How Often To Shock Your Pool
You dont want to wait for a bad smell or itchy eyes to happen before you shock your pool. We recommend shocking your pool once a week, or at least once every other week to properly maintain your water chemistry. The more often you use the pool, the more often you should reach for the swimming pool shock.
In addition to your weekly or semi-weekly treatments, you may want to perform an extra pool shock under certain circumstances, such as after:
- heavy pool use
- a severe rainstorm or damaging winds
- a major water level change
- a bowel-related pool accident
Think of extra shocks as insurance against wayward algae and other contaminants. Its better to take out any bacteria before it has a chance to affect the quality of your water or make anyone sick.
What Is Pool Shock Anyway
Think back to the last time you walked past a hotel pool. The chemical smell probably knocked your socks off, right? You may think that unmistakable smell is chlorine, but the odor actually comes from chloramines, a sign of improperly balanced water.
Chloramines form when the chlorine in your pool mixes with the nitrogen in sweat, oils, and urine . This is a natural chemical process, basically a byproduct of your chlorine doing its job.
In addition to giving your pool a funky smell, too many chloramines can also irritate your skin, eyes, and respiratory system.
By shocking your pool, youre adding enough chlorine to clean the water and destroy the buildup of chloramines. This process is also called superchlorination.
What Is Pool Shock
The process of shocking your pool is simply super-chlorinating it in order to kill the buildup of chloramines and anything else floating around that doesnt belong.
What are chloramines, you ask?
Chloramines, or combined chlorine, are what get into your pool when chlorine disinfectants combine with the sweat, oils and urine from the people swimming in your pool.
So when you shock your pool, you’re adding enough chlorine to destroy the chloramines.
Make sense?
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When Should You Add Chlorine To A Pool
Preferably open the pack in the open air, but out of the wind. For chlorine shock treatment, 3 measuring cups of 40 grams of chlorine granules should be added per 10 m³ of water. Ideally, this should be added after swimming or in the evening to ensure that the product can spread well throughout the pool.
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What Is The Best Time Of Day To Shock A Swimming Pool
Shock your pool late in the evening or at night, when the sun is down, to make sure free chlorine will stay in your water longer. Ultraviolet rays from direct sunlight greatly reduces free chlorine levels, so shocking during the day will not be very effective.
If you absolutely must do it during daytime, use a chlorine stabilizer, such as cyanuric acid, to prolong the life the chlorine.
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What Is A Pool Shock What Types Are There
Shocking your pool is an important part of your regular maintenance routine. When you shock your pool, you are essentially adding more chlorine to raise the level of free chlorine in the pool. When your free chlorine levels are too low, bacteria, algae, and chloramines begin to overwhelm your pool and make it unsanitary. Shocking your pool consistently will ensure that you have the right amount of chlorine you need to keep your pool and family safe.
The typical chlorine scent you associate with pools happens when the chlorine is combined with the nitrogen in oils, sweat, urine, and other bodily fluids. A potent chlorine smell usually means that the water has been improperly treated, and a pool without a strong chemical scent is generally healthy.
So, what are the different kinds of pool shock? There are many different products that you can utilize, but here are the most popular and effective ones. For recommendations on specific pool shock products, read my guide on the best pool shock.
How Much Shock Do I Need
A good rule to remember is to use one bag of shock per 10,000 gallons.
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How To Shock A Swimming Pool
What Is Free Chlorine?
It is unbound chlorine that is “free” to sanitize.
Tips To Combat Algae In Your Pool
If you want to combat the algae issues in the pool adequately, you need to be thorough with the treatment of the pool.
- Constantly use the doses of medicine appropriately and at the right time for maximum effectiveness if not, all your efforts will be wasted.
- Brush the whole pool, especially areas with visible signs of algae. The brushing process may be done only on the first day of treatment.
- Regularly look into the filter pressure to clean as the need may arise.
