But don't jump in quite yet! If your pool has been closed all winter, you'll need to do a little prep work to get your pool ready for another season of fun. Don't worry, though. Opening an inground or above ground pool is easy. Follow a few easy simple and you'll be perfecting your cannonball in no time!
Before you open your pool, take some time to survey the area around your pool. Trim overgrown trees and hedges. Sweep away nearby leaves. Check your deck for damage, wear, and tear and address any issues before you open your pool for the season. Be sure to clean and repair any deck furniture so that it is safe for use. You should also check pool equipment like safety rails, slides, rescue equipment, ladders, and diving boards.
During the fall and winter months, your swimming pool cover can accumulate water and debris. Use a pool cover pump to remove that old, dirty water and keep it out of your swimming pool. Once the cover is removed, hose it off and give it a thorough cleaning (we recommend using a specially formulated cleaner, such as PoolStyle Clean-N-Store), then allow it to dry.
You can prolong the life of your pool cover by storing it safely away from insects, rodents, and the elements. Once your swimming pool cover is clean and dry, tightly roll it and store it indoors or in a garage.
Check your tile and remove calcium build up and stains with the appropriate swimming pool scale removal product. Please contact your local pool professional for the best products to use.
Hairline cracks are normal in fiberglass pools. Because fiberglass pools have a gel coating, these small cracks typically won't affect the integrity of your pool. However, if your fiberglass pool has large cracks or holes you should call your local pool professional right away.
Grab a garden hose and fill the pool until the water level reaches the midpoint of the waterline tile or middle of the skimmer opening. Once you've got the water level where it needs to be, you can now clean leaves, twigs and debris from the pool's bottom by using a pool brush. Also be sure to remove any debris from the basket.
You're almost there! All you have to do now is get the filter up and running. Turn on the filter and run it for 12 to 24 hours to circulate the water before testing or adding chemicals (remember to use new testing strips and not expired ones).
It is recommended to have your water tested professionally when opening your pool and once monthly throughout the season. You can always bring a water sample to a pool professional for proper analysis. Your pool professional will provide you with instructions for balancing your pool water. They can test the water's pH level, alkalinity, calcium hardness and chlorine levels. In addition to shocking the pool, they may be able to also recommend that you add a stabilizer, phosphate remover, metal treatment product or algaecide to your pool before it's ready for the warm weather.
Continue to run the filter for a few days, vacuuming out any debris that has settled. When the water is clear and the chlorine levels have come down, your pool is ready for swimming! Enjoy your pool!
Remember to test your pool water weekly as well as bring it to your local pool professional monthly or whenever you're experiencing issues. Best maintenance practices will keep your pool's water clear and prevent poor water conditions. Remember to sanitize daily, shock routinely/weekly to remove contaminants and add a small preventative dose of algaecide weekly to prevent algae outbreaks.
All swimming pools work in the same manner - no matter the shape, size or whether it's a backyard pool or a commercial pool. They all use a combination of pumping, filtration, and chemical treatment to constantly clean a large volume of water.
A pool in good working condition will pull the water from your pool basin through the skimmer and into the pool pump. This is called the suction side of the pool. Once it passes through the pump, it will push the water through your filter and back into the pool through the jets. This is the pressure side of the pool.
During this process, the dirty water in your pool will move through the skimmer and pump so that the debris particles can be intercepted by the filter. After the water goes through the filter it’s clean again and ready to go back in the pool. The pump moves the water, sort of like the “heart” of the pool and the filter removes contaminants, sort of like the “kidney”.
With some help from pool chemicals to balance the water chemistry, and a vacuum or robotic cleaner to take care of debris, your pump and filter system will keep your water moving in a continuous cleaning cycle.
Total alkalinity refers to the ability of the pool water to resist a change in pH. The key purpose total alkalinity serves is to help control the pH in the pool. It does this by acting as a buffer so that when materials are added to a pool that would otherwise cause the pH to go up or down, these changes are managed and do not result in severe changes to pool water balance.
When a substance is added to pool water that could affect the pH, total alkalinity will react to neutralize it and help keep the pH in the desired range. Total alkalinity does not determine what the pH will be, but rather acts to help keep the pH in the range desired.
Total alkalinity is measured in parts per million (ppm) using a total alkalinity test kit. It is best kept in the range of -120 ppm. When the total alkalinity value is less than ppm, the water can become aggressive and the pH can swing easily upward and downward and back again. If the value is higher than 120 ppm the water can become cloudy and scale forming and the pH will tend to drift upward.
