A swimming pool in summer is the ideal dream for many people. Soaking in the cold waters of your pool with your family and friends is many people’s definition of a fun time. However, as fun as pools are, they also come with their own responsibilities and problems that need to be acknowledged and resolved immediately.
These responsibilities are cleaning the pool and maintaining a hygiene standard for them all year round, especially in summer. Not doing so means sending open invitations to hordes of various types of insects, dirt matter, debris, and leaves to fall in your pool and contaminate it. The result? Green pools with algae growing inside them that look and smell repulsive.
After spending thousands of dollars to get a swimming pool, no homeowner would want their pools to look so bad. According to outathome.com, a jacuzzi can serve as an excellent alternative to a pool with the barest minimum standards of cleaning required. However, people who already have swimming pools on their property have no choice but to clean it themselves.
Fortunately, there are several tips that you can follow to ease your job considerably and make it easier for you to eliminate all dirt from your swimming pool permanently. Follow these tips religiously and read the article till the end so that you don’t miss out on any crucial detail.
Table of Contents
1. Keep your chemical levels balanced
img source: cloroxpool.com
Believe it or not, maintaining a pool has a lot of science behind it and you might need to learn a bit of chemistry to ensure that your water remains sparkly clean! This chemistry comes in from the fact that you need to ensure a well-balanced and regulated chemical level across the board. This chemical level consists of two major components – chlorine and pH levels.
You might already be aware of these two. Chlorine keeps your pool water shiny and clean and pH makes it safe for your body. But did you know that maintaining their levels appropriately also has a hidden benefit? This benefit is free bacteria and germs elimination in your water pool which is done by a balanced chlorine level.
While the chlorine in your pool combats the million bacterias and germs so that your pool doesn’t get contaminated, a balanced pH level acts as a catalyst for your chlorine and helps it considerably. That’s why maintaining a balanced chemical level is so vital – if you don’t do it, you risk complete contamination and debris accumulation in your pool.
2. How to determine chemical levels and balance them if they aren’t
To ensure that your pool has just the perfect chlorine levels, get a chlorine testing kit and test your pool waters. It should be around 2 units per million liters. If it’s higher than that, add more water. If it’s lower, add more chlorine.
Do the same thing to check your pH level. In this case, however, if the pH is too much, add an acid to it like HCl, and if it’s too low, add a base to it like Na₂CO₃. As you can see, pool maintenance involves a lot of chemistry and if you don’t want to have a grimy greenish pool on your property, then you need to study up and ensure regulated chemical levels.
3. Shock it occasionally to eliminate the remainder of bacteria
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If you have undertaken the arduous mission of cleaning your swimming pool thoroughly and aren’t planning to use it for some time, then one of the best ways to eliminate any remaining algae growth and bacteria is by shocking the pool. Shocking the pool, contrary to what the name suggests, does not mean actually shocking your pool with electricity.
Instead, you shock your pool with special shock powder that contains 3-4 times the usual amounts of chlorine you put inside your pool. Then you slowly drain the water out through your filter and replace it with new water slowly. The process takes a while but is very effective for clearing out algae.
However, one important thing about this process is that it can damage your pool’s structure if you do it too extensively. The most recommended shocking frequency is twice per season – no less, and definitely no more.
4. Skim and scrub all the way
Many homeowners that own a pool groan as soon as they hear the word ‘skim’, and honestly they can’t be blamed for it. Skimming is not really a fun task and requires considerable effort and dedication to do. Not to forget that you need to do it daily otherwise it won’t be effective at all. And for those who are unaware, skimming is the process of clearing out debris, leaves, and insects from the surface of your pool before they submerge deep inside.
This needs to be done on a daily basis because if you don’t, the waste material will settle down on the pool floor and start contaminating your pool. Not to forget, it will also be considerably harder to remove. That’s why you should skim every day so that you don’t get a tougher task later on.
Besides skimming, there is also scrubbing that needs to be done as rigorously as you would skim, with the difference being that you can scrub weekly instead of doing it daily. All you need to do is drain out every drop of water from your pool, get a handy brush and a bucket of soap water and just start scrubbing everywhere. This is very handy and prevents algae from growing on your pool’s walls!
5. Clean your filters inside out
img source: instructables.com
If the above tasks sound difficult to you, imagine how much harder it would’ve been if swimming pools didn’t have filters! Filters do 90% of the cleaning job for you and save you tons of cleaning time.
However, it also means that they get dirty a lot faster and need cleaning of their own, especially in summers where the load on them is increased more.
Backwashing your filters cleans most filters out but you may need to hire professional services if you have a cartridge filter.
Conclusion
There are various tips that can help you maintain your pool during the summer season, and we hope this article helped you with that. If it did, please consider following our website for regular updates as it will help us immensely.
