How We Test and Who Writes This

Pool advice online has a credibility problem. Dosing charts contradict each other by a factor of ten, the same “10 to 15% of US pools are saltwater” statistic gets copied between sites with no source behind it, and manufacturers tell you to “drain approximately 1/8 of your pool” without showing the arithmetic. So it is fair to ask where our numbers come from.

The three kinds of claim on this site

Arithmetic. Dosing, volume and dilution are maths, not opinion. We show the formula every time so you can check it.

One pound of salt in 1,000 gallons raises salinity about 120 ppm, because 1,000 gallons of water weighs roughly 8,345 pounds. A cubic foot holds 7.48 gallons. The area of an ellipse is π/4 × length × width, which is why an oval and a circle share a multiplier, and why guides quoting 6.7 for ovals are overstating volume by about 14%. None of that is a matter of interpretation, and if we get any of it wrong we want to hear about it.

Published figures. Prices, cell lifespans, market sizes and maintenance costs come from named sources with a live link, every time. If we could not find a credible source, we say “we could not find a reliable figure” rather than repeating a number that is circulating.

The clearest example: nobody publishes a dependable count of US saltwater pools. We say so on the pillar page and then show the adoption figures that do exist, with their dates and their sources, so you can draw your own conclusion.

What owners actually report. The problems we write about came from reading pool forums rather than guessing at what people struggle with. Trouble Free Pool, PoolForum archives, the comment threads under Inyo Pools’ how-to guides, Houzz discussions, JustAnswer, and the comments under the big saltwater maintenance videos on YouTube.

When we quote an owner, we link to the thread. Those quotes are the evidence for our central claim, which is that the most expensive mistake in a salt pool is trusting a control panel that cannot actually measure salt.

What we test ourselves, and what we do not

We are honest about this because it affects how much weight to give us.

We do test the arithmetic in every calculator against hand-worked examples, and we publish the working on the page so you can verify it.

We do not run a product testing lab. We have not destructively tested forty salt cells or measured the accuracy of every salinity meter on the market. Where we discuss equipment, we are synthesizing manufacturer specifications, published pricing and the documented experience of owners, and we will say which.

That means you should trust us most on method and chemistry, and treat our equipment commentary as informed opinion rather than bench testing. Anyone claiming bench-tested results on consumer pool equipment should be asked to show the bench.

Corrections

We have already corrected ourselves in public once in our own planning, when a claim we made about the long tail of pool volume keywords turned out to be wrong on checking. Same standard applies here.

If something on this site is wrong, tell us through contact. We will fix the page and note what changed and when. Pages that get materially corrected carry a dated note at the bottom rather than being quietly edited.

Who writes this

This site is written by pool owners who got tired of the gap between what the equipment does and what the guidance says it does. We are not affiliated with any equipment manufacturer, we do not sell cells, salt or systems, and no manufacturer has any say over what appears here.

How we make money

Two ways, both stated plainly.

We sell our own digital guides, currently the Salt Cell Protection Kit at $47 and the free True Pool Volume Workbook. Those are ours, we wrote them, and there is no third party involved.

We earn affiliate commission on some equipment and test kit links. That is covered in full on our affiliate disclosure page.

The conflict of interest worth naming: we make nothing when you replace a cell, and we do make something when you buy a $47 guide that might help you avoid replacing one. That is a better alignment than a pool store has, but it is not no alignment at all, so here is the test you can apply. Every page that could sell you something also tells you when not to buy it. The Salt Cell Protection Kit page has a section headed “who this is not for,” and it is not decorative.