Pool Salt Calculator

Maintaining the right salt concentration in your swimming pool is essential for a healthy, well-balanced, and crystal-clear swimming experience—especially if you use a saltwater chlorine generator. The Pool Salt Calculator is your go-to tool for determining how much salt you need to add to your pool to reach the ideal salt level, typically around 3,200–3,500 ppm (parts per million).

Whether you’re a first-time pool owner, a home maintenance enthusiast, or a pool cleaning professional, this tool is designed to take the guesswork out of pool salinity. It's especially useful when opening your pool for the season, refilling water due to splash-out or rain, or troubleshooting saltwater generator issues.

Let’s say you just filled your 40,000-liter pool and measured the current salt concentration to be 1,000 ppm. You want to raise it to 3,300 ppm, which is the sweet spot for most saltwater systems. Instead of manually crunching the numbers, just enter the pool volume, current salt level, and target salt level. The calculator instantly tells you how many kilograms of salt to add.

Real-world example:

• Pool volume: 1,000 L
• Current salt level: 5 ppm
• Desired level: 3,200 ppm

→ The tool tells you to add 3.195 kg of salt.

This calculator is perfect for:

• Homeowners managing their own pool
• Pool service technicians doing weekly maintenance
• Resort staff ensuring pool safety and comfort
• Rental property managers prepping vacation homes for guests

Keeping salt levels in check ensures the chlorinator runs smoothly, prevents corrosion, and keeps swimmers comfortable. It saves you money on chemicals and protects your pool equipment long-term.

The Formula Behind the Scenes:

We use the following formula to determine how much salt you need:

Salt to Add (kg) = (Desired PPM − Current PPM) × Pool Volume (L)/1,000,000​

Where:

• Desired PPM is the target salt level you want in the pool (typically around 3200 ppm).
• Current PPM is the salt level already in the pool.
• Pool Volume is the total amount of water in your pool (in liters).
• 1,000,000 is used to convert milligrams of salt (from ppm × liters) into kilograms, which is the unit most salt bags use.

Example:

Say you have:

• Pool volume: 2,000 liters
• Current salt: 2 ppm
• Desired salt: 3,200 ppm

Salt to Add = (3200 −2) × 2000/1,000,000

= 6396000/1,000,000

= 6.396 kg

So you’d need to add 6.4 kg of salt to raise your pool’s salt level to 3200 ppm.

Note:

If your current salt level is higher than your desired level, you shouldn’t add salt. Instead, you’ll need to drain and replace part of your pool water with fresh water — this calculator doesn’t handle that yet, but it’s something to keep in mind!

What You Need Before Using the Calculator:

• Your pool’s volume in liters
• A reading of your current salt concentration (ppm)
• Your desired salt level (usually between 2700–3400 ppm)

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please report them using the form below.