How to Test Your Salt Levels in Your Pool

Saltwater pools use a chlorinator to turn regular pool salt into chlorine in order to properly sanitise their pool. In this article, we aim to discuss what happens when your pool does not have enough salt or has too much salt. What effect will this have on your chlorinator and on pool sanitisation?

How often should you be testing your pool salt levels?

We recommend testing your salt levels once per fortnight in summer. In winter, you will have less water loss so unless you have a major rain event you should only need to test your water once a month.

You should also check your salt after particularly heavy pool usage, such as a big pool party or after hosting the family for Christmas.

How to test your salt levels?

The best and easiest way to test your salt is to take a water sample into your local pool shop and get them to test your salt levels for you. However, if you really want to test it yourself, we would recommend using salt test strips.

The Apera Salt Electronic Pen Tester is a fast and accurate way to test your pool salt levels.

What can happen if you have low salt levels in your pool?

Running your pool with a low level of salt over a long period of time can damage your salt cell, as well as reduce its ability to produce chlorine. The low salt level reduces the conductivity of the water which causes the special coating on the salt cell to burn off quicker. Additionally, it makes the plates of the cell bow inwards toward each other, and if the plates ever physically touch the cell must be replaced immediately as that will cause a short circuit which will ruin other pieces of pool equipment.

How to fix your low salt levels?

Fixing low salt levels is easy, simply add the appropriate amount of salt to the water.

What can happen if you have High salt levels in your pool?

Having too high levels of salt in your pool can have serious consequences for your pool equipment. An excess of salt in the water increases the water’s conductivity, which can allow the cell to form a short circuit and ruin your salt cell, the power supply, and in extreme cases even potentially the pool pump (if running through the chlorinator).

How to fix your high salt levels

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to fix high salt levels. The only way to reduce the amount of salt in your pool is to drain water and replace it with fresh water