How to Maintain Swimming Pool Chemicals

Learn how to test your water and make adjustments to keep your pool safe.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Water test kit
• notebook/pen
• chlorine products
• several other chemical products

1. 
   Remember you get what you pay for.

   Get a water testing kit from your local pool store. There are many types of test kits ranging from $20-$300. The most accurate is a liquid drop style kit. You want the capabilities to test for Free chlorine, total chlorine, and Ph. These are the basic numbers you will want to keep track of on a daily basis. Record these numbers into a notebook and make notes of any chemicals added or maintenance performed.

2. Always test the water before you use it. Every kit comes with good instructions on how to use it so read them over well. The first number you test for is Free chlorine. Record the number in your notebook. You want at least 1ppm and no more than 10ppm. For a pool ideal range is 1ppm-3ppm and a spa 2ppm-5ppm. If the number gets too high, don't enter the pool and dilute with fresh water. If it is below 1ppm, don't enter the pool and add some chlorine until your test numbers are within the ideal range.

3. Your next test will be for Total chlorine. A simple formula to help you understand what these mean is Total chlorine - Free chlorine = Combined chlorine. You don't want your combined chlorine to be over 1ppm. Combined chlorine will give you red eyes, itchy skin, and the strong chlorine odor. You can dilute with fresh water to bring this number down or you can shock the pool water. Shocking the water is when you bring the free chlorine levels up 20x the combined number. Leave it at this level for 12-24 hrs so it will clean up the water. Do not use the pool until you bring the levels down to the ideal range. Certain bacteria can't be killed without these high levels for a long period of time. It is a good idea to do this on a monthly basis anyway. There is a product called non-chlorine shock that will bring down the combined number but it will not disinfect.

4. Now test the Ph. Record this number also in your notebook. 7.2-7.8 is the acceptable range. 7.4 is the ideal number to be at. When the test is outside the safe ranges, you'll need to adjust the Ph.

Tips & Warnings

• Rule of thumb: dilution is a solution when numbers are out of range.
• Keep records of your testing.
• Always test the water before you use it on a daily basis.
• Always wear safety gear like goggles and chemical gloves when handling chemicals.
• Always read the labels of products for directions of use and warnings.
• Store chemicals in a secure,dry,and cool location.

[mumstheword]

on 4/3/2009 Very informative article about pool care and pool chemicals! Great stuff!