In adjusting total alkalinity downward, the same acids used to lower pH are employed. When reducing total alkalinity, it is best to add small amounts of acid, either liquid or dry, over a period of several days as opposed to making large adjustments rapidly. Adding too much acid at once may result in lowering the pH so severely that corrosion of pool surfaces and equipment may result. When raising total alkalinity, alkalinity increaser is the chemical of choice. Adding the required amount in recommended increments over a few hours with the pool circulating is suggested. Please be aware that some clouding could occur.
Pool Installation Gold CoastOn occasion it is possible, especially in freshly filled pools, to find that both total alkalinity and pH need to be adjusted. Typically, if one factor is high or low, the other will be as well. It is not unusual, however, to have a condition where one factor is high and the other is very low. In such a situation, adjusting the wrong factor first may cause a significant problem with the other, or worse - cause a problem such as corrosion of equipment or precipitation of calcium. If this occurs with a freshly filled pool, it may be worthwhile to wait about 24 hours before making any adjustments. This wait will generally result in some natural balancing of the water without added chemicals. This process is commonly referred to as allowing the water to come into equilibrium. If additional adjustment is still needed, it will require far less time or chemicals.
In cases where the pH is low and the total alkalinity is high, raise the pH first into the normal range of 2 - 8 and then lower the total alkalinity. When the total alkalinity is low and the pH high, raise the total alkalinity first and then reduce the pH.
In all cases, never add acid to the pool water if the pH is less than 2, even if the total alkalinity is high. Instead wait for the pH to rise first before proceeding. If the pH does not come up by itself after a day or two you will need to add some pH Up before proceeding.
It corrodes your swimming pool’s metal fittings. It leaves ugly rust stains and scaly white buildup on your formerly pristine pool surfaces. It eats away at fittings and creates tiny pinhole leaks in critical pool equipment.
It’s calcium. Or calcium carbonate, if you want to be scientific about it. But whatever you call it, this naturally occurring chemical compound can be the source of common swimming pool maintenance headaches. The good news is that, with a good pool maintenance routine, you can keep your water balanced and keep pool calcium in check (and you can kiss the flakes, stains, and leaks goodbye).
Excess calcium in your swimming pool is typically the result of a bigger issue with the chemicals in your pool water. As most pool owners can tell you, when it comes to water, balance is, well everything: If your pool water’s pH is off-kilter, or if your total alkalinity is too high or too low, you’ll likely end up battling algae, cloudy water, and, of course, calcium deposits.
Of course, chemical imbalances aren’t the only cause of excess calcium. Water temperature is also a contributing factor: As water temperature rises, calcium becomes more likely to precipitate out of solution. Calcium is actually more soluble in cold water, which is why scaling of heater equipment is so common.
With all of the difficulties calcium can cause, your first instinct might be to try and remove it completely – but that would be a mistake. While high calcium levels can lead to cloudy water and scale, low levels of calcium aren’t any better.
Here’s why: Water naturally wants to be balanced – and if your swimming pool water doesn’t have enough calcium, the water will actually try to balance itself out by drawing calcium from, say, your plaster pool walls in order to satisfy its need for the mineral. If you’ve got a vinyl or fiberglass pool, the water will attack metal fittings and heat exchangers, causing corrosion that can destroy the fittings and cause pinhole leaks (plus, it’ll leave telltale stains on your pool surfaces).
In other words, when it comes to your swimming pool’s calcium levels, the “Goldilocks” approach is best: Not too much, not too little. You want it to be just right.
Like pH and alkalinity levels, calcium content is all about finding the right balance. Water should have a calcium content in the range of 100-400 parts per million.
If your swimming pool doesn’t have enough calcium, you can add a pool water hardness increaser to the water easily raises calcium levels. You can buy a bucket of granular hardness increaser at just about any swimming pool retailer.
If you’re dealing with too much calcium in a pool, you can try adding a sequestering agent, which is a chemical treatment that fights the effects of high metal and calcium content in swimming pool water (as an added bonus, it also fights stains). If you routinely struggle with high calcium levels or if you live in a place where hard water is an issue, you should make a sequestering agent part of your regular chemical maintenance program.
Of course, when dealing with any swimming pool issue – from calcium problems to questions about routine maintenance -- your local pool professional is a great resource. They can prescribe what is best for your pool to take care of and prevent any problem that can arise.
There are several different products that can help you accomplish this task including Muriatic Acid. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the ways muriatic acid can help manage your pool such as reducing pH levels and cleaning cartridge filters.
Muriatic acid is a diluted solution of hydrochloric acid. You can buy it at most home improvement stores, and it’s used for a variety of heavy-duty tasks, such as removing “efflorescence” (a fancy word for salt deposits on rock or stucco). It’s also used to remove rust and stain from concrete and brick.
