The Basics of Pool Maintenance

Let’s be honest, swimming pools are awesome, and you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t want one. But with great awesomeness comes a little bit of responsibility. It all depends on whether you sign up for regular pool service or take care of it yourself.

The basics of pool care:

• Managing pump and filtration system.
• Monitoring water levels.
• Maintaining proper water chemistry.
• Depending on the type of pool you get, you’ll want to brush your pool to keep algae away.

That may sound like a lot, but once you get the routine down, it’ll only take a couple of hours a week.

Clearing your pump basket of leaves and other debris weekly and running your pump and filter daily will do most of the work for you. An automatic pool cleaner will also make things a lot easier for you. And if you have a gunite pool, manually brushing it will extend the life of the plaster and reduce the need for chemical treatment.

Water Levels

Monitoring your water levels will help you stay on top of potential leaks or other issues affecting the levels. Your pool’s water level should rest right around the halfway mark on your perimeter tile.

Normal evaporation will also gradually affect the level of your pool. This is to be expected. The thing you want to keep an eye out for is inches of water suddenly missing. If you notice this, have a professional take a look at it.

Chlorine Maintenance

A normal level of chlorine keeps your pool from looking like a pond. But if your pool gets murky, you may need to shock it with high levels of chlorine. If this is the case, you’ll need to stay out of the pool until the chlorine has done its job and the levels are back to normal.

A Pinnacle technician will show you how to check your levels and keep your pool swim-ready.