I have a slightly different perspective.

Being slightly lazy, I decided early on that I wanted an automated chlorine system of some sort. Hand dispensing of liquid chlorine would never work for me. Also, I knew I didn't want a puck feeder because of the CYA issue. In addition, liquidators were not available at the time so I decided on the SWG. If I had to do it again, I would seriously consider the liquidators although those are not without problems either.

As for corrosion, I have not seen a problem in the 4 plus years that I have been using it but I do not have any metal in the water except for the lights and they have not shown much in the way of corrosion. Also, I wouldn't use a SWG with soft stone. But otherwise, the brick and concrete have held up just fine. Plus there are many others on this and other forums who have had no problems with SWGs. You just need to work within the limitations that they present.

Thank-you, both, very much.

Woodberg, I esp. appreciate your counsel and as I am very much a hands on, need to understand sort of person, expect I will also manage my pool closely, at least while the kids are home, which is a significant reason why we are building it.

I would really appreciate your thoughts on the cleaning system so I can intelligently discuss that with our plumber/installer when the time comes before we gunite and are running plumbing and getting our final bid.

would suggest adding an automatic water levelor. No mater what system you employ a constant water level will dramatically reduce your chemical use. I installed the Jandy solid state system works great. Pentair offers a mechanical system. I went with a chlorine system opposed to a salt system because of the hard water here in San Antonio. I went with the solid state water leveler opposed to the mechanical also because of our hard water.

Our pool is three years old with SWG. Everything is Jandy, with flag stone coping. We have zero corrosion problems. SWG systems is the the best thing since slice bread!

Clanch, your post reminded me of another reason why we didn't go with a SWG for the initial build and that is because of the flagstone coping. Our builder told us that we would need to seal the flagstone and continue to do so periodically (annually?). I was never sure whether this was really true or just because that fit in better with the builders story. I'm interested in whether your flagstone is sealed or whether in your experience this is even an issue.

Also just to clarify my initial post, I just couldn't get enough information that I truly trusted about whether a SWG system was worth it and whether there would be an long term maintenance issues or not. As you all know when you are building a pool, especially a first one, there are a lot of available options and none are free. My thought process during the build was to do as much as possible with our budget but not to skimp on quality. Since something like an infloor cleaning system would be very hard to add later, it had to be put in during the initial build. Something like a SWG system, that I could easily add later , ended up getting cut. I still think we may add a SWG system later, but for now, adding chlorine manually is actually much easier than I imagined.

Docpops, we put our pool in primarily for our kids also. It has been really nice seeing them use it so much over the last year. There are a few different in-floor cleaning system makers, namely Paramount (various systems) and Polaris (Caretaker). After quite a bit of research, I liked Paramounts systems and approach better. Their web site is paramountpoolproducts.com. They have a lot of different systems and I tried to understand the pro and cons of each. Ultimately, I decided that there really is not much of a difference, they are more for marketing. I believe that Paramount only allows a few builders in each area to install each system. To allow more builders to put in their products, they have different lines. In our case, we went with the PCC2000. A friend of mine as the PV3 system and he loves it also.

I would suggest going to their web site and watching some of their demo's of how the system works. Like I said before, all demo's make it seem like the system works great but you never know how it works in the real world. We've got a lot of trees around our pool and it does a remarkable job. I'm still actually surprised it works as well as it does. We also added their leaf catcher system. Basically, all debris in the pool either ends up in a skimmer basket or going down the main drain and in to the leaf catcher. Its really nice this time of year, when the water is cold and I can empty out the leaves from the pool deck.

The nice part is that with the kids swimming, there is no polaris in the pool that either needs to be moved or just left in to swim around.

Woodberg, Are flagstone is not sealed. It will flake off some if the kids are running all over it, and our flagstone is flaky anyway. Has maintenance goes, you add one bag of salt every year. Clean the SWG every six month, watch your ph thats it. Water feels great, kids eye's are clear. At some point the SWG will die, i hear about five years and six hundred dollars?

My experience having owned a SWG pool for 6 years now. I also owned a non SWG for 6 years prior to this pool.

SWG have their advantages and disadvantages, but so does everything else in life. There can be corrosion issue with salt, which I haven't seen with standard chlorine. I have a spa and desk jets which shoot up and back into spa twice a day. The aluminum screen enclosure has some corrosion around that area but nothing big. The biggest issue is the screws holding the screen frame to the deck, they must be Steel because the salt must eat them to nothing. I replaced many of them with Stainless Steel and still working on that upgrade because many broke trying to remove the old steel ones. Other areas seem fine, and I had no equipment issues.

Pluses stable never had a SWG pool turn green over night, where the standard chlorine could. Given this fact I wouldn't have a pool today without SWG. For the record my cell is the original being 6 years old, and still working ok, leaked some black stuff over the summer but still working ok.

Hey everyone. I checked back after a long absence.

