You’ve finally done it. You decided to install a beautiful swimming pool right in your own backyard that you can use any time you like. You have all your gear, the pool is set up and it’ll last for years, right? Well, it should, but the answer depends entirely on your pool maintenance schedule. If you don’t know how to maintain a pool, your pool’s lifespan will shorten, drastically!

Any swimming pool requires routine maintenance to keep all of the parts in good working order and the water clean and clear. Our swimming pool maintenance guide will give you a strong understanding of everything pool maintenance entails. This includes knowing how your pool works, tips on how to care for it, and much more. We’ll help you keep your pool clean and looking beautiful all season long.

Basic Parts of Your Pool and Pool Maintenance

Before we get into the more complex topics of pool maintenance, we want to make sure you have a good understanding of your pool’s basic parts. Each part does something slightly different, and knowing how to maintain a pool requires a working knowledge of the four main components.

Component One – The Filter System

Your filter system is the workhorse of your entire pool setup. This is the component that is responsible for keeping your pool’s water circulating and clean. The pool pump is the part that will force the water to circulate to the pool filter. The filter will catch any debris, dirt and contaminants that could impact your water’s cleanliness level.

The filter protects your pool and anyone that swims in it from harm. It stops bacteria and algae from building up, and this makes the water safe. If your filter system were to fail, your pool water would turn cloudy and polluted. Salt water chlorinators, sand filters, cartridge filters, and diatomaceous earth (DE) filters are all popular.

Component Two – The Returns and Skimmers

The second biggest component of your pool are the returns and skimmers. The skimmers are the holes in the side of the pool that are responsible for pulling your pool’s water into the filter, and for pushing the water through the filter as it is cleaned. The returns are the components that return the clean water back to the pool.

These two parts work best when you routinely clean them. If there is a lot of debris or obstruction, the water won’t flow correctly. As a result, you’ll end up with dirty water. This is why you have to routinely backwash these systems and clean them out at least once a week. The cleaner each part is, the better it will function.

Component Three – The Pool Walls

No matter whether you have a fibreglass, concrete, rubber, plastic or vinyl pool, it will have walls that come into constant contact with the pool water. If your water doesn’t have the correct chemical balance, it becomes much easier for bacteria and algae to start growing and thriving. These pollutants can make your water unhealthy, and they can cause problems for your pool walls.

Every other week, you should make a point to scrub the pool’s interior walls to get rid of any bacteria or algae growth, and to remove any debris in the water. If you don’t have time to do it by hand, you can invest in a robotic cleaner that will run automatically. Another option is to get a self-cleaning pool system.

Component Four – The Water

For a beginner, finding the correct chemical balance for the water, and maintaining this, can seem like a daunting challenge. However, there are complete kits that can help to keep your water crystal-clear and safe to swim in. To keep your water clean and safe, you should focus on the following measurements (the values below are recommended for Compass Pools owners; if you have a fibreglass pool from another manufacturer or a completely different pool, refer to your pool builder or local pool shop to avoid potential damage to your pool):

• pH level – pH levels show how acidic or alkaline the water is. A neutral pH protects your pool equipment from corrosion while also stopping skin and eye irritation. We recommend keeping the pH range between 7.2 to 7.6 ppm.
• Total Alkalinity – This keeps your pH level in the pool balanced, and it should stay between 100ppm to 150ppm (parts per million).
• Chlorine – Chlorine acts like a sanitiser that rids the pool’s water of bacteria and algae. Keep chlorine levels between 1.0ppm and 2.0ppm but up to 3.0ppm is acceptable.
• Stabiliser (Cyanuric Acid) – If you have chlorine in your pool, this will shield it from sunlight. The ideal value is 50pppm, and cyanuric acid determines how much free chlorine you need in your water.
• Salt (for salt chlorinated pools) – Ideal level is between 3000 and 4000 ppm; lower salt levels may be required by some types of chlorinators.
• Calcium Hardness – You want to prevent damage to your pool’s walls, and keeping your calcium hardness between 175ppm and 225ppm will help.
• T.D.S. (Total Dissolved Solids) – Ideal level = less than 1500 ppm.
• Phosphates – Ideal level = zero but less than 0.2 ppm.
  Water Balance – Zero, or slightly negative on the Langlier Saturation Index (-0.2).

Note: For more advice on maintaining a clean and healthy pool and maintaining correct water chemistry, consult your local pool shop.

