SWG or Alternative Chlorine Solution

[smcrea]

I have had my pool with its intellichlor Salt Water Chlorine Generator (SWG) for a little over 7 years.

It appears that the SWG maybe on its way out as I've cranked the operating time up and I still can't maintain a decent chlorine level. (Yes my CYA is at about 50ppm)

So I'm looking to replace the SWG.

Having owned the SWG for 7 years I'm not so sure that SWG is the best solution for chlorine. It is not as advertised, less trouble. You need to keep your salt up, you need to adjust the operating time to keep your chlorine level correct. It really hammers your Ph because of the Co2 outgassing on the plated which leads you to adding huge amounts of acid to keep the Ph down. Which in turn messes up TA and the need to ad baking soda.

I'm thinking about putting in a normal chlorine feeder. Its cheaper, seems to be less to go wrong and you can buy an awful lot of chlorine pucks for the price of a new SWG.

Can I get the opinion from you experts on this forum on which is the best way to go?

Thanks!

[Denniswiseman]

Not sure about the SWG but I have read that you need 3000ppm salt in your pool to make it work correctly
You aso need a higher CYA 70-80 for a SWG pool http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/128-chlorine-cya-chart-slam-shock
If you are going over to chlorine don't raise the CYA and don't use the pucks as they have CYA in them and will raise the pool CYA making the chlorine ineffective (use liquid chlorine bleach)

[ChlorineGenie]

Yes definitely don't go with pucks! As far as your salt water generator goes yes there are a lot of drawbacks with standard salt in the pool systems. Ph as you stated is one of them. Check your existing salt generator cell and give it a thorough cleaning that may help some, but the main problems with salt in the pool systems is just that... Salt in the pool. Running the pool water with salt, stabilizers, minerals, and other accumulated junk through a salt cell that you have to run pumps continuously to feed causes so many problems. If you enjoyed your salt water pool but not the drawbacks there are chlorine generator systems that can provide you the benefits of a salt system without the drawbacks you mentioned. Take a look into it or contact me and I can recommend a system for you, or just search salt water pool problems online and you can find some fixes. There are solutions to your salt water pool problems if you still like the idea of automatic chlorination. Check out the Chlorine Genie it may be what you are looking for. I'd hate to see you go back to dumping commercial chlorine into your pool after enjoying a more pure chlorine product. I think you will be disappointed in the water.