what is the difference between salt pools and ozone with mineral systems?
In the process of pool shopping and there are two different setups which trying to figure out which one will be less harsh with regards to chemicals and also which one is more cost effective and takes less time to maintain.
Your least expensive option is a liquid chlorine pool and maintain chlorine at 1-3ppm with 5 max.
Ozone and Salt Chlorine generator systems are way more costly and only last for several years before replacement is needed. You can purchase a whole lot of chlorine for what you would pay for either system. But they are all very popular systems.
See Delozone.com for ozone – eclipse generators.
They also have an ozone/chlorine generator for salt pools called Trio-pure. Ozone allows for a 50% drop in chlorine levels. BTW ozone is gone quicker than you can snap your fingers and needs long circulation times to do any good.
See Pentairpool.com for Intellichlor, use the 40,000 gallon module regardless of your pool size since they all make very small amounts of chlorine per day. Typical chlorine levels to maintain are 1-3ppm with 5 max.
Nature 2 makes a mineral filter that allows your choline level to drop 50%. Get this sized to your pool to avoid copper staining of your plaster! New cartridges required avery 6 months and cost $100 each or more!
But with all low chlorine systems the devil is in maintaining these low levels (0.5 to 1.5ppm) on a hot summer day!
Oddly enough, salt/ozone and mineral systems can be used together see del ozone tech section for more info on this.
All the above systems are relatively labor intensive in terms of adjustment, you still need a good test-kit to check the units chlorine production and make adjustments from there. Remember water below 70 needs little chlorine while water above 80 needs a lot. The chlorine generators all shut down when water temps are in the low 50’s.
Here in Southern California that means from November to April they are snoozing.
My bet is to use liquid chlorine to maintain your pool and bank the rest and you will be ahead. If you want to spend money in an area that will have a payoff see pentairpool.com and look up the intellifow variable speed pumps that save you $$$$ on your electrical bill. These pumps would almost be needed to offset the electircity the ozone and salt pools use to produce ozone/chlorine.
You’re welcome!!
CL Free Chlorine Free Pool 818.741.1241