How Much Does A Pool Cost Per Month In Electricity
The average swimming pool costs $65 to $100 per month or about $800 to $1,200 per year just for electricity. Most homeowners see a 30% to 50% increase in their electric bills every season. To heat your pool, expect to spend even more.
Regarding the type of pool equipment you have, expect the following costs to run them:
Cost To Run Pool Equipment
| Equipment |
|---|
| $100 $300 |
Calcium Hardness In Swimming Pool Water
- checking pH and chlorine levels daily. Preferably before the first swim of the day to make sure the water quality hasn’t altered overnight.
- checking the pH and chlorine twice daily in very hot weather.
- monitoring chlorine levels in heated pools which need more chlorine than non-heated pools.
- brushing and vacuuming your pool on a regular basis.
- regularly checking the pump, skimmer boxes and other pool equipment, and repair or replace parts as necessary.
How To Maintain Your Swimming Pool
This article was co-authored by Rob Litman. Rob Litman is a Landscaper, General Contractor, and the CEO of Vitoli Inc., a landscaping, hardscaping, ecoscaping, and swimming pool design company in Los Angeles, California. With over 20 years of experience in construction, Rob specializes in energy-efficient and drought-tolerant landscaping. He holds General Building Contractor and Registered Pool/Spa Contractor Licenses. In 2007, Rob won House of the Year in Gardena, California.There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 16 testimonials and 100% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 306,542 times.
Having a swimming pool on your property can be a pretty sweet deal during those hot summer months. But like most good things, a swimming pool requires quite a bit of maintenance and attention to detail. Many people choose to enlist the help of pool professionals, but if you’re more of a do-it-yourself kind of person read on to find out how to keep your pool’s water sparkling clean.
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Opening Day Pool Maintenance
Before you even head out to the backyard, check that you have all the necessary pool chemicals a testing kit for the pool’s PH level, calcium hardness, total alkalinity, and chlorine levels chlorine tablets, shock treatment, algaecide, and stain treatment. Replace any chemicals that are out of date or weren’t stored properly.
Then remove the cover. Before putting it away from the season, clean it thoroughly with the help of a hose and shop vac. Store it in a cool, dry place for the season.
It was a long winter. Inspect your pool and check for any damage to the deck, fences, pumps, slides, ladders, and emergency equipment. Don’t forget to inspect any outdoor furniture to make sure it’s still functional and safe for swimmers to use.
Then, focus on the actual pool. Vacuum, skim, and brush to remove all debris and settled particles. Use a stain treatment as needed.
Remove any plugs, and open the main drain and skimmer valves to your inground pool. Afterwards, balance the water chemistry by adding the necessary chemicals to fall within these recommended levels:
- pH: 7.2-7.8
- Cyanuric acid: 20-50 ppm
- Chlorine: 1.0-2.5 ppm
Finish up your opening day maintenance by backwashing filter and shocking the pool.
Run the filter for at least 24 hours, but you don’t have to wait that long to take your first dip. For non-chlorinating shocking, you need to wait a grand total of 15 minutes. For chlorine-based shocking, you can take your first dip after eight hours.
A Pool Cleaning Schedule
If it has proper circulation, youve already made cleaning your pool much easier. But youll still need to apply some good old-fashioned elbow grease. The basic tools youll need are:
Both Mother Nature and the folks using your pool bring all sorts of wild and wacky things into your pool, from leaves, mold, and the odd duck or frog to residues from shampoos, perfumes, and hair products. Add in the risks of bacterial contamination, and cleaning your pool becomes an absolutely essential part of safe swimming.
Skim, brush, and vacuum your pool weekly, at a minimum. This will keep debris out of your water, and your walls sparkling clean. Baking soda paste works particularly well as a basic scouring cleaner that wont damage delicate tile or a vinyl liner when you brush.
An automatic pool cleaner can significantly cut your pool cleaning time. It wont eliminate the need for regular skimming and brushing, but itll make both tasks easier, freeing you up to spend time enjoying your pool instead of cleaning it.
