What Is Good Pool Service and Good Pool Maintenance?
Good pool service and good pool maintenance is consistently, on a regular basis (usually weekly), doing the basics. There are four basics in pool care: cleaning the pool and maintaining the equipment, circulation, chemical balancing, and sanitation. A good pool service will do all these. When you see that your pool doesn't look good or you start having problems, its because one or more of these is not being done. Below I will cover each one in detail.
Cleaning The Pool and Maintaining The Equipment:
This includes netting leaves and debris from the water, vacuuming the pool surfaces, brushing the steps and walls, emptying the skimmer baskets, emptying the pump basket, and cleaning the filter or backwashing the DE filter. In addition, once a year the cartridge filter should be replaced. If its a DE filter then it should be "broken down" once a year, which means it should be opened up, all the grids removed and hosed-off, the inside of filter hosed-off, and any broken grids need to be replaced. DE filters must be "torn down" once per year because they get congested inside with dirt and old DE powder, hence the water circulation is poor.
Circulation:
Your pool must circulate the chlorine and other chemicals in the water to clean the pool surfaces and keep the water sanitized (algae-free). To maintain good circulation, the skimmer baskets and pump basket must be emptied regularly. This is especially a problem with open pools that have no screen, so they get more leaves and debris. Also, the filter needs to be cleaned or backwashed regularly to keep the circulation good.
Chemical Balancing:
The pH and alkalinity levels must be kept in the recommended ranges. This way your pool water is not too acidic or base, which can damage your pool surface and equipment. Also, balanced water is more clear and gentle on the skin. Sodium Bicarbonate or acid is used to balance pH and alkalinity in the proper ranges.
Sanitation:
This is probably the most important and obvious, the chlorine and stabilizer levels. If the chlorine and stabilizer levels are not maintained at the recommended levels, then bacteria will grow in the pool water. That's the yellow or green algae we see sometimes in the pool. You must have BOTH chlorine and stabilizer. Because the stabilizer protects the chlorine from evaporating in the sun. It's a very common mistake People make. They put chlorine in the pool, but still get algae. The reason being that without stabilizer, that chlorine will evaporate with sun exposure in about a day.
