Maintaining your pool so that it is safe to swim and clear to see takes more than picking out a few leaves every day. Pool water is a delicate balance of alkalinity, chlorine and calcium hardness to ensure you don’t have health issues when you swim. The good news, however, is that there is a handful of easy to find chemicals that can be used in your pool to keep the water clean, healthy and with the right PH balance.
Since keeping the chemical balance correct is a skill that takes a few calculations to make the right quantities, the easiest option for many people in Allen, TX is to hire a pool cleaning service. The professionals will not only leave your pool with the correct PH balance, they will also ensure the correct amount of chlorine is added, considering that the chemical’s effectiveness is reduced through evaporation in sunlight and fighting off existing bacteria.
Here are the groups of chemicals needed to keep a pool clean and safe:
Sanitizers
Sanitizers are chemicals that clean and disinfect your pool water so it’s free of any harmful substances. They include chemicals such as chlorine and bromine. At any particular time, a constant level of chlorine must be maintained in the water, called free chlorine, which is between 30 and 50 ppm.
Oxidizers
Every few weeks, bacteria and algae in the water must be killed using an oxidizer. Apart from being harmful to humans, algae and bacteria can corrupt the structural integrity of the swimming pool and make it unfit to swim. Most oxidizers such as Calcium Hypochlorite (Cal Hypo) and Lithium Hypochlorite dissolve immediately so you can swim soon after the treatment.
Balancers
In order to ensure that the right PH balance, or alkaline/acid balance, and hardness are maintained, have your water regularly tested. Pool testing kits are widely available from pool suppliers. If the PH is low, a PH increaser is added or a reducer if PH is high. Popular examples of PH increasers or PH reducers are granular soda ash and granular sodium bisulfate respectively.
These three categories of swimming pool chemicals should be part and parcel of a regular cleaning regime. However, other chemicals such as clarifiers, algaecide, vinyl cleaner and stain remover should be included at least once a year for a more thorough clean up. Cleaning the swimming pool the right way not only makes it more suitable for swimming but also extends its lifespan.
