Although they add a nice touch to your house, swimming pools require more care than most pool owners are aware of. Poor water quality in a pool can endanger the swimmer’s health and damage the pool’s structural integrity. Here’s a step-by-step guide for opening your pool for the summer.
Take Off Your Pool Cover
When there is a great deal of debris or water on top of the pool cover, it might be challenging to remove it. To get rid of any loose material, use a leaf blower, a soft-bristled broom, or a brush. You’ll need to use a pool cover pump if your cover has a sizable volume of standing water. Once your cover is clear of loose debris and moisture, you may remove it from the pool. If you own a mesh pool cover, less work will be needed on your part. One great feature about the Anchor Mesh covers is that they’re self-draining. This means there is no need for a drain panel or a pump in the middle of your pool.
Clean the Pool Cover
After removing the cover, it must be cleaned before being stored. The best place to clean your cover is on a broad, level patch of grass. Make sure your cover doesn’t brush against any rough surfaces when being transported to the cleaning place, such as a driveway or sidewalk. This could cause the cover to rip. You may use a pool cover cleaner or other mild detergents, such as dish soap or car wash soap, to clean your pool cover. After cleaning the cover, let it air dry before storing it in a container with a tight seal. This prevents insects, rats, and other animals from building their summer nests within the cover.
Reinstall the Pool’s Features after Removing all Winterizing Components
Remove all of the pool’s winter plugs. The correct pump, heater, and filter plugs should be reinstalled. You may now replace any railings, ladders, and other pool accessories.
Top Off the Water in Your Pool
After de-winterizing, you can refill the pool with the water it lost while being covered. You should fill your pool with water until the water level is halfway up the waterline tile.
Inspect and Switch On Your Pool Equipment
Check the pump and pool filter for cracks and other damage before turning the pump on. If there are no structural issues, turn on the pump and check how the pump and filter are operating. If your filter doesn’t work well, you’ll need to clean or replace the cartridge.
Check and Adjust the Pool’s pH Levels
You need to restore the pool’s chemical balance before shocking the water. You must utilize test strips to evaluate the pH, calcium hardness, chlorine levels, and alkalinity of the water in order to know what chemicals need to be applied.
Clean the Walls of the Pool
Scrub the walls and clean the pool’s floor to prevent algae from affecting the pool’s shock. Shock the pool water
By adding a significant amount of chlorine to the pool, bacteria in the water can be removed. For a basic liquid chlorine shock, two gallons of shock are normally used for every 10,000 gallons of water. As you go around the pool’s perimeter, carefully pour the shock into the water. After letting the pump operate for around six hours, check the pool’s water quality. Your pool’s chlorine concentration should be 4 ppm or less, while the remaining chemicals should be within the standard range.
Filter the Pool
After shocking the pool, give the filtration system 24 hours to operate. Your pool will then be ready for use!
