Magnesium-mineral pool, salt pool, chlorine pool — what's the difference?

The three systems, in one paragraph each

Chlorine pool. The original. You (or a system) add liquid or tablet chlorine to the water; chlorine kills bacteria and algae, then dissipates and gets topped up. Smells like a public pool, bleaches swimwear, dries skin, irritates eyes. Cheapest to install, most labour-intensive to maintain.

Salt-chlorinator pool (often shortened to "saltwater pool"). You add granulated salt — sodium chloride — to the water. A chlorinator cell runs current through the salty water and generates chlorine from the salt by electrolysis. Important point: it's still a chlorinated system. The water just isn't poured with chlorine; the chlorine is manufactured on the fly. Easier on the skin than a manually-chlorinated pool, but the chemistry load isn't dramatically lower.

Magnesium-mineral pool. Honestly — this is a flavour of saltwater pool. The cell is the same kind of electrolysis chlorinator. The difference is what you dissolve in the water: magnesium chloride and potassium chloride (often with trace sodium chloride) instead of plain table salt. The cell still generates chlorine on demand, but the mineral mix means it generates roughly half as much (~1–2 ppm vs ~3 ppm in a sodium-only system), because magnesium and potassium also help with sanitization and pH buffering. The other real difference: magnesium and potassium ions feel softer on the skin than sodium, so the water reads silkier and doesn't leave a chlorine smell on hair or skin. Brands like MagnaPool pioneered this for full-size pools; we use the same category of system in our thermal spa. It is not chlorine-free. It is a gentler, lower-chlorine, mineral-rich version of a saltwater chlorinator — and on a plunge-pool-sized volume the wellness side of the chemistry actually lands.

Side-by-side: what you actually notice

Feel & experience	Chlorine	Salt-chlorinator	Magnesium-mineral
Skin feel	Stripped, often itchy	Softer than chlorine	Softer again — magnesium/potassium ions
Eye sting	Common on lower-end balance	Reduced	Rare to none
Chlorine smell on skin	Strong	Mild	None reported
Chlorine generated	Full dose (~3 ppm), hand-added	Full dose (~3 ppm), in-line from sodium chloride	~1–2 ppm, in-line from magnesium & potassium chloride
Weekly maintenance	High — balance + dose	Moderate — salt + cell check	Low — minerals + cell check
Sanitization category	Hand-dosed chlorine	Saltwater chlorinator (sodium)	Saltwater chlorinator (magnesium-mineral variant)

When a salt-chlorinator pool makes sense

If you're building a full-size swimming pool — 400 to 800+ sq ft of water surface, used primarily for laps or family swimming, with a budget that prioritizes lower upkeep over wellness chemistry — a salt-chlorinator pool is a reasonable default. The water volume justifies the chlorine generation, and the maintenance is genuinely easier than a hand-dosed chlorine pool. Most new Vancouver-area in-ground pools default to this.

When chlorine still wins

If install cost is the priority and you'll have a pool service handle weekly chemistry, a traditional chlorine pool is the cheapest to install and the most universally serviceable. Every pool company knows how to maintain one. Modern automation can hide most of the chemistry work, so the experiential downsides matter less if you're not in the water daily.

Why magnesium-mineral suits a thermal spa

A swimming pool is sized for sport. A thermal spa is sized for daily contrast-therapy soaking — a much smaller water volume, used by one to six people who are in direct skin contact with the water for ten to thirty minutes at a time, often twice a day, often year-round.

That changes the chemistry trade-offs significantly:

• Smaller volume = stronger mineral concentration at the same dose, so the magnesium and potassium benefits land harder.
• Higher skin-contact ratio: you're not swimming through the water, you're soaking in it. Soft, low-chemical water matters more.
• Daily use: weekly chlorine-balance homework that's tolerable for a pool used twice a week becomes a chore for a vessel used twice a day. A mineral system reduces that load.
• Hot zone & cold zone in one vessel: contrast-therapy water needs to be clean, fast-heating, fast-cooling, and skin-friendly. Mineral sanitizing is well-suited to this; full chlorine generation in a small, hot zone is harsher on bathers.

This is why every Nore Haus ships with a magnesium-mineral system as standard. The same mineral chemistry behind every European spa-town tradition for the last two centuries, in a vessel sized for a real backyard.

The honest answer to "which one is right for me"

Are you building a swimming pool for sport or family recreation? Go salt-chlorinator. It's the modern default and you'll be happy with it. Want it cheap and ready to outsource? Chlorine pool, automated.

Are you building a backyard wellness instrument — a vessel for daily hot soak and cold plunge, contrast therapy, year-round — that you want to step into without thinking about pool chemistry? Magnesium-mineral, every time.

If you'd like to see what one looks like in your actual backyard, request a free design render with your address and we'll return a photorealistic placement in 72 hours, no commitment.