This happens for many reasons, the most common is the pool needs more frequent attention. Clients who opt for every other week cleaning during times when the pool needs no less than weekly attention often have this complaint. The more frequent the cleanings, the cleaner the pool before and after cleanings. The dirtier a pool is allowed to get before the cleaning routine is done, the more likely a single cleaning will still leave the pool looking dirty. There is no way to “deep” clean a pool, you can only perform the cleaning routine more often.

In most cases, daily or every other day vacuuming and brushing will result in a virtually dirt-free pool. Some situations though can produce constant dirt and/or debris to fall to the bottom of the pool. It could be the filter medium, whether paper filters or sand, needs replacing. It could be from the use of phosphate removers, which although are an essential tool in fighting algae, causes the phosphates to drop in visible piles to the bottom, sometimes all at once, sometimes continually for days. But often, the dirt is simply environmental. People often overlook that a pool is an open system and underestimate how much dirt and dust floats around. It’s likely no coincidence that we hear this complaint most often in the peak of the season during the hottest, driest, windiest times of the year.

The regular maintenance routine includes vacuuming, netting, brushing surfaces, emptying skimmer baskets, cleaning the lint pot, and checking and adjusting pool chemistry. We also leaf blow the immediate area as needed and operate and inspect all pool equipment during the service. We clean filters, acid wash salt cells, and perform other equipment specific routines according to their suggested schedules of maintenance. Some of these extra routines have additional costs.

Brushing a pool is one of the best ways to keep it clean and healthy. Dirt, algae, and microorganisms hide on the walls, stairs, corners and other low circulation areas of your pool waiting to take advantage and proliferate if chlorine coverage is lost. Brushing at least once a week in the summer results in an overall cleaner pool with less algae.

A pool can be green from a chemical imbalance or the presence of metals in the pool. However, the most common cause of a green pool is algae. Algae is a microorganism that uses the sun and nearly every contaminant you find in pool water, to grow and proliferate, even exponentially. Chlorine is arguably the most important element in preventing algae growth. The key is this: Chlorine does not stay in swimming pools. It is constantly dissipating and being destroyed or neutralized by the sun or in chemical interaction with waste products and microorganisms. Chlorine must be added every day during the peak of the season. Salt systems and chemical feeders do this for you if you have them, but even then, in some high use circumstances (big parties, daily swimming, dogs swimming, an active algae bloom etc…) these automatic chlorine feeders might not keep up with the demand, requiring you to add chlorine directly to the pool. Because, as soon as chlorine levels reach zero algae begins to bloom. And when conditions are right, the pool can go from clear to completely green in a matter of hours!

We have all heard the adage “if you swim in the pool with the shorts you use to swim in the lake your pool will turn green”. Its probably one of the most widely known and believed pieces of pool maintenance advice we encounter. But is it true? In some sense it is reasonable to think that algae spores from the lake could adhere to your shorts and later transfer to your pool and cause an algae bloom. But it is also true that algae spores are literally everywhere, and the pool is constantly being seeded with algae spores floating on the air. The most important factor in algae growth in a pool is not the introduction of spores, but whether the spores encounter chlorine and properly balanced pool water. Algae spores die immediately or eventually in a well maintained properly balanced pool with chlorine residual, whether they are from the air or from the lake. The cause of algae in a swimming pool largely boils down to the lack of chlorine.

There are some harmful types of algae, but they are rarely found in swimming pools. Algae found in pools usually does not pose a direct threat. That said, algae in a pool is taxing on water chemistry and chlorine levels. These in turn can cause more direct problems like skin and eye irritation or worse, allow dangerous microorganisms to live and thrive. If swimming pool water is clear and there is at least a chlorine residual of 1ppm, then the presence of algae in certain places in the pool like walls, corners, or stairs is not cause for concern to the health of swimmers. If, however, the entire pool is covered in algae and/or the bottom of the pool is not visible, swimming is not advised.

