The only issues I have heard of are when a homeowner selects a softer coping stone material. Harder, less porous stones and brick type coping is impervious to salt.

Ozone is only a supplemental oxidizer. The amount of chlorine needed in the water is the same. With residential pools, it's a high margin mark up that needs periodic servicing.

Tablet feeders continually add stabilizer. It builds up constantly, requiring higher and higher chlorine levels to be used. Eventually, you're going to dump water to reduce the stabilizer level.

Occasionally adding pH lowering agents such as muriatic acid or bisulfate (dry acid) is no different than adding baking soda or dense ash (pH Up) that is needed with tablet feeders. Regular testing of the pool chems and adding whatever "food" it needs is the same amount of work.

Scott

The more I read comments on here and talk to other pool owners the more convinced I'm becoming that I want to go with Salt.

I'd seriously look into UV. Properly sized it does incredible things for the water.

Salt system can make the water feel really good, but they can wreak havoc on pool finishes, and pool equipment.

I agree with Scott - you might look into UV as well but I think they tend to be more expensive? Could be wrong on that.

I have also been very interested in this thread. I have one pool builder who refuses to use salt water any more, and produces examples of wear they've seen.. pictures as well as physical evidence (stone, before and after, etc)... who knows if it's really because of salt. Then I have other (multiple) pool builders who swear by salt.

Side Note: I thought a UV system was an ozone system.. isn't the ozone produced by a UV light/filter?

EBBQ

Not all UV units are the same. Some are trouble prone.

They do help some but unless it's a big pool high bather load or an indoor pool, the amount of benefit gain is pretty low. A properly balanced pool with the right amounts of free chlorine and stabilizer kills bio-baddies very quickly.

Scott

You can use Ultraviolet bulbs to create UV, but typically corona discharge systems produce much more ozone per watt.

A UV sterilizer that UV rays come in contact with the water is a different beast.

Ultraviolet Sterilizers destroy bacteria, and chloramine. They to not create any toxic chemicals like salt, and ozone systems. Since the water passing through the cell is sterilized, you need less chlorine in the system to combat bacteria.

The dramatically improve the clarity of the water as well.

I used to be a skeptic, but every pool I have installed one on i have been able to notice tangible benefits.

Scott: indoor pools are a perfect place for UV because chloramines create an obnoxious odor, reducing them improves the air quality in the pool rooms dramatically. Plus many of them are covered frequently which doesn't allow them to oxidize properly causing other water quality issues.

are any of the varieties of Flagstone ok for coping if using salt. Right now the build says Oklahoma Flagstone.

What is UV compared to Ozone? I'm not clear on this?

Thanks

Simplified explanations:

Oxygen is a diatomic gas. Two atoms will share the outer electrons to form a weak bond forming a molecule. It's chemical symbol is O2.

When heavily charged, a 3rd Oxygen atom may join the party to form O3, aka ozone. This gaseous ion will reduce organics and oils into inert and harmless inorganic compounds that bio-baddies can't eat.

It doesn't last long from the time it is generated to the time it breaks down. It is injected on the suction side of a pool's pump. By the time it meets the device adding chlorine at the end of the equipment pad, that which don't do any work will have will have broken down back to O2 molecules.

UV is Ultra Violet light. Circulating water passes through a vessel that has a special light bulb that creates a specific light frequency that changes a bio-baddie's DNA so that it can't reproduce. Chlorine then kills the bio-baddie.

UV leaves no residual. Once the water leaves the cell, the work is done.

Both can reduce the amount of work chlorine needs to do but for the vast majority of residential pools, it isn't needed due to the lower levels of organics, bio-baddies, surface area, and bather loads.

Of the two, I prefer a good UV system. It stops the reproductive cycles of bio-badies, some of which are, while rarely found in a residential pool, chlorine resistant and fast reproducers. It also has fewer servicing needs than an ozone generation system.

Ozone, like chlorine, can be hard on plastics over time. This can and does lead to parts breaking.

Scott

What is a good choice for coping with salt?
Are any varieties of Flagstone ok?
We have Oklahoma Flagstone selected now, but can easily change.

Without seeing it at the yard, I can't say specifically.

What's in a name?

Typically, the denser, harder, and less porous, the better the durability, regardless of the chlorination method used. Some stone materials should be sealed periodically.

Scott