New Pool Owner Tips in the Phoenix Valley Area
Congratulations on becoming a new pool owner. This can be an exciting time, especially if it’s your first. You probably have a lot of questions about caring for your new pool, from maintenance to seasonal shutdown protocol. Aquaman Pools is sharing some pro tips for pool owners in the Phoenix Valley area. We are going to give you some essential tips for new pool owners that include everything you need to know and everything you need to have. Discover the top tips we give to new pool owners!
Things You Need to Know as a Pool Owner
There are many things you need to know as a pool owner. You need to understand the type of pool you have. You need to understand how to test your water and restore it to a healthy chemical balance. You even need to understand the right way to maintain your swimming pool on a daily and weekly basis. Below are some things you need to know as a new pool owner.
Understanding Your Pool
What type of swimming pool do you have? This is the first thing all pool owners should know. Is it plaster, vinyl, or concrete? Do you have a variable speed pump or a standard pump? What type of filtration system do you have? These differences can affect the way you maintain your swimming pool. So, you should understand them ahead of time. However, if you work with a professional swimming pool company, their technicians can identify all of these factors for you.
Know When Your Water Is Out of Balance
In order to keep the water in your swimming pool clean, clear, and healthy to swim in, you need to monitor the water for certain factors, such as pH, chlorine levels, and calcium hardness. Test your water at least once a week and if any of the levels are out of the acceptable range, add necessary treatments to bring it back into balance. The ideal ranges for each thing you will be testing include:
- Chlorine: 3 ppm
- pH Levels:4 – 7.6
- Alkalinity: 80 – 120 ppm
- Calcium Hardness: 200 – 400 ppm
- Cyanuric Acid (CYA): 30 – 50 ppm
Make a Pool Maintenance Schedule
As a pool owner, there are a series of maintenance tasks that you must do every week, from testing the water to vacuuming the pool. Improper maintenance can cause your pool to become cloudy or discolored, making it look much scummier than it actually is. One of the best new pool owner tips is to make your swimming pool maintenance automatic with the use of a professional swimming pool company that offers weekly maintenance services. Aquaman Pools offers weekly swimming pool maintenance services for just $150/month.
Don’t Drain Your Own Pool
While draining your swimming pool might seem simple, it can cause it to pop out of the ground if not done correctly. Water often builds up in sections of soil, like the area around your pool. When your swimming pool is full, it has the weight and pressure of the water holding it down. When the water is suddenly removed, your entire swimming pool can float above the soil several feet, causing catastrophic damage. Professional swimming pool technicians know how to relieve this hydrostatic pressure before draining your swimming pool. So, it is best to use a professional when you need to drain your pool.
Circulation, Filtration, and Sanitation
Your swimming pool relies on three fundamental pillars of upkeep: circulation, filtration, and sanitation. All three of these features contribute to a clean and healthy swimming pool. All new swimming pool owners need to understand each of these concepts. Some things you should know include:
- Circulation: Swimming pools use a looped plumbing system to move water around your swimming pool. A pump pulls water out of your pool, filters it, and returns it through your jets.
- Filtration: Your pool filter removes the smallest particles from your water before it is recirculated. Filters should be back-washed routinely to flush out all collected debris.
- Sanitation: To prevent the growth of algae, bacteria, and other microscopic life, you need to add chlorine to your swimming pool. A chlorine floater is an easy way to provide a constant source of chlorine to your pool.
Things You Need to Have as a Pool Owner
There are some things you need to have as a pool owner. In order to keep your swimming pool healthy and well-maintained, you need to have some accessories, tools, and equipment. If you use a professional swimming pool company to maintain your swimming pool, they will often have their own tools. However, you still want to have some of the below equipment around the pool for the times when you need to perform your own upkeep.
An Extendable Skimmer
The skimmer net is your tool for removing debris from the surface of your swimming pool. All sorts of leaves, sticks, pine needles, and other debris will find their way into your swimming pool. Ideally, you should skim your swimming pool daily, but you should never ignore it for more than a week. When large debris makes its way into your equipment, it can cause costly damage.
A Scrub Brush
You need a telescoping brush to help you clean anything stuck to the walls of your swimming pool. Scrub all walls, steps, and tiles with the brush, loosening any debris or algae with your brush. You should do this at least once a week, if not more often. We recommend brushing and scrubbing before vacuuming because the debris you dislodge from the walls of your pool will settle to the bottom.
A Pool Vacuum
If you don’t have a vacuum, the bottom of your swimming pool will get filthy quickly. A swimming pool sucks accumulated layers of dirt and debris off the bottom of your swimming pool. You should vacuum your swimming pool once a week, but there are automatic vacuums that will do the job for you. Even if you have one of those, you should perform a manual vacuum from time to time to catch any spots the automatic vacuum might miss.
A Water Test Kit
A pool water test kit will tell you whether your chemical balance is healthy. There are water test kits on the market that will measure many different properties of your pool’s water. You should look for a test kit that shows chlorine, pH level, alkalinity, and CYA levels.
A Chlorine Floater
Chlorine is essential for sanitizing your swimming pool and preventing algae or bacterial growth. A Chlorine floater gives your swimming pool a constant stream of chlorine, slowly releasing it. This is a great way to keep your chlorine levels high without adding a lot of chemicals at once.
Use Professionals When You Need Help With Your Pool
The best tip anyone can give a new swimming pool owner is to use professional swimming pool services often. Damage to your swimming pool can be tricky to fix, and it is easy to make a problem worse if you don’t have experience working on swimming pool equipment. We offer swimming pool repair services that will help you fix any problem, from green water to malfunctioning pumps.
Request a Swimming Pool Service Estimate Today!
Now that you know everything there is to know about your new swimming pool, go out and enjoy it. If anything goes wrong, just call Aquaman Pools. We have earned more than 200 five-star reviews because our service technicians are the best in the Phoenix, Gilbert, Scottsdale, and Chandler area. We can help you with everything from routine maintenance to resurfacing. Request your swimming pool service estimate today!