Saturday, July 2, 2011
Select the Best Swimming Pool Supplies & Accessories
Monday, December 20, 2010
Swimming Pool Filter replacements and cleaning
Friday, November 26, 2010
Swimming Pool Accessories
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Easy Swimming Pool Heating
Exploit Your Pool According To The Period:
Electric, solar, or gas pool heaters can carry on your swimming pool warm a sufficient amount to swim in even when supplementary pools have clogged. Many swimming pool owners are opting for swimming pool heaters to lengthen their swimming season, more than ever if their home is in an area with comparatively short summers. The sun is competent to keep your pool water at a contented swimming temperature during the long summer days. But in the intermediary spring and fall months, the days are shorter and the slant of the sun isn't high enough to heat your pool water very much. That's where pool heaters come in. If you live in northern climates, swimming pool heaters can basically double your swimming time of year.
There are numerous different types of pool heaters available, but gas pool heaters are the most widespread. Expressly, pool heaters are some of the best and most cost resourceful ways to heat your swimming pool. Gas pool heaters tend to be the least expensive to purchase. swimming pool heaters can heat a greater amount of water more quickly than electricity. Oil-fired pool heaters are also available in some areas, but are to a great extent less regular.
Electric pool heaters are most over and over again based on a heat pump devise. Comparable to electric heat pumps used to heat some homes, electric pool heaters take improvement of the heat that already exists in the outside air. The air heats Freon gas, which is then compressed to raise its temperature even higher. The hot gas is then piped to a heat exchanger, where the heat is transferred to the pool water.
The heated water is then pumped back into the swimming pool As far as equipment is concerned, you should always have floatation strategy, a shepherds hook, safety vests, goggles, waist belts, a telephone, and anything else that comes to mind at your pool at all times. When you use your pool you should also leave a few flotation devices in the pool at all times, just in glasses case.
Pool Heaters the Secret to Long Swimming Seasons
A swimming pool fun and healthy way to stay cool:
Pool blankets and cosmological heating units on the covering have both to a large extent amplified in status in homes allowing the exploit of the sun to take contentment in furnace water in pools. It can be enjoyed in the quiet of a twilight if the pool is frenzied using the sun which is the cheapest and easiest method. The main methods of heating a pool by the sun are a solar blanket .The solar collector on the roof. Electric heaters are most often based on a heat pump design. If you have children in your home, you are definitely advised to purchase safety equipment, as it can, literally, help to save the lives of your children one day. Even if you don't have children, you should still make sure that your pool is protected with safety equipment because you honestly never know who may end up building their line of attack into your enclosure.
Maintain Your Pool According To The Temperature:
A solar roof mounted heater installation by water being pumped through a network of plastic pipes. The sun heats up the black pipes which in circle heat up the water being pumped through these pipes. The heated water proceeds back into the pool - hence increasing the temperature of the water. A solar blanket is placed on top of the water surface and prevents heat loss of the water caused by wind passing over the surface. The sun also warms up the blanket which in turn warms up the water. A properly solar system fitted can double the swimming time in a pool and is low-maintenance and a long lasting heating system.
No matter which type of automatic cleaner you buy, you will be satisfied with the results. As we said, there are many benefits to using an automatic cleaner versus doing it yourself. The most important benefit includes the amount of time you will save. If you manually clean your own, you know that it is a long and hard process. In addition to saving yourself time, you will save yourself money by using an automatic cleaner.
There are a lot of leading manufacturer of swimming pool heaters, both for home and commercial. Water heaters can be easily converted to run on either natural gas or propane. Pool water heaters are known for their high-efficiency. Competence refers to the amount of energy in point of fact used for heating the water. These companies also manufacture electric heaters. Some cleaners are autonomous units that you put in as and when needed. They are more often than not plugged into an electrical channel using a really long cord. A transformer provides low voltage to electric motors inside the unit. One motor vacuums up dirt and the other moves the unit around. Some models swim around randomly, while others can be programmed to follow a specific pattern.
Pool cleaners can be used in any type. They have their own self-contained filter, and they also put no confrontation or back pressure on your pools filtering system. They can also salt away money because they don't require you to run your filtration system for cleaning. However, robotic cleaners can cost more than the other filter types. Aquavit, Dolphin and Equator are all cleaners.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A Beginner's Guide on Swimming Pool Cleaning
Primarily, be aware that notwithstanding how well you think it's easy to cleanse your swimming pool by hand, there are countless things pool cleaners purge when disinfecting swimming pools that you cannot when you cleanse your swimming pools by hand.
