Do I Need To Lower The Water Level For Winter
In most cases, yes lower the water level several inches below the tile line and skimmer. Floating Winter Covers typically lower 4-6 below the skimmer, and Safety Covers typically lower the water 9-12 below the skimmer. You can use your pool filter pump if you have a main drain, or a submersible pool Cover Pump. Vinyl pools can also use the Skimmer Plug, which seals up the front opening of the skimmer, to avoid lowering the pool water.
Below is a Guide to Pool Closing Chemicals, maybe more information than you want!
Is It Ok To Put Chlorine Pucks In Skimmer
Simply putting the chlorine pucks in your skimmer is something you should never do. Putting the pucks directly in the skimmer will dissolve them way to quickly and will send concentrated chlroine through your whole filtration system wearing it down very quickly. The first tip is if you are using a chlorinator.
Chemicals Are Vital For A Successful Pool Start Up
The chemicals for pool start up are really important for getting everything off on the right foot. Without doing this properly, your pool start up can turn into a lengthy ordeal.
However, to get this chemical balance right quickly, you need to have a clean pool. This cuts down on contaminates in your pool water and lets the chemicals work properly.
This can be a complicated job, which is why a lot of people use pool maintenance services for the start up and close down of their pools. This ensures your pool starts off right, and you can keep on top of chemical maintenance through the season.
Otherwise, you can sort the chemicals for pool start up yourself. However, it is going to take some precision and quite a few chemicals.
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How To Put Chemicals In Pool For First Time
You finally did it!
You took the plunge and made the investment in a pool. You will not be disappointed in your decision. There will be hours of making memories, relaxing, playing games and cooling off with friends and family. But, first things first, you need to know how to put chemicals in pool for first time.
Before you can get to the fun part of pool ownership you have to master the art of adding and balancing chemicals. You didnât realize you now have to be a chemist, did you? Donât fret, the process isnât that hard and the subsequent adding and balancing becomes second nature as you get used to it and youâll be enjoying your pool in no time!
What is the Purpose of Chemicals in a Pool?
Before we unpack the procedure for adding and balancing pool chemicals perhaps we need to drive home the necessity of this action. Why canât you just use regular water to swim in? You use it to shower with and drink, so whatâs the difference?
Regular drinking tap water has minerals that make it safe to drink and use on your body. The difference between the two is that you are not wading in this water with your closest, dirty friends and exposing yourself to the potential of ingesting that water.
When you add people to the equation you begin to place contaminates into the water that were not there before. Contaminates like feces, urine, bacteria, sweat, vomit, spit and blood just to name a few.
Illnesses Associated with Swimming
Diarrhea Causes
- Cryptosporidium
- Coli O157:H7
Stain And Scale Remover
If you have metals in your water, like copper and iron, you can use a metal remover or stain and scale remover to keep those metals in solution so that your filter can filter them out.
If metals come out of solution that can attach themselves to the walls and other parts of your pool and produce unsightly stains.
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What Pool Chemicals Do I Need And How Much
When it comes to sanitizing your pool water, you have a few different options:
Chlorine Tablets
Each 3-inch chlorine tablet can add up to 5 ppm of free chlorine per 10,000 gallons of water.
Directions: Use 2 chlorine tablets for every 10,000 gallons, per week
Example chlorine tablet dosages:
- 2 chlorine tablets per week
Pool Shock
A single 1 lb. bag of pool shock can increase your pools free chlorine by 8-10 ppm, per 10,000 gallons.
Directions: Use 1 bag of pool shock for every 10,000 gallons of water, per week
Example pool shock dosages :
- 10,000 gallon pool
Biguanide
This is a non-chlorine, hydrogen peroxide based alternative to chlorine tablets. Although gentler on the skin, it can only be used with Baquacil pool chemicals, so its not compatible with any of the other chemicals in this list.
Directions: Add enough biguanide to reach a sanitizer level of 30 50 ppm
Bromine
Bromine is another gentle alternative to chlorine. But unlike chlorine, its not stabilized. This makes bromine best suited for indoor use, where sunlight wont burn it away.
Directions: Add enough bromine to reach a sanitizer level of 3 5 ppm
Salt
If you own a salt water pool, this section is for you.
Two pounds of pool salt increases your salinity level by 1,000 ppm for every 10,000 gallons of water. The ideal pool salinity level is around 3200 ppm.
