Sparkling Water Doesn’t Happen by Itself
Whether you maintain your pool yourself or use a pool professional maintaining proper pool chemistry can help you save time and money while enjoying your backyard paradise. Accurate pool maintenance can do more than just prolong your fun in the sun. It also can extend the life of your pool’s external parts and interior pool finish
One of the most important steps of swimming pool maintenance is water balance. Generally, understanding water balance can also be one of the most confusing processes of pool maintenance. Because of its complexity, some new pool owners may not know everything they have to do to keep their pool water safe, comfortable and corrosion free.
Below are a few of the reasons why having a balanced swimming pool is so important:
Safety
If you are using either a salt based pool producing chlorine or a chlorine based tablet pool, then your pH needs to be correct. If pool water is not balanced correctly then the chlorine sanitizer won't be working at full strength killing germs and bacteria.
Comfortable
Your water balance needs to be correct or it will affect your skin and eyes. The pH should be neither too acidic nor basic in order to feel comfortable.
Corrosion
An imbalanced pool can be corrosive to the liner, ladders and hand rail and other equipment such as the pump.
What is entailed in Water Balance?
Total Alkalinity
Total alkalinity refers to how much alkaline is in the water. TA and pH go hand-in-hand. High alkaline water leads to high pH. Low alkaline water leads to low pH. That the average swimming pool should have an alkalinity reading of 100 ppm.
Stabilizer
Stabilizer helps retain your chlorine longer just as insulation helps retain heat or air conditioning. Stabilizer can be added to some chlorine compounds to protect them from the breakdown effects of sunlight. When your stabilizer level is low, you'll use a lot more chlorine. When it's high, you may need to dilute your pool water to bring it back into the 40 to 100 ppm ideal range.
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
All water contains dissolved minerals. As pool water evaporates, minerals remain behind and become concentrated. The more concentrated these minerals become, the harder it is for chemical additives to work and stains can form. If you have 3000 ppm or more of total dissolved solids or TDS, you may need to drain some water and add fresh water.