How Much Salt to Add to a Salt Water Pool

The bags your salt system needs, and how to add salt in 8 steps.

Salt doesn’t evaporate, so an extra bag stays in the pool until you drain it. Overshoot by enough and some systems complain: Jandy flags anything above 4,000 ppm.

Enter your gallons and a salt test, then pick your salt system. You get pounds and 40-lb bags to that system’s manual target: 3,000 ppm for Jandy AquaPure, 3,600 or 3,400 ppm for Pentair IntelliChlor.

Pool size (gallons)

What your test shows (ppm)

A new pool with no salt is 0.

What your panel shows (ppm) optional

Optional; leave blank if your panel shows only lights. The dose uses the test when both are filled.

Salt system

Jandy AquaPure range: 3,000–3,500 ppm

Target (ppm)

Filled from the Jandy manual.

This calculator adds three checks the top pool salt calculators skip. It works out gallons from the shallow and deep ends, flags a reading typed in g/L, and warns when a target sits above your system’s range. The 8 steps below come from the Pentair and Jandy manuals.

Example result

Example: 15,000 gal at 2,000 ppm. Type your own numbers.

Add 125 pounds of salt to raise 15,000 gallons from 2,000 to 3,000 ppm.

pounds: 125
40-lb bags: 3.5
kilograms: 57

SourceTarget 3,000 ppm from the Jandy AquaPure Installation and Operation Manual, §4.7.

PanelJandy publishes no accuracy figure for its panel’s salt reading.

Test 2,000

Salt in the water now
Salt to add
Salt above target
Target
Jandy range

Drawn from gallons only, so the floor is left open. Drag the far wall to change gallons, or open “Don’t know the gallons?” to draw your shallow and deep ends.

Targets from each salt system’s manual or published manual excerpt

PentairIntelliChlor IC15–IC60
JandyAquaPure / PureLink
HaywardAquaRite (TurboCell) / AquaRite S3
CircuPoolRJ / Universal / CORE · excerpt
IntexCS8110 / CS8220 / CS15110 / CS20110 · ECO5110 / ECO6110

Manuals last reviewed Sep 2026 · sourcing methodology

The procedure

How to add salt to a pool in 8 steps

Adding salt to a pool takes 8 steps, from a first test to switching the cell back on.

They combine Pentair’s “How to Add Salt to the Pool” and the Jandy AquaPure §4.7.4 procedure into one sequence. On Hayward, CircuPool or Intex, follow your own manual.

Step 1 needs a reading you can trust. For strip, drop-kit and meter steps, see how to test the salt level.

New plaster needs time before any salt goes in. Jandy (§4.7.1) says to wait 30 days for new concrete or resurfaced plaster; Pentair says at least one month. Vinyl and fiberglass pools can take salt at start-up, per Jandy. For a new vinyl liner, Pentair says to ask the liner manufacturer for guidelines before adding salt. For other brands, follow your manual.

Test the salt level before adding anything.
Turn the pump on so the water is moving (the Jandy procedure starts here).
Turn chlorine production off while the salt goes in. Jandy sets the production rate to 00%. Pentair has you power the cell on only after the salt dissolves.
Broadcast the salt around the outer perimeter of the pool, or into the shallow end. Don’t add salt through the skimmer, main drain or surge tank.
Brush the pool bottom so salt doesn’t sit in piles on the surface.
Let the pump run for 24 hours so the salt dissolves completely.
After 24 hours, check the panel and a separate test. Don’t trust one reading alone.
Turn chlorine production back on and set the output that holds free chlorine in range.

At the store

What salt to buy for a saltwater pool

For a Pentair or Jandy system, buy pool salt that’s at least 99.8% pure sodium chloride with no additives. Pool stores sell it in 40-lb bags; the bag price is on pool salt cost. The bag should pass all 4 checks below, taken from Jandy §4.7.2 and Pentair’s “What Type of Salt to Use”. For another brand, use the spec in your own manual.

Pool salt is at least 99.8% pure sodium chloride
Both manuals call for at least 99.8% sodium chloride: evaporated, granulated, food quality and non-iodized.
No anti-caking additives
Both manuals say to avoid salt with an anti-caking agent, such as sodium ferrocyanide (YPS).
No rock salt
Both manuals rule out rock salt.
Salt pellets are allowed
Both manuals allow water-conditioning pellets, sold as softener salt. They dissolve slower than granulated salt, and Pentair warns they could damage plaster and other surfaces.

Softener salt is fine only if the bag meets the same purity and has no anti-caking agent.

By pool size

How much salt does each pool size need?

Plan on about 83 pounds of salt per 10,000 gallons for every 1,000 ppm you raise the salt level. The table covers 6 pool sizes from 5,000 to 30,000 gallons at salt-level rises of 400, 800 and 1,200 ppm, in pounds, 40-lb bags and kilograms.

