Fast Start For New Pool Owners
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This page is a fast start guide for new swimming pool owners who are looking to understand more about how to take care of their own pool. As a new pool owner it can definitely be confusing at first because there is so much that you need to learn about. To complicate things further there is no real method to determine what is a priority for you to learn and do right now versus what is a longer term goal for you to work on. This fast start guide for new swimming pool owners will help you to learn the basics as quickly as possible as well as learning the order of operations and priorities you should be taking care of.
Unfortunately with swimming pools the penalties for doing something wrong are pretty steep. Most new pool owners will eventually find they have a problem with the pool, or the water quality, and this will be from a problem they have never heard about before. How can you protect yourself against a problem you have never heard of before? The answer is that you simply can't. Hopefully after reading this page and watching the video at the bottom you will be much better prepared for the little surprises that come with being a new pool owner and with luck you will avoid many of the common problems that new pool owners tend to encounter.
When you first are responsible for caring for and maintaining a swimming pool a big part of the problem is the lack of perspective. You have no way to know what order to take care of the pool, or even a comprehensive list of the things you are supposed to be keeping an eye on. Part of the problem is that every swimming pool is unique. A list of priorities and concerns for one pool might not apply to a different kind of pool, or a pool located in another geographic area. This is part of the complex nature of finding technical help for caring for your pool. Every situation is unique...literally. Much of the information that you will need to know to care for your pool will be unique to you and your pool exclusively. For example, a very common question might be about the pressure on the pool filter gauge. Every single pool will have a unique operating pressure due to the way the pool is plumbed, the number of pipes, the pipe size, the distance from pump to pool, the elevation of the pump relative to the pool water...as you can see there is a ton of stuff that all impacts the pressure on the pool filter. Nobody can tell you what your pool filter pressure should be. Let's look at this example further;
Pool filter pressure - There is in fact a long list of things you need to know, and need to do, in order to take care of a pool. One of these maintenance tasks is keeping your pool filter clean. This is true no matter which kind of pool filter that you have. When you are new to caring for a pool, you need to discover your "clean operational pressure" which will be the unique number that your pool filter registers on the pressure gauge. The range is 0 to 30 PSI. Pool equipment should never exceed 30 PSI. If you ever see a pool filter pressure over 30 PSI turn off the pump immediately. When you are first learning about your pool you should clean the filter so you are starting with clean media, and then run your pump on the normal highest speed that you operate it. Note valve positioning matters for this, so be sure that all valves are in your normal operation orientation. Note the pressure on the pool filter. When the filters are clean, the pressure on your filter is the "clean operational pressure" and this is an important number so write it in permanent marker on the wall next to the filter. Any time the pressure starts to climb above the clean operational pressure this indicates the filter is getting dirty. 7 PSI over clean operational pressure is the latest you want to leave it before you clean your filter media. You do not have to wait until it is 7 PSI more, you can clean your filter any time the pressure elevates and this should return it to the original clean operational pressure of your system. Remember, never operate above 30 PSI so if your clean pressure is 25 PSI (which is pretty high, indicates a less efficient system) you can not let it climb 7 PSI because then you would be running above 30 PSI, so 7 PSI above clean operational pressure, or 30 PSI, whichever comes first. Hopefully your operating pressure is lower than 25 PSI as that is quite high, and likely the pump is oversized or the filter is undersized for this system.
Brushing, scooping and vacuuming your pool - Your pool needs to have regular debris scooping, brushing of the walls and floor, as well as vacuuming any debris that ends up on the floor. The better you are about actively scooping debris that ends up floating in your pool the less vacuuming you will need to be doing. Leaving debris in the pool, floating or sunken, is detrimenntal to the water chemistry. Be sure to check and clean the skimmer and pump strainer baskets regularly. Pools with a lot of organic debris and old growth trees nearby will require more diligent cleaning of strainer baskets. Brushing the walls and floor is a little bit of a workout, but doing this once per week will help to dislodge biofilm and organic contaminants from the walls and floor and get them into suspension in the water where the chemicals and the filtration system can better deal with them.
Pool water chemistry 101 - You probably already know that learning pool chemistry is going to be one of the more challenging things for you if you are new to caring for a swimming pool. There is a lot to know, yes, but in the majority of cases a basic understanding of water chemistry is all you need. More complicated water chemistry problems are fortunately pretty rare. For most pool owners you really just need to focus on total alkalinity, pH, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid and chlorine. In that order specifically. This is the first thing to remember, that the order of chemistry corrections is very important. In addition to these basic chemistry values which you need to know and adjust your pool water to meet, you also need to know a little more about chlorine. You have free chlorine, combined chlorine and total chlorine. Free is the good stuff, ready and waiting to kill bacteria and organic contaminants that end up in the pool. But once they do that they are no longer free chlorine. Now the free chlorine has combined with something, like bacteria for example, and it is now combined chlorine. In perfectly balanced water the combined chlorine reading should be zero, which means free chlorine and the total chlorine should be exactly the same number. When the total chlorine number rises higher than free chlorine, this means you are building up combined chlorine, and you need to treat the water with breakpoint chlorination to reduce the combined chlorine back down to zero. That probably sounds confusing, but it is actually pretty easy once you get going. Free chlorine keeps the pool safe and clean, and when the chlorine combines with something it is bad, and called combined chlorine. You fix that by...you guessed it...adding more chlorine in a process called breakpoint chlorination. For now, just keep an eye on combined chlorine levels. They will start at zero and climb over time. Never let combined chlorine climb higher than 1.0ppm. For more information you can refer to this pool chemistry crash course.
So already in this one short page we have covered water chemistry order of operations as well as some common chemistry values to keep an eye on as you move forward. We have also covered pool filter maintenance as well as the basics behind cleaning, vacuuming and scooping the pool. Honestly, that is pretty much it from the perspective of a new pool owner. It is not expected that you are an expert in these subjects yet, just that you are aware of them and know to keep an eye on your water chemistry and the debris loads in your pool.
One more point to make in regards to water chemistry is that you should test your water a lot at first while you are learning. Test at home with test strips for a quick and easy check, or with a Taylor Technologies K2006 Complete test kit for more accurate at-home testing. You can and should take advantage of the free water labs available at pool and spa stores as a second check of your chemistry and water care instructions at least while you are still learning.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool specialist from Ontario Canada and one of the most trusted voices in the swimming pool industry. With over 20,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the Pleatco Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print. Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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