Salt Water Pools Pros and Cons?

[naaman]

My wife is on my case about converting our chlorine pool to a salt water system and I asked her to research the pros and cons of it. After looking into it myself, it seems that there are some increased risks with regard to the lifespan of the equipment itself (due to the corrosive nature of salt).

Anyone have any real world experience with a salt water system? If I do it, I'm heavily considering farming out the maintenance to a professional pool company, rather than doing it myself.

For anyone who has had both, what is preferable from a homeowner's perspective? From a pool party/entertainment perspective?

One of the things I read that seems ridiculous is that the salt water can ruin the pool deck if it splashes out of the pool. Can anyone confirm?

Thanks in advance!

 

[gleibig]

Only negative is the jellyfish.

 

[Miner]

My buddy (Plano, Tx) has one and they are happy with it. The control box has crapped out a couple of times, but otherwise it is pretty simple.
Our rental house has a pool and we thought about converting a few years ago. We decided against it mostly because it was one more thing that could go bad. We pay for weekly pool service, and the salt water system wouldn’t make the water any better. If we lived there we probably would have added it.

 

[docjohn]

Only negative is the jellyfish.

don't forget hypertension if you drink any....

 

[gleibig]

don't forget hypertension if you drink any....

I don't drink jellyfish.

 

[docjohn]

I don't drink jellyfish.

how bout a pbjf.....

 

[91 X]

Our pool started out as a salt system pool( salt water is a misnomer)
Basically the water is run through a salt cell that naturally chlorinates the pool water is how it works.

Our salt cell went bad a few years after being new and was very costly to replace at the time, so I just went back to using chlorine tabs in a floater....

 

[The Kid]

How nice it must be to not have to close a pool for winter. I hate all of you who get to swim year round. Maybe not hate, just jealous.