10 Pool Care Tips From 10 Pool Care Experts

Over the past two weeks, we have asked some pool experts across the country to share just one pool care tip with our readers. We would like to thank everyone for participating in this post. Hope you can learn a thing or two from these pool care experts.

Rob Estell

The Pool Pros
In this video, I briefly explain the benefits of proper water circulation and movement of the top layer of the water in your swimming pool. The most important benefit is to remove all of the contaminants from the top layer of the pool. As we are taught in the NSPFCPO course, the majority of the contaminants are on the top of the pool water, and that 75%  of the circulation should come from the surface of the pool.

Jim Tanner

For all water chemistry parameters pH is the most important to maintain and control.  Without proper pH disinfection is compromised as well as the turbidity of the water.

Wes Clark

Pool Pillow Pal
When closing your swimming pool, specifically an above ground pool, many people struggle with tying in the air pillow and dragging the winter cover over the top. It usually takes more than one person, and the ropes often break or the grommets on the air pillow tear and the pillow is off to the side not doing its job of equalizing the pressure of the forming ice, potentially damaging your pool walls!

To make this job much easier, the best tip I have it to use The Pool Pillow Pal, a device that connects and centers the air pillow to the winter cover without the need for ropes or ties. One patch is centered on the air pillow, one patch is centered on the winter cover, connect them together and float the air pillow into place. It stays centered and secure all winter. Along with this tip is to make sure you inflate the air pillow only 60-80% of its capacity to allow for expansion from pressure, and adding duct tape over the sealed valve will also help keep the pillow from deflating.

Stan Horst

Better Benches
Check your pool chemistry regularly.  I check mine daily because I have to – it is considered a public pool.  However, checking regularly has the benefit of identifying problems and solving them before they get really far off.  It is much easier and less expensive to make a minor adjustment by adding just a few chemicals than to be way off and have to really work to get the water balanced again.  The other benefit of checking your chemistry regularly is that your pool is always ready to use, because it doesn’t have time to get significantly out of whack.

Gabriel Ullmann

Blue Science
Empty the skimmer baskets as often as they fill up. It’s easy to pool owners to forget to do this in the off season. Yet in Texas and some other Southern states there are a lot of leaves that fall from Live Oak trees the first three months of the year. If skimmer baskets fill up then circulation is reduced which causes the filter pump to starve for water. This causes unnecessary wear on the pump and could cause freeze damage if the water is unable to circulate properly in freezing temperatures.

Please keep in mind it may be necessary to help empty skimmer baskets even if you have a weekly or twice a month pool maintenance service.

Steve Goodale

Owner of Green Pools in Burlington Ontario Canada and is a Pool Water expert
Since salt water systems are becoming more and more popular in recent years an important tip for pool owners is to be sure that the pool itself and all attached equipment such as pumps and heaters are properly bonded.  Combining salt water and dissimilar metals such as galvanized steel, copper, titanium and stainless steel as found in a swimming pool is essentially how you create a battery.

In a swimming pool application this can put tiny potential voltages across pool equipment which can cause advanced corrosion to result.  By bonding the pool and equipment you can limit the potential voltage from developing and save your pool from early failure.  This process is called galvanic corrosion and can completely destroy a brand new gas heater in as little as a single season so be sure that your pool is properly bonded.

Gary Bowers

All Pool Filters 4 Less
To control algae in your pool be sure to check your pool water phosphates level.  Use a product like Phos-Free in your pool weekly to reduce phosphates in your water, which act as algae food.

David Mispilkin

Dave’s Above Ground Pools
I have an above ground pool tip as we get closer to springtime. It affects thousands of above ground pool owners nationwide every early springtime. Most above ground pool collapses happen when water is displaced and the ice pulls down on the cover causing your pool walls to buckle.  If you think that you have ice damage, immediately check your winter cover.

If it’s starting to fall in because there’s no longer enough water in the pool; drain and remove it (if there is no ice on the cover), or release the cable or tubes, and let it fall in. Don’t allow the weight of water and snow on the cover to cause any damage to the pool’s top system.

Brian Cox

Pool Advisor
Make sure you stay on top of your pool maintenance by regularly checking your chemicals. It’s much easier to keep things in balance than let them get far out of balance and have to recover.

Monique Nelson

Liquid Pool Covers
Just as your tap water requires a heat source to warm up your showers, so does your pool to rise to a comfortable swimming temperature. In some areas, the sun’s warmth is enough. In most locations, however, a heater, heat pump or solar system is required to get the water up to temp.
Once warm enough to swim in, the focus turns to keeping the heat in the pool to maintain the desired temperature. Unfortunately, pools lose their heat almost as soon as it enters the water. As the heat is removed from the pool’s water, the heat source needs to continue working to keep the temperature stable.

As you can see from the chart, there are 3 main culprits to heat loss:

According to the US Department of Energy, evaporation is by far the largest source of heat loss. As the heat evaporates into thin air, so does the energy used to heat up the pool water. If a gas or electric heater is in use, this will result in high energy bills. If solar energy or heat pumps are being used, it may mean that the water will never reach or maintain the desired warmth.

According to the Professional Pool Operators of America,

As you can see, reducing evaporation will help your pool stay warm, and save you both energy and water. One easy way to keep that evaporation under control is to use a pool cover. There are many options available to you, ranging from high end automatic covers, to traditional plastic blankets, to liquid solar pool covers.