We have used our Intex Krystal Clear Saltwater System for 2 years now (during summer months only) and it's awesome. Only once per summer we have had to put in the table-salt (once the pool is full of it's first fresh water of the season), that's always at the beginning, when getting the pool ready for summer. Before we bought this system and when we first got our pool, we didn't know a thing about chemicals. In the beginning, we had to go out and buy chlorine, alkaline booster, PH balance increaser and PH balance decrease, plus test strips. Not only are these chemicals dangerous and expensive, but they are such a hassle to clean the pool every 3-5 days and constantly test the water levels to make sure water is safe to swim in. Now, with this salt-water system, you can scratch all those chemicals (it is very important, not to use any of those chemicals with the salt water system, because it will mess up the PH levels and you'll need to start all over with fresh water). The system does the testing and cleaning for you. Depending on the size of your above ground pool, you only need a few 25 pound bags of "Morton Brand" table-salt (can buy at any Costco for $5 a bag), and then you run your system for about 24-48 hours (when first setting up the pool) to get the salt to turn into chlorine. It may take days for the salt cloudiness to clear up. Your system does the testing and if there is not enough chlorine, or too much, in the pool, then an alarm will go off. The system when on, will test the water and chlorine levels for you. You no longer have to test or clean the pool. This sytem will do if for you (along with your filter system). Also, you'll still need a skimmer to clean the leaves and dirt off bottom of pool.The system comes with a manual, so any time an alarm goes off, you'll get instructions on how to fix it. Let me tell you though, we rarely have any kind of problems with this system and it's the best summer money I have ever spent. You'll only need table-salt, a filter and saltwater system to make the chlorine. Within the summer months our pool is up, we never needed to add more salt. We have an above ground Intex pool and at first we had to call customer service to find out exactly how much salt we needed. They gave us acurate information. We have a 15x15 foot pool and only need to use about 4 or 5 bags of 25 lbs. salt (I forget exactly, since my husband does all the setting up).
Don't expect crystal clear water, unless your filter pump is running all day long (not your salt water system, since that only needs to run 3-5 hours). For the really clear water, your filter has to be running very often. We only run our filter during the time our salt water system is running and maybe overnight, for extra time, but we dont run the filter all day. Our water is only super duper clear when we are always running our filter. Often, we may run the filter over night, while we are asleep.
You'll have to run the salt-water system for about 3-5 hours in the early morning or late at night, when no-one is swimming. This is when your system will be making the salt into chlorine. If your pool doesn't have enough clorine, an alarm will go off and you'll just need to add a little more salt. Our size of pool only requires 3 or 4 hours and there is an automatic timer to set. Depending on where you live, will determine how long you need to run the system. If you live in really hot weather, you may need to run the system longer. We live in a cooler climate so don't need to usually run the system more then 3 hours (4 hours on really hot days). Because you cannot run this sytem while people are in the pool, you may split the time and do 1 or 2 hours in the morning and the rest at night (or just run it all night, while sleeping, with your filter). We won't be using this item this summer, because we have a toddler, that loves to climb, so no pool this summer. I'm sure we will get this system and pool out in the next few years and even if the motor eventually goes out, we'll for sure buy another one.
The best thing about this system, is no more messy chemicals and your skin, hair and eyes will thank your for that too.
Clean and clear. No more stinging eyes or fried hair. Dump all the chemicals for good.
Remember, if you have any troubles with the system, just call up Intex, you can see their 1-800 number on the salt water system site. I probably called them 2 or 3 times in the beginning. We finally got it down. Again, don't expect crystal clear water, unless you are running a cleaning filter all day long (not the salt water system, but a filter).
Here's a good money saving tip, that Intex probably doesn't want you to know...but we have figured out, that the filters can be hosed down, instead of replaced. This way, you are not always buying filter replacements. Just take out the filter, every other day, hose it down good and it works great.
