Good question, the old liners had heavy metals in the material which made them last a long time, mine is still going at 22 years but is looking a bit grubby at the waterline. New EU conforming liners do not have the heavy metals so expected to last 10 + not heard any comebacks yet so all looks ok. Ignore people on youtube like swimming poolsteve who is totally wrong as I have told him many times, he reckons 3 years which is cobblers as you can imagine the outcry and 10y insurances etc.
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Yes they do vary and so does the charge for treating the waste water which some places was 1x what you used and others 2x or even 3x bizarre i know but maybe thats changed now?
Yes salt water conversion is easy. You need a salt chlorine generator and a few bags of salt. If you are considering this, also look at the more modern AOP combined low salt and hydroxyl units, they produce hydroxyl radicals that are the strongest disinfection we have and can break down fats and oils ( sun creams and body oils) which chlorine struggles with. Its what I am fitting to my own pool.
We viewed one house with a chlorine pool and another with a salt water pool. The former - the seller said a pump house would be required for a salt water system. The latter had the chlorine generator in the cellier. I imagine a container around a metre high would be required to house the generator at the poolside at the first property. Living as we do currently in a semi in the town all this seems like a dream - a very pleasant dream. Our garden is like a postage stamp!
No a salt water converter, the pool water is saline solution and a small power unit and salt cell about the size of a 1/2liter water bottle, IMO all equipment should be under cover of some sort. Salt is converted to chlorine and when spent is back to salt then the process continues so long as there is power.
Thatās what weāve got. We took the decision to move our pump house when we changed over to a salt water pool so we moved it to one end of our pool and made a shaded area for our guests and a pool house with the door at the back which holds the sand filter, pump and very small salt water unit plus somewhere to store stuff. Our pool is 4m wide, so that gives you some idea of the width of the building.
Re the liner, ours is a sand colour which makes the pool a lovely light turquoise (donāt ask me how!)
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I like the sound of that. Nice construction too
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Sand colour is a nice choice, I may go for a slate grey next time. Quite popular in Italy and some high end pools. I remember the batiment de france said green (not an fāng chance) or sand.
I assumed the darker the liner the warmer the water. I remember going to a very nice hotel in Spain and they had a grey liner which looked good and when I asked, they said that it also helped to keep the pool warmer. Not sure if thatās reality 
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Yes its true, like most dark colours absorbing heat.
I wonder if that also translates into using more chlorine or salt, whichever system is used
I would expect so as a warmer pool would mean you use it more 
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I appeciate the help Iāve received on this topic.
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No problem happy to help.
We have had a saline system in the Perigord for 22 years are on our second sand coloured liner and the first went for 15 years before the Ultraviolet did for it.
The system requires an electrical generator and platinum electrode that splits salt and produces free chorine. The salt level needs to be monitored from time to time the odd bag chucked in to maintain it. The other byproduct is alkaline so we have an automatic pH monitoring electrode connected to a regulator and pump which takes acid from a big bidon and keeps the pH at 7.4 continuously. All that kit together with the pump and filter is buried in a 1. by 2 meter hole covered with a low tin roof as a ālocale techniqueā right next to the pool. The two major benefits are that there is virtually no odour of chlorine (as it is free rather than a bleach form) and it is more or less fully automated so requires little attention if anyone keeps an eye on your property when you are away. Make sure you get a French electrolysis system as the platinum electrodes can then be refurbished rather than replaced. Our first system ? American system was unreliable and expensive until we went native.
Covering the pool with a telescopic perspex abri runs it at 7C over ambient, keeps children and sanglier out and makes chlorine consumption minimal!
Thats a power supply that steps the 240v down to around 24v rather than as it sounds as a generator.
Salt chlorine production releases chlorine but also hydrogen bubbles which can cause the pH to rise. Reducing the alkalinity from the pool industry stated 80-120 ppm to 40-60 ppm vastly reduces any pH drift upwards. This can mean doing away with a pH dosing system which is a lot safer and of course less expensive. (Not what the pool industry wants). Figures for chemical levels are generally for concrete/tiled/plaster pools where the levels are suposed to protect the surfaces from errosion, that doesnt happen in vinyl liner or glass fibre pools.
