mikemonster

I've had my salt pool for about 15yrs. First cell lasted about 8 at which time I changed salt systems to a Zodiac LM2-24 which I really like from a service & maintainence stand point. Yes, there is maintainence required, a couple of times a year I pull the cell and flush the build up of salt from the plates ( takes about 10 minutes). Once a month I do need to add about a 1/2 gal of acid to maintain the PH. So that adds up to 6 gals of acid $36/year I also add about 50lbs of salt once a year thats $4.39 at Home Depot (water softener salt) total $40+tax/year, Replacement cells are $354/8yrs = $45/yr. So total operating cost is about $85/year. Initial system investment is about $950 for a complete new system so that would be about $120/yr ($950/8yrs) + $40= $160/yr for the first 8 years. OR a savings of $560 over 8 years using your current cost of $230/year for chemicals. Hope this helps, Mike OH, without the need for chemicals if you have a half way decent pool sweep you could fire the pool man too and save even more

New guy here (to this forum) sorry if this is a bit long. I've been researching solar rings for a couple of years and have the same questions most folks do (ie- how well do they work?) I found a couple of listings on Craigslist and thought I would finally find out for myself if rings are a good option for me. My pool is a free form 34'x20 and approx 21K gal. with autofill ( so I can't check for evap) Cost: They are expensive I've found them priced from $17 - $40 per ring. I was able to negotiate my "used" rings for $10 ea. The rings- Solar Sun Rings inc. makes them (the ones with the plam tree on the rings) I found there is an old style which features a smaller outer ring and which is more prone to flip in wind 12mph+. The newer style has a larger outer tube and baffles on the underside which trap water and are more stable (I haven't had one of these flip even in 20mph wind. Number of rings needed: there are tools to calculate this but in the end you will just need to find out. The 2 deals from Craigs got me 24 rings. I had calc'd 18-20 and I used 22. I've seen reference on the SSR web site that you only need 80% coverage but I kept throwing them in until I couldn't fit any more , I'm guessing 90%+ coverage. I've only had them on a couple of weeks now but here's my observations: Ambient temp has been low for this time of year so far (inland SF bay area) day time temps are avg 70-80, nights in high 50's mid 60's. In the AM I check the temp and it's averaging 71deg, by 4 o'clock it's about 78deg. Before the rings it was about 65deg AM and up to 72deg at 4 o'clock. Before rings I had a few full bubble covers. I found that the first cover (include by the builder) was the best and cheapest. It was the thin mil blue bubble and it would raise pool temp into the mid 90's if I left it on. The second was a silverbacked diamond pattern which really never got the pool up past mid 80's. Last one was a clear bubble which performed like the silver backed cover. Summary- since I haven't had them on a season I can't really say how they perform yet, however, it does look promissing. I do like the fact that I don't have the cover & reel on my deck and that they are easy to handle. mike update: Today was our first 90deg day with the rings. Pool temp at 8:00AM was 74deg, at 4:30pm it is at 81deg .