It has obviously become a lot easier now to cleanse your swimming pool by acquiring a kind of automatic pool cleaner which you just drop into the pool to do all of the disinfecting for you, robotically as well as without human help... and most importantly-quicker than a human would. I'm critically not favoring the idea of going to pay for your swimming pool cleaners without first speaking with your buddies or relatives that have swimming pools to suggest the most effective pool cleaners they make use of for their pools.
Technological devices freaks state that what they are passionate about the most concerning the remote controlled knack that robotic pool cleaners have is truly that they can basically be far away and still control the pool cleaners; this is particularly exciting to them. To effectively maintain the years of your pool cleaner you have to take care of it like other gadgets in your residence; if you do not take care of your pool cleaner it is likely to develop hitches and cost you huge chunk of capital to amend or change.
I do not think it wise to NOT make use of pool cleaners simply because of the price, but expose yourself and your lovely family to healthiness dangers which are part of swimming in harmful or dirty pools. If you are having snag finding out the precise pool cleaner you want, make use of the Internet to explore; with the control of the Internet it's easy to locate precise pool cleaner info you are looking for without problems.
Robotic swimming pool cleaners basically function with the precise same form of artificial intelligence creation which robotic kinds of vacuum cleaners work with; they do the disinfecting so that you do not have to. What's really marvelous about the robotic sorts of pool cleaners is the pace at which they get your swimming pool cleaned; within minutes you'll be amazed to behold your dirty looking pool sparkling lots more than ever.
In ending, if you wish to lengthen the lifespan of your pool cleaner, take the time to manually eradicate any huge trash and toys which are in the pool, before using your pool cleaner.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Importance of Good Water Balance For Your Swimming Pool
What good water balance means to you...
Our customers ask, "why do I have to worry about testing & balancing my swimming pool water? If it looks clear, everything must be good. Right?" The answer is, "Usually not." The short answer is if the water isn't properly balanced, you're not safe, the pool & its components (filter, pump, heater, pool surfaces, fittings, etc) just won't last long, and finally, you'll be wasting your money!
Here's what we mean:
Pool Water balancing for you & your body: When the pH & Total alkalinity are out of balance, your chlorine, bromine or other sanitizer don't work as efficiently as they should. When the sanitizer doesn't work efficiently, bacteria & other stuff you don't want in your spa start gaining control. You could easily end up with skin rashes and eye irritations at least.
Pool Water balancing for your pool: Without proper chemical maintenance, you can get water line scum build-up, much shortened heater life (the heater either corrodes away due to low pH & Total Alkalinity; we've seen people buy 2 heaters in one season because they don't think they need to balance their water!) or scale build-ups (high pH, high Total Alkalinity, high Total Hardness) prevent efficient heating (scaling of the thickness of just 1 sheet of paper can easily cause you to use at least 10% MORE electricity or gas), clogged filters and shortened filter life. Left completely alone, we've even seen the pool liners become faded & brittle & other damage because of it's constant contact with out-of-balance water. Consistent, low total alkalinity & especially calcium hardness over a period of several months can lead to a shortened vinyl liner life (lots of little, tiny pinholes - no warranty coverage). You didn't buy your pool for that mess!
Remember that the source water for filling your pool can have certain properties that can cause chemical changes as you top off your pool; especially pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness & metals & minerals. If your tap water is "soft" or "hard", those chemical make ups, make a difference. The use of water softeners makes a difference. Certain salts will directly affect the water balance.
Here are the proper water balance parameters to keep in mind:
pH - 7.4 - 7.6
Total Alkalinity - 80 - 120 ppm in concrete pools, 120 - 150 ppm in vinyl or fiberglass pools
Calcium Hardness - 200 - 250 ppm in concrete pools, 175 - 225 ppm in vinyl or fiberglass pools
Total Dissolved Solids - less than 2500 ppm (in NON-salt pools)
Iron or Copper - ZERO
Cyanuric Acid - 40 - 100 ppm (chlorine pools ONLY; bromine CANNOT be stabilized; biguanide pools - Soft Swim or Baquacil - do not require stabilizer)
Maintaining Total Alkalinity & Calcium Hardness in the middle of their respective "good" ranges is just a really good idea. Everything works just the way it should. The water looks great, feels comfortable, chlorine & bromine are acting properly, water balance is bouncing around.