You can also make your cleaning life easier with a few unorthodox additions to your pool. Toss a few tennis balls into your skimmer basket, or even right into the pool, and theyll absorb surface oils left behind by suntan lotion, cosmetics, etc. You can also wrap your skimmer baskets with pantyhose to create an extra-fine filter thatll catch more contaminants than a skimmer alone.
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How Much Does A Pool Increase Your Water Bill
Having a pool can increase your water bill by about $4 to $20 per month, $45 to $245 per year, or half this if you close it for the winter. Usually, pools see ¼ inch loss of water per day due to evaporation or roughly 2 inches per week.
The average price per gallon of water ranges from $0.002/gallon to $0.011/gallon , so pool water bills can vary considerably. For a normal-sized 14 x 28 pool that is never covered, and depending on how much wind, sun, and humidity your local climate has, your pool will lose about 1,858 gallons per month and approximately 22,298 gallons of water per year.
Here Are 10 Above Ground Pool Maintenance Tips To Help Keep Everything In Good Shape
Above ground pools are less expensive, easier-to-install alternatives to in-ground pools. And if that werent enough, theyre also usually easier to maintain. There are a few things youll want to do to keep your above ground pool in good working condition. Here are 10 key tips for above ground pool maintenance.
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Pool Chemicals: The Key To A Clean Pool
You could fill your pool with fresh, clean water, and then skim and vacuum it every day, and the water would still get dirty. Leaves, twigs, and other debris fall into your pool. Bugs take their last swims in it. Birds fly overhead and bomb it.
And every time someone swims, they leave behind body oils, hair, dead skin, shampoo, soap, everything we humans put on our bodies and slough off on a daily basis.
The only thing keeping those contaminants from turning your pool into a black lagoon is sanitizer, probably the most important pool chemical youll ever use.
And in order for the sanitizer to work, other water attributes must be balanced: pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness.
Finally, youll add pool chemicals to treat algae, to clear your pool, and to prevent staining, if you have hard water.
All of these factors work together to create balanced pool chemistry so you can swim in peace, so knowing what to use and how is crucial.
Clean The Skimmer Basket
Frequency: 1-2 times per week
Cleaning the skimmer and pump baskets regularly is important to the overall maintenance of your swimmingpool. Clogged baskets make your pump work harder to try to cycle the water. This can decrease the lifeand stress the seals in your pump. Additionally, critters like frogs can get stuck in your skimmer, soyou will want to make sure those are removed in a timely manner as well. We suggest cleaning yourskimmer once or twice a week depending on how often you use it.
To clean the skimmer basket, simply turn off your pool pump and empty the removable basket under theskimmer lid, then replace.
Every once in a while, you should also clean out the pump basket on your pool pump. You dont have to dothis as often since the skimmer catches most of the debris.
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What Is The Minimum Depth Of A Sewer Line
Your wastewater treatment plant should tell you the minimum depth of a sewer line in your area. So, call ahead to determine the specifics on your property. Also, keep in mind that most municipalities require at least two feet of space between your pool and sewage pipes.
Many communities take it a step further. Some even require the same space between a pool and any other building or structure on your property. Plus, engineers cant install utility lines less than one for beneath the ground. That means theres a sweet spot between pools being too shallow and too deep.
TIP: Even above ground pools may require some shallow digging to secure the base of the structure.
The Ultimate Guide To Inground Swimming Pool Maintenance
Pool Maintenance | Swimming Pool FAQs
When I was a kid, I hated my moms chore charts. I vowed, with the seriousness of any 8-year-old, that if I had children, I would never make them do that.
I now make chore charts for myself. Moms really do know everything.
As you plan out the swim season, it may help to make a pool chore chart for your familyor at least to mentally review what you’ll need to do.
At River Pools, we specialize in manufacturing and installing fiberglass pools, but we’re still familiar with vinyl liner and concrete pools. They have a place in the market! We want to provide understandable, accurate information for all three pool types, including an overview of your pool to-do list:
- Opening and closing your pool
- Maintaining your pools water level
- Running your pools pump/filter system
- Cleaning out debris
- Replacing your pools vinyl liner
- Resurfacing your concrete pool
With only two exceptions , all these maintenance tasks apply to every pool.
So no matter what type of pool you have , this to-do list will work for you. Don’t you love when things are easy like that?
