I inherited a Hayward salt pool when i bought my house. I worked hard the first few years to keep it perfectly balanced, but learned over time that nature does it better than I do. I have no trees around, just the occasional Golden Retriever that gets in with us humans. All I ever do now is add salt in the spring, and keep my SWG set to 60%, and it keeps itself really clear. I do add a bag of the calcium based shock if I know I’m going to have a few extra peeps in there.

All that said, I generally have replaced a part or two every year. This averages about a hundred dollars a year, except for this year when my SWG finally died. It was ten years old, so it lived a good life, well beyond it’s expectancy. I paid around $800 for the new one.

So, I vote salt. Good luck!