Compu-Pool Salt Water Chlorinator Kit

Deal Chatter Daily Deal
221

[QUOTE=seodude, post:216, topic:163100]
Are you an idiot? NaCl is salt. Cl is chlorine. F is your 6th grade science grade.
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the real problem is that the thing only works perfectly if you have it in a lab where the pure water has only sodium chloride in it… the fact is all swimming pools get a lot of other salts and such in them as soon as you add you or your little you into the water. Last time I check most little one like to urinate in pools when you plop them in and that puts ammonia in the water… so now theres another type of salt for the electronic gizzmo to convert… I’m only guessing you end up with a lot more convertion than they claim.

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[QUOTE=coencide, post:215, topic:163100]
I just looked at the Woot! map, boy, did Florida light up!
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I started a trend.

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You add a little salt (sodium CHLORIDE), so the unit converts the chloride to chlorine gas and mixes with the water…very cool!

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[QUOTE=esuter54, post:1, topic:163324]
Seriously? who the hell is gonna buy this?
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Used to have a similar unit called a Lectranator…my chemical cost after installation was about 10 bucks a season! If you have a pool and want to save a ton on chlorine and other chemicals, it’s a good buy!

225

[QUOTE=chuckbennett, post:200, topic:163100]
How long do you leave you PC running a day? It’s probably close to 400 watts if it’s a desk top. Not counting your monitor.
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I have a homebuilt PC with 4 disk drives, loads of USB accessories, etc. No separate video card tho. Anyway it uses 175 watts running both cores of the dual-core AMD cpu, and with the flatscreen, LCD monitor ON. Monitor only uses about 25 watts. Get a kill-a-watt meter from Harbor Freight and measure your appliances.

226

[QUOTE=acchildress, post:190, topic:163100]
And what do we do with all the sodium left over. I don’t need anymore sodium. I’m on a low sodium diet as it is.
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It takes the Salt (Sodium Chloride or NaCl) and runs current through it to split the molecules leaving separate Sodium (Na) and Chlorine (Cl) molecules.

The chlorine regulates your pool. The sodium (which is different from what your doctor has told you not to eat, this is the base element) combines with the water to make sodium hydroxide and hydrogen.

Sodium hydroxide is non irritating or damaging is small doses, and will also do some work at cleaning the pool. Citation: http://cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/hpv/Status/DownloadFile.ASP?CASNUM=1310732&StatusCode=SIARC&DataNo=1

The hydrogen escapes to the air.

When your doctor tells you not to consume sodium he means any edible sodium compounds. As long as you don’t plan on drinking a lot of your pool, you should be fine.

227

Salt water pools are becoming more and more common. Matter of fact I would not have a pool now that wasn’t salt water. I even lived at an apartment about 10 or so years back thats pool was salt water. It takes a lot less keeping up and little to no chlorine. which sort of makes this item useless at 700.00 when it says you need salt water to run through it to make the chlorine and salt water barely needs chlorine. Also salt water is good for your skin and cleans out cuts or soars you might have so its better in that way also, hence epson salt in the bath tub.

228

A few things on these…

#1: Salt water pools are becoming more and more popular in the states and are WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY.
#2: You WILL have to maintain your pH. As the chlorine breaks down, you create a sodium based solution in your water. Of course, this is NOT a big deal… A little Acid once a week and you will be fine. (You can use a BORIC ACID based buffer, available at most pool stores, and the pH will stay in range without weekly acid.
#3: Actually, the ppm of the salt in around 3200ppm, which will not taste nearly as strong as a tear drop.
#4: Installation is simple. a hacksaw, pvc glue, coupling (if needed) and a poewer supply and that is it. (You can even hook it up on the same timer as the PUMP so it only comes on when the pump is running.

I have sold and installed thousands of these types of units. You won’t get a CHEMICAL FREE pool, but you will not buy tablets, shock and algaecides any more. TaDAAA Enjoy

229

You can buy one Hell of a lot of Chlorine for $700 bucks!

230

Hello to all.

I’ve tried to read all seven pages of comments here but it takes alot of time to get through, so if any of this is redundant, I apologize in advance.