************++UPDATE. Someone made a suggestion, on here, not to use table salt because it won't give crystal clear water. Instead, you can get proper salt from Home Depot in 40 lbs bags for around $6. We used table salt for 3 years and never had to add more salt. Although the water was not crystal clear, it surely was pretty clear after an evening of using the water pump and filter. We will try the Home Depot salt this year to see if we have better results.
Converting from Baquacil to chlorine is notoriously difficult.Water turns green, brown and even purple, long strings of Baquacil gum up the filter and the pool is a mess for a week or more.Some reviews I read the process lasted almost a month.I installed the SWCG and dumped 10 pounds of chlorine in my pool.I ran the pump and SWCG 24 hours a day.I had clear water in 4 days.My water has been almost perfect ever since.If you read about chlorine pools, the solution to most problems is "add more chlorine".The SWCG adds chlorine constantly when it is on.This is all free chlorine which attacks microorganisms.Free chlorine is the chemical that cleans pool water.Residual chlorine is bad.It irritates eyes and skin and creates the "chlorine smell" that makes a pool unpleasant.Free chlorine even eliminates residual chlorine.SWCGs generate free chlorine and disperse it throughout the pool.They are great if you can make them work properly.Making them work properly is a matter of maintenance.
My SWCG has diagnostic lights that tell me when there is a problem with the system.It will shut down and give an error light if the water flow is insufficient, the salt level is too high or too low or if the system malfunctions.My system generates a low salt indication and shuts down periodically.I found out that this happens when the plates calcify and the unit can't generate chlorine.I take the generator module out and clean the plates every 2 weeks because my water has a high calcium content.As long as I keep the calcium deposits under control, the unit works exceptional.The instructions are not good at informing you about this,Many reviews complain that the unit generates a low salt error and shuts down.Intex seems good about replacing the unit under warranty but another unit will do the same thing.People get frustrated and give the unit a bad rating because of this.The problem is high calcium content in their water.The solution is to clean the plates every week or 2.Cleaning the plates is a pain but it is easier than constantly monitoring and adding chlorine.
I let my pool get nasty last winter and ended up with about an inch of leaves in the bottom this spring.I was too busy to vacuum and clean out all of the leaves so I just turned my SWCG on for 12 hrs a day and ran the free chlorine up to 5PPM.It kept the water from turning green but it was cloudy.When I got time to clean out the leaves, the water turned crystal clear in 2 days and has been that way all summer.I never vacuum, brush and I seldom add any chemicals.The only thing I add to my pool is PH minus.I use no algaecide minerals or other additives.I have a Pool Rover and the SWCG.I run Rover for about 8 hrs a week and check my water every week or 2.I run my SWCG 6 hrs a day now and am maintaining a free chlorine level of about 2PPM.My water is crystal clear and I have no chlorine odor or irritation.All this with a huge pool that was a constant chore before I bought my SWCG.
The unit has its own timer that resets when power goes out or you turn it off.To use it, you turn it on and set the number of hours you want it to generate chlorine.It comes on automatically each day at the same time you set it and runs for the specified number of hours.You must coordinate the SWCG run time with your pump's run time because if the pump shuts off while the unit is running, it will generate an error and shut down.When it generates an error, you have to reset it so it starts its cycle at whatever time you started.If you back flush your filter, the unit shuts down because there is no flow through it. That means that you should do your maintenance at whatever time your pump is set to start.Otherwise, the SWCG will try to generate chlorine after the pump turns off for the day.That creates a low flow which shuts down the SWCG.It won't generate chlorine until you reset it.There is no provision to start the cycle at a different time of day.The cycle starts every day at the time you reset the SWCG.To coordinate everything, reset the SWCG shortly after the pump begins its cycle.
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I purchased going on the mixed reviews I read here with a grain of salt (no pun intended) and let me tell you, it does exactly what it is advertised to do. Anyone who is having issues with this unit is either not using it correctly or they have a defective unit. Since I have converted to this salt water system I have not had any issue in keeping my 5000 gallon pool clean and free of algae.
I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to get away from using chemicals.
