One of the biggest challenges for most swimming pool owners is to manage their swimming pools in the off-season. Let’s face it whether you hire a weekly pool service company in the Dallas area or if you take care of it yourself managing the water chemistry in the summertime can be challenging with how warm the water is and the number of storms we have. That’s why swimming pool owners get a little lazier in the winter or what we consider the non-swim season. This is normally when the swimming pool is an afterthought or when dropping a chlorine tab in the floater is all most want to do. But, trust us when we say, there’s more to be done and we hope this blog post helps you to understand why water chemistry is just as important during the winter time too!
Whether you have plaster, Pebble Tec, Fiberglass, or vinyl taking care of the water in the pool should always be important because you still need to manage chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness and Cyanuric Acid (CYA) even when you aren’t swimming. Not to mention emptying out the skimmer and pump basket and brushing the steps, benches and interior finish to prevent staining. We totally understand that the swimming pool can be an afterthought at this point but please keep in mind if you want your pool to last, for the interior finish to keep looking great and to keep scaling off of the tile and filtration equipment we highly recommend following these simple tests.
Instead of testing your water weekly it should be okay to do it every other week but make sure your levels are within the following:
Chlorine 1-3ppm
pH – 7.4-7.8
TA – 80-120ppm
Calcium Hardness – less than 600ppm
CYA – 30-50ppm (unless you have a salt chlorinator)
When necessary we highly recommend adding acid to your swimming pool to keep the pH within normal levels to prevent potential cloudiness and scaling from occurring and please keep in mind because it will rise in the winter time too. Adding chlorine to prevent algae from growing in your swimming pool and if your Calcium Hardness is above 600ppm contacting us to lower the following without draining the swimming pool:
- Calcium Hardness
- TDS
- CYA
- Waterborne diseases
- So much more
At Weber Pools, we are committed to you and your swimming pool. Our goal is to always give you the best water quality possible. We specialize in working with commercial and residential swimming pools. To learn more about our service, contact us today!