Mineral Springs Pool vs Salt Pool: Pros and Cons

First off, to eliminate any confusion, a salt pool is still a chlorine pool.

One more time:  salt pools are still chlorine pools.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about this, as if salt were a chlorine alternative.  Such is NOT the case.  Any pool using salt or minerals is also using a chlorine generator of some sort, turning Sodium Chloride (salt) into Chlorine.  When the chlorine is used up, it converts back to salt, then back to chlorine in the generator, etc. This conversion typically causes the PH to RISE in a pool, so you have to account for that.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’d like to discuss the differences between a plain salt pool and a Mineral Springs pool.

There are typically two reasons that people use for changing from a normal chlorine pool that uses sticks or tabs into a salt or Mineral Springs pool.  The first is that they want lower maintenance and more reliability from their pool.  The second is that they want to lower expenses overall.  We’ll talk about both of these things, as they’re closely related.

With a Mineral Springs pool, you have just a couple of products.  Typically, you’ll add Beginnings in the…well…beginning.  This will get you salt and mineral content where it needs to be, but it also does a lot of other things.  In a bag of Beginnings you have minerals, but you also have Optimizer (keeps algae from growing), scale inhibitors, water softeners, clarifiers, Back-Up(algaecide), and Sunshield, which protects your chlorine from the sun, and it has a very pleasant scent.  As a weekly treatment, to replace anything lost in splash out, you’ll add one bag of Renewal, which has the same assortment of ingredients, and also helps to maintain and balance your PH and alkalinity.  (Remember how we said that the salt conversion into chlorine will cause your PH to rise?  This knows, and takes care of it for you.)  You should still test your water to make sure that everything is level, but most of our Mineral Springs customers don’t add anything extra unless we have a big rain storm.

Mineral Springs:  Maintenance-add one bag of Renewal weekly, test water for peace of mind.  Cost:  After start-up, about $17/week.

Now let’s talk salt pools.  With a salt pool you’ll need to add bags of salt to get it started up.  You’ll also need to purchase separately and add stabilizers, clarifiers, alkalinity increaser, PH up and down, Algaecide.  Your generator will take care of your chlorine levels, but you’ll need to test and add products every week to make sure that your alkalinity and PH stay in line (Remember that your PH will always be rising from salt conversion.).  You’ll also want to add a weekly algae treatment and a clarifier.

Salt Pools:  Maintenance:  test weekly and add salt if needed.  Test and add products for alkalinity, lowering PH, algae, and clarifier.  Cost:  After start-up, you’ll have monthly costs for algae treatments, PH maintenance, and clarifiers.  Spending around $75 wouldn’t be rare.

So….what have we learned here?  If you’re getting into a salt or mineral system for lower maintenance and lower cost, you’re better off with Mineral Springs.  The costs even out between the two systems, and the Mineral Springs is MUCH easier to maintain.

Thank you for reading, as always!  Any questions, comments, or discussion is welcomed!

Other articles you may enjoy:
How do I get Balanced, Safe, Clear Pool Water?
BioGuard Pool Chemicals
How Do I Finance my Pool or Spa Project?

Jen Allen
Central Iowa Pool & Spa
jen@soakandswim.com
515-263-6900