Type of salt

[Jackie]

Have to top up salt levels each Spring due to loss of salt due to pumping out of excess rain water during winter. Is water softener salt bought in Bricos ok to use or is there some special salt for pools?...........................J

[oliveau]

My French pool installer sold me pool salt with stabiliser at a very exhorbitant price, so last year I started to use ordinary water softener salt from the Brico. It's fine.

It's a 10m x 5m x 1.5m[av] pool with an abri, and I put 10 bags in last year, and have just put 12 in this spring.

[chirpy]

I believe it depeds on the system you have-e.g. if you have an electrolyser to make chorine from salt then salt tablets containing a stabiliser chemical gives  slower release of the chlorine.

I SUPPOSE IF YOU HAVE SALT POOL AND ADD CLORINE AS A CHEMICAL THEN UNSTABILISED SALT WOULD BE O.K.bUT READ YOUR MANUALS.[:)]

Still waiting for warmer weather as I do not like cold water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jackie]

[quote user="Ab"]

Still waiting for warmer weather as I do not like cold water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[/quote]

Thanks for the info. I usually kick start the system with some slow release blocks but after that the electrolytic cell seems to keep the level up. In the past have had to add up to 5 X 25kg bags of salt using the electrolytic cell current (less than 15A) as an indicator as to if there is enough salt in the 5m X 10m pool, about 75 cubic metres.

Some time ago I posted about a cheap alternative to a commercial solar heater using 100mm plastic pipes painted in black resin. Have now installed 184m of pipe in our field and taking a small percentage of the output from the pool pump getting a temperature rise of typically 6.5 degrees Celsius at a flow rate of 30 litres/sec.........................................J

[Poolguy]

Jacki

It’s important to check the levels of Stabiliser in your pool if you are going to use ordinary (unstabilised) salt to feed your system. You seem to be not aware that the electrolyser on your wall is making salt at a set rate, which is usually barely enough to keep the water disinfected. The chlorine it makes is bunt off by the ultra violet rays and so Cyanuric acid (stabiliser) is added to the salt as a sunscreen. Its sure that you will have insufficient in the water now as a result of the excessive rain and so you will need to recharge it. You can do this by adding Cyanuric acid powder to the correct level and then go on with ordinary salt - it certainly cheaper.

I suggest that you have a tester that will help you to keep these levels correct. Otherwise the electrolyser will hardly keep up with the UV burn littleon on the bather load.

If you need further help then contact me.

 

Andrew

[buckdendave]

Not quite right there Poolguy.  The electrolyser is making hypochlorite (to keep it simple) at a set rate (which I am sure is what you meant), but this isn't burnt off by UV rays.  If that were happening it would mean that the chlorine content would slowly be depleted.  This may actually happen through the formation of chloramines, but not in the way you were suggesting.  What happens is that UV radiation converts the hypochlorite ion back to a chloride ion.  And then the whole cycle starts again when salt solution goes again through the electrolyser.  The cyanuric acid stabiliser retards the conversion from hypochlorite to chloride.

Dave 

[Jonzjob]

Andrew, does the Scuba+ check a salt pool the same way as it checks an auto chlor pool?