Salt Water Pools...

Our family has had a few pools but they were always chlorine. We've learned and become comfortable over the years with filter maitenance, filter cleaning, pool vacuuming and general water chemistry.  When we moved to Midlothian we built a new pool and went with the new trend to go with a salt water system.

Now we are learning the ins & outs of that. BIG lesson today. Midlothian and Waxahachie has a high salt & mineral content in their water.  You need to check and clean your salt cell (i.e. the chlorine maker) more often than in other areas of the Metroplex. They recommend once a month. Huh, never knew this and no one mentioned it to us. So for the past 19 months we've just let our little salt cell generator run and do it's thing. Oops! Now it is totally clogged. YUCKO, have to give it a major clean and hope we can salvage it or to the tune of about $900 we will be replacing it and have learned a whole new respect for salt water pool maitenance. So, if you have a salt cell generator on your pool and no one has told you that you should clean it monthly consider yourself now informed.  If you live in this area you should check and clean your cell on a monthly basis until you see what the exact schedule and routine for your generator will be.

How it's done:

1. Turn off your pool filter
2. loosen the connections on each side of the salt cell generator (they should be hand tight)
3. look at the end of the grid (the section closest to you)
4. spray clean with a water hose
5. If there is mineral build up and/or collection of debris then you need to do a thorough clean
6. Take a 5 gallon bucket and fill with water and put 2-3 cups of muratic acid into the water and stir with a wooden stick
7. Let sit for several minutes
8. rinse
9. repeat if necessary until grids are clean
10. replace salt cell generator to it's original position and hand tighten the connections

TaDa, your done! Hope this saves a few of you a headache or two.