When you’re set on handling your own swimming pool maintenance, you need to know how to do the job properly. But unless you’ve been trained by a pool maintenance professional or gone through some type of pool school, you’re bound to make a few mistakes. Although maintaining a pool looks relatively easy, the job can be fairly complex and laborious. Worse, it’s not tough to mess things up.
Fortunately, taking great care of your pool on your own doesn’t have to be an insurmountable challenge, as long as you know what to do and what to avoid. Below, the pool maintenance pros at Royal Pool & Spa in White Bear Lake, MN share common DIY maintenance mistakes and how you can avoid them.
Not Brushing the Pool When You Clean
Most pool owners know that regular vacuuming is essential to prevent debris from settling on the bottom of the pool and staining the finish. But many people who do their own pool maintenance forget about brushing the walls of the pool, which is a major mistake.
Just as an unpleasant film can build up on your teeth when you don’t brush them, gunk can build up on the surface of your pool when you fail to brush it. And that gunk doesn’t just feel nasty to the touch; it can lead to staining and algae development if left long enough.
Solution: If you don’t have a pool brush, buy one. And make sure you brush all the surfaces of your pool each time you clean it.
Shocking the Pool In Broad Daylight
Pool shock is unstabilized chlorine, and it’s highly susceptible to sun-related burnoff. Many pool owners add shock to their pools during the day, but when you do that, the sun’s rays start burning it off immediately.
Why does that matter? Because the less shock you have in your pool, the less effective it is. Letting your shock burn off like that is basically letting your money evaporate into thin air.
Solution: Shock your pool at night so the chemicals have plenty of time to do their job before the sun comes up. Test the water until you reach the standard target of 3 parts per million (ppm).
Using an Auto Pool Cleaner to Address an Algae Problem
When your pool has an algae problem, it can be tough to get rid of the nasty growths in the water. And if you’re a busy person, you might think using an automatic pool cleaner to tackle the job is an excellent idea. But you’d be wrong.
A robotic pool cleaner features a mesh bag that’s designed to collect debris. That mesh bag has a very fine weave that essentially just pushes any algae it collects back up into the pool water. Auto pool cleaners do an excellent job removing other forms of debris, but when it comes to algae, they just blow it around your pool.
Solution: Use a manual pool vacuum to suck up algae. It’s a labor-intensive job, but it’s the only thing that works.
Failing to Maintain the Appropriate Water pH
The water in your pool must remain within a narrow pH range to prevent bacteria from growing. Maintaining the proper pH also ensures that anyone who swims in the pool won’t develop eye or skin irritation from overly alkaline or acidic water. Unfortunately, the pool owners who underestimate the importance of maintaining proper pH end up with gross water or physical irritation after swimming.
To keep your pool water in excellent condition, maintain a pH of between 7.2 and 7.8. Lower than that is too acidic and higher than that is too alkaline. Don’t make the mistake of not caring; otherwise, you may not be able to use your pool (unless you love swimming in algae, of course).
Solution: Test the pH of the water regularly and adjust as necessary using the appropriate pool chemicals. The appropriate pH range for your pool is somewhere between 7.2-7.8. If you test and it’s too low, that means your pool water is overly acidic. If tests too high, it’s overly basic.
Royal Pool & Spa: Your Twin Cities Source for Comprehensive Swimming Pool Maintenance
If you want to ensure your pool is properly taken care of, let our team at Royal Pool & Spa help you out! For over 34 years, we’ve proudly provided swimming pool maintenance, pool repair services, pool chemical delivery, and much for pool owners throughout the Twin Cities metro.
All of our service technicians have a minimum of 10 years of experience and we also hold Certified Pool Operator Certification from the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance. When you need pool pros who care about your pool as much as you do, we’re the team to call!
To learn more about our services, schedule pool maintenance, or set up chemical delivery, give us a call today at 651-779-7606 or feel free to request a quote online, and we’ll be in touch.