Pool Maintenance and Service
Your swimming pool needs regular maintenance. Therefore, you need to develop a strong foundation for pool maintenance.
Once you know how your pool works, the best ways to care for it, and how to plan it, you'll be ready to tackle any potential pool problems that come your way.
Good Pool Care Starts With Knowing Your Pool
You should brush all parts of the pool before you can enjoy proper care. In fact, if you look at it, you don't need to take courses or do a PhD. Swimming science from Harvard. But knowing the basic parts and functions of your pool will help you keep everything running smoothly and make it easier to fix problems when they arise.
Swimming Pool Basic Components
Like most major household appliances, you can escape the fantasy as much as you want in the swimming pool. You can add advanced heating, lighting options, install high-tech pool blinds, and even enjoy music while swimming with underwater pool speakers. But whether you have a simple backyard pool or a large underground Oasis in the shape of an Elvis, every pool has four components that require regular maintenance to keep up the good times.
These include:
pool water
Pool interior decoration
pool filter system
Pool scrapers and return system
1. Pool Water
This may sound simple, but the water in your pool is the key to lasting pool happiness. Being clean and balanced protects you and your family from germs and disease. It also helps you avoid expensive hardware repairs due to corrosion or mineral buildup and make your entire pool last longer.
2. Pool
The walls of your pool liner are in constant contact with the pool water and everything that goes into it. Keeping these surfaces in good condition and free of algae, mold and debris will help keep your pool clean and safe.
3. Pool Filter System
Your pool's pumps are both heart and liver. Okay, that sounds a little weird, but think about it: your pool pump draws in water, keeping your water circulating like your heart does with your blood. Your pool filter removes dirt and other harmful microorganisms from your water, much like filtering the fried food you ate last night through the liver.
It protects both you and your pool from damage. Without a working filter system, your pool will become dirty, polluted and unsanitary.
Depending on your setup, you may have a cartridge filter, a sand filter, a diatomaceous earth (d.E.) filter. Or if you have a saltwater system, it could also be a saltwater chlorinator.
4. Pool Scrapers
If your pool's filter is your liver, then your scrapers and returns are your veins and arteries. Your skimmers—not to be confused with a mesh skimmer, which is a cleaning tool attached to a telescopic pole—pull water into the filter for cleaning, while inversions push the cleaned water back into the pool. And like your veins and arteries, they work best when they're clean.
No two pools are alike and as time goes on you may encounter pool maintenance challenges specific to your pool. However, if you have a solid grasp of these four pool components, you will be well equipped to face many challenges.
Effective Pool Maintenance Ways
Effective pool maintenance is based on three simple but important concepts: circulation, cleanliness and chemistry.
1. Good Water Circulation
Even if you've never set foot in a Boy Scout meeting as a kid, you probably know that still water is cloudy and dirty. In your pool, just like outdoors, the moving water is cleaner, clearer and safer. Correct pool circulation is the key to healthy and safe swimming.
A well-circulated pool rarely has problems with dirty water or pool algae infestation. You need to run your pump and filter system daily to maximize circulation.
How long should you run your pool pump? Ideally, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, as this is not possible for everyone's budget or equipment, we recommend running your filter for at least 10 to 12 hours a day. This will turn the water several times and help keep your pool safe and clean.
Another important component of good pool circulation is frequent backwashing of your filter in this case, backwashing means reversing the flow of water passing through your filter and removing the dirty water and accumulated pollutants from your pool by throwing them into the waste. If you're not sure how to clean a pool filter, it's important to learn about it and make it a part of your regular pool maintenance routine.
The method you use to clean and backwash your filter depends on the type of filter you have, but the basic concepts are largely the same.
Tip: If you have a sand filter in your pool, add a glass of diatomaceous earth powder to increase the filtering power. Dirty water is cleaned faster because diatomaceous earth helps your sand filter filter out fine particles.
2. Pool Cleaning Program
Even if you've never set foot in a Boy Scout meeting as a kid, you probably know that still water is cloudy and dirty. In your pool, just like outdoors, the moving water is cleaner, clearer and safer. Correct pool circulation is the key to healthy and safe swimming.
A well-circulated pool rarely has problems with dirty water or pool algae infestation. You need to run your pump and filter system daily to maximize circulation.
How long should you run your pool pump? Ideally, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, as this is not possible for everyone's budget or equipment, we recommend running your filter for at least 10 to 12 hours a day. This will turn the water several times and help keep your pool safe and clean.
Another important component of good pool circulation is frequent backwashing of your filter in this case, backwashing means reversing the flow of water passing through your filter and removing the dirty water and accumulated pollutants from your pool by throwing them into the waste. If you're not sure how to clean a pool filter, it's important to learn about it and make it a part of your regular pool maintenance routine.
The method you use to clean and backwash your filter depends on the type of filter you have, but the basic concepts are largely the same.
