How to Clean a Swimming Pool
Everyone can benefit from adhering to a handful of time- and labor-saving standard operating procedures. Before beginning the cleansing process, it is essential to identify the surface’s composition.
Cleaning the Deck and the Cover
Before removing the deck or cover from your pool or spa, clean it of as much debris as possible. Debris near the collection can be quickly and easily removed by sweeping or hosing. Be sure to fold or place the cover on a clean surface if it is a floating kind that does not use a roller system. Leaves, grass, and dirt could be dragged into the pool when you replace them. If the cover is part of a mechanical system, any water pooled on top will be rolled off as the body is rolled up. The motor will have to work harder, so the water removal pump should be used if there is a lot of water. Avoid rough or pointy surfaces as you pull the cover off the pool.
Scratching the Surface
The dirt that floats on the water’s surface is easier to clean than the dirt settling to the bottom. Use a leaf rake and telephone to scoop up detritus that has floated to the surface. When the net gets full, throw it away or put it in a trash bag. Skimming debris should not be dumped on the grass or garden since the wind will blow it back into the pool after it dries out.
There is no set way to skim, but you should always scrape the tile line to remove dirt and leaves. The professional leaf rake has a rubber-plastic edge gasket that will protect your tile from scratches.
A quick spray of tile soap along the length of the pool will remove any scum or general grime from the water’s surface. The soap will push the scum to the pool’s perimeter, where it will accumulate and be easier to remove.
Tiles
The tiles should be laid down first. As the tiles are cleaned, dust and debris fall onto the pool floor. When you use a pumice stone to scrub off a tough stain, it breaks down and deposits debris at the bottom of the container.
Clean the tiles with the designated tile soap and tile brush. Squirt some tile soap onto your scrub brush and get to work. Add one part muriatic acid to five parts soap for a powerful stain and grease remover. Scrub the tile both above and below the waterline for the best results. As water evaporates and is replaced, the water level can shift. Scratches can be caused by brushes or scouring pads that are too abrasive when cleaning tiles.
High Water Mark
Normal evaporation can be met by topping off the pool by an inch or two every time it’s serviced. It will take hours to refill if you wait a few weeks until the level drops several inches. Don’t let the water fill up independently, as it could take longer, and you might forget to turn it off.
If it rains, you may need to drain the pool. In this scenario, a backwash or spare vacuum hose connected to your submersible pump will serve as the discharge. Another option is to run the pool’s circulation system and open up the valves. If you try this, don’t forget to return the valves to their regular positions afterward.
Inspecting the Gear
The best technique to fix minor adjustments is to inspect and maintain your equipment and support system regularly.
Follow the water’s flow to the beginning of the circulating system. Empty the contents of the skimmer basket into a trash bin or a rubbish bag after using the pool.
Next, remove the pump’s strainer basket and wash it out. Make sure the filter pressure is correct. Since the filter pressure will be low if the skimmer and strainer baskets are complete, there is no purpose in checking them before cleaning them out. The filter may need to be cleaned if the pressure is excessive.
Remove any material, like leaves, from the heater now. Ensure the heater works correctly by turning it on and off many times. The pump should be turned off while the heater is operating. The pressure from the pump should cause the heater to turn off automatically. This is a necessary precautionary measure.
You should double-check the time of day, the filter’s daily run time, and the cleaner’s clock settings. Because trippers wear out, power fluctuations, and even servicing non-pool-related household goods can all cause clocks to malfunction, checking them regularly is essential. In addition, electromechanical clocks are not perfectly accurate timepieces. One may run marginally faster than the other, which, over a few weeks, might add up to an hour or more and throw off your schedule.
After checking the equipment, look for any leakage symptoms or impending failure. Remove leaves from around the motor vents and heater to reduce the fire risk, and remove any debris from the deck drains that could lead to flooding if it rains.
Vacuuming
If the pool is not unclean, you can get away with brushing the walls and bottom instead of vacuuming. However, there are two options for cleaning a dirty pool or spa: vacuuming the filter or using a leaf master.
Suction for filtration
The circulation system’s filter is where the pool’s or spa’s dirt is taken after vacuuming. To purify, use a vacuum.
Make that the skimmer port receives most of the suction from the recirculation system. You’ll need to use the diverter if you’re working with a skimmer with only one port. If there are separate valves for diverting suction to the skimmer from the main drain, ensure the main drain valve is fully closed and the skimmer valve is fully open. If your pool has two skimmers, you can increase the suction in one by blocking the other one with a tennis ball. Large pools may require two separate vacuuming sessions.
Join the telephone to your vacuum’s head using the vacuum hose. The air in the hose will be replaced by water as you slowly lower it into the pool. Once the hose is completely submerged in the pool, you can access the water at the far end.