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I saw this product at Toys R Us at the beginning of pool season 2010.The package almost seemed too good to be true and you know what they say about that.I went home and did research on the internet on salt water pools and the Intex Salt Water Chlorinator.The Intex Salt Water Chlorinator is 3 to 4 times less expensive than other Salt Water Chlorinators on the market.After doing my research and reading nothing but good reviews on the Intex Salt Water Chlorinator I decided to purchase it and give it a try.We have a 24' x 52" above ground pool and I spent over $200 in chlorine last year and had an algae problem all last summer.I went to my local hardware store and bought 400 pounds of water softener salt.This salt is more coarse, but dissolves in a matter of hours and is 2 to 3 times cheaper than buying salt at our local pool supply warehouse.I let the salt dissolve for 24 hours (based on other reviews, you want the salt to dissolve before starting up the system to avoid a low salt error message) and then turned on the Intex Salt Water Chlorinator.No error messages and the working light came on.The pool water seemed to become sparkling clear within days.I actually saw some green algae starting to form at the bottom of the pool walls a couple of weeks after converting to salt water, but I simply used the boost function to generate copper ions and the algae was gone the next day!We haven't had any algae since then and I have not even used the boost function again.One thing to note about the boost function is the system will run 4 times as long as the timer is set for.I usually run the system for 6 hours, but when I did the boost function I reduced the time to 4 hours, so the boost ran for 16 hours.Just something to note, as you'll have to run the pool pump for the entire time and if you ran the boost function a lot, it could add up on your electrical bill.
I regularly check the Salt Water Chlorinator and it always seems to be functioning fine.My only surprise was one evening it had a code of "93" flashing.When I looked at the instruction manual, code "93" just means that the system has finished running.One of the biggest benefits for us is going on vacation for a week and returning to a crystal clear pool.All I asked the housesitter to do was to look outside and make sure the pool pump was running.That gave me confidence that if the pool pump was running, so was the salt water chlorinator.
We are only in our first season with the Intex Salt Water Chlorinator, and I have read reviews were it broke after a year.But even if I had to buy one every season it's probably worth it to me, because I would spend the same amount of money on chemicals and I don't have to worry about it once it's setup and I can even leave for a week and come home to a clean pool.I feel like the Intex Salt Water Chlorinator has changed my life.I know that's a big statement, but when you want to enjoy the summer and your pool, this system really lets you do that.
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We used this product all last summer and now are using it this summer.I can't say enought about how I love it!!!I have a 18x52frame pool and this things works wonders.It does exactly what it is supposed to do.For my pool it takes 4 40lb bags of water softner salt pellets.I dump it in with pump running.It dissolves in about 2 hours with my 4000 gph intex pump (if your pool is 18" or larger always upgrade to the 4000 gph pump, you will be glad you did).After adding the salt about 3 hours later I turned on my chlorinator (if you have a smaller pump it will take a lot longer to mix the salt properly).Ran it for 8 hours the first day, just to build up the chlorine level then after that ran it for 6 hrs per day.It was an absolute dream.does exactly what it is supposed to do.The negative for me are as follows.If the power goes out you have to re-program it and you can't set a specific time.You just have to go out and turn it on the time of day you want it to turn on every day ( the reason this was annoying to me is that my breaker tends to trip every once in a while and it would screw up my schedule, but truly no big deal in the big picture).Secondly is toward the end of the summer my ph got out of wack and it left big deposits in the cholorinator to the point the water wouldn't flow through so it would automatically shut off.You just have to open it all up and get the deposit build up off of the coils, but it got annoying.This wasn't a problem with the chlorinator it was a problem with my pump not pumping like it should (upgraded to a larger pump and it took care of that) and the fact that I let my ph get out of wack.This year I plan on watching my ph better and just automatically cleaning the coils(it's not really a coil it is actually plates on the inside of the chlorinator) and checking them every other week.Even though it does have it's issues,it is the best thing that ever happened to my pool maintanance.Love it and would recommend it hands down.Just make sure you read all the instructions on how to run it and maintain it.
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