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Check Your Swimming Pools Chlorine Levels
For this step, make sure to follow the instructions provided with your kit or test strips. If your CC reading is 0.5 ppm or higher, its time to shock your pool. Its also a good idea to shock your swimming pool:
- After pool parties or heavy use
- After heavy rains, high-speed winds, thunderstorms, or other extreme weather
- Every 1 to 2 weeks
- If you notice visible algae or a strong chlorine smell
Step Three
Don’t Forget To Remove Winterizing Plugs And Replace Drain Plugs
If you live in an area where the winter temperature drops below zero, then you may have replaced the pool inlets/outlets with winterizing plugs. These rubber plugs provide a very tight seal and prevent any plumbing damage due to leaks or ice during winter. You may have also installed a skimmer plug or gizzmo to protect your skimmer from expanding ice. After re-connecting your equipment, you will want to remove all of the winter plugs and put the pool inlets and outlets back in place. Remember to also reinstall the drain plugs in your pool equipment. If the water level is below the skimmer, you can now refill the pool.
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One To Proper Chlorination: Choosing The Right Chlorine
This is where it gets technical. The ideal chlorine combination of your pool is between 1 and 3 parts per million . In order to kill pathogenic viruses, youll want to make sure your chlorine concentration doesnt fall below 1 ppm. Go above 3 ppm and while youre sure to wipe out bacteria, youre also vulnerable to that irritation in your eyes, nose, lungs, and throat. Now that youve got the numbers, its time to choose between stabilized or unstabilized chlorine for your pooland trust me, it wont take more than sixty seconds to find out.
What Is Shocking A Pool
Shocking a pool is the term given to using a heavy dose of chlorine, or other chemicals, to kill bacteria, algae, and chloramines from building up and becoming harmful. Another term for shocking your pool is known as super chlorinating.
Shocking your pool raises the free chlorine in the pool for a short time. This process is what kills the algae, bacteria and combined chlorine which is otherwise known as chloramines, a byproduct of chlorine.
Its chloramines that create that strong chlorine smell which is a sign of pool water that is not correctly treated. Chloramines form when chlorine is doing its job and mixes with body fluids , sunscreen and heavy debris.
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Three To Proper Chlorination: Pool Shock
If you dont know about pool shock already, now is the time to learn. Pool shock is technically a higher dose of chlorine, and its weekly use is absolutely essential to a clean pool.
Heres how it works. After a chlorine particle attacks and kills bacteria or another organic material in your wall, it creates what we call a chloramine. This is an inactive particle that exists in your water until it can be broken apart by oxidation. But not only is it kind of gross, it also reduces the amount of free chlorine in your poolthats the amount that your chlorine can actually work. So if you only chlorinate your pool, without shock, your chlorine will become increasingly less effective. Cue swamp scenario.
Pool shock is super easy to use: just walk around the perimeter of your pool and pour the right amount in. Just remember to add shock at dusk or at night, or the sun will burn out the compound that makes it effective.
Looking for an extra-reliable dose of pool shock? Try this Super Premium Sanitizing and Fast-Acting Pool Shock, which is reasonably priced, conveniently packaged, and gets the job done. According to customer Sally Nield, very fast and good.
Ensure Pump And Filter Are Running
During the shock treatment, and especially after, it is important to keep your pump and filter on and running. This will ensure that the added chlorine is evenly distributed throughout the entire pool to get rid of bacteria and algae in the pool water. Once the shock treatment has been completed, keep the pump and filter running for a few hours to circulate the water. This will clean up the remnants of the shock and disperse any remaining cloudiness.
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How Long Does Muriatic Acid Take To Work In Pool
Wait for at least 30 minutes Now its time to let the muriatic acid do its work. At this point, you can play it safe by running your pump for at least half an hour to stop the acid from settling on your pool floor. If you would rather keep your pump off, make sure to brush the pool floor continuously to prevent damage.
