Do you love your swimming pool? How many hours a day do you and your family spend in it? It might be interesting to keep track for a week!
Swimming pools are the hub of the home in the summer and remain that way if you live in an area of the country that is warm almost year-round. If you don’t live in a warm year-round climate, consider a pool heater to make the pool swimmable for more months of the year.
Whether you’re a new swimming pool owner or a long-time pool owner, you know that it is a place that is ideally suited for countless hours of fun and it’s a place where your friends and family will gather for countless summer parties.
What makes the investment in a swimming pool one that “pays” you back for decades?
- When it’s hot, you can immediately cool off
- You and your friends and family will build countless memories together — much better than gathering around a television, right?
- Everyone loves pool games
- Swimming is an ideal way to get in shape without feeling like you’re exercising
- It is a pool. ‘Nuff said!
Now, when you have a pool you want it to be ready to welcome you and your family when you have the time to jump in, right? What happens if you are planning a party and there is a leak in the pool or if the water is green? Disaster and a canceled party, for sure.
Is Your Swimming Pool As Trouble-Free As It Could Be?
Working with an experienced swimming pool contractor will help assure your pool is always ready to welcome you into its cooling depths. You may want to take on between-visit service tasks like skimming the water and testing the water chemistry to assure everything is in balance, but a pool service contractor makes pool ownership a breeze!
What can you do to assure the pool is ready when you are? Also, what can you do to help keep it as maintenance and trouble free as possible?
Here are a few things:
- No peeing in the pool. It’s gross, but it also upsets the water chemistry balance. If children are in the pool, you need to urge them out of the water every thirty minutes or so to use the bathroom. Adults also need to know that peeing in the pool is not acceptable.
- Water chemistry testing. Your swimming pool service contractor will test the water chemistry when he pays a service visit, but you should also test the water chemistry between service visits. Buy a test kit and ask your pool contractor to show you how to interpret the readings. When you test the water you’re testing for: pH levels, alkalinity, calcium levels, the amount of free chlorine and cyanuric acid levels. It takes an experienced pool contractor to read the test results and know which chemicals need to be added to get the chemistry levels in balance again. Any chemical that is out of balance will lead to water chemistry imbalances in other areas and out of balance water chemistry can lead to a whole host of pool ailments.
- Skimming the pool. Grab the swimming pool skimmer and scoop out any floating debris. Getting the debris before it settles on the bottom of the pool is ideal. Cover the pool and that will alleviate the need to skim.
- Clean the skimmer basket. Take time every day or every other day and empty the skimmer basket. This piece of equipment will capture twigs and other debris and keep it from the pool water. Emptying the skimmer basket helps the skimmer and filter work more effectively and efficiently.
- Check for leaks. Some leaks are easy to spot — standing water around the water and a rapidly decreasing water level. Other leaks are more insidious and you won’t see standing water and the leak is so slow you can’t tell if the water levels are going down because of evaporation, a leak or splash out. If you suspect a leak, give your pool contractor a call. He can locate it and repair it.
These are only a few of the items you can take care of and that won’t take away from your swim time, that will keep your pool water clean and your pool ready for you when you’re ready for it!