Proper pool care takes time and effort. Our trained technicians use industry leading pool cleaning equipment and water testing methods to provide the best level of pool care you can find. Maintaining your own pool is time consuming and not always as straight forward as it might seem, with many different methods and approaches appearing to give good results. But appearances can be deceiving. We often work with pools and spas that on first sight seem to have clear clean water, but on closer inspection are discovered to be far out of balance or worse possibly harboring dangerous microorganisms. Chlorine is not enough. Parameters like pH, Alkalinity, calcium hardness, and even temperature (just to name a few) must be measured and adjusted to maintain truly safe, balanced pool and spa water. We bring the chemicals and our expertise to you (no more trips to the pool store with water samples!) and when the service is complete you receive a detailed report as to what work was done, water chemistry results, chemicals added and any other pertinent details of the service (including photos). We also store all this information in our system for easy reference and to help us better understand your pools specific needs and trends through the seasons.

One of the benefits of a pool that is regularly maintained is a steadier pool chemistry. This means that it will usually need only small changes or additions of pool chemicals to keep it balanced and sanitized. For this reason, most of our clients on regular service will at most only need to wait 30 minutes after the service, if at all, before jumping back in. Unless we inform you otherwise you can assume this to be the case. A pool that is being shocked will have a wait time of 24-48 hrs. before swimming can be resumed. It is rare for a regularly maintained pool to need to be shocked, if it does it could be a sign it needs more frequent servicing.

Every pool has a certain amount of waste products and contaminants being constantly introduced from the environment and any people or animals entering the water. It is chlorine's job to neutralize and destroy these compounds. This amount we refer to as the chlorine demand. At a specific pool, It’s the amount of chlorine required to neutralize all waste products, keeping the pool sanitized and clear. This chlorine demand, or need for chlorine, can vary from near zero in the middle of winter, to almost constant in the summer.

Unpleasant as it might be, it is worth considering the amount of sweat, lotions, cosmetics, deodorants and perfumes that are regularly brought into a pool by swimmers, sometimes referred to as the “bather load”. One active adult swimmer alone can release up to 1 pint of sweat per hour! Not only does it take a lot of chlorine to deal with this bather load, but all these waste products are food for algae which proliferate and further increase chlorine demand. If a pools chlorine demand is not continually met, it gets cloudy and then turns green. The amount of chlorine it will take to restore the pool will not only be larger than if the initial chlorine demand had been met but will continue to increase.

Most often when this happens the reason is due to a large “chlorine debt” as we sometimes call it. This basically means that there is so much buildup of waste products and/or algae in your pool, that as soon as you add chlorine it gets completely used up destroying contaminants. Its important to understand that first, chlorine gets used up when it destroys waste products and two, a specific amount of chlorine will be required to completely destroy a specific amount of waste products. Your test strips will continue to read 0 even after adding chlorine until you have added enough chlorine to destroy all waste products in the pool, at which point the addition of more chlorine will then begin to register on your strips (this is residual chlorine waiting in the water to attack new waste products). The longer a pool goes without residual chlorine the more chlorine it will take to bring residual chlorine back to the pool.

The word shock is confusing, sometimes it’s used as a noun such as “we bought bags of shock”, sometimes it’s used like a verb, “we had to shock the pool after our pool party”. In the first instance “shock” is a synonym for chlorine. And so, any type of chlorine, liquid or dry, might be referred to as “shock”. When used as a verb “shock” means adding enough chlorine (or shock) to bring the chlorine residuals up to 10, 20, or sometimes 30+ ppm. This might be done to fight algae or decontaminate after a fecal incident or other case of suspected contamination with dangerous microorganisms.

Balanced pool water is water that contains the proper proportions of calcium hardness, total alkalinity, total dissolved solids, and cyanuric acid and their relation to current pH and temperature levels. Some of these factors slowly drift and some change more rapidly. Balanced water is different in the summer than in the winter; temperature being a rather large factor affecting water balance.

