Stop what you’re doing and check these 5 items in your pool today. Even when you’re working with a swimming pool contractor, you can take these steps to keep your pool up and running and ensuring nothing goes wrong between service visit. Your pool is the gathering hot spot for friends and family and when you have a pool you will be spending most of your waking hours out there.
Something as fun as a swimming pool doesn’t come with quirks and maintenance and upkeep with a contractor and as a DIY pool owner.
Check These 5 Items In Your Pool Today
These five items won’t take you a lot of time and they may make the pool water cleaner and the equipment run better and more efficiently.
- Look for debris littering up the pool area. Yes, there is a filter in your swimming pool and that will catch floating debris, but if you can keep debris from getting into the water, the filter won’t have to work as hard. If you have trees or plants or grass cuttings blowing around the yard and gathering around the pool filter and pump, clean it up before it gets into the water.
- It’s almost a fact of life that people will pee in your pool — hopefully it will be children and not adults, but regardless you will want to test the water chemistry for trichloramine and cyanogen chloride. These chemicals form in chlorinated water when people urinate in the water. Gross, we know, but stick with us. These chemicals are odorless, colorless and potentially poisonous. Cyanogen is used in chemical warfare and affects the nervous system, lungs and the heart. Test the water and keep it balanced to prevent these chemicals forming.
- Is the pool leaking? You can invest in a complicated instrument to check for leaks, but you can take an old-fashioned bucket, drop a drop a brick in it, place it on a step inside the pool, draw a line on the inside of the bucket and outside of the bucket at the water line. Give it a few days and if you notice a significant difference in levels, there could be a leaking swimming pool. If there is a leak, find it and get it fixed.
- The filter is the heart of the pool. The filter works keeps the water clean from small debris and maintains clear and clean water. Clean out the skimmer basket and clean it at least once a week.
- Test the water chemistry regularly At a minimum, test these chemical levels weekly: Cyanuric acid, free chlorine, pH levels, alkalinity and calcium. This is also something your pool contractor does for you when he or she pays a service visit but you can also check between visits.
You can DIY water chemistry as well as have your pool maintenance contractor do that on your behalf. You may find you save money by hiring a service pro.