Precision Pool Services

Importance of a Balanced Pool

One of the most important steps of swimming pool maintenance is water balance. Generally, understanding water balance can also be one of the most confusing processes of pool maintenance. Because of its complexity, some new pool owners may not know everything they have to do to keep their pool water safe, comfortable and corrosion free.

Why is Pool Water Balance Important?

Below are a few of the reasons why having a balanced swimming pool is so important:

Safety

If you are using either a salt based pool producing chlorine or a chlorine based tablet pool, then your pH needs to be correct. If pool water is not balanced correctly then the chlorine sanitizer won't be working at full strength killing germs and bacteria.

Comfortable

Your water balance needs to be correct or it will affect your skin and eyes. The pH should be neither too acidic nor basic in order to feel comfortable.

Chlorine Level in Pool
Corrosion

An imbalanced pool can be corrosive to the liner, ladders and hand rail and other equipment such as the pump.

What is entailed in Water Balance?

Total Alkalinity

Total alkalinity refers to how much alkaline is in the water. TA and pH go hand-in-hand. High alkaline water leads to high pH. Low alkaline water leads to low pH. That the average swimming pool should have an alkalinity reading of 100 ppm.

Pool pH Level
Stabilizer

Stabilizer helps retain your chlorine longer just as insulation helps retain heat or air conditioning. Stabilizer can be added to some chlorine compounds to protect them from the breakdown effects of sunlight. When your stabilizer level is low, you'll use a lot more chlorine. When it's high, you may need to dilute your pool water to bring it back into the 40 to 100 ppm ideal range.

What Does Stabilizer Do?

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

All water contains dissolved minerals. As pool water evaporates, minerals remain behind and become concentrated. The more concentrated these minerals become, the harder it is for chemical additives to work and stains can form. If you have 3000 ppm or more of total dissolved solids or TDS, you may need to drain some water and add fresh water.

Salt Water Pool

Whether you’re weighing the pros and cons of choosing a salt water pool over chlorine or already have a salt water pool, it’s important to know how to maintain it.

Thankfully, it’s relatively easy to maintain a salt water pool and typically more cost efficient than the alternative. That doesn’t mean it’s a completely hands off experience, though. Salt water pools still require weekly and monthly maintenance in order to be safe and healthy for swimming.

Before we begin, it’s important to note that, as with chlorine pools, shocking your pool ahead of the pool season and after heavy usage is also a necessary part of pool maintenance.

WEEKLY SALT WATER POOL MAINTENANCE

It’s strongly recommended that you vacuum and spot clean your pool and empty out your pool pump basket on a weekly basis and take inventory of water chemistry as well. Understanding water chemistry can be quite challenging and time consuming, but the pool industry has made technological advancements in recent years, making way for devices that can give you exact measurements and dosing instructions via a smartphone app.

A healthy salt water pool requires for cyanuric acid, free chlorine, stabilizer, and pH levels to be kept within a healthy range on a weekly basis.

Cyanuric Acid should be between 30 – 80 ppm to prevent sun rays from absorbing the pool’s chlorine.
Speaking of chlorine, aim to keep your pool’s free chlorine levels between 1 – 3 ppm.
Each week, try to make sure that your stabilizer level is within the 70 – 80 ppm range as well as a keeping pH between 7.2 – 7.8. Maintaining these numbers will be your best line of defense against germs and bacteria.
MONTHLY SALT WATER POOL MAINTENANCE

There are certain aspects of your pool that only require monthly maintenance, such as calcium hardness, total alkalinity, salinity and total dissolved solids.

Calcium hardness is best set between 200 – 400 ppm. Anything below 200 has the potential to erode your pool and surrounding accessories, while anything above 400 may clog your filters.
A total alkalinity of between 80 – 120 ppm is optimal for keeping your pool’s pH stable. Keeping your pool’s total alkalinity level stabled is quite the process as we’ve previously blogged.
The final two components we listed above are salinity and total dissolved solids, which should be maintained between 2700 – 4500 ppm and 3000 – 6000 ppm, respectively.