November 2011
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Changing Your Hot Tub Water in 4 Simple Steps
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How to Choose the Right In-ground Pool for You
in Maintenance
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It’s that time of year again when temperatures are heating up and your pool is the most popular spot in the neighborhood. But don’t stress about the added pool care during these busiest weeks. “It’s just a matter of paying a little closer attention, that’s all,” says Paul Kurke, training manager for Arch Chemicals. “It’s a small amount of additional work you have to do, but it will pay tremendous dividends.”
Pool care during the busiest summer weeks should be slightly different for two reasons. First, Kurke says, more people equal more waste products in the pool. “That is going to stretch the system a little bit more,” he says.
Second, as summer progresses, your pool water heats up. While your water temperature may have been in the 60s when you opened it in the spring, it’s now in the high 70s or even the low 80s. “The warmer the water is, the quicker bacteria and algae are going to grow,” Kurke says. “And, the warmer it is, the more inviting it is to jump in!”
Kurke recommends a few simple steps to tweak your typical maintenance schedule in these busiest, hottest months.
- Run your pool filter longer. Ideally, run your filter continuously for 24 hours a day, but at minimum 8 to 12 hours a day. “If you were running it a few hours a day when it was colder and no one was in it, you can’t do that anymore,” Kurke says. “You’re going to have to kick it up.”
- Test your water more frequently. The additional bather load and warmer temperatures will stretch your sanitizer system, so you may need to add chemicals more often. “If you are using a chlorinator system, you may find that the tablets in your feeder are going to dissolve faster, which is what they should do because they are putting more sanitizer in your water,” Kurke says.
- Check your water level more often, and top off as needed. The more people that are in your pool, the more splash out or drag out there will be. Keep in mind that the average adult takes about a quart of water with them when they exit the pool, Kurke says. Also factor in the increased evaporation as a result of the sun and warmer temperatures. “On the plus side,” Kurke points out, “in many areas during the summer, you get thunderstorms rolling through and that will put some water back in your pool.”
- Chemically clean your filter during the middle of the busiest time. Because you may be running your filter for longer periods of time, it’s also experiencing an increased stress level. Plus, more people in the pool means more debris, waste, cosmetics and oils.
- Check water lines. Because grease and oil are not soluble, they can build up along your water line. These oils can trap bacteria, or even serve as food for some types of bacteria, Kurke says.
- Don’t forget to brush your pool once a week. “Many people don’t think about this as an important part of maintenance, but once a week, brush your walls and floors of the pool,” Kurke says. “That’s where bacteria and algae start to grow. Brushing moves that to the middle of the pool where they can be attacked by your sanitizer.”
