Additional Ideas for Sparkling, Clean Pools

Keep Metal Out!

Copper and iron can get in the pool through a variety of ways. One source of copper (and other metals) is well water. Consequently, use it wisely and if you use it, test your water for metals fairly regularly.

Copper can also come from corroded copper fittings on your plumbing lines. Again, corrosion is a result of improper pH.

Lastly copper can come from a copper heat exchanger in your pool, if you have one.

If you get any metal in the pool, you will want to treat for metals quickly. Metals can stain pool surfaces, which can be even more costly to fix. A pool liner stained an ugly color of brown is going to be quite an eyesore, and might potentially require the liner to be replaced in order to fix it entirely. You can treat your pool with Metal-Free, if you ever show a positive test for metals. Or if you use well water, I recommend adding some Metal-Freeon a regular basis.

Purchase Your Pool Chemicals Wisely

Buy your balancing chemicals and sanitizer in bulk. You can buy almost any chemical in fairly large amounts over at InTheSwim.

You’ll save the most money on pool chemicals if you buy them in bulk. If you buy chlorine, get the sticks (or hockey puck shapes) and shock in as large containers as you can handle, often 50# and 100# respectively.

Even balancing chemicals you can get in bulk - total alkalinity (sodium bicarbonate) can be purchased in 50# bags and the same for calcium. The professional pool cleaners almost certainly get their chemicals like this, and you can save some money by doing so, too. However, store your chemicals in a dry place, and don't keep them too close to each other. You NEVER want to mix chemicals except in the pool.

Test the Pool Water Yourself???

If you have your balancing chemicals, you can test your own water. Or, you can test your water and then buy whatever is needed.

Basic testing equipment can either be test strips or the liquid testing system.

Testing equipment can run the gamut from simple test strips to more advanced equipment and software.

If you purchase the software, you simply put your test results in, tell it what size pool you have and it will tell you how much of what to add. While these software packages cost something to begin, you will end up saving plenty of money in the long run, since most pool places will either insist you buy some chemicals from them, or charge you for the test.

You can get essentially the same results at home for less money.