With so much talk and publicity about salt water pool systems, more and more people are making the perhaps rash decision to switch their chlorine pools to saltwater sanitization systems. Although many people make this decision quickly and may not have done the research on the salt water technology, there are some consumers who took the time to find out the benefits and downfalls of this type of system and these people had the advantage of step back and think twice about their decision. A saltwater pool system is most definitely not for everyone and even with all its popularity, is not the best pool treatment method on the market today.
With or without this type of knowledge, many people are switching over to salt water systems as all it takes is a simple installation of the salt water generator or chlorine generator to change your system over to saltwater. This is an incredibly expensive switch and one that many people think is only the initial cost but there are many pitfalls along the way which can cost you more and more money. You have the option to install your salt water system yourself, or you can hire a professional if you don’t feel you are handy enough to complete the installation yourself. Either way, the cost is near the same, as the unit itself is the expensive part, not the installation which only adds maybe $100-$200 more to the bill.
The switch and installation is simple when you already have the pool plumbing setup it will only take a few minutes to setup your salt water pool generator and this will created the combination of salt and chlorine to keep your pool clean 100% of the time. There are several different types of salt water pool generators on the market, some are self cleaning and others require the manual maintenance to make sure the calcium build up is at a minimum. Many people find that the self cleaning units have more scaling and calcium build up than those who have to complete the manual maintenance and although these units cost more for convenience they can continue costing you in the long run with problems and plaster scaling.
Switching your pool to a salt water system is something that cannot be taken lightly. Pool maintenance in general is very important for pool owners of all types to be aware of and saltwater maintenance is no different. You may hear there is little to no work involved but it only takes a day or two of calcium build up to disable your entire sanitization system before you know it and this can be far more expensive than any chlorine system. Choosing to switch to saltwater is something many pool owners do simply because everyone else is doing it and this does not necessarily make it the right decision.
Take the time to consider your decision and you may see that switching to a salt water system may not be worth your investment or your time.