Saltwater pools are becoming popular. But the problem is pool owners are misunderstanding the concept of saltwater pools. Some pool owners believe their pools are chemical free just because they have a salt generator installed on their pool. But in reality saltwater pools are not chemical free, the salt generator is just putting the chlorine produced into the pool water. And the homeowners do not have to add chlorine themselves to the pools, just plain salt.
The purpose of saltwater systems is to sanitize the water with chlorine produced at a controlled rate through the electrolysis of the salt in the cell. Chlorine production works when electricity passes through saltwater forming gaseous form of chlorine. With a salt chlorine generator, the salt cell contains metal blades that receive an electrical current that passes electrons to the salt turning it into chlorine.

The chlorine made from salt generators are identical chemical components as the chlorine purchased at local pool stores.
Not transporting chlorine from the pool store is one of the advantages of a salt water pool. The salt system is producing the chlorine needed for their pool. On-site chlorine production helps pool owners save time.

What is another misconception about salt chlorine generators? Many think that once they have the system on their pool, they do not need to do anything else with the pool. Well, that is not the case, pool water still needs to have salt, pH, stabilizer, alkalinity and phosphates levels maintained. Not taking care of chemical levels could cause problems with the quality of pool water. If these levels do not get maintained the pool water will begin to have problems.
If some of these levels, like pH, stabilizer, and phosphates, are not where they are supposed to be, they will cause a high demand for chlorine. What does that mean in particular? Your system will be producing chlorine but will show zero chlorine on tests. Extremely High demand for chlorine can quickly outpace the amount of chlorine the chlorine generator can produce. So pool chemical maintenance is a must even though you have a salt water system or just plain chlorine tablet pool.
Salt water systems can be an excellent investment, time and money saver but misconceptions about the salt water pool and how it works can be costly and dangerous.