This is just incorrect, a bidon of 20ltrs of bleach has virtually no smell, it smells when it reacts with other organics. It then changes from free chlorine to combined chlorine which is the traditional badly maintained swimming pool smell. The same hapens when it contacts the skin leaving the I have been using bleach smell. If your pool smells of chlorine then there is too much combined chlorine and not enough free chlorine hence we then shock the water (superchlorinate).
It is quite likely companies, certainly in the EU are doing an exchange cell plates idea now as there are valuable metals on those plates even when they are worn out. I will certainly keep an eye open for this at the next Lyon trade show in November. American marketed Chinese manufactured units might well be different to French marketed Chinese made units but as the pool industry is dominated by two companies these days its hard to find anything outside of the re badged main names. Pentair (American) Hayward (American but widespread in France) and Fluidra (Spanish) have gobbled up the market and smaller brands.
Yes should be made mandatory to save water, warm the water and reduce chemical usage.
The hybrid salt chlorinator and hydroxyl unit I mentioned above is Spanish and well built. As it produces both chlorine and hydroxyl radicals to sanitise the water and breakdown things chlorine cannot its a newer technology in the pool world but has advantages over a std chlorine only unit. It uses less than half the usual amount of salt. This takes the saline solution lower than the corrosion point for most stainless steel fittings even 304. Also safe for most pumps whereas high salt requires a pump that can cope with the potential corrosion of saline water. Expensive heat pumps wont be affected buy the low level of saline. Hydroxyl radicals are the most potent sanitiser we have and much safer than Ozone.
Cost is only a little bit higher than a salt chlorinator and often depending on where you buy about the same price.
Our previous house was inside the dreaded 500 metres of the village church and batiments de France insisted we had a sand colured liner and not the usual blue one proposed. We were apprehensive but very pleased with the ācolourā of the water.
I feel sure the sand coloured liner looked aesthetically pleasing from the window of the many passenger planes that passed over the pool at 30,000 feet when the pool was in use but not so much when the blue summer/winter cover was in place.
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I share your enthusiasm 
Stupid not knowing department actually belive a sand coloured liner will look just like that from the air 
. It is a more pleasing look than the standard blue liner though IMO.
What colour did they make the new roof of the chateau and museum of pre history near us? Swimming pool blue! You cannot makes this crap up.
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Tell me more please about the new generation salt generators?
Co-incidentally, not an hour ago I was chatting with my neighbour who invited me down for a blanquette as she is fed up feeding Javel and galets to her pool and wants to splash out on a generator like I have (Zodiac Expert).
Maybe I should stop and think on thisā¦?
I wouldnt go so far as to say new generation of salt chlorinators as its not a seed change in the industry. The Spanish unit I speak of, forget the US stuff that comes up from previous Ozone unit manufacturers trying to cash in on this when in reality they have bolted an Ozone uint to a salt chlorinator. Have been making these units for quite a few years, its the one previously used by Dryden Aqua, actually my suggestion when I was looking into AOP. They took it from there to more mainstrean and as companies got gobbled up by the bigger guys like Fluidra, this little company making the low salt hydroxyl chlorinators became part of Hayward with some new coloured cabinets Browsing the web now I am in france I found a company doing the original units for a good price. Whether I jump now or see whats at the Lyon trade show I have yet to decide but these could be great value as even small orders at trade dont always yield savings. Look at the price you found for AFM ng with free shipping for example, sure I can buy it cheaper but couldnt compete with shipping as well.
The price for the replacement of a standard liner depends on the service to be performed, on a new pool the price for a pool of 10 x 5 m for a standard liner is from: 2800 ā¬ HT. Replacement will we higher as need to strip off old etc. Plus labour I would say you are looking at around 8-10k TTC for everything.
The price is influenced by the laying of a staircase in the shape of the pool, if itās free-form pool the price is much higher.
NOTHING to do with the Fosse Septique. For the pool there will be a WASTE outlet somewhere around the garden where the water empties (using Waste setting on the control near the pump). This just runs off to the land/soakaway unless you can collect for future use in the garden.
When choosing replacement also check WHAT colour is allowed. When we had ours installed it was deemed BLUE (not allowed) by the Marie who stopped work (25 years agoā¦). Donāt ask why blue is not allowed. Anyway he was persuaded it was Torquoise, and all was wellā¦