Pool salt dosages:
Chemicals Needed To Start Your New Pool
So you just had a new above-ground pool added to your home and you are dying to test it out? Well, unfortunately, you probably wont be opening your pool tomorrow. Or the next day, or the next day, or the day after that. But whenever Mother Nature does finally allow us to open our pools this spring, youre going to need to make sure your pool has all the proper chemicals it needs, right off the bat. This not only keeps your pool fresh and healthy, but it keeps you and your family safe as well.
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Pool Maintenance: Winter Tasks For Pool Owners
The majority of pool owners in warmer climates continue their pool service throughout the winter. Some switch to every other week instead of every week because of less frequent pool use. The decision about whether your schedule should change can depend on the potential for falling leaves and other debris to accumulate in your pool during the colder parts of the year.
If this is your first winter with a pool, or if you arent sure whether you have been performing proper winter pool maintenance, consider these guidelines:
If you follow these few maintenance tips, your pool will be ready when temperatures climb and you want to enjoy a swim more frequently.
What Chemicals Do I Need To Close My Pool
Many chemicals you need for closing your pool are things you use for regular pool maintenance. Other chemicals needed to close a pool work specifically to keep pool water clean during winter months. After you analyze your pool chemical levels and conditions, you may need to add some or all of these chemicals:
Tips for Usage
Add stain and scale formulas before you disconnect the pool pump. You want the pump to distribute the stain and scale chemicals throughout the pool.
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What Materials Do I Need To Close And Above Ground Pool
This might sound like a long list, but dont let it faze you too much. Most of it will be stuff you already have on hand and will have used throughout the summer months in order to keep up your regular pool maintenance.
Also, depending on the climate where you live, you may or may not need all of it. Sunbelt, southern, and some western states will require different needs to northern and midwestern states. Its all a matter of climate and also of altitude. With that in mind, heres the full list:
What chemicals do I need to close my above ground pool?
- Chlorine
What else do I need to close my above ground pool?
- Pool brush
- Air compressor or shop vac
- Pool antifreeze
As noted above, dont be daunted if this sounds like a long list. A lot will depend on where you live, and its more than likely you wont need all of it.
So, having got the whens and whys out of the way, lets move on to the hows.
The following are the 12 easy steps to follow in order to close your above ground pool for the winter months, how to make your life relaxed, and how to maintain and winterize your perfect above ground pool.
What Youll Need To Open Your Pool
Gather your equipment and lets get started! Once you get everything together the whole task seems a lot less daunting. Well walk you through it and make this process as painless as possible.
- Pool cover pump or sump pump
- Soft broom or skimmer net
- Pool cover cleaner
- Start-up chemical kit
- A second set of hands
- A previously-closed above-ground pool
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How To Store Pool Chemicals
You must always take care and precautions seriously when storing and handling pool chemicals. They should always be stored in warm and dry spaces. The chemicals should be stored in different compartments to prevent harmful chemical reactions from occurring.
Chemicals should be properly diluted before they are added to the pool. Do not add chemicals while people are inside the pool. The chemicals should be allowed to circulate the pool before people are allowed into them .
What Is Breakpoint Oxidation
To reach breakpoint oxidation, the chlorine reading must be 10 ppm over your combined chlorine reading.
Your chlorine has two readings: free chlorine and combined chlorine . Free chlorine refers to the chlorine that is free and available to kill.
NOTE: Pool shock products are made with unstabilized chlorine or no chlorine at all. They will go in, do their job, and get eaten up by the suns UV rays very fast. Thats why its important to shock your pool at night or dusk, and let it work for 8 hours throughout the night.
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What Chemicals Are Needed To Close A Pool
Winter will be here soon, and for snowbelt pool owners, thoughts begin to turn towards closing up the pool for winter.
Now is a good time to take stock of your pool closing supplies winter chemicals, pool cover attachments, plugs and other gizmos used to close the pool.
Today we take a closer look at the chemicals used for winterizing swimming pools to keep the water fresh and clear, and prevent stains and scale on your pool.
What Chemicals Are Needed For A Pool Start Up
When youre finding the chemicals you need for a pool start up, it all starts with your water.
Ideally, you should have properly cleaned your pool prior to filling it back up. Going through a full pool cleaning before filling it back up will cut down on contaminants in your water, equally a pool maintenance service can ensure chemically balanced water on start-up.
If you are filling from a freshwater source, it isnt going to be perfect pool water. It would be a bit ridiculous to use entirely purified water too, so this is something youre going to have to deal with.
