Shak, yes it does. The stabilized tablets contain CYA which will eventually build up in your pool and make your chlorine less effective (see table above posted by Keithw). You need a certain amount of CYA. A desireable reading is 30-50 ppm. Get a 6-way test kit. I got mine at Walmart. The only way to get rid of it is to drain your pool. In fact, we drained my mother's yesterday and it is filling up right now. Hopefully we can get her pool back to normal. Keithw, that's a nice gadget. Let us know how it works if you get one. A cup a day is easy. I'll just have to start with a few cups a day for my diving pool and see how it goes.

my pool was a traditional chlorine pool for over a year after it was built. we could not decide for sure if we wanted swg or not. i used the BBB method and it worked great and never had a problem. a month ago or so, we installed a SWG. i was tired of dumping the clorox everyday. it was as simple as that. we did not do it because of a better water feel, or anything like that. We do not notice any difference actually at all. its just alot less maintenance. But, and heres a bit BUT, do not ever think that its maintenance free. People who think that having a SWG makes their pool maintenance free end up with algae. I still have to check my Ph and have been adding muriatric acid about every 4th day or so. Its still new and i'm still making adjustments and getting the feel for it and how my pool is responding to it. you also really should keep your calcium hardness, CYA, alkalinity at the right levels too. failure to do this will result in problems. No matter what, every pool owner should know how to maintain their pool and how to check their chemicals themselves. I don't know if its going to be any less expensive over the long run, but that was not an issue for me. i was only interested in not having to dump clorox anymore. this makes it worth it to me. you also have to know to check the cell itself every 3 months to check for calcium buildup. letting this stay on there will shorten the life of the cell. as far as electricity, it uses a very small amount. its really insignificant. I do love having a SWG now. The time i spent without it i am glad for too for the learning experience. I have had both now and am very sure of which i like the best.

I haven't seen Monopersulfate/MPS (short chemical name) in a slow dissolve form. I don't use it except when converting from Baquacil and like products to chlorine sanitation. Just prior to winterizing, I normally add several gallons of bleach to boost the chlorine and some algaecide, then winterize it. There is no magic. Keep light out and it opens as it was closed. Expensive additives, IMHO, are just a waste of your money. If you want to spend it, thanks for helping the economy. Scott

Also sold on SWCGs. There have been a couple of very long threads about the cons of SWCGs on other forums. It appears to center on the effect of long-term salt exposure on natural rock surfaces and concrete. To my reading, it seems as if this is more of a concern for those who are in areas where there's little rain to periodically clean off or dilute the salt, but one can always hose off your stone surfaces when rainfall is not sufficient. Gorilla is right on track...you still need to keep your pool water balanced with an SWCG. Using an SWCG does not mean the end to pool water balancing and adjustment. My own AquaRite cell has only been inspected at the normal intervals when the system triggers a "check cell" indicator. Each time, the cell has been fine and required no special cleaning. As far as cost is concerned, I don't believe that there's any cost savings to using an SWCG, only a very substantial convenience factor. I'd say the costs of an SWCG vs manual chlorination are about the same when you include the initial cost of the system and cost of replacement cell whenever that might be needed.