Tips to Get Your Pool Ready for Summer

Tips to Get Your Pool Ready for Summer in Lake Havasu City Arizona

After a long winter's nap, your backyard pool is probably a tub of green water with leaves and branches floating about. Before you can reopen the pool for summer time fun, you need to clean out the gunk and restore the water to its proper chemical balance.

There's more to opening your backyard swimming pool than just filling it up and jumping in. It's very important to open your pool correctly to ensure proper operation and chemical safety. Check out these eight steps to opening your pool the right way for summer time fun.

Eight Steps to Open Your Pool for Summer

1. Don't Empty Your Pool

Never empty your pool unless you have no other choice, such as if you need to do structural work or your pool hasn't been covered and there are too many leaves at the bottom to remove. (Also: Get a cover. Really.) The reason is draining the pool can bring big problems. For example, an empty pool in a high water table can lift out of the ground without the weight of the water holding it down. Yikes!

You may be surprised to know most pool owners aren't even aware of the risk. People think they're going to empty and clean their pool but they either do it in a very wet season when there's a high groundwater table, or their swimming pool actually sits in a high water table. If your pool ends up popping out of the ground like a boat, it could mean a complete pool replacement.

2. Clean It Up

Start the process of bringing your pool up to shape with a "chemical open." Put the filtration system together, clean out all the baskets, and remove any plugs that you put in when the pool closed last year. Be sure to leave the cover on the pool while you're working on it.

3. Top It Off

If the water level has fallen over the winter, go ahead and top it off. Make sure to clean the filter before you turn it on. Clean a cartridge filter by removing the cartridge and wash with a hose. If you have a D.E. filter, you might need to take it apart, clean it, and reassemble it. If you have a sand filter, set the filter to backwash, which will clean the sand. Then turn it to the normal setting.

4. Have a Pro Test Your Water

Have the water professionally tested. Take a water sample to a swimming pool store so they can test the water for you, usually for free. They'll do a complete test and tell you what needs to be adjusted and for how much.

5. Balance Your Chemicals

Now balance the  chemistry, based on your pool pro's analysis. Your PH levels should between 7.2 to 7.4. The pH level dictates how much chlorine turns into hypochlorous acid in the water. Use soda ash to increase pH; muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate to decrease.

Total alkalinity should be from 80 to 120. Alkalinity is a pH buffer—pH levels will be consistent if the alkalinity level is correct. Use sodium bicarbonate to increase alkalinity, muriatic acid to decrease it.

Calcium hardness should be from 150 ppm to 250 ppm (parts per million). This is directly dependent on the hardness of the water. The softer the water, the more calcium it will absorb from its environment. Adjust the calcium hardness by using calcium chloride.

Chlorine needs to be from 1 ppm to 3 ppm. A popular product for backyard in-ground pools are cyanuric-based tablets (the ones that look like large white hockey pucks). Cyanuric acid is like sun screen for your water.

You can put the tablets in your skimmer baskets, but their low acid content means they'll eat metal—a problem if your pool has a metal filter system or a heater with a copper heat exchanger. For this reason, it's recommended that you get  a plastic chlorinator, which attaches to the filter system. Get a pro to hook this up.

6. Wait for the Water to Clear

Don't don your swim trunks quite yet. The filter has to be cleaned every day until the water is clear. This usually takes about a week. You may have to add chlorine to keep it at the right level. Only when the water is clear and you can see the pool floor should you remove the cover. Remove the cover too soon and you'll end up with more leaves and pollen and debris to clean out.

7. Housekeeping

After you've removed the cover, you need to vacuum all the leaves and debris from the bottom.

8. Maintain

For the rest of the season, keep the filter clean, vacuum the pool each week, and test the chemical levels every day. Now, DIVE IN!

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