just as simple – all you have to do is check the chlorine levels occasionally and put some in when required – it really isn’t rocket science.

[Anonymous]

Hi Pepsi,

That is dissapointing that you did not have either the right size Chlorine generator or incorrect instructions on how to use it.

Firstly there should be no shortcuts on using the filtration pump, you need to get 2~3 changes of water a day through the filter which is a lot of water and takes time to get it through the system.

The water is hard in Spain but maintaining the pH between 7.2~7.4 will virtually illiminate the effect of calcium build-up in the pool and would have made the saltwater system 3 times as effective.

Using multi-chemical tablets is really not that easy, you see they contain chemicals that saturate the pool and slow down the action of any Chlorine in the pool you need to test for Chlorine Stabiliser – Cyanuric Acid –

This should be at a level around 40ppm, at 100 ppm in the USA a public pool would be considered unsanitary and closed until the water was emptied and refillled. In Spain not many people bother about swimming pools and sanitising them correctly – with your saltwater system you would have known exactly what chemicals are in your pool and only need to add a couple of bags of salt a year and maintain the pH + a cupful of stabiliser if needed.

If you need any help or advice we are pleased to help.

regards,
Dave

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