Key Components of Swimming Pool Maintenance

Series Summary

During the summer, there is nothing more refreshing than pulling out the old bathing suit and swim trunks and jumping into a clean refreshing pool. Pools have become an almost necessary part of life to the leisure and middle class during the summertime and are a great source of exercise and recreation for any age to enjoy. However, one thing that will destroy the fun meter for the summer is a dirty and disgusting pool. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for pool cleaners available in the marketplace and the experts at ExpertVillage want to do everything they can to help you care, repair, and maintain your swimming pool. In this free video series, our expert will teach you how to clean and maintain your swimming pool this summer. Learn how to test the chemical levels, including the chlorine, pH and alkalinity. Get tips on how to treat algae and keep it from coming back later in the summer. Our expert will also tell you where you can buy the parts you need for your swimming pool filtering system.

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is Tena Sloan and I'm the owner of Princess Pools in Dixon, Tennessee. I've been in the swimming pool business for ten years, seven and a half years of hands on and going on two and a half years on the retail industry we are going to be going over how to clear up a green pool from winter time. Before we start we will go over some key components of a swimming pool. We have a Hayward sand filter and a pump. The pool we are at today and demonstrating on is the basic fiberglass pool. It has three returns and a skimmer and right now I am going to test the water, to test the ph, the alkalinity and the calcium. Those are the main three components, not components, but ingredients in a swimming pool. You have to have those for the pool to function properly. I am going to be testing the water and I usually carry a Taylor test kit with me. It is the most accurate unless you come into a store and have your chemicals tested on their water analysis treatment machine. With this test we have what our called reagents and with the reagent it tells you on the inside how many drops per reagent to put into the water to get the proper alkalinity ph reading. On this one it says to put five drops. You put the lid back on, shake it up a little bit. I don't know if you can really tell that color but the ph is low which with a green pool, this is not a bad thing. I'm also going to check the chlorine and it also has a maximum line. The chlorine also has its own reagent and tells you how many drops to put in the water to get the accurate reading. With the chlorine it is five drops. We have no chlorine reading. As you can see it is white. If we had a chlorine reading the chlorine should be at 3.0 so in this case what we want to do is boost the chlorine and leave the ph low to clear up the green pool and to kill the algae."