Common Pool Maintenance Mistakes

Common pool maintenance mistakes can cost you time and money not to mention leave you with an unclean swimming pool. Learn how to avoid these simple mistakes to keep your pool sparkling clean and safe for the whole family.

1. Not Testing the Pool Water Weekly

The first common pool maintenance mistake is not testing your pool water. Testing pool water is the most important component to your pool maintenance routine. Test for pH, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, total dissolved solids, copper, iron and salinity (salt water pools).

Recommendation: Purchase pool test strips for your pool chemistry – chlorine, bromine, biguanide etc. Test the pool / hot tub water weekly. It only takes one minute.

2. Not Balancing Your Pool Water

After testing your pool water if the chemistry is out of balance take action to fix it before it gets worse! It will never get better by itself!

Follow our instructional articles in this site to resolve your pool chemistry issues.

Once the water chemistry is balanced and the filter cleaned regularly most pools never need much maintenance at all.

Please read our article on How to Balance Your Swimming Pool Water

3. Not Showering before Swimming in Your Pool

You should always shower before you swim in a pool or soak in a hot tub. It’s not just swimming pool etiquette, it is essential!

Our bodies are contaminated with sweat, dead skin, hair, faeces and pharmaceutical products. If you don’t shower before you swim in a pool all the dirt and contaminants on your body will wash off in the pool water. The pool water may look clean but it may actually be full of contaminants. Do you want to swim in dirty pool water?

Remember chlorine can take time to kill all the bacteria and contaminants in the water. Also the filtration system is not operating 24 hours a day. And when it is running it takes many hours to turn over all the pool water and remove the dead contaminants. So if dirty people are entering the pool you can be swimming in their dirt, bacteria and bodily contaminants until removed by the filter.

Recommendation: Ask all persons using your pool to take a quick shower with soap to remove sweat and pharmaceutical products from their bodies. This will keep your pool cleaner for longer and reduce the need for extra chemicals and filtering.

4. Not Cleaning the Pool Filter Regularly

During summer and periods of frequent usage the filter needs to be cleaned more frequently to remove the extra dirt and debris that accumulates in the pool. The method to clean the pool filter depends on what type of pool filter you are operating – sand or cartridge.

The filter will have a pressure gauge indicating the water pressure inside the filter when the pump is operating. When the pressure increases above a threshold (usually indicated on the gauge) the filter has become dirty and needs cleaning.

Pool filter cartridges are simply removed from the filter housing and pressure washed with a garden hose. Remember to turn off the pump before opening the filter housing and turn it back on again when the task is complete.

Sand filters are backwashed into the drain.

If the water pressure is still high after cleaning your filter then you need to replace the cartridge or sand in the filter.

Recommendation: We recommend having two filter cartridges. When the filter needs cleaning swap out the filter cartridge element with the clean one so your filtration system can operate immediately. Clean the dirty cartridge, dry and store.

Please read our article on How to Clean a Pool Cartridge Filter

5. Backwashing Your Sand Filter Too Much

Backwashing your sand filter removes the trapped dirt and flushes it into the drain. That’s right, pool water is flushed into the drain. You will need to top up the pool after every few backwashes.

When the filter pressure gauge is high it’s time to clean your filter otherwise the filter will be clogged with dirt and not able to function effectively. After backwashing the filter pressure gauge returns to its normal operating pressure. This indicates a good water flow through the filter system.

Backwashing more than is necessary will use too much water, flush away pool chemicals and reduce the effectiveness of your filter.

6. Not Running the Pump Long Enough

There is a lot of confusion among pool owners about how long to run their pool pump and filtration system each day. This is one of the most common pool maintenance mistakes.

The filtration system draws water from the pool and pumps it through a number of appliances to clean and process the water. The pump and filter must run long enough to process all the pool water each day. That is, the pump must turnover all the water in the pool on a daily basis to ensure the pool water is clean. Normally, a pump is chosen for your pool with the capacity to filter all the water every 8 hours.

Your decision as to when you set the timer to operate your pump will determine how much your power will cost. If you run the pump at off-peak times you will save on your electricity bills.

Recommendation: Run the pump from 9am to 3pm (6 hours) and 8pm to 10pm (2 hours). These 8 hours will not only save you money, ensure the pool is adequately filtered and sanitized but also not annoy your neighbors with pump noise in the middle of the night!

If everybody works together to reduce peak power usage we don’t need so many polluting power stations on our planet! These power stations are one of the main causes of air pollution which contributes to climate change problems. When you run your pump at the daylight off-peak times (9am to 4pm) the electricity can be generated from solar energy and not carbon-based fuel sources such as coal, oil & gas.

