The Ultimate Guide To Cleaning And Maintaining Above Ground Swimming Pool

Above ground swimming pools are quite popular in the world because they are easy to set up and require less maintenance. In this article, we are going to discuss a few essential steps that you can implement to check the quality of water that is present in your swimming pool and the guide to cleaning and maintaining above ground swimming pool. Above ground swimming pools have a vital lining, so there are more chances of getting stains. It is not that difficult to clean and maintain an above ground pool, if you know the exact steps. If you don’t know the steps, then just keep reading this article.

Balancing the water

One of the best ways to start up with the process is by getting a test kit. You can buy test strips from a local store along with a 5-way test kit that consists of a chlorine bottle, pH bottle, alkaline bottle and acid demand bottle.There are other kits available as well, which consist of free chlorine or combine chlorine, alkalinity, acid and base demand, conditioner and calcium hardness detector. You can easily check whether the level of chlorine is up to the desired value or not. In order to ensure the quality of water, just keep the following aspects in the desired range.

The importance of Cyanuric Acid or the conditioner

In order to treat your swimming pool, you can make use of swamp treat or yellow treat products. If you want to keep the chlorine level to the desired value, then you have make sure that cyanuric acid or the conditioner should be present in the water in the range of around 30-50 ppm. This will prevent chlorine from being burned off from the sun’s UV rays. You can test CYA level with a couple of kits named; turbidity test or the stand-alone test kit. There are many instant conditioners available as well, which you can use to keep the chlorine level to the desired value.

Chemicals to avoid

1. Trichlor tablets, granular or shock: These tablets will lower the pH level and increase cyanuric acid level in the pool. The particles of these tablets are left at the bottom of the pool, which will then be stuck in the vital liner.
2. Calcium hypochlorite: This chemical will cloud the water, leave an ugly powdery residue floating in the water. Moreover, it will raise the calcium levels of such a value where it will stain the liner of the pool.

You can use either liquid chlorine or Clorox bleach instead of the chemicals above. Both products are somewhat same and have the same ingredient named sodium hypochlorite.

Use BBB method

This method involves the use of Clorox bleach for the sanitizer, baking soda to raise the level of alkaline and borax to raise the pH level. You can also buy a measuring cup in order to fill all the ingredients in the right way.

How long should you keep the pool running?

The filtration of the pool is perhaps one of the most important aspect. You can easily buy a filtration system that comes with a pump and a filter. The number of hours to filter your pool depends upon the size of the pool. It is better if you run the pool for one cycle of water per day. With this, the entire water will pass through the filter and back into the pool. It is pivotal to keep the filter clean for continuous flow and to prevent the growth of mildew and algae. The cartridge also needs to be cleaned on a regular basis for an optimum use of the filter.

How to calculate pool water volume?

Cleaning And Maintaining Above Ground Swimming Pool

Basic cleaners: You can get a vacuum cleaner with wheels on it. You can have some attachments like bristle brush, but avoid use of any attachment that has metal wires, as it can damage the liner of the pool. You can also select whether you want to have a leaf rake or the leaf skimmer. If your swimming pool doesn’t have a vacuum port, then a skimmer or a pool blaster would be the best option.

Automatic cleaners: There are many products available in the market like the Hayward 500 Aqua Bug or Zodiac Ranger cleaner. You can just hook one of these devices to the skimmer or the vacuum port. If you are using an automatic cleaner for the first time, then you should use refill sediment filters, as they are used to remove solids from the pool water. This concludes the cleaning part.

So, these are the essential steps that you can implement to clean and maintain your above ground swimming pool. The selection of products is up to you, but make sure you choose branded and reliable products.