In The Swim eGuides

Tips & Tricks

Tips & tricks for all things pool related! Check out our eGuides and our FAQs to learn everything you need to know about caring for and enjoying your pool!

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Weekly Pool Maintenance Guide

Weekly Pool Maintenance Guide

Hose and Sweep off your pool deck at least twice a week to keep it free of debris. A clean pool deck means cleaner water,cleaner water means less time cleaning & more time swimming.

Brush the walls, ladders, and corners of your pool at least twice a week. Brushing assists with filtration allowing the skimmers to collect fine debris attached to the pool’s surfaces.

Skim With a Leaf Net and Empty the Pool’s Skimmer Baskets Daily Cleaning the baskets of debris daily prevents strain on your pump, water passes more freely & skimming the water’s surface daily prevents debris from sinking to the bottom.

Manually Vacuum Your Pool or run your automatic pool cleaner every other day or as needed.

Automatic cleaners not only suck up debris they help with water circulation. If you don’t own an automatic pool cleaner, Vacuum manually if you have algae issues– an automatic cleaner will not vacuum up algae out of your water effectively

Test Your Pool Water Chemistry Weekly (please show a taylor test kit water sample tester with the colors reflecting correct levels)

  • We recommend Taylor K2005, or 2006)
  • pH levels should be between of 7.2 - 7.8.
  • 80-120ppm range for "gunite" and concrete pools and 125-170ppm for painted, vinyl, and fiberglass pools.
  • Recommended range for calcium hardness is 200-400ppm.

BACKWASH LESS Allowing some dirt to sit in the filter sand helps create rough edges so the sand can catch small debris. Backwashing too often can stir up the sand and allow small particles to pass through the filter and back into the pool. When your filter gauge reaches 8-10 psi higher than your normal running pressure is the best time to backwash.

MORE MAINTENANCE TIPS Keep an Eye on the Water Level If the level is higher than halfway up the skimmer it will not be able to collect debris effectively. If it is too you can pump air into your filter destroying the system.

USE A TIMER Don’t regulate the pump run time yourself use a timer to run it 6-8 hours a day (or at night) Remember to reset the timer after a power outage.

CHEMICALS

  • Don’t add chemicals to the skimmer (except DE)
  • Don’t mix chemicals together
  • Don’t Add more than one chemical at a time to the pool

Pool Closing Chemicals

For pools that are winterized, or closed during winter, the water is essentially stagnant for 7 months, without circulation and filtration.

The proper type and amount of pool closing chemicals used during pool close-down will determine the condition of the water come spring start-up, and along with good water balance, will protect your soft and shiny pool surfaces from staining or corrosion.

Use the wrong winter pool chemicals, or not enough of the right chemicals, and you could end up paying for it come springtime, in terms of algae, stains and days or weeks of lost summertime, waiting for the water to clear.

Pool Closing Chemicals

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If you need any additional assistance, please feel free to contact us directly. Every effor is made to respond to your email questions personally within 48 hours and in most instances, we will respond even sooner than that. If you would like an immediate answer to your question, please call us at 1-800-288-7946.

For general questions regarding care for your pool or spa, product-related questions or comments, and questions about parts for your pool equipment, email: drpool@intheswim.com

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