Salt water pool maintenance

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A great website to join is Trouble Free Pools. You will never go back to a pool store, ever.

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Their method is 100% effective but unopen for discussion. Unrelated to salt water pools, but their rigidity on sourcing liquid bleach for chlorine is impractical. . . I'd be going through 100 gallons of bleach a summer using their method. So, I do use Leslie's granular chlorine. And I also quit using pucks for a summer and I learned that my CYA was WAY too low. So when my CYA tests low, I just use pucks to chlorinate and bring the CYA back up. When it tests in range, I quit using pucks. My first year with a pool, I used pucks exclusively. Every 3 or 4 days go throw some in the auto chlorinator, and the pool stayed crystal clear. Then I learned about CYA, and now I manage CYA with pucks and it makes managing the pool easier for me.

TFP would absolutely shite all over my strategy but it works for me.

Long story short, learn how each chemical impacts other chemicals and use it to your advantage.

dont trust the pool store water testing, they will modify the numbers to sell chemical in their "program"

get your own high quality test kit. LINK

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My salt cell is off right now, not gonna be much chance of algae bloom with water being so cold.

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I was told it didn’t generate chlorine when pool temps dropped below 60

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but their rigidity on sourcing liquid bleach for chlorine is impractical. . . I'd be going through 100 gallons of bleach a summer using their method

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I do it and its not a big deal. usually about 3-4 gallons per week during peak season assuming your cya is in proper range. way less $ than the pool guy. I fought with sky high cya after getting rid of the pool guy I basically had to drain my pool down 4-5 times to get cya to an acceptable level. havent had any issues since. chlorine consumption is way less right now so maybe 1-2 jugs a week now. I have thought about designing a pump system to pump bleach and maybe acid from larger jugs along with switches to notify if it gets low. that way I can do even less babysitting.

Same question, best source for high concentration chlorine in bulk?

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Where do you buy chlorine? That seems like a lot!

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walmart seems to be the cheapest. my wife hits walmart once or twice a week and I pass by two of them on my way home from work.

Get PoolRx
PoolRx


It 100% works.

I had black spots and some algae I couldn’t completely control in my salt pool. Constantly adding more chlorine to knock it back. Put that little thing on pool filter basket and no more problem.

Pool is crystal clear and bottom and sides are spotless. It’s been 6 months and about time to change. This is by far the one pool item I have purchased that exceeded all expectations.

I live near one pool store and then there’s another right by my local Lowe’s. So I get my water tested ant either about monthly, more often in the summer. And then I buy any chemicals I need from Lowe’s. I have a basic Taylor testing kit too but don’t really use it anymore.

With a saltwater pool, the main chemical you’ll need to add weekly is acid bc the salt cell produces alkaline water when it splits NaCl into free chlorine and NaOH. So the pH will always be rising. With my size pool, I know I need to add around a quart of muriatic acid weekly (more in the summer when I’m running my salt cell at a higher percentage and running my pump for a longer period of time each day). After a year or two of testing weekly, I stopped testing weekly and now I just add acid weekly.

Most salt cells have a low-salt indicator, so I just add salt when the cell says I’m low. No need to test. I know I need to increase the percentage of the salt cell when the weather starts to warm up or the pool water starts to look a little cloudy. After a couple years of having a pool, you can usually tell when your chlorine level is too low. I also keep some liquid chlorine on hand just in case.

The other measurements (CYA, Calcium) won’t change abruptly. Checking monthly is fine.