Tip: If you have a sand filter in your pool, add a glass of diatomaceous earth powder to increase the filtering power. Dirty water is cleaned faster because diatomaceous earth helps your sand filter filter out fine particles.
3. Balancing Water Chemistry
Pool chemistry may sound scary and complex, but there's no need to worry. Although effective pool maintenance and water maintenance is an important part, basic pool chemistry is surprisingly simple.
The water maintenance trick is your water test kit, the most important tool in your bag. If you don't season your stew without tasting it, test the pool water before using the chemicals. Understanding what is in your water and what is not is the first step towards balancing it.
pH levels: a measure of how acidic or basic your pool water is. Low pH levels are acidic while high levels are basic. The ideal December for your pool is 7.4 to 7.6.
Alkalinity: It works as a pH buffer and helps prevent large increases in basicity or acidity. The Ideal Range is 100 to 150 parts per million (ppm). And you can use baking soda to increase the alkalinity level of your pool.
Disinfectant levels: chlorine, bromine etc. amount. Appropriate levels in pool water depend on the type of disinfectant you choose.
Once you know your pH, alkalinity and disinfectant levels, you can start adding chemicals to restore your water balance. Take your time, follow all directions and make sure you know what each chemical does before adding it and how it will affect the water and the people swimming in it.
Shocking Your Pool!
Every once in a while, your sanitizer may need help, especially after rainy or stormy weather or a pool party. Shock your pool regularly to ensure your pool stays clean even when your disinfectant reaches its maximum.
Always Shock Your Pool In The Evening
If you shock your pool during the day, the sun's ultraviolet rays will swallow the chlorine before it can do its job. Add the shock to your water, then run the pump for at least eight hours to make sure it is fully circulated.
Create a Maintenance Schedule
As you learn more about your pool and how to take care of it, your to-do list can start to seem a little daunting. Establishing a pool maintenance schedule makes it easy to stay organized and ensure important tasks are not overlooked.
Not only will your pool stay fresh with basic maintenance, you'll also be able to plan ahead for more advanced pool maintenance tasks like shutting down your pool, performing off-season maintenance, or getting ready to use your pool when pool season returns. .
Keep Your Schedule Simple
Write down your pool maintenance plan and tape it to the wall, refrigerator, or even somewhere near your swimming pool. Other people in the house do homework on certain days to do some simple maintenance chores. Write a name next to each task and share the workload.
3 Tips for Your Pool on Vacation
Since many of our readers have summer vacations and their own swimming pools, I decided to share a few tips for holiday pool maintenance. I used to ask this question a lot when I was working at the pool shop. It's not as difficult as you might imagine.
1. Ask your neighbor or friend
That's the key to success when it comes to keeping your swimming pool clean while you're away.
The ideal candidate is one who has his own pool. It gives you the advantage that they already know what to do. Tell your friend or neighbor to check the pool once a day and give them a simple checklist that includes:
Empty the scraper basket)
Degrease the surface of the pool
Check filter pressure (backwash if necessary)
Test the water with a test kit or test strips
Add required chemicals (only if they know what they are doing)
2. Get a Pool Pump Timer
Hopefully your pump already has a timer. If not, I would invest in one. These are the most important parts of pool maintenance.
Set the timer to run the pool for at least 8 to 12 hours a day. If you have a timer, great! Otherwise, working 24 hours a day will not be a problem. Running your pump and filter is essential to keeping your pool clean, and using a timer makes much more sense than a human.
3. Check Your Pool Water Before Leaving Home
Take a sample of your pool water to your local pool store and have it checked by professionals.
Make sure there are no problems before you go. You must ensure that your pH and alkalinity are properly balanced and that your disinfectant levels are correct.
pH: 7.4 to 7.6
Alkalinity: 100 parts per million (ppm) to 150 ppm, 125 ppm ideal
Calcium hardness: 175 ppm to 225 ppm or 200 ppm to 275 ppm for concrete and plaster pools For Chlorine pools
: 1 ppm to 3 ppm
brominated pools: 3 ppm to 5 ppm
For biguanide pools: 30 ppm to 50 ppm
For salt water pools: 0.5 ppm chlorine
For pools with mineral system: 0.5 ppm chlorine
Also, make sure your pool is clean and crystal clear before you leave.
Come on, you don't have to worry about your pool water anymore.
Having a swimming pool is one of the most enjoyable ways to have fun in the sun at home. Yes, it may need regular maintenance, but that doesn't mean you're going to spend your life chained to a vacuum or messing around with your chemistry kit.
In fact, once you know how your pool works, you can take pride in your own pool maintenance skills by understanding and planning ahead of time the maintenance it needs. You will enjoy not only swimming, but also the peace of mind that comes with regular and comprehensive pool maintenance.
Happy Swimming!