I live on a salt water canal in FL and so several years ago I wondered why I couldn’t just use the canal water filtered and cleaned to supply the water for my pool, versus pay 50 bucks plus to fill it with city water. So I searched online and found that some resorts near the ocean around the world do use sea water for their pools. I also learned about salt water chlorinators ,which I up to that point I had never heard of. I did more and more research on them and got so interested I went to my local pool store to inquire. I was told they were the new, new thing in pool maintainance and at that time it would cost about 1500 to 2K toget one installed. As a frugal guy I looked and found one on Ebay for half of that so I took the plunge and bought it. When it arrived I installed it myself (former contractor, but not difficult) and began to use it. My personal opinion is it’s the best thing ever. Some points of significance/interest:

  • the level of salt water in the pool when it’s up and running is very low. You can barely taste it, like a mild tear drop, truly.
  • totally no harsh chemical smells, taste or contamination at all, ever. No need to transport in your car and chance spills on car trunk carpets etc, and none of the costs associated or storage problems either.
  • the salt used dissolves in the skimmer quickly and the water is circulated by the pool pump/return lines - no issues with build up etc, no concentrations etc, totally dissolved. If you put too much salt in the pool, the system warns you and you have to add water - the water won’t ever be too salty unless you screw up, and more importantly, no corrosive effects from the mild salt - far easier on your entire system then is the toxic chlorine - this is an important point and much misunderstood judging from the comments I am reading on this forum.
    HERES HOW IT WORKS:
    The chemical content of simple salt is NACL, which means sodium (NA) combined with chloride (CL) = NACL. When dissolved in water and run through the system, a process of electrolysis (running the water over electrically charged plates inside the unit) causes the CL to split off the sodium./NA. The chlorine is released as a gas and enters the pool through the return lines. You can actually see the bubbles coming into the pool. In my observation, most of this gas rises up to the pool surface and is dissipated into the open air (no smell) but enough of it stays in the water and circulates around to get the job done. When the chlorine gas molecules come into contact with organisms growing in the water, algae, germs, toxins, whatever, it zaps them and they die (they are then filtered out when the water goes through the filter on the way back to the chlorinator). In the process of zapping these things, the chlorine is recombined with the sodium as salt and is recirculated through the system to undergo splitting again inside the chlorinator plate unit for supply back to the pool through the retun lines for reuse, over and over and over and over and over, etc. In other words, the salt is never used up, so no need to replenish unless rainwater dilutes the pool salinity or the water is splashed out of the pool or there is a pool leak somewhere which is not common.
    Other comments:
    In Australia I’ve read there are now laws prohibiting the use and handling of chlorine in the concetrations we use commonly in our pools in the US (four times stronger than household bleach, same stuff) - it is a very toxic and caustic chemical - dangerous if not handled very carefully, so in the Downunder, pool chlorinators are the most common form of pool water maintenance. Also popular and gaining more so around the world. I’ve not had any problems with my system that I couldn’t deal with very easily on my own, but I plan to buy one of these as an extra and install it in parallel with the one I have now installed and alternate their use, as necessary. That said, the price on this one is not that great, really.
    Effects:
    The pool water actually becomes the same as soft water, like through a water softener. True story. No bleaching out of swimwear, no need to shower after swimming, no hair issues for women - after swimming you actually feel completely clean and refreshed like you have taken a very thorough shower in soft water - it is said to be like swimming in rain-water. Probably so.

I don’t know what I have left out here but I went in to detail because I saw a lot of misconceptions about this whole subject being tossed around. IMO, after actual use of a system for some several years now, there is no comparison - if you are considering this product and have a pool or plan to have one, this is a good investment and is about $50+ plus less than what you can get one for on the market (plus tax, so maybe $80 after tax). Not a huge deal, but good if you are in the market, surely. Oh, and BTW, sea water is 33 times more salty then the pool water you will have with this system.

Hope this helps and sorry for being a knowitall. Regards to all.

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RE: handling of harsh chemicals
I agree handling and storing Chlorine can be a problem. Do not store chlorine indoors..I’ve ruined tons of stuff. it rusts/corrodes metal parts in the same room. Pardon me if my chemistry is not good.

On the other hand…the owners manual for this salt system says to use acid to clean the electrodes:

“To clean the Cell, if any foreign buildup is visible, immerse the cell
plates into a solution of five parts water and one part hydrochloric
acid. Leave for a few minutes then hose off until cell plates are clean.
Do not submerse cell head when cleaning.”

Another consideration is the cost and availability of parts and maintenance. These salt cells need to be replaced every so many years. Ouch. It looks like Compu-Pool may do some generic cells, so maybe that is not an issue. But you would want to do your due diligence.

This is set up for 220 but I think it can be converted to 110.

We have chlorine and are not switching to salt water. If the automated chlorinator does not work, we merely put some chlorine tablets in the skimmer.

This is more info on the generator.

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[QUOTE=jgentsch, post:19, topic:163100]
The description says it produces chlorine gas. That’s a load of shit. If you don’t add chlorine to it, it can’t. Chlorine is an element. That would be like saying it could generate gold!
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yeah, because salt isn’t made up of elements.

AHEMSODIUM CLORIDEAHEM

233

[QUOTE=SilverStar830, post:64, topic:163100]
Yeah. Just ask this guy about ingesting silver. He swears by it!

http://www.bartonpublishing.com/images/blueman.jpg

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Papa Smurf!

