Opening Your Pool In Spring
Spring is a beautiful season. This is when you see trees beginning to grow and plants starting to blossom. The weather will be warmer and daylight will be a lot longer. It’s the perfect time to go swimming! But how do you open your swimming pool in the Spring? Check out our tips below.
1. Take Care of the Pool Cover
It’s a good practice to cover your pool when you are not using it. When Spring comes, remove the water and other debris on top of the pool cover. As much as possible, make it spotlessly clean before taking the cover off. After removing the cover, clean off the remaining dirt and let it dry. When it’s dry, sprinkle both sides with talcum powder to prevent mildew and mold. When everything is all neat and clean, loosely fold the cover and store it in a cool and dry place as you will need them in the winter.
2. Raise Pool Water to Normal Levels
Get the hose and fill your pool with clean water for swimming. The normal water levels would be either halfway up the tile or just in the middle of the skimmer opening.
If you winterize your pool, you will need to reconnect the pool equipment. These would be all tools and equipment that you connect to your filtration system. You will need to also remove the winterizing plugs in your skimmer. Do wait until the antifreeze is fully drained before removing them from the return lines and the skimmer. Reinstall all drain plugs and reconnect any return valve fittings that have been removed in the winter. When it’s all done, turn the pool equipment back on including the circulation and the filtration system. Make sure you close the air relief valve and no leaks or unusual noises are present.
3. Add MetalFree to Prevent Discoloration
It is likely that copper and iron are present in the pool water. You can completely avoid stains by adding 1 liter of MetalFree in your pool. The formula is 1 liter for every 20,000 gallons of water in the pool. Then run the filtration and circulation for two hours to make sure that it’s all good to go.
While the circulation is running, do check the pool’s pH levels, Chlorine and Total Alkalinity levels using a test kit. The ideal pH level should be between 7.4 to 7.6. Total Alkalinity should be between 80 to 120 ppm. Calcium Hardness is between 200 – 400 ppm and Free Available Chlorine should be between 2.0 to 4.0 ppm.
To ensure clean, healthy and safe swimming, use a Dry Acid and Alkalinity Up for properly adjusting the Total Alkalinity.
You can also use the Dry Acid for adjusting the pH levels especially when it’s too high. When it’s low, use a Soda Ash.
For the Calcium Hardness levels, make sure it is above 150 ppm.
4. Clean the Pool
When the pool chemistry is adjusted, it’s now time to thoroughly clean the swimming pool. Make sure you remove all debris and dirt. Clean all areas of the pool.
5. Run the Filtration System Overnight
Let the filtration system do its work by completely removing the rest of the debris and dirt.
6. Do the Pool Shock Treatment
The last step would be to completely eliminate contaminants and germs present in the water. You can do this by using pool shock treatment.
Do all the above steps and your swimming pool will be all good to go for Spring!
