Opening up your swimming pool for the summer
Some simple steps to follow to ensure your pool is clean and healthy for the summer. It is important to maintain your pool’s cleanliness for optimum performance throughout the summer.
- If your pool was closed down for the winter months and maintained correctly over the winter then the process of opening up your pool can be achieved with the minimum amount of work, as when the cover is removed carefully you should be presented with relatively clean pool with clear water
- Depending on what cover you have had in place over the winter months whether it be a Winter Debris Cover, Solar Bubble Cover or an Automatic Pool Cover the debris that is no doubt present on the cover surface will need to be removed, this can be done by sweeping it to the pool edges and carefully removing by hand.
- If the pool was covered by a winter cover then this can now be carefully removed further cleaned and placed back into its protective bag that was supplied with the cover to be placed in storage ready for the end of the season. If a solar cover was kept on over winter this can now be rolled back onto the roller. A little debris and dirty water may go into the pool water at this point but do not worry this is perfectly normal and will cause no problems whilst opening up the pool.
- If plugs have been used to bung off the pool outlets or empty drums were placed in the pool over winter then they can now be removed.
- Using a Deep Leaf Net and a Flat Leaf Net attached to an Extendable Vacuum Pole remove any surface debris and any leaves that may be on the bottom of the pool. If you find that you are left with a dirty mark along the water line don’t worry as this can simply be removed using Fi-Clor Tile & Liner Cleaner. Do not use household cleaners for this task you may damage your pool surface and affect the water balance.
- If any pool side equipment such as Swimming Pool Ladders or Diving Boards were removed then they can be reinstalled at this stage, please note before the bolts are relocated into the existing holes ensure all the holes are free from debris and lubricated accordingly.
- The filtration equipment within the plant room should have been decommissioned when the pool was closed down at the end of last season and will now be required to be reconnected ensuring that all O rings are lubricated with a silicon lubricant, all drain plugs are fitted back into the Swimming Pool Pump, Pool Filter and the Swimming Pool Heater.
- If required the pool water level may need to be topped up, the ideal level for this is halfway up the Pool Skimmer mouth. The Pool Pump will now require to be primed, this is done by ensuring the ball valves on the pool lines are still closed first, remove the pool pump lid and fill with water. Once this is done make sure the filter valve is set to filtration. Then turn on the pump and simultaneously open up one of the ball valves to ensure flow through the pump. Once the pool pump is drawing water correctly, slowly open up the remaining ball valves, one at a time, until the pool pump is drawing on all the lines. It is good practice at this point to check for slight leaks on the filtration system that may need attention. Please note – if the water level is above the skimmer at the start of this operation, then set the filter valve to waste then lower the level down to the ideal point, then reset back to filter once this has been achieved.
- Run the filtration system for a minimum of 6 hrs.
- The pool can now be vacuumed using the correct Vacuum Head or Automatic Pool Cleaner.
- Once the pool has been vacuumed a backwash on the filter must be carried out for at least 3-5 minutes to ensure all the debris has been removed from the Pool Filter and it can now run at is optimum efficiency. Once the back wash is complete the pool may need topping up with fresh water.
- If your solar cover has not yet been prepared in the previous stages then it should be done at this point making sure that it is serviceable for another season and is clean and free from any algae or staining.
- Chemicalisation is the next step of opening up your pool, we recommend that the pH level is the first point of call as the sanitiser will not work to its full capacity if the pH level is out of balance. The ideal range of the pH on a pool should be between 7.4 – 7.6 ppm. If the water is out of these ideal parameters they can easy be adjusted by using pH Increaser or pH & Alkalinity Reducer. Please refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines on the reverse of the container for the recommended dosing.
- Once the correct water balance has been achieved you will now need to shock dose the pool. The ideal product for this would be Fi-Clor Superfast Shock as the granular particles are so fine that it can be added directly to the pool unlike the other forms of Granular Shock which needs to be pre-dissolved in a bucket of warm water before adding to the pool. The reason for shock dosing is to kill all algae and bacteria that may be present.
- The filtration system now needs to be run for a minimum 12 hours to ensure the shock has time to mix with the entire water content of the pool.
- Once the above is completed an Algicide must now be added to the pool water to keep any algae from forming within the pool over the coming months we would recommend using Fi-Clor Multi-Functional Algicide or Fi-Clor Ultra Concentrated Algicide.
- Now that the basic pool opening procedure has been completed the normal pool operating routine can now commence remembering the ideal chlorine level is between 1.5 – 3 ppm and the ideal pH level is between 7.4 – 7.6 ppm. These levels can be simply monitored by using our Aquacheck Water Testing or our other pool testing systems
Although the above is a comprehensive guide you may experience some unexpected problems, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team at sales@theswimmingpoolstore and we will be happy to help.