Can't say thanks enough for the help. Still very hard to say what we will do. I agree with the up-thread poster that since we can retrofit the salt system later perhaps may wait on that a few years. The presence of an 8K cover makes me skittish if salt corrosion can potentially get in there, but at the same time it seems like a decent idea to learn the basics before going further, i.e. learn to use a sextant before getting GPS, if that makes sense. The auto clean feature is still something I wonder about. It's 5K extra roughly, but I would love not to have to screw around with a vacuum.

How often/how challenging is it to scrub the sides of the pool?

Quote:"The auto clean feature is still something I wonder about. It's 5K extra roughly, but I would love not to have to screw around with a vacuum."

I recently signed a contract to install a 16X36 shotcrete pool. I'm in Florida, but I have lived in Beaverton if that helps :)

Anyway:

In-floor cleaner: Requires higher water pressure flow rates (increased electricity costs - although if you're on Bonneville power you may not care as much); Trouble with a planned solar system (cleaner flow rates too high for solar, accelerated solar panel failure due to expansion/contraction as the cleaning system cycles from one area to another); in-floor heads may have a good warranty, but the distribution device generally doesn't; more pool tank penetrations (for each cleaning head) meaning more places to leak that aren't covered by most warranties. There were a couple more, but that should give you some ideas to consider.

I decided I'd rather have a vacuum system - and my PB was offering the Paramount PV3 in-floor cleaning system with the MDX2 drain setup for $2100.

DocPops,

A UV system can only augment, not reduce the ppm needed in a pool. The UV can only reduce the some of the things that chlorine would normally go after before it gets the opportunity.

Anything attached to the pool walls still needs chlorine's services.

UV has 0 residual. If the system is off, it's effect is gone.

Is it needed? No
Is it nice to have? Yes.
Is it worth the money? I don't think so but to each his own.

In-Floor systems? No thanks. There are too many potential failure points, many of which are under the shell. You don't want to know what happens when a landscaper hits a dome or two (large pool, lots of zones). Or see the bill.

I still like Ray-Vacs, Polaris 280, and Pentair Legend. Always fixable but overall, pretty reliable.

Salt cells, as Mas985 said, know the limitations. A properly bonded pool, auto cover and all will last a long time.

Auto-cover fabrics typically last about 6-7 years before needing replacement. That's not cheap either. A good sturdy fence is a more durable solution and mandatory in many communities.

Scott

I love my UV system which I had installed with my new fiberglass pool two years ago. Very, very little chlorine needed and I have two German Shepherd dogs that swim in there regularly! I do some weekly maintenance with banish and polysheen and that's it. I take water samples in to the retailer that sold me the pool every 2-3 weeks and they let me know if anything else is needed. I too was discouraged from Saltwater with a stamped concrete patio. The concrete has to be resealed every couple years regardless of whether you have Saltwater or not. The water feels great, no red eyes because so little chlorine needed.

100% a salt system will at some point destroy your pool heater. it will start to rust and corrode it away. the heater is most expensive equipment to purchase around $3-4,000

Have young children. Newly considering an in-ground pool in AR; not a diving pool. Would be first-time pool owner. AR gets occasional ice (less snow) during winter with brief freezes. Not quite the mild climate of FL. Learned a lot by reading this thread. Has been both enlightening and eye-opening for sure.

Until now, assumed saltwater was a "no brainer" vs. traditional chlorine. Wasn't aware of corrosion risks. So saltwater system can be readily added to a pool as a future add-on if desired?

How much of a convenience is an in-floor self cleaning system compared to conventional pool vacuuming? Our pool would not be near trees w/ leaves.

Have been told automatic electric covers are nice. Approx. cost of this add-on? Or should we invest in other options over this?

Sounds as if saltwater will destroy a heating system over time? We liked the idea of getting a heater to speed up pool opening or allow kids to swim later in season.

Were told gunite pool "liners" need re-done or resurfaced every ~10 yrs? A few neighbors had opted for vinyl liners though their pools are smaller and more oddly shaped.

I welcome everyone's feedback on key lessons learned do's/don'ts. We meet with pool company next week to begin exploration. Already feel more informed than before.

I feel bad for pool owners trying to get straight answers on salt water. There is so much mis-information. If you have not yet, you need to read this article that explains exactly what happens when you add salt to a pool, but more importantly what you can do to prevent damage: Is salt water bad for swimming pools?

The reality is that increasing the salt level in your pool exposes you to additional risk of damage. The REAL problem is when salt systems are installed properly. If you have a gas heater and you add a salt water system without putting a check valve between the two results in a guaranteed early heater failure. Do you have a sacrificial anode system on your pool to provide cathodic protection to your pool and pool equipment? You should. Every single pool, either salt water or traditional chlorine, should have at minimum one inline sacrificial anode installed in the equipment room.

Pool owners get caught up in the benefits of salt water. If you really want the benefits but are worried about the potential damage to your pool then read this article about how to replicate the same benefits without the risk: 3 alternatives to salt water