Pool Tips's blog

During the long summer months, the ground around your pool may start dry out. This is a problem because the dry ground can cause your deck to move which can eventually lead to cracks and even more serious damage.

In order to prevent damage, try putting a soaker hose around the outside of your deck and let it run for about 2 hours everyday until conditions improve. This will keep the ground moist, but will prevent it from swelling too much during the rainy season.

Our thanks to the safety experts at Katchakid for this list of important safety precautions to take around your pool and spa.

The Katchakid Code

• Never, not even for a second, leave children alone around open standing water of any kind — swimming pool, spa, pond, river, etc.
• Always know where your children are.
• Never rely entirely on a safety device or product - nothing can replace constant adult supervision.
• Never allow your children to swim alone or without an adult present.

The inspection I want you to do is to go and inspect your skimmer baskets. We want to make sure that they are not cracked or getting weak. If they are let’s replace them know. If a lot of debris passes through the skimmer basket to the pump is will put extra strain on the pump and could even clogged the pipe or burn up a pump motor.

Normally, your swimming pool will lose about one inch of water per week to evaporation, wind, sun and normal splashing from people getting in and out of the pool.

Don't be concerned unless you lose more than an inch or find yourself adding water to the pool more than once per week.

With the fall upon us I want you to go out ever week and check your skimmer basket(s) and your pump baskets. This is extremely important to make sure that these baskets do not get over filled or cracked. If this happens to either basket there is the possibility that the pipes could get clogged, the pump could burn up and or the pipes could over heat. So please check these on a weekly basis.

So if you are going to a have party over the 4th of July lets make sure we have enough chlorine in the pool for this large amount of people swimming. So the best thing I can tell you is to go out and buy a product called dichlor. I want you to first test your water if your levels are 1.5 to 1 ppm on free available chlorine I want you to put 2lbs of dichlor in your pool 2 days before your party. This will get the chlorine levels high so that the pool won’t turn green.

Don't be confused or intimidated! Water chemistry is easy. The term "balance" refers to keeping a few key vital signs in a particular range. The "vitals" to look at weekly are alkalinity, pH and chlorine levels. Just test your water once a week with a reliable test kit and keep those key readings in the proper range.

Start with alkalinity. This is the heart of your pool chemistry and anchors all the chemicals. Test for alkalinity first. It's measured in "parts per million" and your goal is to keep it between 80 and 120 ppm.