Salt water pools offer some amazing benefits, for both you and your pool water, which has led them to become increasingly popular in recent years. But is a salt water pool right for you?

Here are five reasons you should considering switching to salt:

1. Lower Long-Term Costs: There’s some debate about which costs you more, chlorine or salt, but the bottom line is that chlorine is more expensive in the long run. It’s true that a salt water pool may cost slightly more initially, but when you own a pool you need to consider long-term costs. Salt is much less expensive than pool chemicals, and, over the years, maintenance of a salt water pool will cost you up to half as much as a chlorinated pool.
2. Better for the Body: Many people are switching to salt because of the proven benefits of salt on the body. Salt softens the skin, helps to remove toxins from the body, and promotes healing too. A salt pool is also less harsh than a chlorinated pool. As it disinfects, chlorine leaves behind chloramines, a by-product that is responsible for the stinging eyes, bad smell and skin sensitivities that many swimmers cannot tolerate.
3. Fewer Chemicals: Salt water pools require fewer chemicals to keep the water clean. A salt water chlorinator continuously converts salt into low levels of chlorine, ensuring that the water is always clean. Regular chlorinated pools expend their chlorine as they clean, which means that new chemicals must be added in order for the pool to remain clean. This involves “shocking”, or super-chlorinating, the water until there is ten times more chlorine in the water than chloramine by-products. Salt is also much safer to handle during regular pool maintenance compared to chlorine. Unlike chlorine, storing bags of salt does not present a health danger if you have children or animals in your household.
4. Convenience: Using salt means you have fewer chemicals to handle, and also reduces the amount of time you need to spend managing the water level.
5. Cleaner water: The sole purpose of chlorine is to remove any dangerous organisms in the water, discouraging the growth of bacteria and algae. As you might expect, maintaining a steady supply of chlorine is far more efficient at breaking down particles, debris and organics, compared to a single big blasts of chemicals. A salt water pool means cleaner water, which means a safer place to have fun with your friends and family.

Almost 90% of chlorine used in traditional pools goes towards creating free chlorine in the water to neutralize the chloramine by-products. Salt water pools produce less chlorine, which means less associated chloramines in the water for you to manage. Adding a salt water chlorinator to an existing pool is simple, or you can also install one when you first purchase your pool. A salt water pool will pay for itself in no time through lower maintenance costs and improved health benefits.