Saltwater Pool Can Save Money and Work

A choice facing many potential pool owners is: saltwater pool vs. traditional chlorine swimming pool.

With the heat of summer upon us, many homeowners consider installing a swimming pool. It is a big-ticket item, and often the expense will never be recouped when the house is eventually sold. Yet, that doesn't stop many who make the decision to put in a swimming pool. Since it is such a big expense, it is important to make the right choice of pool. These days many potential pool owners are exploring the possibility of saltwater pools.

Our first swimming pool in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was a traditional gunite swimming pool. We never considered a fiberglass swimming pool, or saltwater. During the years we had the gunite swimming pool my husband struggled to maintain the pool. We spent over $75 a month in a pool service, and I imagine it would be much higher today.

When we moved to a new house, we knew we wanted a swimming pool, but my husband did not want all the work. He wanted to find a way to spend less time maintaining a swimming pool, and more time enjoying it.

We eventually went for a fiberglass saltwater pool, and love it. It is much easier and less expensive to maintain than our first swimming pool.

Instead of chlorine, a bag of pool salt or non-pellet soft water salt is added to the pool. The system makes its own chlorine. We've added less than one bag of salt to the pool each year.

Once a week we add about a pint of pool acid to the water. A gallon of pool acid cost about $4. Every month or so we take a water sample to our local pool dealer, to test the water. This is a free service, and since they are located down the street from our office, it really is no hassle. The testing tells us if we need to adjust the acid or salt.

We've had the pool for about three years now, and it is very easy to maintain. We've never needed to drain the pool, which is great in this day of high water prices.

I love the feel of the saltwater pool, as opposed to the chlorine swimming pool. We rarely get wasps hovering around the surface of the water, something I've noticed at my friend's traditional chorine swimming pool. I also prefer the fiberglass over gunite, which is gentler on my feet and easier to maintain.

The real sign that the saltwater, fiberglass pool was a better choice; my husband rarely complains about maintaining the swimming pool, whereas our first pool was a burden.