Fort Erie Pool Cleaning Service

Pool Care: What to Know About Your Water Systems 

Keeping a pool clean doesn’t revolve around water chemistry alone but involves cleaning and monitoring all of the systems operating behind the scenes that keep your water flowing. There are plenty of tools on the market that claim to make pool care easier but not all of these are effective. Test strips can point out issues with your water chemistry but they don’t tell you how to solve them. Instead of struggling through trial and error, get the best results for your system with a bit of help from an expert. 

Use the Right Tools For the Job: Anyone can flip the switch on a robotic pool cleaner or scoop floating items off of pool water with a skimmer, but is this enough to fully get rid of debris? No! The standard pool vacuum is not designed to reach into tight corners or the hard angles around built-in stairs. This means angles are left to build up debris and bacteria, spreading and getting worse over time. Manual vacuums are needed to navigate these tough to reach areas and speciality brushes remove residue from around the water line. This combined with technical skill can help to full remove all debris for a cleaner system. 

Keep a Schedule That Works: Keeping up with the demands of your water system means being consistent. During the spring and summer months it is important to perform cleanings at least once a week depending on the temperature, level of traffic and surrounding area. If you are managing a higher traffic swim space in a commercial environment or communal pool you might be in need of more frequent cleanings. 

Balancing Water Chemistry: Basic testing kits will often help to point out imbalanced chlorine levels but will often overlook other key factors like pH levels, total alkalinity and calcium. Properly balanced pool chemicals don’t just improve the look of your swim space, they help to prevent algae growth and prevent recreational water illness like skin irritations, eye infections, ear infections and stomach illnesses. 

Checking on Internal Systems: Pool filters and pumps are the unsung heroes of your swimming pool but often aren’t given much attention. Even with the right tools at your disposal small bits and pieces of debris will sneak by and find their way into your filter. The goal of a filter is to trap and hold unwanted items and over time, will become blocked. If water can’t flow freely though filters it will take more energy to push through all of the debris. This means using more energy to circulate water and that means unnecessary wear and tear on pool pumps which will lead to the need for repairs and replacements. A cartridge filter should be removed and cleaned every 3-4 months while sand filters should be emptied and refilled with clean sand every 3-5 years. 

Start the Season Off Right: The best way to protect your pool form cold weather is with a proper opening. Whether you are in the market for a closing in fall or a pool opening in spring, it is always better to have an expert handle this process.