Good Habits For New Pool Owners
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Getting a new swimming pool is fantastic and rewarding but it is not without serious consideration first about running costs, work load and commitment to the pool. Having a swimming pool is like getting a new puppy. That puppy is going to take daily effort to care for and will cost you money every month in food and toys and essential care items. Also you will have the potential for sudden unexpected bills due to illness or injury. Pools are a similar kind of commitment in that once you have it you are on the hook for taking care of it. Even if you end up not using the pool for one reason or another you still are going to need to devote time and money regularly towards the upkeep of the pool.
It is definitely prudent to really consider whether you want to commit long term to a pool or not. It would be a huge mistake to assume you can put the pool on hold any time you want to go out of town for a vacation. Similarly it would be a mistake to assume you can put off pool repairs or maintenance items until you save up the money for them. Pools demand regular care and maintenance and failure to provide the pool with this essential care will almost certainly result in early failure of pool components and additional costs that could have otherwise been avoided. That is the purpose behind this article. The tips on this page will help new pool owners to avoid some common mistakes that seem innocent enough to a new pool owner, but can end up costing you big time down the road. It is important to understand that there are many different kinds of pools, different ways to install pools, different geographic areas with different technical processes and so these points may not apply equally to every pool. Still, these points represent some of the most commonly known maintenance mistakes and failures within the pool industry.
Avoid Chlorine Pucks In The Skimmer
I will admit that a strainer basket for your pool skimmer certainly works effectively for dissolving chlorine pucks in your pool. Unfortunately choosing to use your skimmer basket for dissolving chlorine pucks is one of the worst decisions you can make as a pool owner. This is a classic case of something being so fast and so easy that it must be wrong...and it is. There exists a product specifically for dissolving chlorine pucks, and I am not talking about a floating tab dispenser which I suppose is also made for the same purposes. No, I am talking about an erosion feeder like the Hayward C220 for example. These cannisters are made to fill with chlorine pucks and they have a dial setting to control how fast the chlorine is dissolved and released into your pool water. When you read the instruction manual for an erosion feeder, or any chlorine injection system for that matter, they all have the exact same highly specific instructions which clearly states that the chlorine feeder must be the very last component installed on the equipment pad right before the water returns to the pool so as to avoid sending concentrated chlorine water through your pool equipment.
Even when you hear anecdotal evidence from people who have been putting chlorine in their skimmer for years "with no problems" you should consider the installation instructions for chlorine feeders and why they must be installed last. Even chlorine pucks with additives to make them dissolve slower should not be used in skimmers even though they advertise that they can be used in skimmers. Chlorine pucks continue to dissolve and make concentrated chlorine when the pool pump is off, which is both dangerous and also bad for your equipment and plumbing, and pucks that advertise as being safe for the skimmer dissolve slower when the pump is off. However it is still chlorine. All forms of chlorine make hypochlorous acid when they contact the water so no matter what kind or brand, you are still sending chlorine directly through your pool equipment, which is something we have known for 50 years in the pool industry that you should definitely avoid. As a new pool owner adopt the idea that chlorine in the skimmer is a major no-no and if you want to use pucks as your primary method of introducing chlorine to the pool then simply spend $100 or so on an erosion feeder. If you want more information about what can happen to your pool and plumbing from keeping chlorine pucks in your skimmer you can read this article: damage to pools from chlorine in the skimmer.
Balance Your Pool Chemistry
Probably the most common mistake on this list that pool owners are going to make will be to fail to be able to balance the pool water chemistry. Chemical maintenance in general gets glossed over by most pool owners, especially new pool owners, as it is a lot to take in all at once. While it is a little on the complicated side, or at least you could say that there is a learning curve to pool water chemistry maintenance, the importance of learning how to balance the chemicals in your pool properly can not be overstated. Poor water chemistry is the number one cause of early pool component failure and we are not talking about an incremental amount of time either. You can take a brand new heater that should easily last 10 years and kill it beyond repair with a single season of bad water chemistry. Pool water chemistry is overwhelming at first to many new pool owners but this is one area to really focus your efforts to learn if you want to have your pool and pool components last for as long as possible. If you are new to pool chemistry or it does not make sense to you then you should consider buying a Taylor pool test kit to learn how to accurately test your water chemistry at home, and perhaps try taking my pool chemistry crash course to help get your head around the chemistry side of pool maintenance a little better.
