Swimming pool Q & A
Q: We have a 6,700-gallon black, exposed-aggregate pool. The pool is screened and shaded from full-sun exposure for three-quarters of the day. I recently installed solar heating because the pool rarely gets warmer than 86 degrees. I had one bout with algae and don’t want it again. I test my water weekly at a pool store and maintain balance religiously.
I am considering salt. My questions:
•1. Is salt better than chlorine?
•2. Since I began with chlorine, can I change?
•3. Is salt better or worse for exposed aggregate?
•4. Will the color be affected?
A: 1. A saltwater pool is in fact a chlorine pool that uses a different form and location for sanitization. Chlorine (liquid or solid) is added to the pool water, and sanitization can take place:
•Throughout the entire vessel of water by the use of a tablet floater;
•At one location with tablets placed in a feeder or skimmer basket;
•With liquid mixed with water and poured into the swimming pool.
•With a salt generator, low-voltage electricity energizes a metal cell in a high concentration of salt water to create chlorine or sanitization in one location but circulates it throughout the entire pool. NaCL is the periodic symbol for salt. Salt chlorinators make sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine). The electricity splits the combined elements so that the chlorine can be used to directly sanitize the pool water. Both methods, as well as several others (UV, bromine, etc.) are equally effective in keeping your pool water clean.
Much like with a home-water softening system that uses salt in the same way, swimmers report their eyes, skin and hair feel better and softer after taking a dip.
2. Yes, you can change from a liquid- or solid-based chlorine pool to one that uses a salt generator. Add salt (the correct pounds per hundred gallons are based on the manufacturer’s recommendations). Once you have the salt in your pool water and it has dissipated, start your salt generator. (Contact the salt-generator manufacturer and a licensed, insured and trained pool professional for exact instructions for the specific model you purchase, before switching.)
3. Good experiences with salt generators and exposed aggregates are also based upon maintaining proper pool-water chemistry. No applied interior pool surface can withstand aggressive or unsanitized water without being damaged.
4. “Black is a very difficult interior finish color, no matter what sanitation method you use,” says Don Cesarone, general manager of Van Kirk and Sons Inc. in Deerfield Beach, Fla. Darker pool-finish colors tend to show everything and anything, Cesarone points out.
If you are diligent and keep your chemicals in balance within proper parameters, you should have a good experience with black or any other colored interior finish.