Swimming pool salt is one of the most common products that you will buy to maintain your pool. This is because most swimming pools consume around 12 bags of salt each year. However, is the salt you buy causes problems then saving money on salt is false economy. In this case, your discount price salt may turn out to be not so cheap after all.
How swimming pool salt quality is determined
- Mineral Content
- Moisture content
- Crystal size
- Colour (whiteness)
- Time taken to dissolve in water
“One bad batch of salt can stain your pool which could cost over $1,400 to fix. Always use quality salt in your pool, even if it costs more”
As a general rule, cheap, poor quality salt will have several of the attributes mentioned above. However, the most common sign of bad salt is the dull brown colour. In this case, many pool owners are horrified when their pool water turns brown within a few minutes of adding the salt. This brown colour is caused from minerals that are now suspended in your water. They will eventually settle and stain the surface of the pool. The image below is an example of this happening in a pool.
Salt staining in swimming pool caused from adding a bag of contaminated salt. http://www.thepoolstainremovers.com.au
The argument for cheap salt
If we know low quality salt is bad for pools why do people buy it? The reason is that they often do not understand how salt works. For example, some argue that salt is salt right? No it isn’t. Remember, pool salt is sold by weight. This means that if a batch of salt has a higher moisture content it will still weigh the same but actually contain less salt!. In this case, what you are paying for is water, not salt.
Remember, this is one of the main reason why the price of pool salt varies. In short, low quality salt contains less salt and has less bang for your buck. So the cost savings made are undone by the useless ‘water’ in the salt. Also the purity of the salt is often much less with cheap salt. This means that you are adding stain causing contaminates to your pool.
The Pool Stain Removers have a detailed blog post that talks more about the impact of low quality salt. It may be of interest to you if you are still not convinced.
