Essential Tips For New Pool Owners

And that good feeling might just last until you see the not so fun part of owning a pool. That is taking care of a pool. A lack of information in this regard could make your pool unusable, and even damage it outrightly. Which then will cause you to spend a ton of money fixing. This is definitely what no one wants.

As a first-time pool owner, taking care of a pool can be daunting, the thought of it alone can cause your hands to get sweaty.

Well, here’s me to the rescue, at the end of this article you’ll be equipped with basic pool knowledge. Such as pool jargon (very important when you go to the pool equipment store), equipment, pool chemistry and general pool maintenance. So here are five essential tips for new pool owners.

Type of Pool

The first thing you need to know as a new pool owner is the kind of pool that you have. Basically, there are two categories of pools; above ground and below ground. There are other ways pools differ and this has to do basically with the style of construction and also the materials used in making it. All these will affect the way you should take care of your pool.

Organize

This is like the first thing to do after getting a pool. Find all the receipts and other documentation that have to do with the pool and keep them together in a safe and easily accessible place. This includes all the papers for the pool itself and also for your pool equipment. Who knows in the future you might want to troubleshoot equipment and you cannot just find the manuals or a guide to it.

if you bought the house together with the pool, you might want to contact the previous owners if possible, for any kind of document that is needed. To even safeguard your stuff better, you can take pictures of these documents for safekeeping.

Also remember to take pictures of your equipment, your filter, heater and all others. Especially those places that carry information about the equipment, you know the serial number, model number, your equipment information plates generally. overtime those numbers might not be clear anymore, and you might need them.

Learn and Research

Obviously, there’s no university that’s going to teach you Pool 101, but the onus is on you to learn all you can about your pool. There are textbooks on various subjects regarding pools, also there are youtube videos for this. Over time though, you’d have accumulated enough information to keep your pool in solid shape. Or at best it will equip you with enough knowledge so that when a pool technician comes, their words won’t fly over your head and they won’t bamboozle you with prices and big names due to your ignorance.

Knowledge will also protect you from buying what you don’t need. Imagine just going into the pool equipment shop to buy shock, but only to end up coming back with $400 worth of other chemicals just because the pool attendant told you it’s going to help your pool.

True, there are different pool chemicals, but some of them have overlapping uses. And some you don’t even need at all. The onus is on you to learn the uses of the different pool chemicals and solutions. it might take you some time, but over the years it will save you lots of money and headaches.

Pool Maintenance

Yeah, the dreaded pool maintenance. But really it’s not dreadful, as long as you know what to do. It might be time-consuming initially, but when you get the hang of it, it will definitely become easier. If you can afford it, you can contact a pool company or an individual to come to take care of your pool. This will save you a lot of time, and if the person knows his/her onions, then they should be able to take care of your pool adequately.

However, you don’t actually need someone to maintain your pool, you can do it yourself.

For pool maintenance you should keep these in mind, every pool is made up of four different parts;

The Water

Obviously, this is a no brainer, no water, no pool.

As little as it seems though, this is a very important part of pool maintenance. Keeping your water in good balance, and at correct levels will ensure that the water is fit and healthy for your family to swim in. It will also help your other pool equipment and even the pool interior last longer. Badly balanced water could ruin your equipment and pool lining due to building up of chemicals, and corrosion.

Interior

Irrespective of what your pool interior is made from, whether fibreglass, concrete, tiles or any other thing, you must ensure it is always clean. This part is constantly in contact with the water, and those who use the pool are also bound to touch it. So make sure there are no algae, mould, or other pool contaminants attached to it.

Filter System

Your pool filter system is very important, it comprises of the pool pump and of course the filter. The pool pump helps to make sure your water keeps circulating and the filter, of course, helps to catch unwanteds. Without this process, your pool won’t stay usable for long, it would become cloudy and disease-infested. There are different kinds of filters, but irrespective of the type that you use, you should make sure they are always clean.

Systems of Skimmer and Returns

These are basically all the pipes attached to your swimming pool which are responsible for carrying the water. Now the skimmer here in different from the net skimmer. The net skimmer is a cleaning device, it a net attached to a long pole which you use to “skim” as it were, leaves and other little debris on top of the water, before they descend to the bottom.

Now that we know what every pool anatomy looks like, let’s get into maintenance proper. Before then you should know that no two pools are alike. yeah, every pool is unique, so you’d encounter problems from time to time which is only unique to your pool, but with some experience under your belt or a pool technician who knows his onions dealing with these shouldn't be a problem.

For pool maintenance, you should remember this formula F, C, C. Flow, cleaning and chemistry.

Flow

From our basic understanding of nature, stagnant water is bad, it would breed mosquitos and also has more chances of developing unwanteds. Therefore, the flow of your pool, that is your pool circulation is very important. Now, this is the job of your pool pump, your filter system and then your skimmer and returns. in a perfect world, your pool pump should actually work 24/7.

Now, this is expensive and not everyone would be able to afford it. Therefore, at least your pump should work for like 10 hours every day. This way algae and other bad guys don’t have time to flourish in the water.

Another important part of your pool circulation is to remember to backwash your filters. Once in a while, the flow of the water should be reversed and directed out of the pool so that the contaminants which have built up in the filter can leave. This is called backwashing.

Cleaning

With your pool flow being in good order, it would actually skim itself, therefore it should eliminate most of the debris by the waters circulatory action. This is not enough though, you’d still need your net skimmers (that is the long pole with the net), you’d need pool brushes and very importantly you’d need a pool vacuum.

You should create a pool cleaning schedule, maybe like once a week or twice a month depending on your pool usage and how often it gets dirty and then stick to it.