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Things You May Not Have Thought About
If you can establish a good routine that includes these tips, youll be enjoying your pool for years to come. For more pool cleaning tips, read our article on 12 tricks you may not have thought of.
Checking Your Pool Systems
You should regularly conduct checks of your pool’s hardware to ensure nothing’s out of place.
Inspect the pump and filter system to make sure there aren’t any cracks that could cause issues. It also pays to lubricate the O-rings of your pump and filter systems with a specialist pool lubricant to make sure nothing gets stuck over time.
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Minimize Your Chlorine Demand
You wouldn’t be ok with trying to have your home’s HVAC unit try to compensate for windows and doors that were left open all the time, right? It’s the same with your pool’s sanitation. It is crucial to eliminate issues that can multiply the amount of chlorine it takes to keep clean water . The most high-impact levels to monitor are phosphates , nitrates , and stabilizer . When any of these three are at issue, it’s possible for a pool to require many times higher amounts of chlorine in order to maintain the extra 1-3ppm residual level of unused free chlorine that you need.
Clean Your Toys And Floats
- Every week or so, youll want to clean your water toys and inflatable pool floats with a bleach mixture to kill any germs or bacteria. Cleaning them will help reduce bacteria and dirt thats getting into the pool water and impacting swimmers. Properly cleaning your pool floats, toys, and accessories is especially important if youre putting them away in storage.
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Cleaning With Muriatic Acid
We recommend using this method if your filter is so filthy that regular filter cleaner isnt enough. And if you use this method, do so sparingly. Once a year is plenty.
Important: The acid in muriatic acid is exactly that. Its caustic, and can cause injury if youre not careful. Take all the precautions necessary to protect yourself, and anyone else who may be around while youre cleaning your filter.
Running Your Pools Pump/filter System
To calculate how long you’ll need to run your pool pump, you need some other numbers first.
How much water does your pump filter in a set time period? That speed is your flow rate, measured in gallons per hour.
Types of pool pumps:
How long does it take for the pump/filter systems to cycle all of the water in the pool once? Thats the turnover rate, measured in hours.
Divide your pools water by your pumps flow rate to get the total time needed .
For most pools, the turnover rate will be between 4 and7 hours. Keep in mind that a concrete pool will often need 2 full turnovers to maintain clear, clean water. Youll want to budget that extra cost for your electricity.
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Pool Maintenance During Vacation
Tip #1: Super chlorinate your pool! Depending on the amount of time you will be away, add as much as double the amount of pool shock that you would normally add . Let the filter run for a couple hours after adding the shock.
Focus Multi Purpose Shock is neccessary at the beginning of the season, during hot weather, and following heavy rain or windstorms. Focus Multi Purpose Shock is a highly effective sanitizer that kills harmful bacteria, aids in algae control and helps keep the pool clean and clear.
Tip #2: Cover the pool! The sun is what allows algae to grow and without direct sunlight on the water, it is difficult for the process to happen. Use your winter pool cover for the time period that you will be gone. It may take some time to cover but is a great tip to proper pool maintenance during vacation and it will be well worth coming back to a clean pool. If you do not own a pool cover yet, this would be a perfect time to buy since you will still need one once the colder months come around.
Our winter pool covers are made of strong triple-laminated polyethylene. They are durable and tough enough to withstand a cold and long winter season. Our covers are highly resistant to punctures, tears, chlorine stains and other chemical stains. All of our winter pool covers include a cable and tightening device to easily attach to your above ground pool.
Using An Automatic Pool Cleaner When You Have An Algae Problem
Dealing with pool algae is hard enough. Add vacuuming to the list, and you might find yourself thinking its time to replace your pool with something less high-maintenance, like a rare orchid farm or a meerkat sanctuary.
Its tempting, but dont fire up your robotic cleaner. Pressure-side automatic pool cleaners push algae and other debris up through a mesh bag. This gives the algae a nice little tour of your pool, but doesnt remove it.
Taking things high-tech wont help, either. They do an amazing job when algaes not an issue, but even the best robotic pool cleaners use a fine mesh bag thatll clog with algaefast. The clogged gunk gets blown around the pool, and youre back to square one.
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