Are Salt Water Pools Environmentally Friendly?

Are Salt Water Pools Environmentally Friendly?

ByGroovy Green Feb 15, 2012

No matter whether your pool is saltwater or chlorine you will need help with cleaning it. Robotic pool cleaners that do the job without any help from you are the best way to decrease your workload.  All an automatic pool cleaner needs is to be put into the pool and switched on. Some may need to be connected to the pool pump and filter also, but this is much quicker and easier than scrubbing the pool out by hand.

When choosing the type of pool to have, you may be wondering if salt water pools are environmentally friendly. In fact, even though the ocean is full of salt water, a pool full of salt water is not really eco friendly. For a start, all that salt can really rust and erode any metal in or near the pool, even if it is galvanised. You need to change all those components to brass, especially in places where salt water comes into contact with them on a regular basis.

Salt water is also bad for plants, so if you have a garden in or near the pool it is not likely to thrive. It is not only the salt in the water, but any fine mist that is swept off the top of the pool by strong wind would contain salt. Salt water may also have an adverse effect on the pool pump and the pool cleaners.

Many people think that a salt pool is a safer alternative to chlorine, but in fact there is also chlorine in a salt water pool, so it is doubly bad for the environment. Chlorine is a dangerous chemical that is a carcinogen and has been linked to asthma, rashes, skin irritation, headaches and other problems in cases where people spend a lot of time swimming in it.

If pets drink too much salt water they can die, so it’s imperative your pool fence be of a design that will keep them out, whether you are using the pool or not.

Don’t forget that swimming pool water is often ingested so it is not only what skin absorbs that is the problem. In addition, chlorine forms a gas that can be inhaled, which is just as bad because it can affect people who are not even swimming.

The best way to ensure your swimming pool is environmentally friendly is to use the alternative of copper/silver with oxygenation instead of chlorine or salt to purify the water. This is a cheaper and safer method of making your swimming pool water pure – pure enough to drink. In fact, chlorine is outdated; it’s only public perception of it as a safe way to purify water that keeps it in use.

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