Does anyone have any good recommendations on Salt chlorinators vs old school chlorination? Looking at putting in a pool in at my house in Katy. Both quotes have different opinions on the matter and what coping materials can be used for each. ie. no flagstone or moss rock with salt, but travertine and natural rock are ok? Any input into swimming pools and anything thing I should know moving forward with the process would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

JPD

What builders are you looking at so far? We just finished our pool at the end of August and went with regular chlorine. We are in Katy too.

We have flagstone and moss rock with our saltwater pool and haven't had any issues in the 10+ years we have had the pool. Our neighbors have a saltwater pool with sand stone and they had serious erosion issues. We have been happy with ours, but get the impression that saltwater pools have fallen out of favor of late.

Thanks for input. Walt's Pool's and platinum pools.

If you want another estimate, I would recommend Supreme. They did ours and I can't say enough good things about them.

We went with Omega Pools and are very pleased.

The advantage with salt is not having to deal with dichlor or trichlor. The issue with them is they contain "pool stabilizer", which will over time increase to the point that the chlorine doesn't work. Only way to remove it is to remove water.

Salt chlorinaters are not cheaper in the long haul because the salt cell wears out every few years. But they do not have the issue with high "pool stabilizer" (Cyanuric acid) levels.

The other option would be to go with household bleach or chlorine.

Go look at troublefreepool's website and check out the forums.

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Salt chlorinaters are not cheaper in the long haul because the salt cell wears out every few years. But they do not have the issue with high "pool stabilizer" (Cyanuric acid) levels.

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Agree with this. Happy with our SWG, but do have the replace the cell about every three years at a cost of $500 or so. We do run ours quite a bit longer than most though.

As stated above, troublefreepool.com is the best resource. Ours is a few years old now (also in Katy), and the salt water generators were not being offered by anyone we consulted with. We've been very happy with traditional system but I use the liquid chlorine at Lowes to manage the chlorine... I only use the tabs to suplement the liquid during the summer months or when I am traveling. No problems with CYA that way.

The builders will tell you that they don't have issues with the flagstone separating anymore but I have still seen many issues with flaking... we went with the travertine coping and have been very happy with its durability and look.

Whatever you choose.. don't go tablets exclusively. I have had to help numerous people confused on why they have algae in their pool due to high CYA levels. The pool stores will try and sell you all kinds of crap which don't do anything but make your wallet lighter.

There is no cheap option, they all cost about the same in the long haul.