First time swimming pool owners often get a fright when they realise they have to actually maintain their swimming pool to keep it blue!
This can be daunting for some, but in fact, owning and maintaining a swimming pool is very easy. It’s all about getting into a routine. Put aside 15 minutes once a week to service your pool.
Service a pool in four easy steps: Test your pool water, clear all the leaf baskets, backwash the filter and then dose the pool with the necessary chemicals. Most test kits come with a comprehensive guide on how to test the water and how much (and what) chemical to dose your pool with.
If your pool has a leaf problem then you must ensure the leaves are scooped out of the pool and the leaf baskets are cleared regularly. Failure to do this will result in the baskets getting clogged. When this happens, there is no circulation in the pool for distribution of chemicals, and there is no filtration of pool water. Your options here are to get extra leaf-trapping devices like a Pool Skim, or cut back the trees that are most problematic.
Ensure that you run your swimming pool motor every day. Smaller size swimming pool pumps may need to run for longer periods of time.
New technology has brought us variable speed drive (VSD) pumps which consume very little electricity and also filter water far more effectively. Ask your local pool shop about these new energy efficient pumps. They are used extensively in commercial applications (gyms and school pools) and will soon be the standard requirements for all domestic swimming pools.
Written by Jason Sanders, Blu Pool, 031 – 569 2092.