Water that is out of balance effects chlorines ability to fight microorganisms, can be irritating to eyes and skin, and will either be scale forming or aggressive to surfaces and equipment. Water that is scale forming leads to several issues from stains, white tile lines, rough or even sharp pool surfaces, to in extreme cases clogging up a pool heater. Aggressive pool water can destroy a pool through corroding the materials of its construction. Our technicians are fully trained in water chemistry testing and are equipped with the industries best testing equipment. We balance your pool water according to the Langlier Saturation Index which is an objective measurement of water balance. We record and store all this information giving us a better understanding of your pool and its seasonal needs and trends.

High pH – A high pH level results in scaling water. That water clogs filters and heater elements. It also reduces circulation, results in cloudy water, and creates metal staining. A high pH level creates chlorine inefficiency and can lead to eye and skin irritation.

Low pH – A low pH level in your pool results in corrosive water. This type of water causes etching of the pool or spa surface, corrosion of metals, and staining or surface walls. Low pH levels can cause wrinkles in vinyl liners and eye and skin irritation.

High Alkalinity – Water with high alkalinity creates pH lock, resulting in cloudy water, clogged filters and heater elements, rough pool and spa surfaces, and reduced circulation.

Low Alkalinity – Pool water with low alkalinity creates pH bounce, resulting in the staining or surface walls, etching of pool and spa surfaces, and heater failure.

High Calcium Hardness – Pools with high calcium hardness lead to scaling water. This causes clogged filters and heater elements, cloudy water, reduced circulation, and eye and skin irritation.

Low Calcium Hardness – A swimming pool with low calcium hardness creates corrosive water. This results in heater failure and the etching of pool or spa surfaces. Low calcium hardness causes water to become aggressive and seek calcium from other sources such as the surfaces of your pool or spa.

High Cyanuric Acid – A pool with high cyanuric acid levels creates cloudy water and affects alkalinity readings. Low Cyanuric Acid – Pools with low cyanuric acid cannot maintain a sanitizer effectively.

The Langlier Saturation Index, or LSI, is the unbiased measurement of water balance, as defined by calcium carbonate saturation. It determines if pool water will be aggressive/corrosive (low LSI), balanced, or scale-forming (high LSI). Most water treatment industries use the LSI. In swimming pools there are six factors that go in to determining the LSI score:

• pH
• Water temperature
• Calcium Hardness
• Carbonate Alkalinity
• Cyanuric Acid/Stabilizer
• Total Dissolved Solids

This depends, among other things, on seasonal and environmental factors, how much use the pool is getting, and how clean and well balanced you want the pool to stay. Cleaning a pool should not be thought of as a once and done event that can be performed occasionally to make the pool spotless and healthy again. Like working out at the gym or brushing one’s teeth, any single cleaning is only as good as the quality and frequency of the maintenance routine that encompasses it. There is no such thing as a “deep” cleaning for a pool, higher levels of cleanliness only come from more frequent repetitions of the maintenance routine. Pools cleaned every week will in general be cleaner at any given time then pools cleaned every other week. If both are cleaned on the same day, the one that gets cleaned every week will be and will look cleaner in general.

The quality and completeness of your service is measured less by the amount of time it takes and more by what our technicians do with the time. A technician who pulls up, walks to your pool, dips in a test strip and then leaves and charges you for a regular service is obviously wrong and our office should be notified. But two technicians who are on the ball, using professional quality equipment designed for better and faster cleaning, will be able to perform a complete and quality service in 15-30 minutes. If a technician is alone, it will usually take between 30-60 minutes. Occasionally you might see three technicians come and go within 7-15 minutes!

In swimming pools, sanitation refers to the presence of a chlorine residual. Chlorine residual is the sustained presence of free chlorine in a pool as measured by an accurate testing method. It indicates that the water is free of microorganisms and their remains chlorine in the water waiting to destroy and inactivate new microorganisms or waste products that might be introduced. In general, chlorine levels do not have a significant impact on water balance, In contrast water balance does have a very important effect on the function and performance of chlorine.