Total Alkalinity is a measure of carbonates and bicarbonates in the water. Total alkalinity works as a buffer for the pH helping to eliminate "pH bounce" or pH sensitivity. In other words, let's say your pH is low, under 6.8, and your total alkalinity is low as well, under 50 ppm. You may add the correct amount of pH increaser and fix the problem but you find that the pH is back low again within 3 days. It's difficult to get the pH correct and keep it there. If the TA is high, you may notice that it is difficult to get the pH down to a proper level. We often see this problem with pool owners who indiscriminately add baking soda to their pool on a regular basis. Increasing Total Alkalinity is pretty simple. Lowering it because of improper chemical use can be tough.
Calcium Hardness is on parameter that many people choose to ignore; mainly because they don't understand it. Calcium hardness is a measure of dissolved calcium and other minerals in the water. When the CH is low, the water is aggressive and wants to satisfy its calcium deficiency. The water will "rob" calcium from ANY pool surface, including vinyl liners (vinyl becomes brittle) and fiberglass (spider cracking of the surface). Concrete or plaster finished pools will experience "etching" of the walls & floor, almost like scraped, scaly grooves in the pool surface. High CH will potentially cause cloudy water and scaling of pool surfaces and equipment such as the filter and heater because calcium is one of those minerals that dissolves best in cooler (under 85 degrees F) water. These problems are seen over a longer period of time as compared to pH and Total Alkalinity.
You can virtually witness low pH damage in a matter of days. Low Total alkalinity & Calcium hardness damage is noticed over a series of weeks.
Rain water can dramatically effect your water balance, depending on its pH & obviously the quantity of rain. The pH of rain varies across the country generally becoming more acidic as you go from west to east. As rain falls, it carries down particulate matter that is suspended in the air. This suspended particulate is dust, dirt, soot, chemicals, even bird droppings.
Adding fresh make up water after evaporation or backwashing will eventually have an effect on the water balance. Additions of more than 2 inches of fresh water should be allowed to circulate for 24 hours then tested to make any necessary adjustments.
Also keep in mind that rain water (especially when heavy or copious) can add to chlorine demand.
Wasting money: I think you're beginning to understand the reason why from the above information. You'll be purchasing more chemicals when you don't need them. More frequent filter changes (proper cleaning of the filter cartridge should give a life of 2 to 3 years minimum, DE filter elements should last about 5 years with proper cleaning & maintenance). Par Pool & Spa wants you to have fun. Proper water balancing, testing & care shouldn't take more than 15 to 20 minutes per week on average.
Be sure to test your water with a good quality test kit or test strips. Remember to change the strips or testing reagents each swimming season. For added accuracy seek out a local pool professional who is able to properly and thoroughly test your pool water. These test need to include: Total chlorine or bromine, Free chlorine, combined chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, acid demand, alkali demand, calcium hardness, total dissolved solids, water temperature, mineral or salt level (saline or salt chlorine systems), iron and copper levels. Don't wait to adjust the water balance. Like most things, it costs more to fix than to maintain.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Swimming Pool Maintenance 101 - To Cover or Not to Cover
Before I owned a pool I always thought that pool maintenance was going to be a real pain and troublesome. I had heard many horror stories from friends and acquaintances about all the problems they had in keeping their pools clean and balanced
Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that after our inground pool was installed, that maintenance of it really wasn't a problem. How did I achieve this? I don't know -- but this is what I do.
First we never invested in a pool cover. Since we live in SC we have a few months of 'cold' temperatures but the remainder of the winter isn't too bad. We don't swim much from October to March but we don't cover it either. We simply leave the pump and filter running. If the temperature drops below about 40 deg F, the pump automatically comes on to keep things from freezing. So, the first thing we don't have to do is to cover the pool.
By not covering the pool, you save hundreds of dollars by not having to buy a pool cover every couple of years. But, in the long run, you might potentially pay more for electricity to run the pump all year than a new cover would have cost.
By not covering the pool you also save the hassle of 'opening the pool' every spring. First, you don't have to mess with the debris of leaves and the murky water that accumulates on the top of the cover. (On the flip side, if you do cover the pool, do yourself a favor and skim the debris off the cover every so often.)
To combat the problem of debris (in an uncovered pool), we have a Polaris automatic pool cleaner which runs at least 2 to 3 hours a day. This keeps the pool clean of leaves, worms, bugs, and other similar yuck.
By not covering the pool but running the pump all winter long, you don't have to contend with the stagnant green algae infested water that develops when it sits idle for months at a time. Thankfully this is not a problem when you run the pump throughout the winter.
By not covering the pool, you can take a quick dip anytime you please since the water is always pretty darn clean. While few people would ever take a quick dip in the winter, the point here is that the cleanliness and clarity of the pool stays so good that you could swim in it, but more importantly, getting it balanced is as simple as taking a sample to be tested and learning what chemicals to add. In other words you can be swimming in a day without any serious effort or exhaustion.
