With temperatures on the rise in Phoenix and swimming season upon us, here are some swimming pool maintenance tips on how to keep your swimming pool clean and its equipment functioning at its best. You can also spare yourself the expense of having to pay a Phoenix pool service company to maintain it for you. These swimming pool maintenance tips will help you to prevent some common problems that most Phoenix homeowners run into when trying maintain their pools.
• Be sure to check your pool’s chemistry twice per week in the summer and once per week in the winter. By doing this you can make minor adjustments to the water chemistry rather than big adjustments (ie having to SHOCK) that require and create extreme levels of chemical activity in your pool.
• When adding chemicals to your pool, be sure to add them after the sun sets. The heat and blazing sun of Arizona causes chemicals to evaporate rather quickly. You will get more out of them and save money in the long run by using less.
• If you have a salt water system, be sure to check and clean your salt cell once a month. If your cell is corroded or calcified it will cause a loss in chlorine production.
• Do not allow pH to get above 8.0. At 8.5 chlorine is only 10% active. At 7.0 it is about 73% active. By just maintaining pH around 7.5 the chlorine is 50-60% active. Keeping the pH in check will allow you to use to the full potential of the chlorine that is already in the pool and save money.
• Be sure not to backwash sand or DE filters too often. If you do this, the filter will not reach its full cleaning potential. If you backwash on a regular basis for no reason, you are simply wasting water which is costly for both the environment and your wallet! Most filters require backwashing when the pressure gauge rises 8-10 PSI from clean so just keep those numbers in mind.
• Take care to clean the skimmer basket and/or hair and lint pot in the pool pump often. If these are full of debris you will get little flow resulting in poor circulation leaving room for potentially big problems.
• Make sure you brush the walls of your pool! This will help to eliminate algae. If you are a pool owner, you know once algae takes hold it can be a nightmare to get rid of!
• Run your pump for at least 8 hours a day in the summer and 6 hours in the winter. This will ensure you have good circulation in your pool. Circulation is crucial to a low maintenance swimming pool!
We hope these Phoenix swimming pool maintenance tips will help you increase the enjoyment of your pool and longevity of your equipment!