If you’re having issues keeping your water clear, buy a water testing kit. This kit comes with individual containers to carry out each test. Fill the containers with pool water and see what shade the water turns. Compare this colour to the colour on the chart included in the kid. It’ll tell you exactly where your levels are, and you’ll know if you need to adjust something or not.

Test your water at least once a week in the swimming season or monthly outside it. If you have a lot of rain or you find yourself refilling the pool because your water levels dropped too low, test it. These things can throw your water chemistry off, and it can result in cloudy water.

Checking Your Pool’s Circulation

Pool Circulation and Pool Maintenance

Your pool’s water should circulate on a constant basis to keep it clean and clear. If you have stagnant water, this is the perfect breeding ground for harmful bacteria. A high-quality, well-maintained circulation system will effectively combat pool algae or cloudy water. Your pump and filter system should run daily.

Ideally, your pump and filters should run around the clock. If this isn’t feasible for your budget, plan to run the system for at least 10 to 12 hours at the minimum, every day. This is ample time for your system to circulate all of your pool’s water at least once or twice.

Cleaning Your Pool’s Filter System

Your pool won’t be able to circulate water at full capacity if you have a dirty system. This is why it’s so important to clean out the filters and skimmer basket at least once a week. To clean these components, switch your filter off and remove the filter cap. Lift out the basket and remove any debris. Once you finish, put it back together and turn it back on.

Plan to backwash your filter system every month. Backwashing will help clean out the pipes on your filter system and get rid of any debris or stagnant water. To do this, remove the basket and switch your filter to the “backwash” setting.

What this does is has the water flow in the opposite direction as it normally does. Any debris will go into your pool’s waste port. Let the system run until the water becomes clear. Switch the filter back off, switch it back to its normal setting, and return the basket to the filter.

Cleaning Your Pool

A big part of pool maintenance is cleaning your pool regularly. It’s so easy to skip a day here or a week there, but this can significantly impact how long your pool components last. There are several ways you can clean your pool, and it all depends on your budget. At the very least, you’ll need a net skimmer to get rid of surface debris, and a pool brush to clean the sides and bottom of the pool. If you have money set aside, a robotic pool cleaner can help automate much of this task.

Brushing, skimming and vacuuming your pool at least once a week can help control the bacteria, algae and remove any debris. If you have a tough algae spot that you can’t remove, make a thick paste of baking soda and water. Apply this paste to the area and scrub. This won’t damage your tile or vinyl.

If you’re worried about the oils from skin or hair products forming a sheen on your water surface, tossing a few tennis balls into the pool or skimmer basket can help. The surface of a tennis ball will absorb the oils and remove them from your water. Wrapping a pair of fine denier tights around your skimmer basket helps catch very small particles.

Another thing you can invest in is an automatic pool cleaner. While this won’t totally replace the need for you to scrub the sides of your pool or skim it, it will mean you spend less time on the task. You need to ensure your automatic pool cleaner reaches every area of your pool, and this includes the walls.

Pool Maintenance Supplies

Depending on the pool type, there are a few supplies you can use to help with your pool maintenance routine. They’ll help you control the bacteria and algae while keeping your water clear. These supplies include:

• Shock – Pool shock is a chemical that oxidises organic water contaminants like algae and bacteria, destroying them. These are powerful sanitisers that you want to use either after heavy pool usage or in the beginning of the season. Most pool shock requires you to stay out of the water for 12 to 24 hours after use.
• Sanitisers – Chlorine is a popular pool sanitiser, but it has a strong smell that many people find unappealing. Bromine is another sanitising chemical that helps clear out any bacteria and keep your water clear between uses. There are also natural or enzyme-based sanitisers available, and some people like to use salt pools for this reason.
• Balancing Chemicals and Stabilisers – Adding and monitoring water balancing chemicals are essential parts of pool maintenance. Evaporation, sunlight, rain and the presence of oils can all throw off your pool’s chemical levels. You’ll need a test kit to monitor them, and you should test your levels at least once a week. A water conditioner (stabiliser) can protect and extend the life of your water chemicals to save you money.
• Algaecides – Algaecides destroy any algae in your pool and prevent build-up on your pool walls. Algae can clog your filter system and cause your water to look cloudy if you don’t keep up with it, and it thrives in warm water. You can find affordable algaecides that are safe to add to your pool, and they not only eliminate algae, but they prevent it from coming back for good.
• Stain Prevention and Removal – Water lines and stains can discolour the sides of your pool and be difficult to remove. Stain prevention and pool stain removal chemicals can get rid of these unsightly stains. These stains come from metals like silver, iron, copper, lead, cobalt, and manganese in the water, minerals that can cause scaling on your pool walls. However, applying stain remover will strip them away, and stain prevention chemicals will stop them from coming back.
• Chemical Kit – You have to keep track of an alter a range of chemicals in your pool water to keep your pool looking its best. The easiest way to do this is to buy a pool chemical test kit. This kit will come with several vials and test strips. You fill the vials with pool water and compare the colors to the chart. This will tell you whether or not you have to adjust your chemicals.