At the most basic pools need chlorine to be safe to swim. This is the starting point for most pool owners however it really is just that...a starting point. You actually need to balance the total alkalinity, pH, calcium hardness and cyanuric acid at the minimum just to make sure your chlorine is able to work and your water is a comfortable acidity level for you to be in. This represents stage two of learning about how to balance your pool water chemistry however this is still one level shy of learning about the saturation index balance equation in your water. This is the real "balancing" that you need to worry about if you are trying to avoid the long term potential of damage to your pool. In short, the Langelier saturation index measures the state of your water to learn whether it is in a scaling state, an acidic state or a neutral state. Ideally you want to maintain a neutral state however this can be quite difficult or impossible even in some pools due to high levels of total dissolved solids combined with high(er) water temperatures. High TDS can be from old water but it can also be from fresh water that you add 3000 parts per million of salt to for a salt chlorinator. Learning to measure saturation index and maintain your water within a neutral state is beyond the scope of this article other than to make you aware as a pool owner that there is more to chemical balancing than just making sure that you have chlorine, and failure to keep your pool within a neutral state on the saturation index can lead to damage of pool equipment over the long term.
Invest In Energy Savings
Swimming pools cost a lot of money. There is simply no escaping this fact. Unfortunately for many pool owners they will be misled by someone or simply fail to appreciate the magnitude of cost savings possible with a variable speed filtration pump. While variable speed pumps are at an all time high in popularity they still make up the minority of pool filtration pumps out there operating right now. This means that a majority of pool owners are paying more for their electricity costs than they need to be. Some of them by quite a lot. Some pool owners run single speed pumps 24/7 and it is these homes where the pool pump can account for 50% of the total monthly electrical usage for the home. That is an absolutely astounding figure that should really let you know just how much money is on the table in terms of potential for savings. Some people with single speed pumps try to save money by only running the pump for a few hours each day. This is a compromise for the filtration of the pool, likely results in far less than three turnovers per day, has the pool sitting stagnant 66% of the time, and still costs considerably more than a properly programed 24 hour variable speed pump schedule. Look at the cost comparison between a pump running for eight hours per day versus a variable speed pump running 24 hours per day in this article: 8 hours VS 24 hour filtration schedule
The subject of how much to run your pool pump is complicated although it really shouldn't be. You should filter all of your water every day. To accomplish this, or close to this (95% of all of your water) you would need to filter the volume of your pool three times over. So this is the answer to how much you should run your pump. You should run it such that you achieve three turnovers of your water every 24 hours. You should not turn off a variable speed pool pump. Long hours at low speeds are where you save your money. Every hour the pump is off is another hour of lost opportunity for reduced operating costs. If you reach your 3x turnover filtration goal in less than 24 hours then adjust your motor RPM's to be lower such that you meet your filtration goal after the full 24 hours. This is the secret to how to save the most money and most electricity with a variable speed pool pump schedule. If you plan to own your pool for a while then it makes all the sense in the world to upgrade to a variable speed pump right away. For a long form breakdown of a variable speed pump 24 hour operating schedule you can read this article and learn how this variable speed pump schedule resulted in $4300 in savings.
