How to Convert Inground Pools

Contributor

By Terry Smith
eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (0 Ratings)

In-ground pools use chlorine to control the growth of algae and bacteria. Chlorine atoms displace the oxygen atoms on water molecules, resulting in an increase in the free oxygen in the pool, which kills the anaerobic organisms that try to grow there. For many years, the only way to introduce chlorine to your pool was to add it directly. Recently, however, a new way to add chlorine has become available, the saltwater chlorine generator. The generator produces chlorine by using electric current to dissociate the chlorine atom from the salt molecule to produce the free chlorine. 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.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

swimming pool
salt
saltwater chlorine generator
hacksaw
PVC glue

How to Convert Inground Pools

Step 1

Drain your pool lines and filter.
Step 2

Measure the saltwater generator unit, and then cut a gap the same length in the return line from the filter back to the pool big enough for the generator to fit into.
Step 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.
Step 4

Glue either end of the saltwater generator to the open ends of the Jacuzzi adapters. Clamp the glued assemblies with the band clamps.
Step 5

Hook up the electrical unit 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.
Step 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.

Tips & Warnings

This is all you need to do. Draining the water and/or cleaning the pool Isn't necessary. Salt generator pools still use chlorine as the active ingredient, but instead of adding chlorine directly, they use chlorine developed by electrolytic dissociation of salt molecules. The process will be unchanged in that you'll still maintain a level of 1 -- 3 ppm of chlorine. It's a lot less work, however, because all you should need to do is use the super-chlorination cycle once a week for 12 hours to maintain it there. Occasionally, when the generator display shows you've gone below 3,200 ppm salt concentration, you'll also need to add a 50 lb. bag of salt to bring it back up, but otherwise, you don't need to do anything else but run the chlorine generator daily when your filtration system is turned on.