If you have salt water in the pool, you are aware that salt is essential to its operation.
Insufficient salt will make it difficult for your saltwater chlorinator to produce enough chlorine to keep your water clean. Your pool will taste like the Atlantic Ocean if you add too much salt.
This makes the salt level extremely important, which is why we’re going to walk you through the process of testing the salinity of your pool.
Salt Water Pool
Since the 1980s, when saltwater pools first gained popularity in the United States, millions of saltwater pool systems have been installed.
A pool with salt water is not one without chlorine. By sending water through two electrically charged metal plates, referred to as the Salt cells, salt water pools make their own chlorine.
As water flows through the electrified salt cell, salt (NaCl) and water (H20) electrolyze produce chlorine (Cl2), hydrogen (H2), and sodium oxide (NaOH).
When the chlorine molecule (hypochlorous acid, which is made from chlorine tablets and shock) is used up, the salt changes back to NaCl, and the process can begin again.
Because it is a chlorine pool, a salt water pool is not superior to a chlorine pool. To eliminate bacteria and germs, salt pools produce chlorine, the same chemical made by tablets, liquid, or granular chlorine.
A Salt Water Pool’s Benefits
Due to the 3000 ppm of dissolved salt level in pool, saltwater pool owners adore the soft and silky feel of the water. You may not taste the difference, but you can feel it because human taste buds can detect salt at 3500 ppm.
Since many salt system owners report lessened chloramine formation—combined chlorine molecules that smell foul and are irritating to the eyes—salt water pools are frequently simpler to maintain. In fact, the majority of salt system users report far reduced chlorine odor in the water or on their skin after swimming, as well as a decrease in “red-eye” swimmers.
Some users also say that their pH and alkalinity are more stable and don’t need to be changed as often.
Operating salt water pools may be safer because you come into less contact with chorine-containing items. Theoretically, you will never again need to purchase, store, transport, or handle chlorine-related materials. In reality, though, a lot of people who have salt pools use pool shock to treat their pools occasionally or to open and close them.
Since chlorine cannot be created unless the water is moving through the salt cell, pool tablets or shock can be quite helpful in the event of pump or filter issues. They may be required in the winter, as chlorine cannot be formed in the water below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
What Should Salt Level Be in Pool?
Typically, an ideal salt level for pool is between 2700 and 3400 parts per million (ppm).
But the best range for each salt generator is different, so check your user manual because the suggested range can be much bigger.
Considering that you may eventually lose salt due to processes like rain dilution, leaks, splashout, or backwashing, it is wise to aim a little higher than your target level.
Last but not least, if your saltwater generator is unhappy with the salinity level, it will stop producing chlorine regardless of what your test results show. In the end, if your generator’s low salt light is flashing, you need to add extra salt.
Also Read: How to Remove Urine from Pool: An Ultimate Guide in 2022
How to Test Salt Level in Pool with Test Strips?
Although the technique should be quite similar for different salt strips, the steps below are based on the well-known AquaChek salt testing strips.
Here’s how to test salt level in pool:
1. Take a Small Sample of Water from Your Pool.
With these test strips, you have to put them in your pool’s water for minutes, not seconds, like with other test strips.
The most effective way to do this is to use a small cup or container and fill it with approximately an inch of water from your pool, preferably from a well-circulated patch of water (near but not directly in front of your return jets).
2. Take a Test Strip for Salt from The Bottle.
Next, remove a strip from the bottle or container, making sure to handle it solely on its white side.
Although these are less susceptible to exposure from the outside (such as air humidity), you still need to make sure the bottle is properly closed after each use to preserve the salt strips.
3. Put the Strip Under the Water Sample.
With the white portion facing up, carefully place the strip in your cup of water.
Don’t worry if it seems too shallow; the red line going up the testing strip only has to be partly submerged in the water.
4. Let It Soak for A Few Minutes.
It takes about 4-5 minutes for the salt test strip to dissolve in the water.
When the yellow band at the top of the strip turns a dark shade of red, you’ll know it’s finished (almost black). You can take the strip out of the water once this band stops changing colors.
5. Verify the Strip’s Level.
At this point, the solid red portion of the strip will have been replaced with an orange line.
Your reading will begin where this orange line stops, so pay close attention to the marks on the strip itself. In the next step, you will need this number to get a real reading of the salt level in pool.
6. Convert the Bottle to PPM.
You’ll find a conversion chart on the back of the bottle or container that holds your strips.
You can verify the salt value in parts per million here for the reading you just received from your test strip (ppm). Based on the readings, this will be the precise salt level in pool.
7. Dispose of The Strip
Lastly, make sure to throw away the strip after using it.
All test strips for swimming pools, including salt strips, are single-use only. After the first reaction, the strips won’t change when you add water, and as they dry out, the colors that show your results will fade away.
How Can I Tell if My Swimming Pool Has Enough Salt in It?
Making sure that your swimming pool water contains adequate salt is essential to getting the most out of your system, whether you use an AutoPilot salt chlorine generator or another method. Maintaining the proper salt level aids in producing enough chlorine to stop the growth of germs and algae.
