How to NOT screw up your Pool Opening:

Enjoy Your Pool

So many people come into our store after they've "opened" their pool and say "well, I've got it running and put some shock in it, but it's a cloudy, blue-green mess, I need help". There are a few things that I'm going to cover here that will make your life SO MUCH EASIER and teach you How to NOT screw up your Pool Opening!

1) When you connect your equipment and first get the pool running, ALWAYS SET YOUR SAND FILTER TO RECIRCULATE (or Bypass to Pool). This allows your pump to run without sending the water down through the sand bed. It just goes into the top of the valve and straight back to the pool. (If you have a cartridge, remove the cartridge initially.) Allow the water to start moving so you can get to work on the next step.

2) FILL YOUR WATER TO THE TOP OF THE SKIMMER. The reason you do this is because with the initial vacuuming, you want to vacuum the debris to "waste". Set your sand filter to the "waste" position and vacuum the debris straight out of the pool. This permanently gets rid of all the sediment, algae, and debris from the pool. SKIPPING THIS STEP ONLY MAKES A CLOUDY MESS. If you have a cartridge filter, take your cartridge out of the filter housing, remove the bottom drain cap on the filter, and remove the top part of the casing. Plug off any of your jets (or returns) This will allow the vacuumed water to go straight out of the filter into the grass without it getting back into the pool. KEEP IN MIND DOING THIS VAC-TO-WASTE LOWERS THE WATER LEVEL IN YOUR POOL (which is why I said to fill the pool up to the top of the skimmer before starting this process). Once you have finished vacuuming, you can set your sand filter to recirculate (or bypass to pool). If you have a cartridge, reconnect your cartridge filter and take the plugs out of your jets.

3) BRUSH YOUR POOL! This is quite possibly the biggest oversight with pool owners - brushing. Brushing the pool removes algae or biofilm from the walls and floor. This allows your chemicals to reach all the pool surfaces to kill anything that's growing and helps prevent permanent discoloration.

4) TEST THE WATER. Look at the water. Regardless if your pool has no algae or if it's a swamp, you need to test the water before you jump into shocking it. The reason being is 90% of the time the pH and alkalinity needs to be adjusted. Skipping this step is a big mistake, as these readings will determine how well your chlorine, shock, and algaecide will work. If you don't have test strips, the best thing to do is take a picture of their pool and bring a sample in to be computer tested and show us how the pool looks. Once the pH and alkalinity are adjusted, you can move on to your shock, algaecide, and stain & scale treatment.

5) If your pool is clear, it's now time to set your filter back to the normal "filter" position or put your cartridge back in. You can then allow the pool to start functioning as normal. After a couple days, bring another sample in to make sure everything is balanced. If your pool is still cloudy and teal blue from killing the remaining algae, bring a sample in with another picture of the water and we will walk you through it.

Opening your Pool can be easy some years and tougher other years, but following these steps will ALWAYS make it go as smooth as possible. Have a great summer everyone!

-Jeff