Cleaning the Pool in Scottsdale, AZ

The biggest part of maintaining your pool properly is cleaning it effectively. Your pool has a filter system that cleans and circulates the pool water. The most common filter uses sand to remove contaminants from the pool water. This system will need to be cleaned.

In order to clean the pool water and filter system, you will first want to remove all large particles from the water, such as leaves. You can do this with a pool net. The filter system will remove smaller particles by sucking water through the sand filter. Your filter should be active for at least six, and as much as eight, hours a day. It should cycle on and off automatically. If you notice that the filter isn’t as effective as it should be, you will need to do some deep cleaning.

During the prime swimming season, you should brush and vacuum the pool at least once a week. A large brush, made for this job, is scraped against the side walls of the pool. As the debris settles to the bottom, a pool vacuum removes it all. At the same time, it’s a good idea to backwash the filtering system. This reverses the flow and blows out any accumulated debris in the filter. You should be able to test the water and realize a significant increase in flow. This is a good indication that it has been done correctly.

Adjust Chemical Levels

After a thorough cleaning has been accomplished, it’s time to check on the PH and chemical levels in the pool. Many pool owners don’t spend a lot of time making sure that a proper balance is achieved in a backyard pool. However, it’s really quite simple to test your pool. You can purchase a water test kit that will help you stay on top of this. After determining these levels, you can adjust the additions that you make to the pool water more effectively. This not only makes it more comfortable to swim, but also safer.

Trouble Shooting Problems

If you pay close enough attention to basic maintenance, you shouldn’t experience very many serious problems with your pool. However, some common problems that are encountered include staining, chlorine burn, cloudy water, algae or swimmers becoming ill. Obviously, if you notice any of these issues, discontinue using the pool until you get to the bottom of the problem.

Some problems can be fixed more than other and don’t cause health problems. Algae, for example, is easily handled by properly adjusting the chlorine levels. Cloudy water could be an indication that the pool needs to be cleaned more often. Surprisingly, when a chlorine smell is heavy, that can mean that you actually aren’t using enough. When there isn’t enough chlorine to break down debris components in the water, a chemical off gassing occurs.

Illness from pool water should be taken very seriously. In no cases should you allow people who you know to be ill to swim in your backyard pool. In addition, if you suspect that your pool has caused illness, stop swimming in it until you have determined the cause and corrected the problem.

If you need help with your pool, feel free to give us a call at 480-222-0895.