On the other hand, if there is too much salt in pool water, it may require more chemicals to balance the chemistry, which will raise the expense of pool maintenance.
There are a variety of techniques you may use to gauge the salt level of your swimming pool. Though they are more expensive, certain techniques are more accurate than others. Several common techniques for measuring salt include the following:
Make a Manual Water Test with A Liquid Reagent Kit:
Despite being slightly more expensive, liquid reagent kits often produce measurements that are more accurate than test strips. Liquid reagent kits cost roughly $15 to buy. Simply add drops of reagent to the vials containing swimming pool water samples as directed by the kit’s instructions.
The samples’ colors will change once you add the reagent. To ascertain your salt-water concentration, compare the colors of the samples to those on the kit’s color chart.
Make a Water Test Using a Digital Test Strip Reader that Is Portable:
Test strips and digital technologies are used in handheld digital test strip readers. After dipping a test strip in your pool, place it in the reader. The reader will display multiple measurements after around 15 seconds. A computerized test strip reader costs about $60 at your neighborhood pool supply shop.
Refer to The Digital Display on Your Salt-Chlorine Generator:
If you have a digital salt chlorine generator, like the AutoPilot, Pool Pilot Digital, you can check the readout on the control panel to see how much salt is in your pool. Every digital salt chlorine generator has a way to gauge the salt level. Many other companies that make digital displays don’t use sensors.
Instead, they use a slightly more complicated conversion method that is based on the current and voltage of the cell as well as the temperature of the water.
Digital Meters:
The testing salt level in pool can be done quickly and accurately with handheld electronic meters. Use a pen or pocket-sized meter by turning it on and dipping the metering tip into the pool. Next, take a direct reading of the salinity value from the digital display.
An analog needle swings to the salinity level when you click the test button on a less portable meter, which allows you to place a tiny sample of water into a reservoir cup. These are typically more expensive and used primarily by service providers and retail establishments that do numerous tests each day.
Your swimming pool’s salt concentration should be 3,000 ppm (parts per million). Although over-salting will result in salty-tasting water, it won’t harm your pool’s system. Equipment made of metal, such as ladders and handrails, will corrode at extremely high salinity levels (above 6,000 ppm).
Leaks, rain, and bather splash are the three main causes of salt loss. Although we’ve already covered alternative options, having a salt chlorine generator with a digital display makes checking your salt levels much simpler.
Also Read: How To Remove Copper from The Pool? Here’s an Amazing Guide
Salt Water Pool Maintainance Tips
Here is more information from our study to give you the confidence to care for your saltwater pool.
- Is a manual for maintaining saltwater pools. We go over the fundamentals of maintaining a spotless pool.
- Alternatives to pool salt. Unsure about the type of pool salt to purchase? Read this manual.
- A manual for salt chlorine generators. Everything you ought to know about this important pool accessory.
- How to check your pool’s salt level. A brief overview of the many methods for measuring salt levels in pool.
- Determining whether your salt cell needs to be replaced. Discover how to choose the right time to update this crucial piece of equipment.
- The basics of a saltwater swimming pool. Are you thinking of constructing one? To begin here.
- How to Refill a Pool with Saltwater. Here’s how to convert a typical chlorine pool to a saltwater pool if you’re thinking about doing so.
- How to reduce the salt level of your pool. Here are the effects of adding too much salt and the actions you should take as a result.
How Frequently Should Salinity Be Tested?
Depending on how much water is lost, you should check the salt level in your pool every month to every three months.
Since your pool’s salt level isn’t likely to change much in a short amount of time, you don’t have to check it as often as you do with other tests.
Even while some salt is lost as a result of splash out, rain dilution, overflowing water, leaks, and filter backwashing, your salinity won’t drop dangerously low after a few weeks, especially if you were already a little beyond the recommended limit.
Additionally, even though your saltwater generator needs salt to produce chlorine, that chlorine breaks down to return to salt, so the chlorine generation process alone will never cause you to have a salt deficit.
A Salt Water Pool: Cost
Salt pools need hundreds of pounds of salt, which can be bought locally at reasonable prices. The main cost of a salt water pool is the equipment, which includes the controller, sensors, and salt cell.
The size of the unit affects the price of a chlorine generator. Prices for small above-ground chlorine generators range from $250 to 550, while those for underground chlorine generators range from $550 to 1250.
More functions, such as the capacity to super-chlorinate or shock the pool, are available with more expensive salt-chlorine generators. Some have a self-cleaning salt cells that can reverse polarity, as well as LED displays that show the temperature of the water, the salt level, and any necessary diagnostic signals.
The salt cell’s metallic coatings will wear off over the course of its 3-5-year lifespan, its chlorine output will decrease, and it will eventually need to be replaced. Salt cells can be expensive to replace. They can cost up to 50% or more of the total price of a salt system.
Most pools need annual booster salt additions, but simply to make up for salt lost during backwashing, splashout, or winterizing the water. You must refill all of the pool salt if you completely empty the pool for maintenance.
The price difference between a salt water pool and a chlorine-tablet pool over ten years can be surprisingly little. In other words, a salt water pool won’t help you save much money. The cost of the salt machinery pretty much makes up for the lower cost of chlorine.
