by Natasa Shepherd

Created on: May 17, 2010

All of the pool owners are probably familiar with the water balance, Chlorine, and all the chemicals that need to be added in order to keep your pool water in balance. Making your pool into a saltwater pool, by getting a chlorine generator, will eliminate one of those headaches for quite a period of time, saving you a lot of money and time.

Some of the other benefits of it go the Chlorine generator owners have noticed a softer water, leaving them with a more refreshed feeling after swimming. They eliminate irritation and the side effects of Chlorine in the pool, such as green hair, red eyes and so on. Also, not only is the chlorine generator low maintenance, it will also create a more cost efficient swimming pool for you.

The way the Chlorine generator works is basically by dissolving the salt in your pool, turning it into liquid Chlorine and then releasing back into the pool. This process is called electrolysis. At the end of this "circle" the Hypochloric Acid, or Chlorine, is ultimately converted back into salt. This salt is then run through the same process over and over again. The benefit of this is that it is a natural process, rather than a process utilizing a lot of processed and man made chemicals. That alone makes it healthier than the non saltwater pools.

Due to the cycle the salt is run through you will rarely have to replace it. You might have to add it in about once or twice a year, however. You also might need to top it off after any other major loss of water, simply because when you lose water you lose salt in it. 

In order to use the generator it will, most often, need to be hooked up inline to the recirculation system of your pool. Depending on the quality of your chlorine generator you can either set it to run all of the time, or determine how many hours per day you need to run it  to make Chlorine.

You can use either the food grade salt, water conditioner salt, solar salt flakes, or brine blocks. About 50lb of salt per 2,000 gallons of water will get you up to 4000 ppm. However, unless you have emptied your pool and added completely new water into it, your pool should already have some Chlorine in the water. Test your pool water and then add salt accordingly to get up to 4000 ppm.

When you go to add the salt, instead of walking all around the pool, pour it over the drain and run the pump for 24hr so that the water can circulate well all over the pool.

As far as the maintenance of the generator itself goes, you will need to remove and clean it about once a year. You can do so by removing it from the pool plumbing system and running a plastic brush through it. If you happen to have some Calcium deposits a simple mixture of water and muriatic acid will take care of it. The power supply end of the generator does not require any maintenance.

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