Salt water all the way for me. Low maintenance and you don't get out smelling of chlorine. I love having a pool and the cleaning is not a hassle. In fact, I find getting out there, scooping leaves and testing the water can be quite therapeutic.
I'll put my own vote in for Chlorinated by hypochlorite fresh water pools.
I have a swimspa, which is brominated and chlorinated, the water is fine, most people have problems because they put too much chlorine in the water. Get the good test sticks and test often and adjust accordingly.
Saltwater in my opinion is like bathing in a pool of warm sweat, uuuuurrrggghhhh.
I love the swimspa, low maintenance, hardcovers to keep the leaves etc out, and a "hairnet" for the hot spells. Top it up from the water tank. Spa end for me and the missus, deep end for the kids to play in.
Are you serious, I pay 17 bucks for 15 litres at my pool shop
Ditto on the $17.
I have half a drum of granular left too. I use it sparingly because it raises the calcium level and can cause scale on the vinyl liner which wears the baracuda and the liner.
Salt would corrode some steel components which are not stainless steel.
It's not having the chlorine level right that causes the smell - chloroamines are the problem. Add more chlorine to complete the breakdown and the smell goes.
A PhD in organic chemistry seems to be about the required level of education to operate a pool.
Time for some chemistry here. Or as Mythbusters say "Warning, science content"
It's not the salt that corrodes steel, corrosion of iron is an electrolytic process that requires; Iron (duh), water (probably no shortage of that in a pool), oxygen (again no shortage in an aerated pool), an electrolyte in the water so it conducts, lastly you need a carbon electrode in the iron (this is provided during the smelting process, fine particles of coke are embedded in the steel). So pure iron (quite different from steel, an alloy) will not rust. If you take away any of these things, the iron will not rust (sort of like the triangle of fire).
Just adding anything to the pool water that is ionic will increase the electrolytic capacity of the water and enhance the corrosion. Salt is a particularly good electrolyte. Hypochlorite salts are less so, but they are oxidising in the first place, so may help things along a bit anyway.
For those worried about scale in a chlorine pool, use Sodium Hypochlorite solution instead. Scale is insoluble Calcium and Magnesium salts, the Sodiated version of these are all soluble at the levels we're talking about.
Not sure about the chloramines, but I wouldn't discard it, but the amine part has to come from somewhere, and unless someone is peeing in your pool...
I have had both salt and chlorine in ground and above ground pools. Now i have a spa which is the best idea I have ever had. Bugger all maintenance and all of the fun, plus you get to sit down in a spa
Nice to have the choice.... Alas, if I swim in Chlorine, I am functionally blind for the next week. Chlorine is a toxic substance chemically so even if I was not snsitive to it, I'd still swim in salt any day.
Sorry, guys, my price I gave was wrong. Just checked up. It is $12 for 20 litres, $6 for 10 litres. Still very cheap . Your container though. . Give SWIMBO a top up of her bleach bottle. She probably spent $2.50 for 1 litre of bleach. Using pool chlorine, put just 250 ml into a 1 litre bottle of water and her bleach will be stronger than that supermarket stuff.
What's the story? Have you made any decisions yet? Some of us would like to know what you info you've come up with regarding the pool laws in NSW. Also what the salespersons have said to sway you over to their product.
Been doing some more investigations and spoke to council yesterday too.
It seems that:
1) I need to get council approval (and fill out a DA?)
2) In my local council area, I need a water tank, regardless of how many L the pool is. I need a 2000L tank minimum, which is going to add at least $1000 to the cost of getting this damn pool.
We've decided to go with Saltwater Chlorinated, but no deep end. The one we're looking at is 1.32m, which is ok. The deep end would add about $1500-$2000 onto the cost, thanks to the lining, excavation, installation etc, and for a small pool like we're getting (7.3m x 3.6m) it's just not worth it.
So it's sort of underway. Got an installer coming on Thursday to look at the site and get a better idea on price, where things will go etc.
I'm going to try and do the excavation myself, and also take the sand/crusher dust around the back myself. Otherwise i'm just paying someone to push wheelbarrows all day long (I have no other access to my backyard).
Its a lot of work, but you save a lot of money. Keep it above ground where its designed to be. The Former pool was badly installed into the ground and collapsed. Refer Thread: AAMI Rescued us.
I have been working on our inground. In 30 C+ heat its hard yakka.
Keep at it Mike, You'll get there.
Forget chlorine, forget salt. Ozone is the only sane way to go. Sure there is the upfront cost and you need to clean the electrodes periodically(although for extra cost a more sealed unit can be much lower maintainence.)Ozone will not affect your lungs or destroy your grass and you will not need to wash the salt off after. Ozone is a great bug killer and has no smell when dissolved in water. The running cost is electricity, although some systems use dessicants to dry the air before going through the plasma discharge. Guesstimate cost of ozonating system about $2,500 , running costs very little-pays for itself after about 5 years.
Is "ionised" the same thing as "ozone" ?. I had ionised installed, yes its good, but you have to be very carefull and persistant with upkeep and balance. Being somewhat forgetful and lazy, I let it go sometimes. Its a bietch to get right again, so I went back to chlorine by default unforch. You made the right choice Mike, enjoy ;-).
Mike, as you have a young family I'm sure you will look carefully at your choice of a pool fence. The reason I say this is that a lot of the so called approved pool fences will actually fail a proper test. Especially the bargain basement aluminium tube fences. I have seen some in a major hardware chain that with one hand you can squeeze two tubes together to a large degree. Some very determined skinny kid could quite easily squeeze through. I think I checked out the "Choice consumer" webpage. Anyway I'm sure you have this under control.
I use an ioniser set at minimum and an occasional use of a minimum amount of chlorine works really well. Pool always clear and clean. No smell and very cheap to run. I have often been told the best thing to do is keep you filters clean and run you pump everyday. Only neglect will make it a chore.
Just checked up. It is $12 for 20 litres, $6 for 10 litres. Still very cheap . Your container though. 
no Mike you must stand away from the pool 