Why Pool Stores Dont Recommend Bleach
If you go to a pool store, you will find out that they do not suggest that you use normal chlorine as a bleaching agent. They will recommend you to use their products. Most pool stores are selling chlorine tablets that are combined with other chemicals, and they are released slower, which makes them last longer. While this is certainly an easier solution, stabilizing the bleach reduces the effectiveness of killing the microbes in the pool.
On the other hand, Clorox bleach is considered to be one of the most common bleach products for pools. Therefore, bleach can also be used in the pool and it is a very safe product. Clorox bleach consists of a 5.7% concentration. Keep in mind that when you add liquid bleach to a pool, it is still needed to add a little amount of stabilizer with it. This is because the sunlight can eliminate the bleach molecules in the pool if it is not added.
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Measure The Volume Of The Pool
Measure The Volume Of The Pool
To know how much bleach you need to add to the pool, it is necessary to calculate the volume of the pool. Just multiply the length of the pool with the width and depth, and you will get the volume in cubic feet. The 1 gallon of bleach will raise the free chlorine level by 2 ppm on the 30,000 gallons of water. To mildly shock a 30,000-gallon pool, you will need 2.5 gallons of bleach to raise the free chlorine concentration to 5 ppm.
How Much Liquid Chlorine Do I Put In A 15000 Gallon Pool
It implies that whether for a 20000-gallon pool, for 15000-gallon pool, or a 10000-gallon pool, you will be required to have chlorine of about 0.00013 ounces per gallon of pool water.
Adding chlorine calcium hypochlorite, sodium hypochloriteto your swimming pool in the evening, instead of the morning can reduce cut your chemical costs BY 50%.
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Reconnect And Maintain All Pool Equipment
At pool opening time, you will want to reconnect all the equipment that you disconnected before the winter season. This usually includes the pool filter, pump, heater, automatic pool cleaner, in-line chlorinators, and all other pool equipment. This is also the time to reattach any ladders, hand rails, and other pool accessories that were taken down for winter.
When connecting your equipment, it’s a good idea to lubricate all o-rings, seals, and hardware with a silicone lubricant. This will keep the equipment working properly all year, and will make it easier for you to disassemble them when you close your pool.
How Do I Shock My Pool
Its best to run the pool filter for 6-8 hour before shock treatment, and to schedule the shock when the sun has set. Performing pool shock treatment will lower the potency of chlorine, making you use either twice as much chemical, or render your shock treatment ineffective. To perform the shock treatment, you should:
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How To Control Algae
Chlorine when introduced separately combines with algae and kills it. However, when free chlorine combines with algae, very little of it is available for combination with bacteria and other potentially harmful contaminants. When you test the pool, you may find that it is chlorine deficient. Hence, a good way to handle algae is to ensure that the pool is shocked and quickly raise the levels of chlorine to 10 PM or even higher.
Algaecides surely kill algae but they work slowly. This is because they release ions that are positively charged. This attacks the negatively charged algae particles. Since algaecides do not break down in sunlight they remain available in the water much longer.
Weekly Chlorine Dose For The Swimming Pool
Once the chlorine value is at the right level, you can keep it at that level with chlorine tablets. Chlorine tablets are better than chlorine granules because the tablets dissolve slowly and keep the chlorine value constant.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to say how many chlorine tablets you should add to the swimming pool or how often you need to add them. The chlorine tablet dosage does not depend solely on the volume of the swimming pool. A lot of other things also play a role, such as:
If the swimming pool isnt used much, be sure to check the water quality once a week using a water tester. If the pool is used more than 2 days a week, the water quality needs to be checked 2 to 3 times a week.
If the pH value is good, check whether the chlorine tablet has completely dissolved or not. Once the chlorine tablet has dissolved, it is best to add 1 chlorine tablet per skimmer. Use these chlorine tablets for this. For a small inflatable pool, it is best to use these 20 gram mini-chlorine tablets. You can add one of these per 3 m³ of water.
Too much chlorine in the water
Chlorine in the swimming pool too low
Chlorine tablet does not dissolve
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