Pool Cleaning/Maintenance

In a perfect world, swimming pools would be clear and blue all of the time but the reality is: the world is constantly trying to fill your pools with garbage; nature wants your pool to be a murky brown swamp and in a very short amount of time, with no human intervention, it will be just that. Here we will discuss how swimming pools are maintained.

Step 1

Check the Water Level

The first (and last!) thing to check on your pool is the water level. If a pool doesn't have enough water, it can be disastrous! Swimming pools have pumps that pull water from different areas: from the drains on the bottom, and from the openings around the pool, on the deck, called skimmers. If the water level is below these slimmer openings, the pump will pull air instead of water. 

Pool pumps are very good at pulling water, but they are not good at pulling air. If air gets into the suction lines, it effectively STOPS the pump from pulling water. If left running dry, the pump will generate so much heat that it will damage its' seals, warp glue joints on pipes, and eventually burn out entirely and will need to be replaced.

The ideal water level for swimming pools is halfway up the skimmer openings. This ensures that the pump will have a steady influx of water from all sources.

If your pools have too much water, like after a rain storm, it isn't harmful the the filter system in any way, but if the water level is above the skimmer openings, they can no longer effectively pull floating debris into their baskets and you may end up with a lot of debris to clean out of the pool that would have otherwise been cleaned out automatically.

Step 2

Empty the Skimmers

Skimmer baskets are a pool cleaner's best friend. The pump pulls water from these openings on the edges of the pool. Inside of these openings are baskets that catch all of the debris that gets pulled from the suction.

That is stuff that your pool cleaner doesn't need to tediously pull out from the pool with a net or other tools!

These should be emptied regularly, ideally once a day. If they become too full, water and debris will no longer be pulled into the basket, however, the pump will continue to pull that basket down toward the inlet with a lot of force. This force can tear large holes in the baskets. Any large openings in these baskets render them useless, as any debris that gets pulled into that skimmer basket will slip through these openings and will be pulled straight into the pump.

Step 3

Vacuum the Pool

This step may be optional. You might be lucky enough that the pool will have nothing more than large debris (leaves, trash etc.) on the bottom of the pool. But more often than not, there will be sand, dirt, or other fine substances like powder residue from chemicals, on the bottom surface of the pool. These substances need to be vacuumed out of the pool.

There are different ways of doing this but the best way is by using a separate, portable pool pump that simply plugs in to an ordinary electrical outlet. This is preferred by professional pool cleaners because it removes debris straight out of the pool without it causing any problems with the system.

Another way is by utilizing the pool's own pump system. This is best done with pools that have multi-port valves (valves that can be changed to "waste", "rinse" etc.). It is not recommended for pool systems that have 2-way ("push-pull") valves nor is it recommended for pool systems with cartridge filters. 

Before starting to vacuum the pool, you may want to turn on the pool's fill valve, or if a fill valve is not available, a water hose can be used instead. The process of vacuuming the pool can remove a lot of water from the pool. It's important that the water level stays around the middle of the skimmer openings or else it could cause problems as stated above in Step 1.

To run a vacuum ("sweep") on your pool, your pool professional will run a specially made vacuum hose through the pool water and connect it to their portable pump. On the other end of the hose there is a weighted vacuum head with wheels that connects to a pool. From the deck, your pool professional can push and pull this vacuum head over the bottom surface of the pull and "suck out" any and all sand, dirt, and powder. The pump will spray all of this unwanted junk out away from the pool water.

If your pool professional utilizes the pool's own system, instead of connecting the vacuum hose to a pump, they can connect the hose to a skimmer, making sure that the filter's multi-port valve is set to "waste" mode, which when the pump is turned on, makes the water bypass the filter, straight into the waste line of the plumbing. 

Step 4

Remove Large Debris (Leaves, Trash, etc.)

Possibly the most important tool to your pool professional is their net. The process of "netting" the pool is pretty self explanatory, large debris such as leaves or trash is "fished" out of the pool using a net attached to a long pole. This is done from the pool deck.

If there is an overwhelming amount of trash or leaves on the bottom of the pool, it may be more practical to use special equipment to pull it from the bottom quickly such as with a leaf vacuum that uses water pressure, or with an electric, propeller based vacuum system.