The Most Common Mistakes Pool Owners Make

A pool isn’t exactly what you’d call a cheap investment. It’s also something that comes with a whole lot of responsibility, especially as mistakes can result in a decent chunk of money making its way out of your pocket.

Below we’ve detailed some of the most common mistakes that are made by pool owners, so that we can help you avoid doing the same thing. Let’s get into it.

Adding Shock Directly into The Pool Water.

If you’re not sure of what pool shock is, it’s essentially highly concentrated pool chlorine. High-strength has the potential to bleach just about anything i.e. clothes. Some pool owners make the mistake of adding the shock straight to the pool.

Now, you can’t over-shock your pool, though problems can arise if you have a vinyl liner. When the pool shock granules sink to the bottom of your pool, they will bleach out your vinyl liner, which in turn becomes brittle and frail and also causes leaks.

To avoid this potential disaster, pre-dissolve the pool shock into a bucket of water prior to shocking your pool. Make sure you add the chemical to a bucket already filled with water and don’t add water to the pool shock. This way, you’ll avoid dangerous splash back.

Not Manually Brushing Your Pool

It’s easy to get comfortable that you’ve done enough once you’ve vacuumed your pool. Think of it this way. You don’t just use mouth wash to keep your teeth clean, you get your brush and physically scrub your teeth until they’re squeaky clean. Your pool is no different.

Brushing your pool is important, especially when it comes to hard-to-reach areas. This includes ladders, the water lines, steps as well as corners and crevices. So, why is it important to scrub? Because algae will try to grow absolutely anywhere in your pool and will throw your pool balance out.

Ideally, you want to brush once a week during the on-season. If you use your pool really frequently, then scrubbing twice a week will ensure you keep your pool water healthy and pristine.

Using an Automatic Pool Cleaner When You Have an Algae Problem

Algae is hard enough to deal with when you know what you’re doing, let alone when mistakes are being made. Breaking out your robot pool cleaner (RPC) may seem like the ideal way to get rid of algae, but you couldn’t be more wrong.

An RPC will simply move algae around and give it a tour of your pool. It won’t get rid of it. Also, even if you have a top-end RPC, its mesh bag will clog up fast if algae start to go through it.

You’ll need to break out your manual vacuum to get rid of algae. Switch the filter to “waste” and remove the drain plug. Even though you’ll lose more water this way, you’ll also get rid of the algae.

Ignoring Your pH and Alkalinity Levels

If you’ve been reading our monthly blog posts, you would know by now that imbalanced pH levels mean your pool water isn’t healthy. Low pH levels mean that your pool water is acidic and high levels indicate alkalinity.

Your pH levels are something that you absolutely can’t afford to ignore. You will have a green pool is absolutely no time. You can even damage your pool equipment, including pumps and filters, vinyl liner, blankets and more.

The solution? Absolutely always keep an eye on your pH levels. Test your pool water regularly and then use a pH increaser or alkalinity increaser to keep the balancer. There are also other essential chemicals that you will need to keep your pH levels balanced.

Adding Pool Shock Through Your Skimmer

Most pool mistakes you make have relatively minor consequences. Adding pool shock through your skimmer won’t, however. In fact, you can seriously damage your pool’s filter system by doing this.

To avoid any serious problems, shock your pool as per our instructions above. Fill a bucket with water and then add the pool shock to the water to pre-dissolve the shock. You will avoid major bills.

Also, keep your pool shock as far away from the skimmer as possible. Add it to your pool from the opposite end. Also, make sure to follow the manufacturers instructions, usually located on the chemical packaging. Don’t forget to wear safety gear either!

Shocking Your Swimming Pool During the Day

As you might have guessed by now, shocking your pool the right way is serious business. In fact, we’re shocked that there are so many mistakes that can be made when it comes to pool shock!

To keep this as short as possible, the sun isn’t kind to pool shock at all. It will burn off about 1 part per million (ppm) each hour and will in turn reduce the efficiency of this and other chemicals. If you shock during the day, you’re essentially wasting your money.

To do it the right way, shock your pool at night. You wan to do this once a week and you want to add about 0.5kg of shock for every 38,000L (10,000 gallons) of water in your pool. Your target is 3 ppm in order to keep your pool well-balanced.

Running Your Pool Filter System Fewer Than Eight Hours A Day

It might be tempting to turn your pool filter off early. After all, it’s a fairly minor mistake to make compared to others and you will save electricity. Though, you want to keep on top of this regardless.

During the on-season when your pool is seeing more use, run your filter for at least eight hours to make sure all the water passes through and remains clean. During the off-season, run your pool filter for about four hours per day.

Neglecting to Test Your Pool Water Weekly

Owning a pool is like owning a pet. There are a set of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly responsibilities that come with the territory. Weekly water testing is one of the most important responsibilities.

Testing your water on a weekly basis let’s you keep one step ahead of any major problems. Purchase test strips or a liquid test kit and then you’re good to go. If you’re not sure of how to perform the test, simply take a sample of your water to your local pool shop i.e. Pool Magic Pool Care 😉 and we can perform a detailed analysis for you.

If you choose not to test your pool water, just know that you’re slowly setting yourself up for disaster.