Monitor & Fix Pool Leaks Actively
How much water does your pool lose in a week from evaporation? One inch? Two inches? A foot or more? Well it better not be this much because that would be one heck of a lot of water. Just one inch of water from a 20x40' pool is equal to 500 gallons of water. So every inch of water lost in a 20x40' pool is another 500 gallons of fresh water per week that you need to add! When you look at water loss totals like that it becomes more clear how important it is to keep an eye on your water levels and the amount of water loss you have in your pool. If you were losing two or three inches per week in this 20x40' example pool then you could be paying to replace up to 4000 to 6000 gallons of water every month! Fortunately there are two very specific things that every pool owner can do to reduce these very scary sounding numbers for water loss. The first is to compare your evaporation loss to leaks via a simple bucket test and the next is to prevent evaporation by covering your pool when not in use.
Leaking water can cause a host of problems to a swimming pool over a long period of time. Serious problems the likes of which swimming pool nightmares are made of. You definitely want to avoid long term leaking water anywhere from your pool structure or plumbing system. The bucket test allows you to compare the water loss in the pool to the water loss of a static container known to have no leaks, like a plastic juice pitcher. Both the pool and the jug should lose water at exactly the same rate. If not, you have a leak. If you have a leak you need to hire a professional to find and repair the leak for you or alternatively you could make an attempt to find the leak yourself although this can actually be quite elusive and difficult to do. If the bucket test reveals that your water losses are only from evaporation then the use of a pool cover, solar blanket or liquid pool cover chemical will drastically (almost completely) eliminate your evaporation losses while the pool is covered. To see the extent of problems from long term leaks in pools you can read this article about damage to pools from leaks or if you want to learn more about bucket testing and finding pool leaks you can read this article on swimming pool leak detection.
Filter Your Water More
It is very interesting that pool owners so often request two things. They want to use less chlorine or possibly no chlorine if they can find a way to do that, and they also want to run the filtration pump as little as possible in order to save money. What is interesting about this is that these two requests are inversely proportional. The more you run your pump the less chlorine that you will need and conversely the less you run your pump the more chlorine that you will need to maintain your free chlorine above zero. Earlier in this article it was mentioned that you should attempt to filter all of your pool water every day which requires that you turn over the volume of your pool three times every 24 hours. This will result in 95% of the water in your pool being filtered at least one time. The first turnover achieves 63% of the water in your pool and the second 86%. The third is where you achieve 95% of the water in your pool. If you did a fourth turnover you would then achieve about 98% of all of the water in your pool being filtered at least one time. Of course the more you turn over the water the better since it certainly will not hurt the parts of your water that get extra filtered.
If you want to reduce on the chemicals that you use in your swimming pool the first thing you should do is increase the amount you filter the water. I would estimate that an "average" pool might only achieve one turnover per day, perhaps two. Few pools follow the three turnover minimum rule despite how beneficial it is to the pool and the amount of chlorine you need to add to maintain your chlorine levels. The more you filter the water the less organic debris, bacteria and contaminants that will be left in the water. This means less chlorine needed to sanitize and oxidize the contaminants in your pool, and then less additional chemicals to adjust the pH and alkalinity. Much of your additional corrections to pool chemicals is to account for the changes that are introduced by regular chlorine dosing. Increasing your mechanical filtration is the best way to reduce chemical exposure in your pool without increasing your risk for illness. In fact this method reduces your risk for illness. However many pool owners mistakenly attempt to run their pool without any chlorine or chemical sanitizer and this is a very risky, even downright dangerous proposition. You can learn more about the risks in this article on chlorine free pools.
Far from an inclusive list of things new pool owners need to do these are just some highlights of important things that pool owners would benefit from knowing and adopting early on. You also need to test your chemistry often and be sure to clean out your skimmer and pump baskets regularly, especially during autumn when the leaves are falling. Also be sure to brush your pool walls and floor every week and vacuum just as often at minimum. Keep up with any deficiencies or repairs as soon as you notice them starting. As you can see it really is a lot for new pool owners to get their heads around. If you found this article helpful and want to keep learning I have an extensive collection of resources available for new pool owners.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 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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