After opening your Vacaville pool for the summer season, there is nothing stopping you from jumping in. During the hottest season of the year, the cool water in your pool beckons you every day. However, are you paying proper attention to summer pool maintenance? When the blazing heat is shining down, there is a need to maintain a clean pool so you and your family can enjoy it.
If not, there could be consequences, but with these easy and regular steps, you can keep your pool healthy and clean.
Scrubbing and Cleaning
Make it your top priority to keep leaves and debris off the pool. For this, you need to use a skimmer on a daily basis. You can also keep the water pristine and sparkling with a pool vacuum which reaches the bottom of the pool. As a result, you can also limit the usage of chemicals in your pool.
If you detect any stains or dark spots on the pool walls, go in with a brush and manually scrub them off. This prevents the algae build-up on the sidewalls and tiles. The colored stains could be from metals too, like the pool ladders or other equipment. You might need professional help to get rid of these.
Clean Out the Pool Filter
Cleaning your pool filter is the most important thing in your summer pool maintenance. If the filter is clogged with animal hair, debris, rot, and leaves, it will dirty up the pool water. And, swimming in unhygienic pools can cause many diseases for your family. Remove the unwanted particles stuck in the strainer basket and hose down the filter.
You also need to check the pressure gauge of the pool filtration unit and make sure it is the ideal pressure recommended by the manufacturer. In addition, take care to run the pool filter over the average rate. This might add up to a higher cost, but you make savings in buying fewer chemical products.
Balance the Chemicals
You need to maintain consistent chemical levels in the pool for it to be clean and healthy. When you see that the water is a bit cloudy or murky, or if your eyes and skin burn up after a swim, it means that there is a chemical imbalance. Without proper summer pool maintenance, the pool becomes a breeding ground for algae, bacteria, and other harmful microorganisms.
Hence, check the pool chemicals once a week for the pH level, calcium hardness, and free chlorine present in the water. You can easily do this by yourself. Simply get pool testing kits at any pool store and place a sample of the pool water in a vial. After the water changes color, determine the chemical levels by the information given with the test kit. Adjust the chemicals if needed.
Maintain Proper Water Level
During the summer season, there will be many people using your pool and it will be a busy time. With such heavy traffic splashing around in the pool and due to evaporation, the water level obviously comes down. Make sure to check it often and bring the water levels to normal again.
Ideally, the water should up to half of the opening of the skimmer or at its center. If it is low, simply add water to the pool with your common garden hose, If the level is higher, a submersible pump can help drain the excess. But again, you could damage your pool liner if it is made of vinyl or fiberglass. So, you might be better off letting the experts handle these issues.
