Prepare Your Pool for Summer Fun

If you own a pool (or hope to soon), you know it’s important to keep it well maintained. Taking the time to get the pool ready for the arrival of warm weather will set the tone for good vibes all summer long. Here are three steps to help care for your pool:

1.  Skim Debris and Clean Baskets

Skimming the surface of the pool for floating debris and emptying the skimmer basket is an easy task that only takes a couple of minutes to complete. This Old House recommends skimming the debris and cleaning out the strainer basket at least three to four times a week so the waste will not go back into the water. Additionally, if you have any trees nearby the pool, you should consider trimming them back and replace them with less messy varieties. For directions on how to skim and remove debris from the pool the right way, watch this video from Lowe’s.

2.  Maintain the pH Level

To ensure your pool water is clean and healthy, you should test your pool water regularly. According to How Stuff Works, the pH scale is a measurement of acidity or alkalinity that runs from 0 to 14. A reading between 7.2 and 7.8 is ideal; this range is safe for swimmers and helps sanitizers work at top efficiency.

You can monitor your pool’s pH level with a testing kit (pool supplies available at here). Although there are many kits available, the most common are reagent kits and test strips. Reagent kits take a sample of the pool water then add liquids or tablets to it, which change the color indicating its chemical balance. Test strips, on the other hand, work by dipping a strip of the paper in the water, which cause the strips to change color. Once the colors have changed, you can match them to the strip on a color chart to determine your pool’s pH level.

3. Supercholorinate Water

Over time, contaminants like ammonia or nitrogen can build up, which can interact with a pool’s chlorine to form chloramines that give off that potent chlorine smell that people associate with pools. To remove this odor, it’s important to supercholorinate – or shock – pool water to normal chlorine levels. To learn how you can supercholorinate your pool, follow these instructions from Do It Yourself.

 

Tip: Use WD-40_® Multi-Use Product to lubricate extensions on your pool cleaning pole.