How Often Does a Pool Need Maintenance?

If you live in Arizona, there’s a good chance you own a pool. Pools are great for relaxing or throwing backyard parties, especially during the hot summer months. However, along with the fun a pool brings, comes the responsibility to maintain it. Staying on top of pool maintenance keeps your pool and its equipment running properly and ensures the water is safe for swimmers to use. If ignored, your pool can become dirty, which will lead to costly damages or stains. Dirty pool water is also unsafe as it can cause irritated skin or infections to swimmers. There are a handful of steps to take when it comes to pool maintenance. For the average pool, some tasks should be done weekly, monthly, and once every season.

Whether you do it yourself or hire a pool service company to do it, regular pool maintenance is crucial to keeping your pool healthy and clean. Regular maintenance requires circulation, cleaning, and chemicals. Circulation allows the pool water to cycle through in order to avoid cloudy, algae prone, water. Cleaning also keeps the water clear by removing debris and dirt from various parts of the pool. And lastly, proper pool chemistry ensures clear water and keeps the various pool chemicals balanced. Too many chemicals can be harsh to your pool and equipment, but not enough chemicals can allow the perfect environment for algae and bacteria to thrive.

Weekly Pool Maintenance

Generally, we recommend your pool get’s cleaned, inspected, and chemically balanced AT LEAST once a week.

Cleaning should consist of skimming the water’s surface, brushing the walls and steps, vacuuming, and emptying the skimmer and pump baskets. Depending on the amount of use, weather conditions, and the pool’s surroundings, you may want to do a couple of these steps a few times throughout the week. For example, if your pool is surrounded by trees, you may prefer to skim and empty the skimmer basket more than once a week. You will also notice that pool maintenance may be needed more often during the monsoon season when storms are more likely to occur.
You should always keep an eye on your pool and its equipment. You should do a thorough inspection every week to ensure that everything is running properly. Understanding proper function of every part of your pool is important in order to avoid overlooking damaged equipment that can lead to costly repairs.
Chemical levels should be checked at least once a week as well. Testing the pool water can show you the levels of substances such as chlorine, alkalinity, pH, calcium, etc. Each chemical has its purpose and all must be balanced in order for the others to be fully effective.
Your pool pump is what helps circulate your pool’s water through its filter. Ideally, your pump should run 24 hours a day. However, we know that usually isn’t doable, so we suggest running your pump at least 10-12 hours a day.

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Biweekly, Monthly, & Seasonal Pool Maintenance

As your pool circulates, the filter catches debris and contaminants in order to remove them from the water. Over time, your filter will become too dirty and will be in need of cleaning.

If you have a sand or DE filter, you can do so by backwashing. How often you backwash really depends on the type of filter and how dirty your pool tends to get. A general rule of thumb is when the pressure gauge rises about 5-10 psi. This can be needed anywhere from weekly to every couple months so it’s important to always check the pressure gauge when conducting weekly maintenance. In addition to backwashing, you should do a deep clean using special filter cleaners once every season.
For cartridge filters, you will actually have to remove the filter and clean it by hand. A general cleaning should be conducted monthly as a part of your regular maintenance. A deeper clean will usually be needed once the pressure gauge rises about 8-10 psi.

We know that you intended your pool for fun and relaxation. In order to keep that going, you have to make sure you keep up with every part of pool maintenance. While we gave you a general idea on how often it should be done, not all pools are the same. You should get to know your pool as soon as you get it in order to decide how often it will need the various steps of maintenance. Although maintenance may seem like a lot, anyone is capable of doing it. If you find you can’t take the necessary time to care for your pool, our techs at Aquaman Pools are more than happy to help. They can take on your pool maintenance for an affordable price and are always ready to share their extensive pool knowledge with you. We include post-service emails that let our clients know when pool maintenance was completed and all the details of the visit, such as what was done and chemicals level readings. Contact us today so we can help you keep your pool in tip-top shape while you relax and enjoy the pool for what it’s meant for.