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A squeeze bottle filled with a diluted solution of liquid dishwashing detergent is the pool cleaner's best friend. Set your vacuum up to clean the pool, but, before you begin vacuuming, squirt a good stream of the soap solution (1 part soap to 3 parts water) down the center of your pool and watch for a minute or two. As the solution spreads out across the pool surface, you will see an immediate and dramatic calming effect. The surface will become flat and ripple-free, and the bottom of the pool will become perfectly clear.
The effect is due to the decreased surface tension provided by the soap solution. One good squirt is usually all you need, if your pool vacuum is set up and ready to go when you add the soap. If it's an especially breezy day, an additional squirt may be necessary after vacuuming for a few minutes.
Do not use this soap trick on your spa. Because of the extreme agitation of the spa jets and air blower, even small amounts of soap will produce a bubble bath when you use it later. - If you also need to clean your pool tile, you can combine this chore with the water-calming effect of tile soap. Set the vacuum up first, then use a long-handled tile brush and tile soap to scrub the tile. This will also spread the calming layer of solution over the water surface and stop the ripples. Vacuum the pool immediately after cleaning the tile, and you may not need any additional squirts of soap solution.
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Vacuuming a pool is like mowing a lawn. If you don't overlap your path on each stroke, you leave untouched lines. On a sunny day, it may be hard to see a light "dusty" layer on the bottom and sides of a pool. If you only spot vacuum---cleaning only areas where you can see dirt or debris---the result will be obvious when the sun is no longer shining directly down on the pool. You can see every place your vacuum has touched, and every area where it hasn't.
Use a vac head with a swivel handle and a telescopic pole long enough to span the width of your pool. A 14- to 16-inch wide vac head is about right for a home pool.This lets you cover more surface area on each forward and backward stroke. You can also buy a 12 ft. telescopic pole that expands to about 22 ft., long enough for most home pools.
Starting at one end of the pool, put the vac head against the wall about 2 feet below the surface. Push the vac head down the wall and across the bottom to the base of the opposite wall. Rotate the pole to swivel and turn the vac head, moving over about a foot. Pull it back toward you in a straight line so you are overlapping your forward stroke by about 2 inches. Pull it all the way up the wall to about 2 feet below the surface, then move it over to start the next run. If you have good filter pressure, you can make these forward and backward strokes at a pretty fast clip, reducing the vacuuming time while still covering every inch of the bottom and near side.
When you reach the other end of the pool, all you will have left to clean is the end walls and the far wall. Using the same overlapping strokes, run the vac head up and down the remaining walls to complete a quick and streak-free cleaning job.
