In the summer heat, nothing feels better than diving into a cool pool, instantly making you feel refreshed. A pool is a fantastic facility to own whether you’re a big business or a private owner. However, like many other facilities, pools need constant maintenance and care to provide the service they are made for. On that note, here are some maintenance tips that will help you take care of your pool.
Balance Your Water’s Chemistry
While it might sound intimidating at first, especially for chemistry haters, taking care of your pool’s chemistry is not as scary as it sounds. A pool’s chemistry is essential to proper pool maintenance. All you need is a pool water testing kit that will allow you to understand what your water contains, which will help you balance its chemicals further on. There are three important chemistry components that you should know more about: pH, alkalinity, and sanitizer; their levels determine the quality of your pool water.
Testing your pH levels allows you to measure how acidic or basic your pool is. Having high pH levels means that your pool is basic while having low levels means it’s acidic. The ideal pH range is between 7.4 and 7.6. As for alkalinity, it’s a pH buffer that can help you keep its levels at an appropriate range. Finally, with understanding the sanitizer levels, you can understand how much bromine, chlorine, or other chemicals you need to keep your water clean. Once you understand all of it, you’ll be able to tweak your water’s chemistry to reach proper balance.
Check On Your Water Levels
As important as chemicals are, checking on your physical water level is as important. The ideal water level should be at the center of your pool tile or skimmer. If your water pool is too high or low, it will either harm your skimmer door or pump. No need to worry as it’s quite easy to fix these types of issues. If your water levels are too low, then simply add the necessary amount of water to your pool, and make sure to adjust your chemicals accordingly. If your water levels are too high, then you can either use a submersible pump and drain the excess or, if the pump is too heavy on your liner, you can seek a professional’s help.
Skim And Scrub Regularly
Skimming the leaves and debris off of your water surface is a must-do activity that should preferably be done daily. You should also accompany that daily chore with a regular scrub every one or two weeks for your pool sides as it will prevent your pool from having any black spot algae build-up. If you spot any algae, make sure to scrub it right away so it doesn’t infest your entire pool, and if the spot doesn’t go away after a good scrub, use chlorine on it; it eats away at the algae.
Install Proper Pumps And Filters
Installing good quality pumps and filters in your pool is crucial as they are the two key machines that work on your pool water circulation. Having proper pool circulation is a must if you want your pool to stay clean and safe for a healthy swimming experience. Without proper water circulation, your pool can easily become infested with algae or become murky and cloudy. Ideally, you want to keep your pumps and filters running daily, 24/7. However, taking into consideration some people’s budget constraints or other circumstances, you should let them run at least 10 to 12 hours a day just to move the water a bit. You should also remember to clean your pool filters regularly so they can function properly.
Shock Your Pool
No, we’re not talking about you using electricity to literally shock your pool, because that would be EXTREMELY dangerous—all we mean by shocking your pool is to drastically increase your pool’s chlorine levels for a short period of time. This will allow you to kill the bacteria that are making your water unfit for swimming. Shocking your pool shouldn’t be a regular occurrence as it’s usually only needed if the water is murky because of excessive use, or if there is any sort of defecation (coming from animals) which algae could use for food. It’s a crucial process that allows you to keep your pool clean and safe.
There you have it, these are the top 5 tips you need to follow to properly maintain your pool. Like any other thing, pools need constant care to run normally and provide you with a healthy swimming experience, so before getting one, make sure that you’ll be able to do all of the things we mentioned above. If you already have a pool, then happy maintenance!