Common Pool Maintenance Mistakes

With an abundance of information easily at our fingertips, these days it is becoming more common for people to try and take pool maintenance into their own hands. Not to say that a healthy amount of knowledge about pool maintenance isn’t necessary to being a responsible pool owner, but the tendency to veer too far from the watchful eye of an experienced professional can lead to damaging results.

Chlorine and Shocking

Let’s start out with one of the most common activities on every pool maintenance checklist, adding chlorine. A couple of common missteps that many pool owners make when it comes to chlorine is how they add it to the pool and when they add it to the pool.

First, chlorine should always be diluted in a bucket of water before being added to the pool so that it gets distributed throughout the water more easily. Second, chlorine should only be added at night, especially during the summer when days are hot and the pool is in maximum exposure to the sun. Heat can limit the effectiveness of chlorine by at least 50 percent so if you want sanitation to actually take place, wait until the sun goes down.

Pool Cleaners

Dependency on automated pool cleaners can be the downfall of a pool’s cleanliness and health. While they are perfectly fine at providing the collection of small leaf litter and other organic fragments from across the pool’s sides and bottom, they are not a replacement for the stiff brush and elbow grease that is necessary if you want your water to be clear. This is especially true with algae issues as automated cleaners tend to just help spread the algae throughout the pool rather than aid in any type of permanent removal.

Water Testing

Testing your pool water is kind of like taking your pool to the doctor and if you only do it when your pool is sick, it’s going to cost a lot of money. Rather than waiting until there is something wrong with your pool water, you should be testing your water at least once a week and possibly more if the pool is used often. Most pool supply stores offer free testing and kits are inexpensive and easy to use.

That being said, as long as you are being safe and having fun, there is not a whole lot that you can do to seriously damage your pool. With a little bit of professional oversight from our talented team, your pool should be good to go!