Chlorine vs Saltwater Pool

I’ve had pools for 20+ years, both salt water and in-line chlorine (3” tabs) sanitizers. Without a doubt, I prefer (as do my kids) the salt water pools. In the middle of summer, you may have to use some chlorine tabs to keep up the chlorine levels (unless you run your pump 24 hours), but it’s really not a big issue at all. I’ve never had any problems with my salt water pools (which is what I have now) corroding my patio furniture or anything else out by the pool (plant stands, benches, etc.).

I built a salt water pool about a year ago. First, it's so easy, just add a bag of salt every month or two.

The salt is not there after it melts in the water and circulates. The chlorinator converts the salt in the water to chlorine as it passes through the cell so the water in the pool is not really salt water, its chlorinated water just as if you added granuals of chlorine.

My sister has salt and likes it, I have chlorine and like it.
We have the in-line dial chlorine system as well as a UltraUV light system. Keep the dial on about 2.5 ppm chlorine and let the UV light do the rest. Takes over a week to 2 weeks to dissolve 3 of the 3 inch chlorine tablets. Very little maintenance, but this is a fiberglass pool.

I cant speak to this as I do not personally own a pool or have experience of others comparing apples to apples.

With that being said my parents had a saltwater pool at their previous house that they recently sold..Just a couple of examples...Pump shed doors had to be changed multiple times due to rust/ corrosion, an old bike they had stored in there completely rusted the tire spokes out and they had a nice iron courtyard type fence that almost completely rusted out at the ground...

Perhaps they were doing something wrong but the rusting corrosion issue is real.

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I’ve never had any problems with my salt water pools corroding my patio furniture or anything else out by the pool (plant stands, benches, etc.).

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Same. I’ve never had any problems at all with abnormal rusting or corrosion.

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The reason I bring this up is that many think a salt water pool is a "set it and forget it" endeavor. This is not true. Yes, you will not have to test/add chlorine as often on a salt pool, but you still need to be checking and adjusting the other parameters.

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In my experience, it’s pretty close to “set it and forget”. I monitor the output and I do chlorine and ph checks on occasion but they’re are always damn near perfect. I used to test much more frequently, but I’ll go month or more now sometimes because I know the levels will be correct. They always are, and the water always looks pretty immaculate.

I usually dump in a bag of salt every 1-2 months which is largely dependent on rainfall. Stabilizer gets added in even less frequently (yes I monitor this too with testing strip and it’s otherwise always in acceptable range).

The only thing I do routinely each week is pour in few glugs of muriatic acid in the deep end, as the pH always drifts high. I’ve been chasing it for years.

Overall, I’m very pleased. It has been an extremely low maintenance pool setup. People may disagree, but I think it’s much gentler on skin and eyes, and it doesn’t cause the same level of chlorine smell I remember as a kid.

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In my experience, it’s pretty close to “set it and forget”. I monitor the output and I do chlorine and ph checks on occasion but they’re are always damn near perfect. I used to test much more frequently, but I’ll go month or more now sometimes because I know the levels will be correct. They always are, and the water always looks pretty immaculate.

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How the water looks is not a good indication of anything except presence or absence of a live algae bloom. It will become unsanitary before it clouds. As long as your free chlorine is within the proper range and combined chlorine is near zero, you are OK. You should never trust test strips to read these levels; they are horrendously inaccurate.

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I usually dump in a bag of salt every 1-2 months which is largely dependent on rainfall. Stabilizer gets added in even less frequently (yes I monitor this too with testing strip and it’s otherwise always in acceptable range).

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Test strips will not accurately read stabilizer levels. They often aren't even close. This is important because the stabilizer level dictates the necessary free chlorine level.

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The only thing I do routinely each week is pour in few glugs of muriatic acid in the deep end, as the pH always drifts high. I’ve been chasing it for years.

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Yep, I do the same. Best to have something aerating the water like a waterfall to keep pH and TA at a stable rate of change.

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Test strips will not accurately read stabilizer levels. They often aren't even close. This is important because the stabilizer level dictates the necessary free chlorine level.

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Yes you’re certainly right, strips are very inaccurate for direct cyanuric acid test. I indirectly base it off of chlorine and free chlorine acceptable and ideal levels. I’ve gotten a pretty good feel over the years of when I need to add more.

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How the water looks is not a good indication of anything except presence or absence of a live algae bloom. It will become unsanitary before it clouds. As long as your free chlorine is within the proper range and combined chlorine is near zero, you are OK.

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Yes certainly but the water has been pristine in appearance for many years. I maintain the salt and chlorine levels to ideal levels (well the generator does, not me). I’ve never needed to add extra chlorine or chlorine tablets ever. I have a tub of di-chlor granules for years that I’ve never even opened. Not sure if it expires. I’ll have to look into that. I have it on hand in case pool pump were to fail or if power would ever go out for extended period of time.

Chlorine is FAR more corrosive than salt and the chlorine level is basically the same for both. Sat water pools get by with slightly lower chlorine demand. Even so, the salt level in a salt water pool is equivalent to your tears. It’s not like the ocean. Saltwater pools have more comfortable water and are easier to take care of. There is much debate about costs but the worst case against salt water is that it costs the same as packaged chlorine while being marketed as cheaper.

After reading some of the other responses, I’ll add that chlorine is very unstable and has to be coupled to something else to be stabilized. This is why the chemical testing of a traditional chlorine pool is more work. THe tablets or granules contain chlorine but also contain calcium or stabilizer. So you cannot add just chlorine and over time you could see a build up of calcium or stabilizer depending on which product you use. The saltwater generator produces pure chlorine gas so there is no build up of the other products. You can use bleach to avoid using the solid forms but hauling bottles of bleach sucks.

Corrosion would come from a lot of splashing like lots of kids etc. Or running a heater in the winter. Fogs up the pool area or steam really. I’ve had my pool make my backyard look nearly on fire. After a drunken night in the hot tub and forgetting to turn stuff off when we went to bed.

But that would be rare. I’ve also heard the salt will corrode some pool parts more quickly etc. Also, it does a number on flagstone. Then again I have heard that those of those are BS from some.

One thing I KNOW saltwater is NOT maintenance free. You will be checking pH levels and adding acid frequently. And as mentioned you may to shock periodically in the hottest months.

You will change a salt “cell” every other year I think. $2000 job if you let a pool guy do it all. Or buy the cell on Amazon and pay the guy the labor. Or if handy, a few YouTube videos and amazon purchase, my neighbor does his himself. 600 bucks I think.