Salt The first component is plain old salt. You have to have a minimum level of about 3000 parts per million of salt in the pool water. Salt makes the water conductive so that the electricity can pass between the plates in the cell. If the salt level goes too low, then the chlorine production simply stops. Salt is also the raw material from which the chlorine is produced.
Control Box
he control unit is a device that sends power to the salt cell. The unit controls how much chlorine is produced by regulating how long the power is applied to the cell. If you turn the control knob way down, then the unit might apply power to the cell only 25% of the time, thereby producing less chlorine. If you turn the control knob up, then the unit would apply power to the cell for a longer period of time. The amount of power applied to the cell does not increase or decrease.
The control unit will often sense the level of salt in the pool and indicate the need to add more salt.
Self cleaning units
The salt cell is a series of plates with opposite charges in a cell. As the water passes between the plates, electrolysis takes place, releasing the chlorine in the salt.
The benefits of salt water pool systems in pools are the convenience and the constant delivery of pure chlorine-based sanitizer. The reduction of irritating chloramides versus traditional chlorinating methods and the "softening" effect of the electrolytic process reducing dissolved alkali minerals in the water are also perceived as benefits. For some people that have sensitivities to chlorine, these systems may be less offensive.
Downsides
Calcium and other alkali precipitate buildup will occur naturally on the cathode plate, and sometimes in the pool itself as "scaling". Regular maintenance of the cell is necessary; failure to do so will reduce the effectiveness of the cell, which will in turn increase the salinity of the water to corrosive levels (as water flowing through the chlorinator will have salt added but not electrolyzed into chlorine). Certain designs of saline chlorinators use a "reverse-polarity" design that will regularly switch the roles of the two electrodes between anode and cathode, causing this calcium buildup to dissolve off the accumulating electrode. Such systems reduce, but do not eliminate, the need to clean the electrolytic cell and the occurrence of calcium scale in the water.
Sodium bromide can be used instead of salt, which produces a bromine pool. The benefits and downsides are the same as those of a salt system. It is not necessary to use a chloride based acid to balance the pH.
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