Salted Pool nightmare ; salt on deck everywhere

[SlyouThai]

hello everyone im back with some pool problem. Ok so i have a salted pool with chlorinator system. AFter i bought this house  i emptied the pool to redo the grouting. Put back water inside and bag of salt to get to the good level. Last test was 3400 PPM wich i think is correct. Water is clean no problem on this side. Now the thing is everytime someone goes inside , splash water around or even by just going out of the pool and dripping water on the floor , after the floor dries , i get salt EVERYWHERE. I did put a sealer on the pool deck but the salt just  eat it away . Now i understand its normal to have this kind of issue with a salted pool but i never ever saw that much salt residus around a pool anywhere else. I will add a picture , it actually goes way worth than this picture. Imagine the worst part on this pic and its everywhere like that on the deck where water has splashed. Not only that it looks like some coping tiles are getting eaten too. I guess natural stone deck is a nightmare for salted pool.

 

Is this normal ? i mean it looks like someone put 2 kg of cocaine on my deck , and i need to clean it everyday . I will rent out this house and for sure its gonna be problematic.

 

If anyone have any ideas ? should i just remove the salt cell , empty everything and goes chlorine pool only ?

[sappersrest]

What acid are you using? If you are using dry acid it will make matters worse. Also it will not do your salt chlorinator much good either, the plates will get coated in sulphates .

[Valentine]

Having worked with & installed many salt chlorinators I have never seen it like that. Are you sure about your salt content?

[crazykopite]

Why waste all your time and energy trying to resolve this issue bring in a pool maintenance team who know what they are doing . Once they have it under control you can then make a decision as to whether they maintain it or you take over the task . Salt pools are far better than going back to the old chlorine pool .

[Aussieroaming]

Check your salt quality and pool pH, make sure pH out of whack. 

[cmrichsw]

Hire a professional 1st - be a do it yourselfer after the problem is solved.

[HerbalEd]

I've had a saltwater pool in USA for 22 years and have never seen dried salt on the pool deck. Also, I've had a saltwater pool in Hua Hin for three years and have never seen dried salt on the pool deck. Never.

[SlyouThai]

18 hours ago, sappersrest said:

What acid are you using? If you are using dry acid it will make matters worse. Also it will not do your salt chlorinator much good either, the plates will get coated in sulphates .

i dont use any acid , i dont know much about pool. And all the pool cleaning team i hired ( 4 differents so far ) have basically no idea what they doing . I never ever saw tehm using Acid or anything like that. Only thing was Ph testing

[SlyouThai]

5 hours ago, Valentine said:

Having worked with & installed many salt chlorinators I have never seen it like that. Are you sure about your salt content?

well i had 3 different pool cleaning  " team " and a professional from germany who camed and changed the tank and pump because it was not working properly . I pointed to him this salt problem and he said its normal for a salt pool...    I changed the pool cleaner 3 times because they are all terrible. The last team DOESNT HAVE SALT TESTER so i dont know now what is exactly the salt level.... its just unreal how bad they are in Phuket. But the last test was showing normal level of salt. I saw them putting bags of salt with " swimming pool salt " written on it. I dont know much more about the quality.

 

The chlorinator cell is very old , probably 10 years old but the german pro said it was okay. Maybe its not...

 

I would love to bring a professional team to fix this but i did already and i dont know who to ask anymore....

[SlyouThai]

i found this on internet ; wich is the same problem i have.

 

Quote

Splash out which can occur during general use of the pool, and people walking around dripping water from their bathing suits onto the deck, may cause some issues especially if the decking is non salt friendly such as travertine, certain styles of bluestone, or flagstone. As the water evaporates it can leave a million parts per million of salt residing on the deck. It is far more corrosive than the typical chlorine based pool due to the residual salt that will always be in the water.

 

[luk AJ]

Should not leave such strong salt stains..3400 ppm = 3.4ppt = 0.34% which is 10 times less than seawater..
Maybe the reading is wrong? Why do you express the salt content in ppm?
Use a refractometer with the appropriate scale.
What is the chlorine reading?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[SlyouThai]

16 minutes ago, luk AJ said:

Should not leave such strong salt stains..3400 ppm = 3.4ppt = 0.34% which is 10 times less than seawater..
Maybe the reading is wrong? Why do you express the salt content in ppm?
Use a refractometer with the appropriate scale.
What is the chlorine reading?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

i may have read that somewhere.. ppm   they pool guy just said 3500

 

About chlorine reading the pool guy said it was correct , with the color testing. I dont have much more infos. I will order what i need i guess. Can you tell me if this is good stuff  :

 

-Aquachek 7 test strips

 

for the salt tester could you recommend me a good model ? thanks

 

 

[SlyouThai]

could it be the salt cell that is dead and producing a lot of this white stuff ? like a mix of salt and i dont know what ?

[SlyouThai]

small update : i went to a supply shop in Phuket who does pool maintenance too. I showed the picture to the thai owner and he said its normal , nothing wrong with that. Just the salt drying and its natural stone deck so it shows a lot...

 

 

[SlyouThai]

ok so... this guy from the shop came and we tested the salt level. It was 3.7 and he said it was too much. 3.7 what i dont know ?

I bought a shitty testing kit for ph and chlorine ( they didnt have anyth ing better than that .... ) and here are the results wich arent looking good at all. The thai guy didnt have a better testing kit to check ph and Chlorine....

 

Now my chlorinator machine constantly  beeping with low salt light flashing so i guess there is a problem with that anyway because the salt level is over the recommendation.

