Swimming pools are much like any other thing you own; without regular care, attention, and maintenance, they will suffer and deteriorate. When it comes to your swimming pool, water quality is your top priority. Water is the lifeblood of your swimming pool. If you don’t take care to manage and maintain your pool’s water balance, specifically levels of pH, alkalinity, and calcium hardness, your pool won’t just lose its sparkle. Poorly maintained pool water has a knock-on effect on all the other parts of your pool and will ultimately decrease its longevity and cause unnecessary damage.

Regardless of your local climate or how often you use your swimming pool, pool water maintenance is essential. Many of the maintenance jobs you should perform will be the same whether you live in a warm, temperate area or somewhere with cooler autumns and winters. Of course, the colder the weather gets, such as Melbourne winters, the more precautions you may need to protect and preserve your pool.

You should regularly complete five simple maintenance tasks to ensure your pool water is maintained and sparkles all year round.

Keep Your Pool Free Of Debris

Nobody likes jumping into a plunge pool filled with dirty water! But, regardless of the season, keeping your swimming pool clean is the first step to maintaining sparkling pool water. 

It is essential to clean debris from your pool, especially towards the end of summer and the start of autumn when trees and plants are shedding their leaves. If left unchecked, plant matter will sink to the bottom of your pool, where it can decay and release phosphates that algae love to feed on. Alge can damage your pool’s internal surface. Make sure you skim the bottom of your pool regularly when the filtration system is not running. Turning the filter off before cleaning will ensure you don’t miss small leaves lying on the bottom!

Monitor And Maintain pH Levels

Maintaining your swimming pool water at the recommended pH balance ensures your warranty remains valid. Regular checking pH levels will also help to keep your pool equipment in the best condition. For example, suppose your pool’s pH level deviates too much from the levels recommended by your pool builder. In that case, you risk causing skin irritation, issues with cleaning and filtration, and additional wear on your fibreglass pool shell and components. Narellan Pools recommends a pH level between 7.0 and 7.4. Adjusting your pool’s pH levels is simple. Before adding any chemicals, however, take a sample of your pool water to your local pool company for testing. If your pH is out of the recommended range, your local pool company will recommend the right chemicals to bring your pool back to its former glory.

Top-up Your Chlorine

Chlorine is the essential ingredient to keep your pool water crystal clear. Chlorine also prevents contaminants, infections, and bacterial growth in your pool water. You can add chlorine to your plunge pool using a floating chlorine dispenser, adding chlorine tablets to your skimmer basket, or most commonly, through an automatic chlorinator attached to your filtration system. Regardless of the method, you must continue to check and, if necessary, adjust pH levels regularly.

Configure Your Pool Heater For Winter

Whether you have a heat pump, solar, or gas heating system, your pool heater will likely have a winter mode setting. Switching your pool heater to its winter setting, and adding a pool blanket, will optimise your heating and energy efficiency for the harsh colder winters in cities like Melbourne. It will also ensure that the heating system stays protected and functioning so that when the weather warms up again, your swimming pool is ready to go.

Setup Weather Monitoring

If the weather where you live falls below freezing in winter, which is common in Melbourne, you must take precautions to protect your fibreglass pool shell and pool equipment. Water that freezes and thaws can damage pipes and your fibreglass pool shell. Use a pool thermometer to monitor your pool’s temperature. Some pool thermometers even connect to your wifi network and alert you on outside air temperate and humidity when you’re away from home! For cooler climates, another tip is to set up weather notifications with your favourite weather app to ensure you receive advanced notice of upcoming cold spells.

Pool Water Maintenance with Narellan Pools

Narellan Pools has a long history of delivering quality pool shells and installation to our customers throughout Melbourne and Victoria. Our teams have decades of experience designing and tailoring pool solutions to your unique needs to guarantee that you will have a fibreglass swimming pool that exceeds your expectations. We design and build every one of our pools at our in-house, ISO compliant facility right here in Australia and back our work with the Narellan Pools Lifetime Structural Warranty.

Get in touch with the team at Narellan Pools today to find out what pool shapes and colour options we have available for you.