To prevent water from evaporating from the hose, feed it into the skimmer while keeping it at the water level. Connect the hose to the diverter (or, in the case of two-port skimmers, into the suction port of the skimmer). The vacuum hose and attachment are now sucking air. In some older pools, the suction port is in the pool wall below the skimmer. A tennis ball may be placed over the skimmer’s suction port to improve suction at the wall port. If any considerable amount of air is present in the pipe, it will cause the pump to lose its prime. If this happens, unplug the vacuum and re-prime the pump.
To vacuum a swimming pool or spa, start at the deep end and move to the shallow end. To avoid stirring up the dirt instead of sucking it up, move the vacuum head slowly when vacuuming a dirty pool. If the vacuum head is sucked down to the pool’s surface, the skimmer diverter or valves must be adjusted to lower the flow rate. The suction head’s wheels may need to be reduced in addition to the vacuum head’s height. If the vacuum’s suction is poor, you may need to lower the head or move it more slowly to get the whole pool.
The strainer basket or filter may become clogged if the pool is unclean. When the vacuum’s suction weakens, please turn it off to empty the strainer basket or clean the filter.
The leaves will clog the strainer basket if there is acceptable debris and leaves in the pool. A leaf canister, an in-line filter, can gather leaves while letting fine dirt pass through the filter.
If the spa uses the same filtration and pumping system as the pool, you may transfer the vacuum from the collection to the hotel with a simple lift. Do it quickly since the vacuum will briefly lose suction if the air enters the hose while out of the water. The pipe should have sufficient water to allow it to re-prime.
Take the vacuum head out of the water when you’re done. Remove the vacuum head from the pool and the suction end of the hose from the skimmer simultaneously, then empty the hose on the deck before the water is sucked out too quickly.
After removing everything from the pool, inspect the filter and pump strainer basket for debris. Purge if required. The skimmer basket should be changed.
Leaf Master Vacuuming
If leaves or other heavy debris have accumulated in the pool, the Leaf Master can be used in place of the vacuum to collect the garbage before the fine dirt is allowed to settle and the filter is vacuumed.
A water source is linked to the leaf master via a garden hose. Mount the leaf master on the telepole with the clips.
Put the master of leaves in the water. Vacuum the entire pool, including the walls and floor, before turning on the water. Because of its size, the leaf master is easy to maneuver while you vacuum the pool; just be mindful of the non-floating hose and how quickly you’re moving the leaf master to avoid stirring up the dirt. If there is a lot of filth in the pool, you may need to empty the bag regularly.
Pulling the leaf master straight up from the water will force the debris back into the pool, so lift and remove it slowly by rotating it slightly to one side from the water to the top. The gathered garbage could be dumped back into the pool if the water supply is turned off before the leaf master is removed. Turn off the water while the leaf master is on the deck to empty the collection bag.
Brushing
Algae can be brushed from the walls of a pool or spa. If the walls and floor of the collection are not very grimy, you can forgo vacuuming and instead brush them from the shallow end to the deep end. Putting the grime in the drain path so it may be sucked up and cleaned in the filter.
Cleaning of spas and other water features
Cleaning a spa or other water features is similar to cleaning a pool, so follow the instructions. Here are some insider tricks for dealing with the peculiarities of these waterways.
As many spas are constructed from fiberglass, you should be careful not to harm the surfaces when vacuuming.
Use the spa vacuum to get into the tight spaces of water features and compact spas.
Before devoting much effort to cleaning, look at the spa or water feature when you arrive. First, conduct a chemical test to see if draining the unit is preferable to cleaning and treating it. Pump out the water and clean the unit manually if the water or surfaces are exceptionally grimy, if the water is extremely hard or foggy, or if the dirt is embedded in the crevices of rocks and gravel.
Ensure the spa or water feature is unplugged from the wall before you drain it so the timer doesn’t accidentally turn it on. While the unit is exhausting, you may need to leave the area and attend to other matters, necessitating using a submersible pump. If you leave your submersible run, it won’t dry up because of the little hole in the bottom that keeps water from evaporating and burning out the seal.
Before you clean the spa or water feature, you should clean the filter and flush the system with clean water by running water from the garden hose through the pipes. After draining, cleaning, and refilling a spa, the last thing you want to do is turn on the circulation and have dirty water contaminate your hard work.
Use extreme caution when testing and applying chemicals. The volume of water in a spa or water feature is typically much smaller than that of a pool, making it less forgiving of an error. Slower and smaller chemical additions are preferable to large, sudden ones. More can be added, but removing too much is a hassle.
Procedures for Evaluating Water Quality
Monthly testing for chlorine residual, pH, total alkalinity, acid (or base) demand, calcium hardness or total hardness, and total dissolved solids is recommended and follows standard testing guidelines.
Use the compounds by the Water Chemistry guidelines. Pool decks are easily stained, so take caution when storing and transporting chemical bottles.
Please visit our site for more details on how to keep your pool clean and healthy.
EzineArticles.com/7435566 is where the article was sourced from.
Read also: Basement Waterproofing Your Basement To Protect Your…
