What Is The Difference Between Salt & Chlorine?
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What is the difference between a salt pool and a regular chlorine pool? In short the answer is where you are getting your chlorine from. With traditional chlorine pools you buy chlorine (commonly pucks or liquid chlorine) and add it to the pool as needed. Also you have a host of other chemistry variables to look at and maintain like pH, total alkalinity and a few more. With a salt chlorine pool you add sodium chloride (pure salt) to the pool to the tune of 3000 parts per million. You then use an electrolysis cell to separate the sodium from the chloride. In short, you have a chlorine regeneration system. All other chemical levels like pH, alkalinity etc. all still apply just like a traditional chlorine pool.
Despite being very similar in overall approach the reality is that traditional chlorine pools and salt chlorine pools will behave differently. Simplified, the pH of the chlorine products you are using to maintain your water will determine how your pool "behaves" in the sense of how often will your pH (and alkalinity) levels go up or down and require correction. The ideal pH for pools being 7.2 to 7.8 means that the further your chlorine deviates from this pH, the more adversely it will affect the pH (and alkalinity) of your water when you add it. Chlorine comes in many forms and these forms all have distinctly different pH levels but interestingly, in a simplified sense the pH of chlorine produced as a result of salt electrolysis is extremely alkaline. This causes salt pools to tend to run high for pH levels versus other types of chlorinated pools.
Aside from the fact that traditional chlorine and salt chlorine generator pools have differences in the chemical regiment needed to maintain a balance of the water, most pool owners will note differences in how the water feels. Water in salt pools feels softer on the skin and generally also softer on the eyes and bathing suits as well. Less dry, itchy skin when you get out of the pool and even slightly more buoyancy than in a traditional pool with a few thousand less parts per million of dissolved solids in the water. Pool owners tend to love their salt pools but it is important to understand that the main difference between these kinds of pools is simply where you are getting your day to day chlorine from. Pretty much everything else is the same between the two.
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