The water in your swimming pool is the key to having lasting pool happiness. You need to keep it balanced, clean, and clear so that you and your loved ones are protected from pollutants and contaminants. It will also help you to avoid costly repairs caused by mineral build-up or corrosion. With the right knowledge, you will be able to make your pool last much longer.
Read on to learn how you can stay on top of maintaining your swimming pool water.
Proper swimming pool water maintenance
When it comes to maintaining swimming pool water, there are three things that you have to focus on:
1. Circulation
Even if you have never had any form of outdoor training, you must know that still, stagnant water is bad news. Just like in the great outdoors, you need moving water to have a safer, cleaner, and clearer pool. Proper pool circulation is a must for safe and healthy swimming.
When a pool has good circulation, it rarely faces any issues like pool algae infestation or cloudy water. For maximum circulation, you need to keep your filter system and pump running daily. Ideally, the pool pump should run 24×7. However, it is not feasible for everyone based on their budget or requirement. So, it is recommended that you run your filter for about 10 to 12 hours every day. It will turn the water over a couple of times and keep your pool clean and safe.
Another key component to proper pool circulation is backwashing your filter frequently. Backwashing means reversing the water flow through a filter followed by shunting the build-up contaminants and dirty port to the waste port which will carry them out of the pool. You need to learn how to clean your pool filter and make it a part of your pool care maintenance.
What you use for cleaning and backwashing your filter will depend on what filter you have. However, the underlying concepts are usually the same.
2. Cleaning
If your swimming pool has good circulation, cleaning it will become much easier. However, you will still need to do a couple of things. Here is what you will need:
- Pool vacuum
- Pool brush
- Net skimmer
The wind and people bring all types of wacky or wild things into your pool including leaves, mold, residues from perfumes, shampoos, and hair products, or even animals like frogs. All of these add to the bacterial contamination risk. In order to ensure safe swimming, cleaning your pool is a must.
Every week, you need to brush, skim, and vacuum your swimming pool. It will not only keep the debris out of the swimming pool water, but also keep the walls clean. You can either use a baking soda waste or a basic scoring cleaner that won’t damage the delicate vinyl liner or tile while brushing. Are you ever left wondering Why dirt is returning into the pool after vacuuming? We have the perfect guide for you!
If you want to cut your pool cleaning time short, you need an automatic pool cleaner. You will still have to skim and brush regularly, but the tasks will become a lot easier allowing you to spend your free time enjoying the pool and not cleaning it.
3. Chemistry
It is important that you balance your swimming pool water chemistry. It might sound complicated and intimidating, but there is nothing to worry about. Even though it is a very effective and essential part of water care and pool maintenance, basic chemistry of the pool is quite straightforward. What you will need is a water testing kit. Before you get your chemicals, the first thing that you have to do is pool water testing. You have to understand what’s in the water and what isn’t before you can start to balance it.
There are three important aspects of pool water chemistry:
- pH labels – This measures how basic or acidic your swimming pool water is. High pH levels are basic and low levels are acidic. The ideal pH range for your swimming pool water is between 7.4 to 7.6.
- Sanitizer levels – This covers the amount of bromine, chlorine, etc. in your water. The right level might vary depending on the sanitizer you are using.
- Alkalinity – Alkalinity is like a pH buffer that helps you avoid huge spikes in acidity or basicity. The ideal range of alkalinity is between 100 to 150 PPM. You can increase the alkalinity level of your pool by using baking soda.
Once you know your pool’s pH, sanitizer, and alkalinity levels, you can add chemicals for tweaking the water balance. It is important that you take your time and follow all the directions. Make sure that you know what the chemical does and the effect it will have on the water.
When you start to learn about pool maintenance for the first time, it can get a little intimidating. But, if you create a maintenance schedule, you will be able to stay organized and ensure that no important tasks are left unfinished. It will not only help you stay on top of your pool’s basic upkeep, but also plan ahead for advanced pool maintenance tasks like closing the pool, getting it ready for the summer season, or taking care of it when the summer is over. You should write down the maintenance schedule for your pool on paper and tape it on your fridge, wall, or somewhere near the pool. You can even add a name after each task to ensure that your family members, who are available on certain tasks for simple maintenance tasks, can share the workload with you.
Conclusion
Having your own swimming pool can be one of the most fun and rewarding ways for you to enjoy the summer season. Yes, it will need regular care, but this doesn’t mean that you will be stuck using a vacuum or finding the right chemicals. In fact, once you know how your swimming works and what you have to do in order to clean it, you can plan ahead. This way, you will be able to enjoy your swim and have peace of mind through a regular, thorough pool maintenance.
