You love your pool. Your family loves your pool. Your friends and neighbors love your pool. But nobody is going to love your pool if you don’t perform regular pool maintenance Gilbert AZ services on it. Aside from the fact that the water can very suddenly smell bad, that smell is a sign of bacteria that can be harmful to all the people you love, the ones who love your pool.

Pool Water

The largest component of your pool is the water itself. Aside from the physical enclosure, every component of your pool system is designed to keep the water healthy and fresh.

It is imperative that you test the pH of your pool water regularly. Home testing kits are readily available and simple to use. You’ll also get an immediate result. The testing kit will include instructions as to what chemicals to add, depending on the results you get.

You’ll also want to regularly remove debris from the water. This is a multi-pronged approach. Use a skimmer net to remove the large debris floating on the surface of the water. To help remove fine particles when skimming and give your filter system a break, wrap your skimmer with a piece of nylon pantyhose. It will catch the small debris particles and give your filter an easier job of removing unwanted debris.

A pool vacuum works for removing debris from the bottom of the pool. You’ll need a long-handled vacuum head and a hose that is tens of feet long in order to do the vacuuming from the pool deck. Run it along the bottom of the pool to clean up anything lurking there. The best way to ensure that you haven’t missed anything is to vacuum back and forth from edge to edge in swaths as wide as the vacuum head. Then do the edges perpendicular to them the same way.

Keeping the water clean using these methods and tools is the first line of defense in keeping your pool clean.

Interior Wall or Liner

You’ll also need to periodically clean or scrub the interior walls of the pool, or the protective liner that covers it. Although you can use pool-cleaning chemicals for swimming pool service, a paste of baking soda and water can also be used to clean the pool liner or walls using a semi-stiff pool brush.

The point here is to remove algae or mold that has built up on these surfaces. Interior pool walls or their liner can also attract human body oils, along with residue from personal grooming products, such as hairspray, shampoo, body cleanser, lotion, or deodorant.

As you might expect, a dirty pool liner will deteriorate faster than one that is cleaned regularly. If you opt not to use a liner, algae, mold and personal grooming products can discolor and deteriorate the grout that keeps the pool walls watertight.

Filters and Returns

The filters in your pool work to remove small or even microscopic debris from the water. They work in concert with the returns. The returns circulate the pool water through their pipes and pass it through the filters. So it is important to clean the filters regularly.

Filters should be removed and cleaned out regularly. Remove the visible debris with your hand. Then bring the filter to an outside water source and use the force of water power to further clean the filter.

Surrounding Deck

The final aspect of keeping your pool clean may not be self-evident to everyone. You need to keep the surrounding pool deck clean. A clean pool deck does not contain any debris that can be tracked or blown into the pool.

The best way to sweep your pool deck is to use a push broom. Begin at one corner of the pool and push the broom and its accumulated debris away from the pool. Return to the starting point and sweep the area immediately next to the first pass. Compare this to mowing the lawn. You want to make sure that every inch of the deck is swept clean, so overlap the passes slightly, just like mowing the lawn.

If all of this sounds like too much work, too technical or you are simply too busy, call Gilbert Poolman any time at (480) 619-7472 and we will clean and maintain your pool. We’re family-owned and operated and we take pride in providing superior customer service and quality workmanship. With Gilbert Poolman, the difference is always clear.