People often ask why they should continue maintaining a pool that’s not being used? In our opinion doing so is better for the pool, cheaper in the long run, and more enjoyable to look at. It is very common for people who stop service in the winter to face steep labor and chemical costs in the spring to get the pool swimmable again, as well as a shortened more stressful swim season. Very often clients who keep the pool maintained are swimming from day 1 of nice weather, clients who have shut down are battling a green unsightly mess and steep chlorine costs.

Phosphates are a food source for algae that will encourage its growth. In some cases phosphates can allow algae to grow even in the presence of chlorine residual. Keeping phosphate levels below 500 is an important strategy in the fight against algae and maintaining beautiful pool water.

Calcium Silicate deposits. These deposits build up overtime in pools with chronically high LSI. In other words, out of balance pool water chemistry is the major cause for this buildup. The problem is that once it is there it is extremely difficult and time consuming to remove. It can not be accomplished with a simple “tile cleaning” but rather takes pumice stones and/or specialty acidic chemicals to remove, and even then the results and time and effort will vary depending on how much buildup there is. We currently do not perform this work. There are companies that use bead or alkalinity blasters to remove it and restore the tile to almost new.

If you have a salt pool, then what you are seeing is scale coming from off the metal plates of the salt cell. It is very difficult to completely prevent this from happening and here is why. The higher the temperature of water, and the higher the pH, the more scale forming the water wants to be. In the summer water temperatures are high and a salt pool constantly has a rising pH. When the salt cell operates the metal plates inside heat up. At night when the pump shuts off and water stops moving, the water that’s inside the salt cell heats up a lot from the heat on the plates. This hot water and the high pH cause scale to form all over the metal plates. In the morning when the pump turns back on all this scale falls off the plates and is blown into the pool where you see it at the bottom by the return jets.

Many people are under the false impression that a salt pool is a chlorine free pool. This is not the case. In fact, the salt in a salt pool is used to generate chlorine. As the salt passes through the salt cell, it is converted into a free form of chlorine. The benefits of a salt pool mostly consist in money saved on chlorine, and the ability to more tightly control chlorine levels.

There are a lot of factors that determine how long any pool will last. Inground pools last longer than above ground. Granite pools can last over 20 years, fiberglass pools can last 30+, while you are usually lucky to get more than 10 years out of a vinyl lined pool before needing to replace the liner. It is important to know that the life of any of these types of pools can either be lengthened or shortened by water chemistry and regular maintenance. Chronically aggressive water over the years will corrode and destroy all the different pool types, sometimes shortening the life of the pool by half! Poorly maintained pools are more expensive in the long run than a professionally cared for swimming pool.

Sure! As beloved family members we include them in most of our other recreational activities so why not swimming? The most important thing to keep in mind is safety. Dogs should always be supervised when swimming. Second, proper pool chemistry is vital for ensuring the water is not only safe for our dogs but able to deal with the additional demand dogs place on pool water chemistry. One medium sized dog brings in as much dirt, debris, and hair as 3 or more adults (not to mention particles of fecal matter) into the pool. None of which is of much concern in a well maintained chemically balanced swimming pool.

If you have a typical rainfall or even several inches, your pool should be fine, since pool drains and skimmers are designed to remove the excess water.

If the water in your pool is in danger of overflow, however, you may need to drain the pool. There are numerous how-to videos online that go over this process of draining pool water. If you still need help, you can call your service technician for assistance.

Lots of confusion surrounds winterizing a swimming pool. There are several ways of going about it depending on the situation and climate. If a pool has the appropriate safety cover installed, then it can be shocked and covered in the winter. Some people then drain all the equipment and let the pool sit dead. The better option in our opinion is to continue running the pump a few hours at night and making sure a thermostat is installed to turn the pump on if temperatures reach freezing. Most people do not have the expensive professionally installed safety covers for their pool. In this case we recommend simply continuing to maintain the pool, servicing it every other week or once per month and running the pump at night and/or ensuring the pump has a freeze protection thermostat.