234

[QUOTE=jgentsch, post:19, topic:163100]
The description says it produces chlorine gas. That’s a load of shit. If you don’t add chlorine to it, it can’t. Chlorine is an element. That would be like saying it could generate gold!
[/quote]

You are right that you need something to begin with to produce gold. I use a magic hen. She lays 2 golden eggs per moon cycle.

You are mislead about chlorine though: It is not an element. We all know that there are 4 elements (water, fire, earth, and air) and with this machine you use 2 of the 4 elements, water and fire (fire in the form of electricity, of course) to produce “chlorine” aka green dragon’s breath. It has a philosophal stone inside it, that’s why it works idiot.

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in for 3! I have a 120,000 gallon pool

236

Awesome in for Two! This is just what I need for my bathtub. I really love baths but after a few days the water gets pretty ripe. This is just what I needed. Wonder if they can deliver to Ark B… I’m sure #2 will figure it out.

237

[QUOTE=FJRFoxes, post:231, topic:163100]
RE: handling of harsh chemicals
I agree handling and storing Chlorine can be a problem. Do not store chlorine indoors…I’ve ruined tons of stuff. it rusts/corrodes metal parts in the same room. Pardon me if my chemistry is not good.

On the other hand…the owners manual for this salt system says to use acid to clean the electrodes:

“To clean the Cell, if any foreign buildup is visible, immerse the cell
plates into a solution of five parts water and one part hydrochloric
acid. Leave for a few minutes then hose off until cell plates are clean.
Do not submerse cell head when cleaning.”

Another consideration is the cost and availability of parts and maintenance. These salt cells need to be replaced every so many years. Ouch. It looks like Compu-Pool may do some generic cells, so maybe that is not an issue. But you would want to do your due diligence.

This is set up for 220 but I think it can be converted to 110.

We have chlorine and are not switching to salt water. If the automated chlorinator does not work, we merely put some chlorine tablets in the skimmer.

This is more info on the generator.
http://www.discountsaltpool.com/How_it_works.htm
[/quote]

Some good points here, but in my experience, not entirely accurate. The cleaning of the plates, which I left out - sorry, is seldom necessary and when it is, you simply unscrew the plate unit which is secured by hand tightened PVC caps, and soak the entire thing in bucket containing a solution of muratic acid and water (about a cup of muratic acid to about two gallons of water) for maybe an hour - if the plates are dirty/scaled, you will see the muratic acid solution bubbling off the scales in the water solution - if you don’t see much bubbling, not much scaling present - the few times I’ve done this there was virtually no need, seemed to me. You can get a quart of muratic acid for a few bucks at HD or Lowes enough for several years. Muratic acid is a strong chemical but easier to store surely than gallons of chlorine and not dangerous if you observe simple precautions. I use it for all sorts of things.

Concering maintenance. I’ve never known or heard of anyone needing to replace their plates and I live in FL where every home in my neighborhood has a pool. I consider mention of this by the brochure more like a disclaimer than an actual difficulty. Never had a problem with mine, but just like anything, you have to do simple routine maintenance. Honestly, I’ve had pools for 25 years and have spent hundreds and hundreds of $$$ on chorine and to deal with it’s effects, etc, but since use of my chlorinator/salt system, never a dime since.

Discerning minds can sort this out for themselves. And no offense intended.

And BTW, I just ordered one of these units as an augmentation or back-up unit. A pretty good deal, IMO.

238

Not a lot of 2 or 3x purchases on this one.

“What, you don’t have THREE pools? Gotta get 3 BOC’s (begetters of chlorine)!”

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[QUOTE=jexxie, post:116, topic:163100]
Ever seen a water softening machine? Works on a similar concept. A water softening machine is basically a large container filled with salt, anywhere from 5 to 10 gallons of salt. The softened water tastes better. And feels better when bathing. Many large cities have hard water due to the way that they sanitize municipal water. Using salt is nothing new.
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Wrong, this works nothing like a water softener, this is an electrolytic cell that “cracks” chlorine gas out of a slightly saline solution. A water softener uses the salt to flush the minerals out of the resin pellets in the softener. At night the softener makes a stong saltwater solution and floods the resin pellets in the softener tank, the salt solution “cleans” the pellets by basically removing the minerals which have accumulated in the resin pellets, it then flushes the salt solution out and passes your household water over the resin pellets, the pellets “soften” the water by absorbing the minerals (hardness) from the water.

240

Yes, it will work fine in an above-ground pool.

Installation is quick; add salt, set the controls and let it do its wonders. This is my first season with exactly this model. So far, I’m impressed with it.