Inground Swimming Pool Maintenance

Who doesn't love the thought of owning a swimming pool in the backyard and having the luxury to swim in it whenever one feels like! Well, while the dream of owning a swimming pool is rosy, reality entails a lot of responsibilities. Irrespective of the type of swimming pool, it is important to carry out various weekly, monthly and yearly maintenance tasks. Swimming pool maintenance costs will increase in the long run if proper maintenance is not carried out on a regular basis. It results in damage of pool liners and the entire pool. To keep your pool functional for a longer period, it is important to take care of your pool like a little child. Frequent attention and care is demanded by a swimming pool.

Chlorine and pH Level
Chlorinating the pool is important because it sanitizes the pool. Maintaining proper pH levels (7.2 - 7.6) is also important because at that level chlorine is most effective. Thus, it is important to keep check of the chlorine and pH levels twice a week. Chlorine level can be maintained by adding sodium hypochlorite or calcium hypochlorite and pH levels can be maintained by adding muriatic acid or baking soda.

Skimmer Basket
To guarantee fresh and circulating pool water, the skimmer basket needs to be checked and cleaned twice a week. The skimmer basket often gets clogged with debris such as leaves, insects, bird droppings and other waste materials blown by the wind onto the swimming pool water surface. To prevent too much debris from collecting on the surface of the water and clogging the skimmer basket, you can invest in swimming pool safety covers, which will not only provide safety but will also prevent debris from getting collected.

Brushing and Vacuuming
Brushing is important to remove dirt and oil stains on the tiles of the pool. Not only does this mar the appearance of the pool, but it also makes the pool floor sticky. Thus, one should use a pool brush to brush the pool floor and tiles. For vacuuming submerge the vacuum head and hose and then vacuum away. Vacuuming and brushing needs to be done once a week, however, in windy weather, one may have to do it more frequently.

Algaecide and Clarifier Addition
Another important part of inground swimming pool maintenance is algaecide and clarifier addition, which needs to be done once a week. A dose of algaecide must be given to the pool water to curb the growth of algal contaminants in the pool. Get a good quality algaecide, because poor quality ones destroy swimming pool liners. Moreover, if you find the pool water cloudy, try adding a dose of clarifier to the pool water. Clarifying agents cause tiny particles that are too small to be caught in the filter to coalesce and form larger particles that can be caught by the pool filter.

Shock Treatment
Chlorination releases free chlorine into the pool which turns into combined chlorine. Combined chlorine is deleterious and can conduce to eye and skin irritations. Thus, it is important to convert the combined chlorine back to free chlorine once a week. Local pool shops have shock treatment packages, which need to be added to the pool as per instructions.

Calcium Level
It is important to get the hardness of the water checked once a month. Since this cannot be done at home, you will have to take a sample of the pool water to the pool store and get the water tested. This is important because high calcium levels in water can conduce to scale formation, while less calcium levels can result in increased corrosiveness of water. Once in six months the pool filters should also be removed and cleaned.

In case there is a problem you do not know how to fix, please call the professionals for inground swimming pool repairs. Moreover, don't let the different maintenance requirements intimidate you. While these duties are not difficult to follow and do, it is important to understand the amount of responsibilities owning a swimming pool entails. Get a swimming pool only if you are ready to maintain it.