Did you monitor and correct PH as needed on the salt pool? High PH, Alkaline water can corrode metals nearly as well as acidic low PH water. The only salt pools I've had any experience with corroded away in a few years, but none of the owners did much if any testing or correcting water balance. Brother in laws Intex, salt pool lasted less than 4 years before the frame was totally rusted out, he never even owned a test kit. Same with some family friends and their intex. They all would tell you how easy it was and great it worked, but they also did ZERO testing or chemical maintenance. I'd guarantee their PH was constantly through the roof high.Ive had a salt water pool for about 6 year. Let me preface it saying it has been one of the Intex popup pools but with the aluminum frame construction. Yes the PPM is low level of salt added with the generators creating the chlorine ions. in short, YES it does rust out. The exposed pipes on both my pools and the ladder have shown rust over the years. This year I went with a chlorine pool since my salt generator died last year and I was not paying the price of a new one for such a small pool.
Yes I test the pool weekly. Having grown up with pools and designated the family pool boy, it’s second nature to keep the levels in check.Did you monitor and correct PH as needed on the salt pool? High PH, Alkaline water can corrode metals nearly as well as acidic low PH water. The only salt pools I've had any experience with corroded away in a few years, but none of the owners did much if any testing or correcting water balance. Brother in laws Intex, salt pool lasted less than 4 years before the frame was totally rusted out, he never even owned a test kit. Same with some family friends and their intex. They all would tell you how easy it was and great it worked, but they also did ZERO testing or chemical maintenance. I'd guarantee their PH was constantly through the roof high.
My pool has been chlorinated using liquid chlorine for six seasons, I too use the TFP method for pool care. Test about every week for PH, free and total chlorine, and only monthly for stabilizer and alkalinity. Chlorine is set up to automatically dose the pool each day. Maintenance is ridiculously easy and tests are spot on where I expect them every time. Water is crystal clear and has absolutely no chlorine smell. I only really have to adjust PH down about once per month as it creeps slowly upward. Other than making sure the drum doesn't run empty, I clean the skimmer daily and run the robot once a week.
After five seasons using liquid, and even though I drain about a quarter of the water each fall and replace it in the spring, my salt level is over 3000ppm without ever having added a bag of salt. I bought a circu-pool salt unit last spring with the uncertainty of covid and was planning to convert to salt. I hate to mess with it because it's been working so well. I've never had trouble getting chlorine in bulk locally. I haven't noticed any rusting issues with the pool but a few coated deck screws have rusted. I built 99 percent of the deck using stainless screws but ran short on a few and made due because I could only find them by the $100 box. Not sure it's even an issue as the coated screws don't last that well in treated wood to begin with.
