POOL MAINTENANCE

Pool water maintenance, once the pool has been opened, the water balanced, only takes a few minutes a week.

Why balance the water?

  • So that the products, such as chlorine, which is the most expensive, work best
  • For the comfort of bathers
  • For your wallet
  • To avoid algae problems and having to shock every 2 - 3 weeks
  • To protect the heater (major investment) even if it's in titanium
  • For clear and enjoyable water, anytime

How to balance the water?

  • Test to find out what levels the total alkalinity, pH and calcium/total hardness are at
  • Adjust them accordingly

Chlorine levels have to be between 1 - 3ppm, 24/7, since it's the only thing that kills bacteria.

Then, once a week, adding a product to eliminate phosphates, or concentrated algaecide, oxydizer and that's it for chemicals.

Why oxydize?  To get rid of chloramines which smell, burn the eyes, as well as organics, such as oils, hair, dry skin, urine, sunblock, etc.

If chlorine has to oxdize and take care of algae, it only has 20% left of its energy to kill bacteria and since chlorine is the most expensive, it's more economical to get chemicals to oxydize and kill algae.

Pump and skimmer baskets should be cleaned/emptied daily (ideally).

As for doing a backwash, if the current of the water coming out of the returns is strong enough, skip the backwash.  Do not waster water and chemicals.