Pool Cleaning and Maintenance Tips
Alright everybody! Your pool has been opened, your equipment is all functioning well, the water looks great, the pool floats are inflated and the swimmers are ready to dive into a summer filled with fun. But wait! In order to ensure that you have a season full of enjoyment and not frustration, you will need to be on top of many different things related to your pool. Recent surveys suggest that the average in-ground pool owner spends between 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours per week performing routine pool cleaning and maintenance on his or her pool. Over the course of our 16 week “pool season”, this can add up to more than 40 hours of valuable time. Setting a scheduled routine for your pool maintenance can save you time and trouble on the long run.
Here are some tips from pool service professionals for keeping your pool clean all summer long!
These are some of the essential preventative pool cleaning and maintenance tasks we highly recommend you perform daily and weekly in order to keep your pool at its peak!
Daily Pool Cleaning Tips:
- Check the water levels and test the water: While it is not absolutely imperative to test your water each day, it is important to test the water each day the pool is used and after heavy rains because both can affect your waters balance and can open the door for cloudy water and algae problems. Don’t just check the sanitizer levels. It is vitally important to check PH and alkalinity as well. (Remember that low sanitizer levels can cause a cloudy pool or algae, but imbalanced PH or alkalinity can cost you money for damaged equipment) Remember it is far easier—and much cheaper—to maintain balanced pool chemistry than it is to correct cloudy water and algae issues or replace pumps or heaters.
- Skim the Pool surface to remove any floating debris before it sinks to the bottom which will then require vacuuming. Your pool’s sanitizers will attack any organics on the pool floor diminishing the amount of sanitizer available to kill bacteria and algae.
- Inspect your equipment: This is also a preventative measure. Check the skimmer baskets for debris. This is a simple (sometimes dirty) task but significant debris build-up will affect water circulation. Poor circulation can lead to algae build-up and other problems. Check the plumbing lines and valves at your filter and heater for obvious leaks. Check your filter pressure to ensure filter is not dirty and clogged.
Weekly Pool Cleaning Tips:
- Clean the waterline: Oils, lotions and sunscreen tend to float on top of the water and collect at the waterline of your pool. Brushing the waterline once a week helps prevents an unsightly build-up of these unwanted elements (think bathtub ring). If allowed to accumulate, these deposits can significantly shorten the life of your liner or tiles.
- Brush the sides and bottoms of the pool. This helps prevent algae growth. Pay particular attention to areas around ladders, steps, and angled areas. Even with good sanitation, algae will grow in areas of the pool with poor circulation.
- Empty the pump baskets. This is a simple but sometimes dirty task that can play a big role in your pool staying in top shape. If leaves and debris fill the baskets, your pump will lose proper circulation and your water will not be able to filter correctly which can lead to algae growth and dirty water.
- Vacuum the pool. Vacuuming removes organics and improves the appearance of your pool and goes a long way in preventing low sanitizer levels.
- Backwash your filter. Backwashing is important for circulation and ensuring your water stays clear. After you vacuum your pool, backwash for 30 seconds to 1 minute. This will use water from your pool to wash all of the dirt and debris out of your filter. While backwashing your filter, check thoroughly for signs of leaking. Leaks can lead to bigger problems but if you catch them right away, they are generally an easy fix.
- Treat your water. Regardless of what type of sanitizer you use, every pool requires some form of weekly chemical maintenance. This might include adjustments to the sanitizer, PH, and alkalinity levels as well as maintenance doses of algaecide, clarifiers, or metal/scale/phosphate inhibitors. We recommend to brush the sides and the bottom of the pool after treating your water. Sanitizers or other chemicals that don’t properly dissolve will damage a liner if left sitting on the floor of the pool. If you are still having problems after attempting to adjust, bring us a water sample and we will run an in depth test at our water lab.
- Thoroughly inspect your equipment. Ensure that your pump, filter, and heater are all operating normally. If you have an automatic cleaner, empty the bag and filter screen, hose them out and make sure your machine is operating correctly. If you don’t currently have an automatic cleaner but are interested in one, we highly recommend Polaris.
- Clean the pool deck. Removing debris from the deck prevents that debris from making its way into your pool requiring time consuming cleaning.
Have Questions? We’re here to help!
For more information on any of these topics, contact us or stop in to talk to the pool and spa experts at Continental. We are Omaha’s #1 Pool and Spa company and have been helping people enjoy summer fun for more than 35 years. Our goal is to provide you with the best products, information and service in town. No one else in this area has our experience or our commitment to customer service.
Spend your time around the pool relaxing…not cleaning it!
With the proper instruction, taking care of your pool is not difficult, it just takes time. But in today’s busy world, time is precious and many of our customers trust us to service their pool on a weekly basis. This allows them time to swim and enjoy their pool rather than performing cleaning and maintenance tasks. Continental Pool and Spa offers affordable (one of the lowest rates in town) weekly service plans that will offer you the gift of time and ensure that your pool stays in top shape throughout the summer! Our weekly pool and spa cleaning service includes everything mentioned above and more! Call us for further information on our service plans or Click here.
It makes sense that you would want to skim your pool often in order to prevent debris from falling and require the need to be vacuumed. Our pool happens to be close to some trees, so there is always some leaves and debris falling in it. I definitely think that we should look for a skimmer that could help to clean the surface and keep it pristine.
Hey Chris!
Thanks for the comments! We have a few options of manual skimmers that attach to an expandable telepole here in our showroom. Let us know how we can help!
-The CPS Team
I feel that cleaning the swimming pool is a must to ensure the level of comfort, protect the equipment and keep it clean and safe for everyone to enjoy. Pool cleaning comes under pool maintenance which helps to prolong the life span of the pool. Apart from this, if we clean the pool on a regular basis then it will prevent the growth of bacteria and also hold off the needed repairs. Hence, one should hire a professional to clean his pool effortlessly in order to upkeep it looking great and relaxing.
Thanks for your tip to make sure that you vacuum your pool to make sure that all organics are removed. I didn’t know that backwashing its filter is a good way to get the dirt out. My husband and I are considering pool service. We lack the time and expertise to really clean and provide maintenance to our pool ourselves, so we are considering a professional.
My family and I recently moved into a home with a pool and our kids are loving it, although I’m starting to realize that it isn’t as clean as it was when we first moved in. I liked that you had mentioned that it can be important to treat the water with the correct chemicals and brush the sides and bottoms of the pool after treatment. I don’t even own the right tools to maintain it myself, I might just have to look into hiring a professional to handle it for me.
Hey Roger!
Thanks for your comment! By brushing your pool regularly you are removing any organics that may be contained in the vinyl liner or concrete. We offer a great weekly service maintenance program where our service team would take care of everything for you, including addition of chemicals. Let us know if you would like to sign up for next year or if you have any more questions!
-The CPS Team
Thanks for the tip to empty the pump baskets in a pool to avoid algae growth and dirty water. My home has a pool that has never really been used and could use some good cleaning. I’ll be sure to get the pump baskets clean, as well as contacting pool cleaning services to take care of my pool.
My fiance and I moved into a new home with a pool and we are not sure that it was kept well by the previous owners. After we get a pool maintenance service to come look at it, we would love knowing how to keep it in good working condition. Going forward we will thoroughly inspect our equipment.