The Fundamentals of Pool Care
Owning a swimming pool is easier than you think. In fact, anyone can handle pool maintenance as long as they understand some pool basics!
Whether you’re thinking about installing a swimming pool or you already have one, you’ll find tips to help you better understand your pool and its parts. We’ll also touch on how to clean and maintain it.
Your swimming pool is like your car, your heating and air conditioning units, and your home appliances. All of these things have something in common—they need regular maintenance to stay in tip-top shape.
In this article, we examine the fundamentals of pool care so you can easily handle your pool.
Your Primary Pool Parts
Do you know the basic parts of your swimming pool? Can you find them all and clean them? It’s so much easier to maintain your pool if you know what the parts are and where to find them.
Let’s look at your pool’s main parts:
- Your pool pump
- The main pool drain
- The pool filter
- The skimmer
- Your suction lines, return lines, and return jets
- Your sump pump and sump pump tube
Now that you know what those parts are, let’s dive deeper into each one. We’ll learn more about each part as well as how to maintain it.
Your Pool Pump
The pump is integral to the good working order of your swimming pool. It’s what keeps your pool running and working correctly.
Your pool pump pulls water from the pull into your skimmer and your main drain. It then sends it through your filter and then back through your main returns.
When maintaining your pool pump, take care to note the location of the motor, the impeller, and the hair trap.
Your Main Pool Drain
You most likely know how to locate this drain. It’s usually in the deepest part of your swimming pool. What’s it for? Your main drain lowers your pool’s water level.
Your main drain also circulates water from the bottom of your pool. It draws water from your pool, and then it sends it through your pump and filter.
Your Pool Filter
Another integral part of your swimming pool, the filter is what helps keep your pool clean. In fact, your pool filter is the big guy when it comes to cleaning your pool. If your filter doesn’t work, your pool will not be clean.
During pool season, you should clean your pool filter regularly, generally at least once each month.
You’ll find that there’s a lot of debris during pool season, and keeping your filter clean is one of the best ways to have clear, sparkling water all season long.
You can clean your filters by soaking them and stopping by for our filter cleaner.
It’s a good idea to check your water level on a regular basis. You want it to be at the perfect spot and not too high or too low. Your pool pump and filter operate best when you keep your water level at the center of your pool skimmer.
Your Pool Skimmer
It’s important that you know where your skimmer is and how to take care of it. Your pool skimmer pulls water from the top of your pool water and sucks it into your filtration system. Your skimmer should catch any debris on the top of your water before it falls to the bottom of your swimming pool.
Your skimmer is vital when it comes to keeping bugs, pollen, leaves, dirt, and debris from falling to the bottom of your swimming pool.
The skimmer works consistently and all the time. Once the debris passes through your skimmer, it ends up in your skimmer basket. As long as your pool pump is running, your skimmer is working, too. When you turn your pump off, your skimmer basket holds onto the debris so you can empty it.
It’s easy to maintain your pool skimmer and something you should do on a regular basis. You want to skim your pool daily so all of that unwanted debris doesn’t fall to the bottom of your pool.
Your Suction Lines, Return Lines, and Return Jets
You want to know where both of these are.
The suction lines are hooked directly into your pump, and they move water from the pump into your filter. Your return lines do the opposite. They move pool water from your filter to your return jet.
Your return jets send the pool water into the filter once your filtered water runs through your return lines.
Your Sump Pump and Sump Pump Tube
You’ll find the tube in the deepest part of your pool. These tubes run vertically from your pool deck to the pool floor (outside the pool).
Just like a sump pump in your home, the sump pump and tube are important when the groundwater rises higher than the bottom of your pool. You don’t want your pool to float, so the sump pump tube pumps the water in the ground out from around your pool. These are important parts when it rains, or the snow melts and groundwater levels are high. These keep your pool safe from cracks and other issues.
Final Thoughts on the Fundamentals of Pool Care
While all swimming pools are unique, they all run in basically the same way.
Now that you understand how your pool works and the basics of pool cleaning and maintenance, you’re ready to get started.
Don’t forget to maintain your chlorine levels and keep your pH levels balanced. The best pH level is between 7.2 and 7.8. If it’s too high, you’ll use too much chlorine. You want your chlorine levels between 1 and 4 ppm.
Aside from regularly brushing your swimming pool to keep it clean, you also want to maintain all of your pool’s parts and have your water tested (by us and for free) on a regular basis!
If you ever have any questions, our expert pool staff is here to help you with service, maintenance, and the best pool chemicals in Little Rock! Don’t forget – you can also sign up for regular pool service!
Contact us today!
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