The first thing that you need to do is test your water. While you can do this with a small test, it is better to go all-in with a full water test.
You need to know exactly what it is that youre working with if you want to start your pool up right.
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What Are Their Ideal Ranges
When maintaining a pool, you can look at several indicators. Each of them tells you something else about the water. In the list below, weve included recommended ranges for some of the most common indicators. Follow along with them to ensure youve got quality water.
General Pool Water Indicator Guidelines
- Free Chlorine: 1.0-3.0 ppm
- Bromine: 1.0-3.0 ppm
What Chemicals Are Needed For An Intex Pool
Every summer, tens of thousands of Intex Pools are set-up and filled-up, with dreams of long afternoons spent splashing and relaxing in a private backyard pool.
And then it hits you how do I keep the water clear, and how do I clean the pool? Or when water temps warm, how do I get rid of the algae or cloudy water? Help!?!
Youve come to the right place whether you have a small Easy Set pool, or a big Ultra Frame pool, heres how to balance, sanitize and disinfect any Intex pool.
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Why You Need To Know How To Winterize An Above Ground Pool
If youre fortunate enough to live somewhere with mild winters, you might not have considered what a pool needs to weather a frigid off season, and you might not close it at all. But if you live in a climate where winter comes to call with frost, snow, and deep cold, winterizing your poolpreparing it for and protecting it against winters ravagesis essential to keeping your pool in good working order.
During the sunny days of summer, your pool is wide open and a tempting target for insects, leaves, branches, and the occasional lost critter. Thats no big deal during swim season, because youre performing regular maintenance.
But in the winter, your pool is unused, and its not so rewarding to grab a skimmer and head out in the blizzard to hunt for debris.
If you leave your pool uncovered, youll have serious work ahead of you come spring. In addition to having to clean out your pool, youll need to rebalance the water, and maybe even deal with freeze damage.
Winterizing your pool minimizes your risk of contamination and cold damage to sensitive components. Youll save time, money, and frustration. Really, what more incentive do you need?
How Many Chemicals Do You Need To Start Up Your Pool
Once you know the state of your pool prior to start up, you can start to add and adjust the chemicals in your pool. The amount of chemicals for pool start up that you need to use is going to depend on what state your water is in.
Each chemical that you add to your pool needs to be doing something to the water to help it reach those targets. However, you need to be careful of chemical interactions and not overload your pool all at once.
These are the chemicals that you might have to add to your pool to get it in working order.
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How To Open An Above Ground Pool
- |March 24, 2020
Its that time of year again: pool season. Lots of sunshine in the forecast and warmer weather is finally here.
All you want to do is jump in the pool for a refreshing dip but youve been avoiding the unavoidable: re-opening your above-ground pool after the winter season. Its just sitting out there, taunting you. The pool cover is a dirty puddle of rainwater and old leaves.
Youve been dreading it, but the time has come. The sooner you open your pool, the sooner you can get back to swimming and enjoying it! So don a floppy hat and slather on some sunscreen, were here to walk you through it step-by-step.
How To Drain An Above Ground Pool For Winter
Sometimes you might think that it is good to drain the above-ground pool rather than winterizing.
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Should I Check Water Chemistry During Winter
In most cases there is no need to test the water on a covered pool, with exception to a pool with new plaster or whitecoat, which tends to rise in pH level during the first year. In such cases, pull back the cover and test the pH and alkalinity each month, adjusting as needed before covering the pool again. Pool covers with drains to allow rain and snow melt to pass through may wish to check pH once or twice during winter, to prevent possible etching or scaling issues.
How To Close Above Ground Pool
Yup, its that time again. The time to close and winterize your above ground pool. The time to prepare your pool for winter.
It happens every year. The leaves start changing color, the days start getting shorter, the air starts feeling cooler. All of a sudden, the idea of plunging in for a swim becomes less and less attractive.
But when, why, and how to do it?
Sure, it seems like a chore, but its really not nearly as big of a deal as you might think. In fact, pool winterization is pretty straightforward. And if you stay focused on the positives, its even possible to enjoy the process.
What are the positives?
- Number one, youre protecting your investment against freeze and bacterial damage.
- Number two, youre making life easier and less hassle-prone for yourself next year when it comes time to re-open it. And three, youre saving money doing it yourself.
All you need to do is follow these 12 easy steps to close and winterize your above ground pool so that next year youll be greeted with the welcoming embrace of problem-free, sparkling water.
But first of all, a couple of frequently asked questions.
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