Fred Wagner is the president of Poolman in Phoenix, Arizona. A premiere swimming pool service company, Poolman has been in the pool servicing industry for more than 45 years. Here, he explains how preparing for any number of situations can help prevent problems from occurring with your swimming pool.
It would be great if pool owners were home everyday, and if the weather across the country was always warm and sunny. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Oftentimes, a storm might strike or a pool owner might go out of town for an extended period of time. When these types of things happen, it is important that homeowners know how to take care of their swimming pools before they’re put in that type of tricky situation.
What to Do In a Storm
Whenever we’re having a major storm, I automatically turn my swimming pool on. I want it running during the storm. And that means I want my pool vacuum running and my skimmer to be taking the leaves out of the pool. Doing that is simple, and I just leave the pool on for 24 hours after the storm as well.
Whether you have a pool service company handling your maintenance or you’re doing it yourself, what is key and essential is that you make sure to clean out your baskets regularly when the storm hits. Once those pool baskets fill with leaves and other debris, you pool filter will be running but won’t be cleaning itself anymore. So it will just be wasting electricity. If you make sure to continue emptying the baskets, though, then your pool will continue to clean itself throughout the storm.
If you have a pool cover, then putting it on during as storm would be helpful as well. If you have one, you want to put it on before the storm begins or as soon as possible once it begins. This will keep the dirt and the debris out of your swimming pool. You can also get certain bubble covers for $300 or $400 depending on the size of your pool that they usually last a couple of years.
Unfortunately, I would say only a small percentage of homeowners have a pool cover. That’s why just turning on your swimming pool’s filter and skimmer to make sure the pool itself stays clean throughout the storm is usually the easiest thing a pool owner can do.
What To Do When You’re Out of Town
Before going out of town on vacation, it’s important that pool owners figure out who is going to take care of their swimming pool. When you are on a trip — especially if you are going to be gone for three or four weeks — someone still needs to be there to maintain your pool. If you are only going to be gone for less than a week, then that might not be as much of a problem. But for longer trips, it is important that you have a plan in place.
You can’t leave a pool for three or four weeks with no water chemistry checks on it or without emptying the baskets or even backwashing it. The typical pool needs to be backwashed every week if we’re having storms, depending on what type of filtration system you have. Because with all the debris that could be getting in the filter if a storm should strike, it would need to get backwashed.
If you have a cartridge filter ,then you don’t have to worry about a filter while you’re gone on a trip, but the water chemistry and the baskets still need to be emptied. If you live in an environment like we have here in Phoenix in the summer, and let’s just say that it is 105 degrees, and you are gone for three or four weeks, your chlorine will be gone during that time, and by the time you get home, you will have a green pool.
Planning is key for pool owners hoping to avoid problems with their pools before issues like inclement weather or long-term vacations pop up.
