Dive in to a regular pool care routine

WITH the arrival of summer, with its longer and warmer days, we find ourselves looking to ways of keeping cool. Those who have a pool at home will know how important it is to keep it looking its best for the swimming season.

Pool maintenance during the swimming season is imperative, not only for the health and safety of those using the pool, but also the longevity of your pool equipment. You can ensure this by following some routine steps.

Pool water needs daily maintenance through chlorination, filtration and cleaning, and advances in technology over the years have enabled a more “user friendly” approach to such maintenance.

During the swimming season, your pool’s requirement for chlorine increases, not only for bacteria free water, but also to combat the extremes of heat, UV and other contaminates that can cause pool water to not look its best. While keeping a recommended level of chlorine in any pool is important, pool volume, surface and location can all have an effect on individual requirements.

The average backyard pool is approximately 50,000 litres in volume and requires a minimum of eight hours’ filtration daily at this time of the year. If your pool has a salt chlorinator converting salt to chlorine, your pool should have enough chlorine available daily at eight hours, to keep an adequate level of chlorine in the water – between the levels of 2-4 on a test kit. Given temperature changes in summer are frequent, your pool may need an added dose of granular, liquid or tablet form chlorine to boost levels from extra heat and UV and extra bather use.

Other levels that need to maintained are PH and alkalinity. These enable swimmer comfort to be attained and also are important in protecting valuable pool equipment from wear and tear.

The PH of your pool water should be between 7.3 and 7.6 and your alkalinity between 100 and 150. Both can be measured with a home or in-store test and recommendations can be made to restore levels that have been measured outside these parameters.

Cleaning of the pool surface should be a regular routine to keep pool water clean and clear. Automatic cleaners enable reliable cleaning of the pool surface or alternatively manual cleaners can also remove debris such as leaves, dirt and dust.

With the higher temperatures at this time of the year, as mentioned, your pool requires higher levels of chlorine. Given that UV releases chlorine from your pool, products such as stabiliser, which acts as a sunscreen for pool water, help to retain chlorine in the water, therefore saving you time and money in added chlorinating products.

“Pool covers are a great way to prevent increased evaporation from your pool and to save on water costs.

Pool covers are a great way to prevent increased evaporation from your pool and to save on water costs. Chlorine levels are also likely to remain higher with a cover and water temperature may also increase. A pool cover is also handy if your backyard has trees with falling leaves and can also reduce other contaminates from entering the pool.

Chris Bray is the garden centre manager for Brennan’s Mitre 10