The only other things that I do are 1.) Keep the chlorine reservoir full (or nearly full) with chlorine sticks and 2.) Clean the Polaris and filter trap every week. 3.) Watch the water level. If it gets too high, the skimmer does not work properly
Please keep in mind that we live in South Carolina. This type of pool care may not be appropriate for much colder climates. If you live in the north and have an inground pool, please contact your local pool company and they will be able to recommend something appropriate for your colder climate.
To read about the next steps I take in getting the pool ready please go to http://www.keepyourpoolclean.com/Swimming_Pool_Covers_.html
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Sunday, March 28, 2010
How Often Should I Clean The Swimming Pool Filter Cartridges?
The most common question from pool owners is about how often they should clean their swimming pool filter cartridges. Although the answer can vary from filter to filter, there are a few general guidelines that will give you an idea as to when it is time to clean your cartridges.
The easiest way to determine the effectiveness of your pool filter cartridge is your filter's pressure indicator. This is usually a gauge or meter that is on the outside of your filter housing. This gauge will also show you the maximum pressure at which your filter should operate. Be certain that your filter does not exceed this pressure.
As your cartridge begins to accumulate dirt and debris it becomes more difficult for the pump to circulate water through the filter. As a result, the pressure on your filter system increases and less water is circulated through your system. Not only does this increase the workload on your pump, it also reduces the quantity of water that is filtered. This leaves more dirt and debris in your pool. Most cartridge filters run at a lower pressure than sand or DE.
To get an accurate reading of your filters effectiveness you should make note of the pressure reading on your system when you install a new filter cartridge. This will be your baseline reading.
As time goes by and your filter begins to accumulate debris, the system pressure will increase. When the pressure increases by about 8-10psi (8-10 pounds per square inch) it is time to either clean or replace your cartridge.
With the low cost of cartridges, replacement is easy and inexpensive. If you decide to clean your cartridge be sure to not use too much pressure. Too much pressure can actually push debris further into the cartridge. Your goal is to simply rinse off the larger debris. After you rinse the cartridge you should soak it in an alkaline based cartridge cleaning solution. After you have finished soaking it you should gently rinse any remaining debris.
After you replace your cartridge the system pressure should be lower. If it isn't then it's probably time to replace it. A properly functioning filter system will have lower pressure which allows it to circulate more water and remove more debris.
By making sure that your swimming pool filter cartridges are in proper working order you will extend the life of your pump, your cartridges and most important, you will have a sparkling pool that is clean, clear and beautiful.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Swimming Pool Cleaner - Hollywood Or Bust
The human swimming pool cleaner, aka "The Pool Boy" has had a long and storied career in Hollywood's screen presentations, most notably in "Harold and Maude" with a swimming pool cleaner/screenwriter wannabe whose script deliberately left at poolside was discovered by a producer and turned into a movie.
But swimming pool cleaners, at least most of them, do not write or end up in movies; in fact, most of them are not even human. Swimming pool cleaners are tools designed to ease the unpleasant aspect of having a backyard pool; namely, keeping its water clean and hygienic. There are a wide variety of swimming pool cleaners available, but they all fall into one of three categories.
Types Of Swimming Pool Cleaners
The most common swimming pool cleaners are the manual vacuum cleaners, complete with the same parts as your indoor vacuum contains. Your manual swimming pool cleaner will have a dirt collection bag, filters, a motor which creates suction, and hoses--everything a good vacuum should have. But you are the manpower which guides the manual swimming pool cleaner into all the nooks and crannies of your pool.
Automatic swimming pool cleaners do the same thing manual swimming pool cleaners do but they do it with much less human assistance. Once you position them in an area of the pool which needs cleaning they will get to work and scoop up all the unwanted material.
Robotic swimming pool cleaners are the new, and smartest, kids on the pool cleaning block. Far more high-tech than their manual and automatic counterparts, they contain microchips which make them smart enough to work independently of their human owners. If you have a robotic swimming pool cleaner, all you need do is put it in your pool, press the on switch, and go somewhere to get good and hot because when you return in a few hours, your pool will be sparkling clean and ready to cool you off.
Manual, automatic, and robotic swimming pool cleaners are all readily available, and every year become more advanced as their manufacturers seek to maintain and increase their customer bases. If you have a serviceable swimming pool cleaner, you should just keep using it until it wears out, because if you wait long enough you will be able to replace it with one possessing features as yet undreamed of.
Who knows; the next generation of swimming pool cleaners may take a page from Hollywood's book and start leaving scripts at poolside for the perusal of directors and producers!

