What are salt water pools?
There are many misconceptions about what a salt pool is and is not. A salt pool is still a chlorine pool, and must still be balanced accordingly. A salt pool is not similar to swimming in the ocean. Salt water pools use dissolved salt (1,800–6,000 ppm) as a store for the chlorination system. The chlorinator uses electrolysis to break down the salt. The resulting chemical reaction eventually produces hypochlorous acid and sodium hypochlorite, which are the sanitizing agents already commonly used in swimming pools. As such, a salt water pool is not actually chlorine-free; it simply utilizes a chlorine generator instead of direct addition of chlorine. The important distinction is that saltwater pools lack chloramines, referred to as Combined Chlorine. Chloramines are the irritants which give traditional pools the stigma of burning eyes and caustic smell. The electrolytic process burns off chloramines in the same manner as traditional shock (oxidizer). Saltwater pools are relatively new to
