Summer Tips
- Check your water level
- Dry, hot days, and splashing causes water loss. Nothing will ruin equipment faster than a lack of water. Pumps cannot function and water can’t circulate without water. We evaporate 10 feet of watr per year in Arizona.
- Take toys out of the pool
- Toys will find skimmer and pool cleaners, causing blockage and restricting water flow.
- Clean filters and clean cartridges
- Keep your equipment clean by giving these items an annual acid wash and scrub down. Suntan lotion, baby oils, and dirt clog filters. If your filter is dirty, your pool will not circulate enough air and algae will form. We recommend annual cleaning for D.E. and card cartridge filters.
- Make sure to run you pump
- Pools need to circulate and filter much more in the summer months. Timers should be set to run 8-12 hours a day in the summer and 4-8 hours a day in the winter.
- Keep the dogs out
- Dogs just zap chlorine from pols and dog hair clogs drains, skimmers, pumps, and filters.
- Make sure to drain your pool periodically.
- Due to the desert heat, we evaporate 10 feet of water per year in Arizona. The water leaves the pool, but the minerals stay behind. Excess mineral buildup in pool water plays havoc on pumps, filters, and water chemistry. It also causes severe staining on pool surfaces. We recommend draining your pool completely every two to three years.
- Run your timer about half of the time in the winter
- Pools don’t need to circulate as much in the winter because algae doesn’t like cold water. Save some money and turn your timers down. Run your timer between four and eight hours every day, unless you’re heating your pool.
- Acid washes
- These are generally appropriate between October and March 1, weather permitting. We drain and acid wash pools in the winter to keep extremely hot weather from causing pool surfaces to peel, pop, or blister. It’s best to drain your pool between November 1 and January 31, when temperatures are cooler. If you wait too long — which most people do in the spring — all the pool companies will be booked and you will not get service in time for summer.
- Preventative maintenance
- This is best done in the winter when pools are not in use. Being proactive about preventative maintenance keeps your system running smoothly through the summer. If your system goes down when it’s hot, it can turn into a green swamp over night.