Trying to cover a pool with a tarp or anything other than a professionally installed cover is dangerous and NOT RECOMMENDED. In 9 out of 10 cases where we have seen this done, it usually creates more mess and trouble than its worth. Furthermore, Animals and children or people who fall in can easily get tangled up and drown. Animals do not realize there is water under a tarped pool. Tarping a pool is a great way to create a trap!

Chlorine does not stay in swimming pools. In commercial settings health departments require pools to be tested for the presence of chlorine every four hours! They know that chlorine can go from normal levels to zero within hours. And as soon as chlorine levels reach zero, algae and other microorganisms (some of them dangerous) can proliferate, sometimes exponentially. For residential settings testing for chlorine no less than every week is advised, sometimes more if circumstances require. Testing for chlorine is arguably the one thing ALL pool owners should know how to do and should do regularly during peak usage. It is easy and inexpensive to perform a test for chlorine (test strips take mere minutes to use) and is of enormous importance to the safety and beauty of your pool water. Our technicians will be happy to teach you how to test for chlorine.

On average, you should test for:

Chlorine levels: 2-3 times a week

pH levels: Twice a week

Total alkalinity: Once a week

Calcium hardness: Once a month

Salt levels: Once a month (for saltwater pools)

Total dissolved solids: Once a month

Metals: Once every 3-4 months

Your pool is an eco system onto itself. It is affected by things such as air quality, body oils, shampoos, the type of water you have, even the bugs and leaves specific to your area. All these things contribute to the chemical balance of your pool. Part of what we do is assess your pool, the area, and develop a chemical treatment that meets the needs of your eco-system.

Readings will vary but generally you will work within the following ranges.

1. Free Chlorine: 2.0-4.0

2. Total Chlorine: 2.0-4.0

3. Comb Chlorine: 0

4. PH: 7.4-7.6

5. Hardness: 200-400

6. Cyanuric Acid: 30-50

7. Copper: 0.0 (unless using EzPool or 90 Day Alg. 0.2-0.4)

8. Iron: 0.0

9. Phosphate: 0-500

10. Salt: 2700-3400

It is important to note that the ranges provided on test strip bottles, and such are best thought of as guidelines and generalizations. We balance pool water following the Langlier Saturation Index which is a much more precise and accurate way to balance pool water. Some situations and environmental factors require certain pool chemicals and readings to be outside the suggested ranges.

Below are a few of the most common materials that lead to surface stains on the pool walls and floor. Their exact effects are always influenced by the water’s overall pH, oxidation-reduction potential, calcium hardness, total alkalinity, and saturation index.

Iron

Origins: Fill water, degraded pipes or equipment, impurities in salt.

Evidence: Green water; cloudy yellow, red, or brown water or surface stains.

Treatment: Sequestering or chelating agent; gentle brushing, or chlorine/acid wash for more severe stains.

Copper

Origins:salt.

Evidence: Green, blue-green, yellow, brown, gray, or black color in water or plaster.

Treatment: Sequestering or chelating agent; gentle brushing, or chlorine/acid wash for more severe stains.

Manganese

Origins: Fill water, impurities in salt.

Evidence: Gray, black, lavender, or purple color in water or plaster.

Treatment:Sequestering or chelating agent; gentle brushing, or chlorine/acid wash for more severe stains or gray deposits on plaster. Gentle brushing, or acid wash for tougher deposits; balance pH and calcium hardness.

Fertilizer Stains

Origins: Fertilizer pellets that get into the water will drop to the floor of the pool. These pellets contain iron and other minerals, which then stain the pool.

Evidence: Brown spots.

Treatment: These stains will go away on their own if the pool water is balanced properly.

Leaf Stains

Origins: Leaves that have fallen into the pool and are not promptly removed.

Evidence: Brown stains where leaves have accumulated.

Treatment: These stains will go away on their own with elevated free chlorine in the water.