A self-cleaning pool? Sounds blooming marvellous! Where do I get one?

Before you start jumping up and down with joy, let’s look at the process of polarity inversion. Rather than being fully self-cleaning, this is a low maintenance option, where cell electrodes constantly change the direction of the current, usually every five hours.

This allows the layers of scale deposited on the electrode plates to be removed and so maintain the cell. In the case of extremely hard water, some chlorinators are able to clean the electrodes more frequently by shortening the polarity inversion time, such as every 2.5 hours.

However, a shortened polarity time can cause more wear and tear of the electrodes, and so pool professionals generally handle this aspect of saltwater chlorinators themselves.

Remember, maintenance and care of your salt chlorine generator is essential for the performance and life of your unit.