FlPoolPro wrote:I sure would like to see some technical data on how Sulfuric hurts salt cells. The local Hayward rep has been saying that for two years but can't produce any data to back it up.
I can't find scientific research on this, but this link from the Salt Institute implies that sulfates may increase the rate of scaling and, of course, scaling on salt cells reduces their life.
There are scientific papers regarding calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate scale such as this one and this one. Straight calcium sulfate precipitation, however, would normally only occur with extremely high sulfate levels. 300 ppm calcium would require around 3000 ppm sulfate to saturate the water above which scaling might occur.
Another issue with sulfate levels as well as high salt levels is described in this paper where salt recrystallization pressure can be high, most especially for magnesium sulfate. Splash-out of salt can cause damage to soft hardscape/stone materials and the worst effect would be with hard water (so typically high in magnesium, not just calcium) that is also high in sulfates (say, from using sulfuric acid or sodium bisulfate dry acid regularly).