How to Convert Chlorine Pools to Salt Water Pools
For years, backyard swimming pools have controlled algae and bacteria levels using chlorine-based chemicals that were directly added to the water. The chlorine actually displaces the oxygen atoms on the water molecules, resulting in an increase in the free oxygen in the pool, which kills the anaerobic organisms that try to grow there. Recently, however, saltwater chlorine generators have become available. These produce chlorine by dissociating the chlorine atom from the salt molecule, which in turn produces the free oxygen. Generating chlorine from salt has many advantages, not the least of which is that it requires much less work on the part of the pool owner to maintain required chlorine levels. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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1
Drain your pool filter and lines.
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2
Measure the length of the saltwater generator unit, and then cut a gap in the return line from the filter back to the pool big enough for the generator to fit into.
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3
Apply PVC glue to the ends of the Jacuzzi adapters that will go into the return line and insert them into each of the ends that have been cut.
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4
Glue either end of the saltwater generator to the open ends of the Jacuzzi adapters. Clamp the glued assemblies with the band clamps.
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5
Complete the electrical hookup by plugging or wiring your salt generator into the electrical subpanel that powers your pool equipment. Whether or not you have to actually wire it in will depend on the model you buy.
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6
Add about one 50-lb. bag of salt per 700 gallons of water in your pool to achieve the optimum concentration of 3,200 parts per million of aqueous salt. The display on your generator will tell you what the actual concentration is. Use that to adjust accordingly.
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Tips & Warnings
You don't need to do anything else, such as drain the water and/or clean the pool. Salt generator pools are chlorine pools; they just use chlorine developed by electrolytic dissociation of salt molecules. The result should be about the same, which is that you'll maintain a level of 1 to 3 ppm of chlorine, but with a lot less work, because you'll need to use the superchlorinate cycle once a week for 12 hours to maintain it there. Occasionally, when the generator display shows you've gone below 3,200 ppm, you'll also need to add a bag of salt to bring it back up, but otherwise, you need to nothing else but have your system run the chlorine generator daily when your filtration system is turned on.