Salt to add by pool size and salt-level rise: pounds, 40-lb bags and kilograms
Pool size	Salt-level rise	Pounds	40-lb bags	Kilograms
5,000 gal	+400 ppm	17	0.5	7.6
	+800 ppm	33	1	15
	+1,200 ppm	50	1.5	23
10,000 gal	+400 ppm	33	1	15
	+800 ppm	67	2	30
	+1,200 ppm	100	2.5	45
15,000 gal	+400 ppm	50	1.5	23
	+800 ppm	100	2.5	45
	+1,200 ppm	150	4	68
20,000 gal	+400 ppm	67	2	30
	+800 ppm	134	3.5	61
	+1,200 ppm	200	5	91
25,000 gal	+400 ppm	83	2.5	38
	+800 ppm	167	4.5	76
	+1,200 ppm	250	6.5	114
30,000 gal	+400 ppm	100	2.5	45
	+800 ppm	200	5	91
	+1,200 ppm	300	7.5	136

Units: 1 pound = 0.454 kilograms (1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds), and 1 g/L = 1,000 ppm. Jandy lists salt in g/L, so its 3.0 g/L first-fill level (AquaPure manual §4.7) is 3,000 ppm.

How much salt does a first fill to 3,200 ppm take?

Going from zero to 3,200 ppm takes about 267 pounds of salt (7 of the 40-lb bags) per 10,000 gallons. Pool guides commonly give 3,200 ppm as the ideal. Your salt system’s manual may set a different target, and the calculator at the top of this page uses that one.

First fill from zero to 3,200 ppm by pool size: pounds, 40-lb bags and kilograms
Pool size	Pounds	40-lb bags	Kilograms
5,000 gal	134	3.5	61
10,000 gal	267	7	121
15,000 gal	401	10	182
20,000 gal	534	13.5	242
25,000 gal	668	17	303
30,000 gal	801	20.5	363

For a different rise, or a pool that already has some salt, use the calculator at the top of this page or the pool salt calculator on the home page. Don’t know your gallons? Get them from length, width and the shallow and deep ends in the pool volume calculator.

By salt system

How much salt does each salt system's target take?

Filling a 15,000-gallon pool from zero takes 376 pounds (9.5 of the 40-lb bags) at the Jandy AquaPure target of 3,000 ppm. At the Pentair IntelliChlor target of 3,600 ppm, it’s 451 pounds (11.5 bags). The amount changes by brand because each manual sets its own target.

First fill of 15,000 gallons from zero to each salt system's manual target: pounds, 40-lb bags and kilograms
Salt system	Target ppm	Pounds	40-lb bags	Kilograms
Pentair IntelliChlor (English section)	3,600	451	11.5	204
Pentair IntelliChlor (Spanish section)	3,400	426	11	193
Jandy AquaPure	3,000	376	9.5	170
Hayward AquaRite	3,200	401	10	182
CircuPool	3,500	438	11	199
Intex Krystal Clear	3,000	376	9.5	170

For every brand’s target, range and warning lights, see the salt level chart by brand.

Overshoot

What to do if you added too much salt

Drain part of the water and refill with fresh. No chemical takes salt out. A 15,000-gallon pool at 5,000 ppm with a 3,000 ppm Jandy AquaPure target, for example, replaces 40% of its water in one drain.

For your gallons and inches, stage by stage, see the how to lower pool salt level page. Each system’s target and range are on the pool salt level chart.

Bags

How many 40-lb bags of salt does a pool need?

Raising a 15,000-gallon pool by 1,000 ppm takes 3.5 of the 40-lb bags. That’s 125 pounds ÷ 40 = 3.13 bags, rounded up to the next half bag.

Bag counts round up to the next half bag (20 lb), but the last 2% of a bag (0.8 lb) doesn’t count. So a dose less than 0.8 lb past a whole or half bag stays at that count.

125 lb = 3.5 × 40-lb bags

Owner questions

Questions about adding salt to a pool

How many bags of salt does a 10,000-, 15,000- or 20,000-gallon pool need?

Going from no salt to the 3,200 ppm ideal that pool guides give, a 10,000-gallon pool needs 7 of the 40-lb bags (267 lb), a 15,000-gallon pool 10 (401 lb) and a 20,000-gallon pool 13.5 (534 lb). If your salt system’s manual sets a lower or higher target, you’ll need fewer or more bags. The calculator uses your target.

How often do you add salt to a pool?

Add salt when a test reads below the low edge of your salt system’s range. There’s no fixed schedule. Retest whenever the pool loses water and takes on new water (backwashing, splash-out, rain overflow or a refill), since the new water dilutes the salt. Then the calculator gives the pounds to reach your target.

How long after adding salt can you swim?

Pool guides commonly say you can swim once the salt has dissolved. Their figures run from about 20 to 45 minutes up to a few hours, and 24 hours of circulation is the conservative rule. The Pentair and Jandy manuals publish no swim wait; both give 24 hours of pump time before you retest. We haven’t checked the Hayward, CircuPool or Intex documents for one.

Where do you pour the salt?

Broadcast the salt around the outer perimeter of the pool, or into the shallow end. Don’t add salt through the skimmer, main drain or surge tank.

Do you turn chlorine production off while the salt goes in?

Yes, on a Jandy AquaPure. Set chlorine production to 00%, because running the cell without dissolved salt damages it. Pentair’s guide has you power the cell on only after the salt dissolves. On Hayward, CircuPool or Intex, follow your manual.