I am getting ready to have a summer testing both, side by side. My neighbor has me watching his salt water pool and I am a floater guy.
So far it is not looking good for the salt pool. There is already some nagging green stuff on the walls.
I am following his directions and I gave it a "boost". The pool store said free chlorine is 2.0 so the next step is to adjust the cell up a notch or two. SW Florida in the summer really needs chlorine to be 3+ because water will be cruising 88-92. (maybe hotter in a blue plastic pool like he has)
I don't know about salt water pools but there are factors involved other than chlorine. You can have your chlorine at 10 and still have algae. There is a prescribed order for water testing and it has to be done in order and at least twice a week, along with other things like skimming, brushing, filter cleaning and vacuuming. Otherwise you may as well go buy the pool stores expensive bogus water treatments like all the other suckers.
I need to see a skin doctor once a year, and last time he observed a real improvement and confirmed salt-chlorinating pools are much better for the skin than the older type.
Salt-chlorinating pools are equipped with cartridge filters that have no backwash function, because theory says you do not need to backwash. You just pull out the cartridge once a year or twice and hose it clean again. This may work in urban environments but not in the country. Our new pool required cleaning the filter every week last May (mosquito season.) The cartridge actually clogged with insect and leafy debris.
Once the whole thing is truly clean and free from extraneous material, the (Hayward) electronic control works OK, i.e. needs adding no more chemicals.
Since they both seem to run at the same free chlorine level I am not sure why that would be.
Both pools have cartridge filters and both are in screen cages.
This is an Autopilot salt system. I am trying to get them both stable and at about the same levels (pool store testing). Then the game will begin. I think the problem at this point is he has it set up for winter and when the water is in the 60s and los 70s with short days you can get real sloppy with your sanitation levels, When the water warms up you have to stay on top of it.
I have had a pool here for 20 years and I know how to keep it blue.
I'm not familiar with "saltwater pools". I thought there maybe a difference between "saltwater pools" and "salt chlorine generators."
I can't tell the difference by glancing at this article but it makes it sound like "saltwater (and or) salt chlorine generators pools" are one of the horsemen of the apocalypse.
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I have a 3" tab floater. Seems to work okay but there maybe better systems; or maybe simplicity is best. I do know, where I backwash My filter to (a public green belt), the plants seem to do fine.
Yes these days "salt water pool" means salt to chlorine generator. I keep hearing how trouble free they are and if it is really true I am not opposed to buying a generator system. I am just trying to give it a good side by side test. My maintenance with the floater seems to be pretty minimal. I drop 1 1/2 3" tabs in once a week in the winter and 2 1/2 in the summer (the other half goes in the spa that swaps water with the pool most of the time).
I shock it once a week and monitor the pH. A little dose of acid now and then keeps that in balance.
Other than that I don't do squat. I do have a pool cleaner running 6 hours a day.
From reading the article I posted above, a saltwater system sounds like a serious problem for me. I have a sand-filter that has to be back-washed about 4 times a year into a green-belt. If I pumped salinated water into the green-belt that would be bad news. I'd have to change my entire system. My brother-in-law did that and he spent over $5000, but he's rich.
You should be monitoring the whole spectrum of chemicals and treat in order. The four major tests are:
1) PH
2) Alkaline
3) Chlorine
4) Phosphates
Because I use a sand-filter, the other tests (hardness, metals, solids and cy acid) can be monitored less often but the above tests should be done at least twice a week. It's not just for the water, it's for the pool's overall maintenance. I usually have the pool store run all the tests about once a month and check to see if our results on the 4 major tests are matching up.
6 hours a day? Does it use a booster pump? I vacuum (Polaris) 2 hours a week.
I scrub tiles and do minor brushing about 20 minutes a week. It's not because it "needs" it. It's preventative maintenance; like brushing the pool's teeth. It's good exercise too. If your pool cleaner does that too then great but, if it's running on some additional energy source, 6 hours a day seems expensive to me.
I run my pool's pump 8 hours a day and the Polaris booster runs 2 hours a week pretty much year round. I slack off a little on the Polaris in the winter. Testing is a year round thing for me. It takes me about 7 minutes to run the four tests and log the results. I guess you can tell, I have a lot invested in my pool. It's small but it has a spa attached and it has a Pebble-Tex finish.
Phosphates don't seem to be an issue here. The pool store doesn't even test that. Chlorine stays pretty stable with the floater and total alkalinity doesn't change that fast so once a month or so seems OK The [pH is the one you really need to watch in a concrete pool. Your chlorine stops working when the pH drifts up.
My pool actually stays pretty stable without me doing much other than putting tabs in the floater, shocking it once a week with bleach and adding acid. The only real variables are rain and temperature.
The cleaner is a vacuum Hayward Navigator and it runs right off the regular pump. The timer limits how long it runs. (on a motor valve) I wipe down the tile when I am in the pool but I seldom have to brush anything but the swim shelf and swimout where the cleaner won't go.
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