Despite the fact that salt water pools have not only exploded in popularity throughout Virginia and Maryland but around the world, believe it or not there is still a group of pool builders who do not promote salt water pools as they should.
Salt Water Pools and the Retail Side of Business
When it comes down to it, the reasons for this vary from company to company, but here is the core to the issue:
Salt water pools kill retail business.
That's right, they kill retail business because you, as the pool owner, will rarely make a trip to the pool store during the summer if you're using salt as your main sanitizing agent.
(As a reminder and for those that don't know, salt water pools have a very low saline level, much less than a river, and produce a form of natural chlorine through the process of electrolysis.)
So even though a swimming pool builder may make more on the front-end selling a salt-chlorine generator on the pool, they make less over the long haul, which hurts retail business.
1000 Units and Counting
Here at River Pools and Spas, we used to be a retail company as well. In fact, we did almost 100k a year in Baquacil sales alone! But despite this, it always bothered us how much our customers spent on their chemicals each year and how often they needed to stop by the store.
So when salt chlorinators came out on the market, we embraced the technology literally before anyone else in the entire Virginia/Maryland market, and since that time have installed well over 1000 units on various pools, many of which were previous Baquacil or Chlorine customers.
As a result of these efforts, our customers (especially those that are 'weekenders'), have raved at just how low-maintenance their swimming pools are, and we've been thrilled with the results.
Drawbacks
One thing to keep in mind though about salt is that it does cause metal to rust very easily, which can hurt metal-wall vinyl liner above ground and inground pools. It is also harder on concrete surfaces, so for gunite/concreate pools, it's not always the best option.
But again, if anyone, especially a fiberglass pool builder tells you salt is not a good option, find out if they own a retail store. In most cases, the answer is 'yes', and this is obviously the impetus for their suggestions.
