Salt water pools vs. chlorine pools

Ever wondered what the difference between a salt water pool and a chlorine pool is? If you’re planning on getting a new pool, it’s important to know which one is the right pool for you. We get a lot of people asking us what the difference is. While we install both types of pools, it turns out one tends to be a good fit far more often than the other.

The difference

Let’s start out by looking at the basics of the two. Chlorine pools use chlorine tablets to clean and sanitize the water in the pools. Salt water pools, on the other hand, use dissolved salt to accomplish a similar goal. However, both use chlorine, just from different sources. One comes from chlorine tablets and the other comes from electrically splitting the salt.

So how do you know which of the two is the best option for you? Usually, people look at two major factors: the cost and the health benefits.

The cost

People who are for salt water pools will often talk about how they’re more expensive initially but lower cost to maintain. And it’s true that salt never truly disappears from your water, so it seems like it would be less expensive to simply maintain the salt level. Chlorine, on the other hand, has to be added to a chlorine pool on an ongoing basis.

However, what most people don’t realize is that a salt cell will typically go out every two to three years. And a good salt cell can cost around $800 to replace. In addition, salt itself is very corrosive. If you have a pool with natural stone, then salt will begin to deteriorate the stone over time. That results in a saltwater pool actually being more expensive than a chlorine pool in the long run.

The health benefits

Even if it’s more expensive, it’s worth it if there are health benefits, right? Well, for most people, there are no clear health benefits. It’s true, for certain types of skin conditions, salt pools can be far healthier. But in our experience, those situations are fairly rare.

But doesn’t chlorine have harmful toxins in it? In large enough quantities, sure. But it’s extremely rare for people to suffer any ill effects from exposure to the amount of chlorine present in a pool.

And many people don’t realize that chlorine is actually a byproduct of adding salt to your pool. So even if you end up going with a salt water pool, chlorine will still be present.

So which one is right for you?

Obviously, there’s no way for us to tell whether a chlorine pool or salt water pool is right for you without talking with you first. Our job is to give people all the information they need, so they can decide which option is best for them.

What we can tell you for sure is that we don’t end up selling nearly as many salt water pools as we do chlorine pools. More often than not, they’re not a good fit for what our customers actually need.