Pool Balancing
 

This is our first full summer with a pool (salt water) and we’re having a hard time keeping the chemicals balanced. We have a service once a week and he adds them as needed but within a few days they’re too low. He blames the sun and rain which make sense but wondering if others have the same problem. Thanks.

Yes Sun and Rain will affect chemical balance.

Does the Weather Impact Your Swimming Pool? | Pool Water Chemistry | Pentair

My son in Stonecrest does his own maintenance on his swimming pool.

He refuses to pay someone $150.00 a month for song and dance on why his pool water is clouded.

Also, fertilizer Companys he discovered that come in the neighborhood applying their powder fertilizers will effect
pool chemistry.

He will go to punch-a-penny for his free water test for time to time.

See swim university on YouTube

We had the same issue; found we had a leak and the auto fill kept the pool full even though the leak was draining it out of the drain. Our balance was way out of whack. Fixed the leak and fixed the issue.

Go to troublefreepool.com and click on Pool School. This site is fantastic for how to care for a pool in the simplest and most economical way possible. Once you get started taking care of it, you'll get rid of your service and save a ton of money.

Thanks! I'm only paying $110 a month now, but it seems I do much of the cleaning myself anyway. I might give this a try!

Golf coarse
 

Our pool on a golf course was had to care for because chemicals used on the golf course would get in our pool.

After several different pool companies I just decided to do it myself. Download the Clorox pool app and go from there. Remove as many variables as you can. Run your pump the same amount of time everyday. Keep your salt level at 3,200. You will need to adjust your salt cell upwards in the summer due to the longer days that chew up more chlorine. Once I finally got my alkalinity under control the only thing I had to really concern myself with is ph. After a heavy rain I do need to add a bit more acid. I shock it once a month just to be on the safe side and my pool is always sparkling clean.
I did splurge on an electronic pool vac which does a great job removing any fine particles from the bottom of the pool.

Since I never used a service, I was pleased to see how much I was saving……doing it myself.

I have a UV light for sanitizer. Hardly use chemicals. Built in floor cleaner, no brushing. Little soda ash and few pucks and I’m done for a month.

Stay away from Clorox pool salt. It contains impurities that will cause staining in a pool over a period of time.

Troublefreepool (TFP)voffers an app. It costs $8 per year. You enter your pool info once (salt, chlorine, vinyl, plaster, fiberglass, gallons), then every time you test you enter your data and it tells you exactly how much to add.

When you test DO NOT use strips. They are extremely inaccurate, and get worse with age. Drop tests are the only way to accurately measure levels.

Pool stores are in business for one reason only - to sell chemicals. All of the chemicals offered used a base of common chemicals and then add things to make the product unique. In most cases the additives do nothing or are even harmful over time. TFP only recommends the mininum base chemicals needed.

Using TFP, my cost per year in chemicals is less than $200, and my pool is crystal clear.

It's not an exact science. So you fix it one day and tomorrow it will slowly start to go out of balance. Everything's a range. We check our pool water once a week and since we have a saltwater pool we almost always end up adding muriatic acid to lower the pH. Salt rarely changes. Just check it weekly and adjust and you should be fine.

Above carved in stone true.I am a TFP member.Own a 10k gallon pool 3.5 years .I do not use the app..just follow the basics.I have never had to shock the pool. CYA/FC is pool code to live by...all explained at TFP.

Agree. Trouble Free Pool and Pool Math apps online are all you need to take care of your own pool - if you choose to. Not difficult at all - especially with a salt water pool.