Scupper bowls and salt water

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Thanks for reply; I am in North Carolina. Sorry I have not filled out signature bc we r still deciding on specifics. I was looking at concrete bowls from Arizona Pottery. I spoke to them on phone and they recommended not using them in salt water pools (SWG) bc the bowls tend to corrode. They say they do not have that problem in regular chorine pools. Wondering others experience or brands that have been used successfully.
 
Thanks for the state ---

I cannot see how they can say that. All pools contain salt. Now if it is because some people with SaltWater pools were told they were 'maintenance free' and thus let their pH get out of control or used dry acid instead of muriatic acid (which will damage concrete, metal, etc) that would be true.

If you get a proper test kit, maintain your water to TFP standards, I do not see how salt water will have any effect on the concrete bowls. The pool will be concrete, will it 'corrode' due to salt - -I think not.
 
Are these concrete bowls sealed in some way? Are they porcelain or ceramic? A bare concrete bowl would be a bad idea for a water feature, not because of corrosion but because of calcium scale and/or efflorescence. If the cementitious material is sealed somehow, that's a different story. But bare concrete would be a big red flag to me.

Can you provide a link to the product?

Metal bowls (marine grade steel or copper) would be better but only if the steel ones are powder coated. Some kind of ceramic or porcelain bowl would be the best material to use as it would be inert to pool water.
 
The automatic systems are problematic as the probes need to be continually calibrated and replaced. Better is to use a dosing system with manual testing and thus you set your dosing pump to dispense so much per day, and then test every few days to adjust as necessary.

Not sure you need that in NC. I would think your fill water is pretty good and once your TA and pH balance there is not that much rise in pH. Is your fill water high in TA (greater than 80 ppm) or high in pH?

Take care.
 
I would not use those bowls in a salt water pool either....but not because of corrosion.

Do you see in the picture how all of the pedestals are soaking wet? All of that moisture is backsplash from the pool. As it dries, it will leave salt and minerals behind and you are going to get evaporite deposits all over the bowls and the pedestals holding them. Evaporites don't redissolve easily because they are typically a mixture of salts, calcium, magnesium, leached silicates from the bowls themselves, etc. With a concrete bowl, you won't be able to acid clean it away and so you'll be stuck with the deposits or stuck paying someone to soda-blast the deposits off.

I would suggest you modify your design to use built in wall scuppers or sheer descents that have a tile facade. Porcelain tile can be cleaned much more easily than stacked stone or concrete type surfaces.

The choice is obviously up to you but I can easily see bowls like that looking beautiful in the first season and then an ugly eyesore every year after that...
 

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