Thursday, June 26, 2008

How to maintain an in-ground pool

Weekly Maintenance Routine

Weekly pool maintenance can be broken down into six fundamental categories. Cleaning the water surface of your swimming pool, emptying skimmer & pump baskets, manually vacuuming your swimming pool, backwashing filter equipment for DE, sand or cartridge filters, and balancing your chemicals. Maintaining your own pool requires approximately an hour of your time per week. A properly maintained pool can give you countless hours of enjoyment.

Cleaning the water surface of your swimming pool is essential. To skim the water surface of your pool you need a net and telescopic pole. There are two basic net types, the flat net to remove small amounts of floating debris, and a larger bag style net for pools that have larger amounts of floating debris.

Emptying skimmer & pump baskets help maintain maximum water flow to your filter equipment and assists in removing debris from the water surface.
To clean the skimmer baskets it is as simple as removing the lid, taking out the basket, making sure that no debris is sucked down into the skimmer line. finding a suitable place to discard the debris after removing from basket. Replace basket and replace cover.

To empty a pump basket first turn the pump off. Close all the valves on suction side of pump (this step is so that you do not loose prime on swimming pool pump. Remove the pump lid and empty debris into suitable receptacle. Replace pump basket, being sure gasket is free of debris on pump. Replace pump lid, open valves on suction side of pump.
Turn pump on making sure that it returns to full prime. (Full prime means that pump is full of water with no air and running at proper pressure)

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