Maintaining your pool is a vital part of owning one. Fortunately, it’s not as hard as many homeowners believe, especially if you’re armed with the right knowledge. But if you don’t know anything about pools, it might be overwhelming to figure out where to start and what to do.
Whether you are a new pool owner or you’re thinking about installing one, here are the fundamentals of pool maintenance you should know.
Main Takeaways
Modern swimming pools have four major components: the pool water, the pool interior, the filter system, and the skimmers and returns system. Let’s walk through each one.
The most significant and most visible part of any pool is, of course, the water. The most important pool maintenance tasks revolve around cleaning, testing, and maintaining your pool water. Keeping your pool water balanced and clean also helps improve the longevity of your pool.
Pools, of course, have a lot of water in them. The average 16 x 32 swimming pool, a standard residential pool size, has more than twenty thousand gallons of water. At just one cent per gallon, that’s more than two hundred dollars to fill a pool. Naturally, most homeowners want to replace the water as rarely as possible, which is part of why cleaning it is so important. If you have a saltwater pool, that maintenance process is actually slightly different. Read my salt water pool maintenance guide for more details.
Don’t know how much water is in your swimming pool? Use my pool volume calculator.
The interior of a pool is always touching the pool water. So, keeping it clean and clear of algae, debris, and other harmful substances is very important to your pool’s health. Here are the most common pool interiors:
Replacing pool interiors is expensive, so proper maintenance can significantly reduce the long-term cost. This is the second reason why proper maintenance is essential for pools. Read my swimming pool maintenance cost guide for a full breakdown of regular upkeep costs.
The interior and water areas are the most visible parts of the pool, but the filter system keeps the water clean and safe. Pool filters are one of your pool’s most important tools in getting rid of debris and contaminants.
Filters vary by pool type, but fundamentally, they suck water in, remove debris and contaminants, and return the water to the main body of the pool. Circulating the water this way helps inhibit bacterial growth.
There is no such thing as a perfect filter system. However much we wish there were, some dirt and debris will inevitably settle on the walls and floor of the pool. That’s not counting larger debris like acorns, which may be too large to go through a filter system. Many pool owners buy automatic pool cleaners to scrub out any dirt the filters can’t get.
Some pools have multiple filter systems. This is rarely necessary for smaller pools, but it could be more efficient for huge pools. If you’re looking for a new unit, read my research on the best small and large pool filter systems for every type of pool.
Skimmers and returns are part of the filter system. The skimmer sucks water out of the pool, moves it into the filter, and returns push it back into the pool. These usually work through a series of pumps, some of the parts most prone to failure in any swimming pool. This is why the entire filter system is typically located to the side of the pool and accessible through some type of hatch or door.
Now that we’ve covered the main parts of a pool, let’s cover your main focuses for pool care: proper water circulation, regular pool cleaning, and balanced water chemistry.
Here are some of the essential tools and supplies you’ll need to have on hand when maintaining your pool.
The most important key to maintaining proper pool circulation is ensuring that your pool pump and filter system is the right speed and size for your pool. If your pool pump can’t generate enough power to adequately cover the volume of water in your pool, the water won’t get clean. If it’s too fast, parts will break down more often than they should, and you may even need to replace the pool water more frequently.
Once you figure out your pump size and speed, properly running it is the next step to good water circulation. So, how long should you run your pool pump each day? Running your pump for the entire day is ideal, but that’s unrealistic! And it will cost you way too much money on your electricity bill. I recommend running your pump and filter system for at least 8-12 hours per day to keep your pool water circulating, distributing pool chemicals evenly, and keeping your pool clean.
Here are a few more tips to help pool water circulation:
Maintaining circulation is easy when pools are designed well, and you have the correct size pool pump. Circular pools are the easiest to maintain, while rectangles and unusual shapes are harder to maintain.
Once you have proper water circulation, establishing a regular pool cleaning schedule is the next step to keeping your pool clean.
Below is a basic pool cleaning schedule to get you started. You’ll need a pool brush, net skimmer, and pool vacuum to accomplish everything.
Your pool’s water chemistry is vital to its safety and longevity. Pool chemicals stop the growth of algae and bacteria, reduce residue buildup, and otherwise keep pools safe to use. In most cases, following the manufacturer’s directions and using the appropriate tools to measure the chemicals is all you need to do.
Use a test kit to measure the chemical levels in your pool – it will help you get a good baseline and know what you need to add to balance everything out.
You can read my complete guide on pool chemistry for more information on this topic. I cover how to balance your pool water, ideal chemical levels, and more. Here are the three main things you need to remember:
Here are my recommended pool chemical levels:
I also cover the topics below in my pool chemistry guide (and have some separate articles on a few topics that deserve more commentary):
Download my free, printable pool maintenance checklist to help you accomplish regular pool care tasks for any type of swimming pool.
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.No, this doesn’t involve electricity. Shocking your pool is adding additional chemicals to your pool to break down the chloramine in it. Chloramine is a chemical compound formed when chlorine mixes with contaminants like sweat, creating a more substantial molecule. Adding additional sanitizers breaks down these compounds and lets the pool flush them out.
Or, to put it in simpler terms, shocking the pool is a stronger cleaning treatment when the chemicals are getting out of balance. In most cases, shocking the pool requires adding one pound of pool shock for every 10,000 gallons of water, then waiting at least eight hours before doing your next chemical test.
You should shock your pool regularly, especially after big pool parties or rainstorms. As with all components, follow the manufacturer’s instructions when shocking a pool. You can read my article on the best way to shock a pool for all the steps.
Pools sound like a lot of work at first, but the truth is that most maintenance only takes a few minutes per day. That’s easy to fit into any schedule, but consistency is the key to overall performance. Set a weekly and daily schedule for yourself that includes cleaning the pool at set times, measuring the chemicals with a water testing kit, adding chlorine tablets and other chemicals, and performing shocks as needed.
Appropriately done, cleaning the pool will become a habit for you. If your pool is huge, you can make it a family activity or rotate the duties, so nobody has to spend too much time, too often, cleaning the pool.
Still, sound like too much work? Consider hiring a pool service that will do it all for you. I cover the pros and cons of hiring a service in my article on DIYing or going with a pro. Be sure to avoid the most common pool maintenance mistakes too.
Everyone goes on vacations from time to time, so if you have a pool, it’s always a good idea to be prepared with a way to keep your pool in good health while you are away. The last thing you want is to come back home to find your pool in a swampy disarray. Here are my top tips for keeping your pool clean while on vacation.
There are obvious pros and cons of maintaining your pool yourself and hiring a professional. Pool maintenance is time-consuming, so if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, you should consider hiring a pool professional to help. But if you have the time and resources to maintain your pool, DIY is a great way to save some money. However, keep in mind that you will have to invest in all the equipment, tools, and chemicals to properly keep your pool clean.
Pool professionals know all the ins and outs of swimming pools, so they also may be able to catch problems earlier and treat them before they become bigger problems.
In the end, it really comes down to your budget and how much time you have on your hands. Pool cleaners are definitely more expensive in the long run, but hiring one can save you lots of time that you would otherwise be spending testing your water, scrubbing the surfaces, shocking your pool, and more.
Questions? Let me know! Also, be sure to check out my indoor swimming pool maintenance guide if you have one.