For a Salt Water Pool: Chemicals
As was already noted, chlorine and other chemicals are present in salt water pools. A chlorinated pool with a different delivery system is a salt water pool. As a result, if you use a salt chlorine generator, you will still require other pool chemicals.
Sanitizers:
Your chlorine generator will take care of the majority of your sanitation needs. However, keeping a modest supply of chlorine tablets or granular chlorine on hand can be useful in case the pump, filter, piping, or salt cell itself has any issues.
A granular pool shock is a popular option for oxidation, algae removal, and super-chlorination among salt water pool owners. Many chlorine generators offer a “shock” option, although it is slow to respond, uses up a lot of the salt cell’s capacity, and could reduce salt cell life.
Balancers:
The pool’s pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and cyanuric acid (stabilizer) levels need to be closely monitored, just like any other pool. While salt water pools tend to steadily raise pH levels, necessitating the use of a pH reducer, chlorine tablet-treated pools tend to drift towards the low end of the pH and Alkalinity scale. The most stable salt water pools have a pH of 7.6 and an alkalinity of 70–80 ppm.
Most salt system manufacturers advise a stabilizer level of 50–80 ppm. Saltwater pools are unaffected by high calcium hardness levels, but scale buildup on the salt cell plates may be reduced at levels between 180 and 200 ppm.
Other:
As with any pool, occasionally algaecides and clarifiers may be required. Algaecides are excellent helper substances for chlorine because they remove the algae’s protective layers, allowing chlorine to reach deep inside the nucleus.
Clarifiers are useful for pool filters that are inadequately sized, inefficient, or do not operate for a sufficient amount of time each day, or following a spring start-up or algae clean-up.
Also Read: Is Concrete Waterproof? You’re Concerned about Pool Waterproofing
How to Lower Salt Level in Pool?
Your pool’s salt level is now too high because you recently converted to a saltwater pool. You exceeded your aim of 3500 ppm by more than 4000 ppm. How is this even possible? The most typical response is that your pool is bigger than you thought.
You only have 10,000 gallons as opposed to 13,000 gallons. Your water is now too salty. How much salt do you have in excess, and how can you remove it from the pool water?
Step 1
Diluting the salt in your pool is the only way to lower the salt level. And if your pool is full, you’ll need to drain it until it’s at a level where you can add fresh water. You are unable to wait for the water to dry up. That has no effect on lowering the salt level.
In actuality, your salt level rises as a result of the water evaporating because the salt is still present in the pool. What must be drained in order to make place for fresh water is the matter at hand.
Step 2
Generators of salt water function between 3000 and 4000 parts per million. We’re going to assume that your saltwater generator runs at a 3500 ppm level, which means you were adding salt to get there.
Step 3
Your pool’s salt level was measured using a salt test strip, and the result was slightly above 6.5, or 4000 ppm. So, you’re 500 ppm over the limit. How can you remove that from your pool and what does that mean in actual numbers?
Step 4
We will convert ppm to salt bags in order to better visualize this. One 40# bag of salt will increase the salt level by 480 ppm in a 10,000-gallon pool, according to the salt bag’s back. Therefore, if the salt level in pool is 4000, there are little over 8 bags of salt in there (4000/480). In order to attain 3500 ppm in a 10,000-gallon pool, you would need slightly more than 7 bags (3500/480).
Step 5
In your pool, there are around 8 bags of salt. About 1 bag of salt should be extracted. You must drain roughly 1/8 of your pool’s water to do that.
Step 6
You’ll need 7 bags of salt, or roughly 3500 ppm, to make up the 1/8 of the pool’s freshwater replacement.
Step 7
depletes 1/8 of the pool’s water as a result. How deep is that in inches of water? Find out your pool’s average depth first. Your average depth is 3′ + 6′, or 9′ divided by 2, which is 4.5′ if the shallow end is 3′ and the deep end is 6′. This amounts to 54.
Divide the average depth of your pool in inches by 8 (54/8 = 6.75 or around 7″) to find the number of inches you need to drain from your pool to dump 1/8 of its water. The bottom line is that you must drain out 7″ of salt water and replace it with 7″ of fresh water in order to lower your salt level in pool, from 4000 to 3500. The fundamental calculations you must use to arrive at this value are restated here. Any pool size can use these.
Step 8
(measured ppm-target ppm)/measured ppm equals A:% OF SALT OVER TARGET PPM. In our example, (1/8) is equal to 12.5% (4000-3500)/4000 or 500/4000. Note: The conversion of ppm to bags of salt as done above is not required. That was just done to make the issue more visible.
Notably, this algorithm is applicable to pools of virtually any size. Not the width or length, but simply the depth, needs to be taken into account.
Step 9
B: (Shallow End + Deep End)/2 x 12 is the average depth of the pool. In this case, (3′ + 6′)/2 x 12″ equals 54.
Step 10
C: B times A = NUMBER OF INCHES TO DRAIN. 54″ x 12.5% in our example equals 6.75″ (approximately 7″)
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