7. Not Brushing Your Pool Surfaces

Grime and calcium scale accumulate on pool surfaces. Simple vacuuming or dropping an automatic cleaner in your pool does not remove it effectively. Not brushing your pool surfaces is one of the most common pool maintenance mistakes.

Recommendation: You need to brush the pool surfaces as part of your pool maintenance routine. Pool cleaners and vacuum heads don’t clean well around steps, ladders and in corners. A little bit of effort will reward you with a cleaner pool that is not likely to be invaded by algae or other contaminants.

8. Not Vacuuming Your Pool to the Drain

The skimmer box only removes dirt and debris floating on the surface. Once dirt and other contaminants sink to the bottom you need to vacuum the pool. The longer dirt is in your pool the slimier and grimier it becomes. It attaches itself to every surface and is more difficult to remove.

Recommendation: Regularly vacuuming the pool (especially the bottom and steps) prevents the build-up of grime and lessens the chance of algae growth. Start by brushing the sides with a pool brush in a downwards motion to sweep the dirt to the bottom.

Finally, vacuum the bottom to waste so the dirt is deposited in the drain not your filter. This saves you constantly cleaning your filter and prolongs its life span. It’s a simple matter of turning a valve on your filter to waste and afterwards back to the filter position. You will need to top up the pool from the garden hose for the water lost to the drain.

The alternative is to drop in an automatic cleaner in the pool.

9. Adding Shock Directly to the Pool Water

The common term “shock the pool” is pool industry slang language for super chlorinating your pool. All it means is giving your pool an extra dose of chlorine (or a non-chlorine shock chemical) to ensure the pool is adequately sanitized by killing bacteria, viruses and algae that may exist in the water.

Chloramines (combined chlorine) build up in the water making it easier for bacteria and algae to multiply and turn your pool into a swamp. Shocking the pool water (super chlorinating) eliminates chloramines and keeps your pool water sanitized.

Issue: Most people directly spread the granular pool shock over the surface of the pool. The shock usually sinks to the bottom causing bleaching to a pool liner or marks on a plaster surface. The shock chemical does not evenly disperse around the pool leaving unsanitized patches of water.

Recommendation: Dissolve the shock in a bucket of water. Pour the bucket of water around the whole pool to ensure the shock reaches all parts of the pool. Run the pump for several hours.

10. Adding Shock to the Skimmer Box

You should not put any chemicals or pool salt into the skimmer box.

Undissolved pool salt will clog up the plumbing and filter and need to be flushed out.

While other chemicals can become concentrated in the filter damaging the filter element.

Shock can react with the chlorine produced in the chlorinator. The mixture of chlorine-based pool shock with free chlorine in the chlorinator can cause an explosion and emit poisonous chlorine gas.

Recommendation: Always mix pool chemicals into a bucket of water and pour it into the pool water with the pump running to mix and circulate the chemicals.

Warning: Do not add chemicals to the skimmer box as they may damage the filter or salt water chlorinator. The chemical mixture may explode and produce poisonous gases.

11. Shocking Your Pool During the Day

Many pool operators add shock to the pool during the day. This is one of the most common pool maintenance mistakes.

Unfortunately, pool chlorine quickly neutralizes in UV light and evaporates from the pool in the heat of the sun. Pool stabilizer (cyanuric acid) will stabilize chlorine and prevent it breaking down or evaporating too quickly.

However, even with the right amount of pool stabilizer (cyanuric acid) chlorine still evaporates and is chemically broken down by the sun. So stop wasting your money and add the shock to the pool at night.

Recommendation: The best time of day to add shock to your pool is in the evening after you have finished using the pool for the day and just before the pump is due to operate.

Adding the shock after the sun has gone down will ensure it works all night as there is no ultraviolet light to reduce its effectiveness. Also it is cooler reducing chlorine evaporation from the water. Make sure the pump is going to run for at least 4 hours to thoroughly mix in the shock chemical.

Do not swim in your pool straight after adding shock chemicals because the high free chlorine will sting your eyes and itch your skin.

12. Not Using a Pool Cover

The single best accessory purchase for a swimming pool is a pool cover. This is not really one of the common pool maintenance mistakes but the owners choice not to spend money on a cover.

Pool covers keep out dirt, leaves, flowers, pollen, insects, algae, birds, ducks, frogs and anything else that can invade your pool. When all these contaminants enter your pool you need more chemicals and filtering to remove them.

Recommendation: Install a pool cover. It will be the best investment you ever make for your home. It will easily reduce your chemical, filtering and water requirements saving you the cost of the cover in no time.