Having a pool is one of the best features of owning a house. It turns your house from a place to sleep at night into the ultimate hang out spot for you and your family.
In short, it can provide countless hours of fun, laughs, and bonding with family and friends. What’s better than that?
However, owning and caring for a pool doesn’t come without responsibility. You need to prioritize its cleanliness in order to provide pricey maintenance charges down the line.
Here are several pool maintenance mistakes for you to try to avoid. Dodging these will make pool ownership that much more enjoyable.
1. Never Brushing Your Pool
You’ve dedicated all that time, money, and energy into building a custom pool for your family. Don’t let all that dedication go in vain by making the mistake of not brushing your pool.
Many pool owners tell themselves “I’ll brush it down next week”, but that “next week” never actually comes.
Simply put: brushing down your pool needs to be weekly maintenance that you perform. You need to provide extra care to the areas of your pool that doesn’t get enough circulation. That’s the spot where algae are likely to grow.
If you’re brushing your pool each week then the process will be less exhaustive.
Make sure to scrub down things like your pool’s tiling, steps, ladders, and hard to reach corners that it might have.
2. Pouring Shock Right Into the Pool
Here’s one mistake that many pool owners make out of pure lack of knowledge.
The common misconception is that, because your poor other items into the pool, then you apply the pool shock the same way. However, it’s too high a concentrated dose of chlorine, which can be very harmful to your pool’s liner.
Instead, grab a few separate buckets of water and mix the pool shock in with them so that it can dissolve into the water.
Make sure that you fill the bucket with water before pouring in the pool shock. Not doing so can lead to harmful chemicals splashing into your eyes, mouth, etc.
3. Not Using Extra Cleaning With Pets
If you let your pets swim in the pool, then you need to be providing extra care to the pool itself.
Dogs contain a lot of contaminants and germs that your pool otherwise won’t be exposed to. As they shed in the pool, that loose hair can clog your filter and cause a chemical imbalance in your pool’s water.
There’s nothing wrong with letting Biscuit into the pool with your family members.
However, if you know that they’ll be swimming in the pool a moderate amount, be sure to keep some water clarifiers on hand. Apply them after each swimming session that your dog swims in the pool.
4. Forgetting to Test the Water
This is probably the highest form of neglect among current pool owners. A few weeks go by without you remembering to test the chemical levels in your pool.
Fortunately, the cure for this is simply setting a few more reminders for yourself than usual.
Be sure to prioritize this so that you can test and make sure the pH levels are at or around 7.5. If they aren’t, you can make some fixes accordingly.
Remember, too high a pH level shows harmful acidity in your pool that needs to be lowered. Meanwhile, too low a pH level shows water levels that can be harmful to the equipment in your pool.
5. Not Tending to Pool Filters
The filter in your pool is essential to maximizing the circulation in your pool. If it isn’t working at it’s best, you risk algae forming in your pool… and fast.
All filters get clogged from time to time, it’s a natural part of the pool ownership process. Make sure that you’re cleaning it often to make sure it’s in tip-top shape.
The best practice is letting it sit in muriatic acid for a few minutes before rinsing it, drying it, and placing it back into the pool.
6. Using an Automatic Cleaner too Often
Here’s one guideline that will serve you well as a pool owner: just because you have an automatic pool cleaner, doesn’t mean you have to use it.
If you notice that algae are growing in your pool, that should be a sign to you not to use the automatic cleaner again until it’s gone.
While the hands-on process of brushing, vacuuming, testing, and re-shocking your pool is tedious and time-consuming… it’s necessary. Trying to cut corners will lead to harmful bacteria growing in your pool.
7. Not Draining Your Pool
Even if you live in a place where you can use your pool year-round, you’ll need to drain and refill it once every few years.
There are chemicals that fill your pool with modern usage such as sunscreen, debris from storms, sweat, oils, etc. Realistically, the only way to get your TDS levels where they need to be is draining and refilling it.
Only then will you have a fresh start with getting the levels back to where they should be. It’s vital for keeping your family safe when swimming in the pool.
Avoid These Pool Maintenance Mistakes At All Costs
Now that you’ve seen several of the most common pool maintenance mistakes, make sure to prioritize avoiding them.
Are you still considering purchasing a pool for your home? Be sure to read this article on inground pool vs above ground to get started on the process.
For more inquiries, please begin by requesting a free consultation and we’ll be happy to assist you further!