 

For the salt on the deck part , i cleaned yesterday and someone used the pool this morning. You can see the results on the picture.

Again the Thai guy said its normal to see this because of the pool deck sandstone sealed material , the water just stays there then dries out and only the salt remain....  its now 2 " pro " telling me its normal to see that. I never saw that anywhere else and it doesnt look good....

 

 

edit : Just got an answer from the people at thailandpoolshop ( very nice people and shop but they are too far from Phuket to come and help )  They answered me that this isnt salt this is probably calcium because my Ph is too high. I had 4 different pool cleaning team and they never ever talked to me about bad Ph...

[crazykopite]

Looking at your testing result the PH is looking far to high you need to get it down that should sort your problem out .

[SlyouThai]

Regarding the false salt reading on your machine, this will be caused by the same white mark (calcium) that you see everywhere. This is clogging up your sensor & cell, you will need to clean this to get it back to function normally. 

 

 

From the test picture you sent the pH is way high (this is where all the white mark is from). So to lower this now you will need to put some Hydrochloric Acid in your pool. You can also used the hydrochloric acid to clean your cell but make sure you dilute the acid first if is strong like our product. Our product is 35% strong Acid but other supplier do sell of 10% strong. To clean the cell just pour some acid in a container then dip your cell in.

 

 

 

This is the full answer . Next step i order acid and a decent testing kit  and will do all that.will let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the answers guys

[RBOP]

 

[DJ54]

Had a pool person in US only thing I had to worry about was beer supply and what trunks to wear that day. 

[Bagwain]

It is dried salt residue. Lucky you sealed the sandstone or it would be eating into the sandstone with help of chlorine as well. I hope it was a quality sealer otherwise it will need redoing in a yr.

Quality (Sika) 3 yrs.

 

Best just hose it off with fresh water.

 

Best to keep your salt levels just a tad under 4,000 ppm. (yes ppm) Needed for tropical conditions. Seawater is around 50,000 ppm

 

Chlorinator is old at 10 yrs & I am surprised it is still working!!! If you want to replace soon, I recommend an Australian made heavy duty (Eco) low salt system. Operates on 1/2 the amount of salt required with standard machines!  Would solve the issue.

[SlyouThai]

On 6/8/2018 at 9:23 AM, Bagwain said:

It is dried salt residue. Lucky you sealed the sandstone or it would be eating into the sandstone with help of chlorine as well. I hope it was a quality sealer otherwise it will need redoing in a yr.

Quality (Sika) 3 yrs.

 

Best just hose it off with fresh water.

 

Best to keep your salt levels just a tad under 4,000 ppm. (yes ppm) Needed for tropical conditions. Seawater is around 50,000 ppm

 

Chlorinator is old at 10 yrs & I am surprised it is still working!!! If you want to replace soon, I recommend an Australian made heavy duty (Eco) low salt system. Operates on 1/2 the amount of salt required with standard machines!  Would solve the issue.

actually i had to redo the sealing after like 3 weeks , i changed the product i used because yes the stone was getting eaten ... I used an other sealer and it looks like its better but will look for Sika. The thing is on amazon there are special sealer salt proof but they are crazy expensive. Not even sure i can find it in Thailand.

 

So you think this is salt and not calcium... In that case that sux a lot. Im waiting for the Acid and will see if i get improvement after my Ph comes back to normal or not. If this is just dried salt and this is normal then i dont see how anyone could want a salted pool when your deck look like mine everytime someone goes inside..... it really looks terrible.

 

I had some overflow pool with sandstone pool coping before , i never ever saw residus like thoses when the pump was off and the pool coping dries. I dont really understand what up with all that.

 

Is the low salt system you talking about available in Thailand ?

 

Thanks for answers

[Valentine]

1 hour ago, SlyouThai said:

actually i had to redo the sealing after like 3 weeks , i changed the product i used because yes the stone was getting eaten ... I used an other sealer and it looks like its better but will look for Sika. The thing is on amazon there are special sealer salt proof but they are crazy expensive. Not even sure i can find it in Thailand.

 

So you think this is salt and not calcium... In that case that sux a lot. Im waiting for the Acid and will see if i get improvement after my Ph comes back to normal or not. If this is just dried salt and this is normal then i dont see how anyone could want a salted pool when your deck look like mine everytime someone goes inside..... it really looks terrible.

 

I had some overflow pool with sandstone pool coping before , i never ever saw residus like thoses when the pump was off and the pool coping dries. I dont really understand what up with all that.

 

Is the low salt system you talking about available in Thailand ?

 

Thanks for answers

There is a no salt system

[Bagwain]

3 hours ago, SlyouThai said:

actually i had to redo the sealing after like 3 weeks , i changed the product i used because yes the stone was getting eaten ... I used an other sealer and it looks like its better but will look for Sika. The thing is on amazon there are special sealer salt proof but they are crazy expensive. Not even sure i can find it in Thailand.

 

So you think this is salt and not calcium... In that case that sux a lot. Im waiting for the Acid and will see if i get improvement after my Ph comes back to normal or not. If this is just dried salt and this is normal then i dont see how anyone could want a salted pool when your deck look like mine everytime someone goes inside..... it really looks terrible.

 

I had some overflow pool with sandstone pool coping before , i never ever saw residus like thoses when the pump was off and the pool coping dries. I dont really understand what up with all that.

 

Is the low salt system you talking about available in Thailand ?

 

Thanks for answers

Yep sure is.

PM me for details.

 

Cheers