Compass Pools Can Help You Design and Install Your Dream Pool

Are you ready to add your dream pool to your yard? Perhaps you have questions about the installation process or maintenance? Either way, we want to help. Find our nearest dealership and drop by to talk to one of their professional staff today!

Self-Cleaning Pool Customer Testimonials

Thanks to thousands of self-cleaning pool installations, we can provide an unlimited number of self-cleaning pool references to any prospective pool owner. If considering a pool, think of having an intelligent pool installed. To get in touch with happy Compass Pool owners, locate your closest Compass Pools dealer to arrange a free onsite consultation. Or learn more about pool cleaning and making smart pool decisions in our printed pool magazine that you can request for free.

Video transcription: We get a great number of people who come to us and talk to us about putting in their first or their second pool who are really well researched. The more research somebody does in the swimming pool market, the more likely they are to become a Compass customer.

We also get a really high percentage of people who are getting their second pool. They may not have got a pool from Compass where they were living originally. But if they’ve moved or they’ve built a new home and they decide that living with a pool is something that they don’t want to miss out on, it’s amazing how many of those people, for their second pool, come to Compass.

The reason is they’ve owned another product. They’ve owned a swimming pool that has no doubt taken them a fair bit of time and energy and investment to keep that pool looking and operating the way they want it to. They’ve had that experience and now they’re coming to Compass because they just don’t want to have that responsibility anymore. They’re generally looking for Compass’ exclusive Vantage in-floor cleaning and circulation system.

If you’re busy and you really want to own a pool but you’re concerned or put off by all the work friends and other people have told you is associated with a swimming pool, come and talk to us. We’ll show you how we can make that work disappear. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.

What are the main benefits of pool circulation systems?

Video transcription: With ten years’ experience working with Compass Pools, probably the biggest inclusion for a swimming pool that makes the biggest difference when I talk to people and revisit pool owners is certainly the Vantage in-floor cleaning and circulation system. Everyone gets really excited by the fact that it cleans the swimming pool. That’s a great thing and we love the fact that it does. But the in-floor cleaning and circulation is so much more than that.

It’s a system that is designed to effectively circulate the pool water. Let’s face it, a swimming pool is very similar to a bath, it’s just a lot bigger. If you get in the bath at night and make the water all dirty, when you get out you can pull the plug. You can’t pull the plug easily on your swimming pool. So some time ago, the industry determined, how do we make that pool healthy? To do it, we’ve done it through the use of sanitisers and a fairly basic circulation system.

That circulation system consists of a skimmer box. That skimmer box system, which is installed at the top of the pool, is the only exit point for water. This is a real challenge because that system is purely taking the water from the very top of the pool, taking it usually through a pump, a filter, a sanitiser and then returning it at the opposite end of the pool, generally through two return lines.

Anybody who works in the pool industry knows that is a fairly ineffective way to treat water. How we know this is, if you go up and put your foot into the top layer of the swimming pool and say, that feels nice, and then you dive into that pool, you’re going to get a very distinct temperature difference. The water on the top is heated by the sun that continually travels across the pool and that warm water actually accumulates or lifts up all the chemicals. So they sit very concentrated in that top layer of pool water.

The idea with an in-floor cleaning and circulation system is to stir that chemical right back through the pool so we have a chemically treated pool that is healthy from top to bottom. All the chemicals don’t just stay in the top layer where they are getting evaporated and you’re having to spend more money trying to make that pool look after itself. Circulation is one of those fundamental aspects that we really want to get right in the swimming pool.

Not only does Compass have its Vantage in-floor cleaning and circulation system but Compass also has another system that is designed to circulate water effectively. This is fundamentally different from what any other pool manufacturer is producing today. The benefit of these systems is not only do we get a healthy pool from top to bottom, we also get a pool temperature that is even right throughout the pool.

We’re able to reduce the chemical consumption within the swimming pool and we’re also effectively able to reduce the electricity draw on the pool from having water so effectively turned over in the swimming pool and by the ability to employ energy efficient pumps with both of those systems.

There are lots of different options when it comes to the inclusions you choose with your Compass pool. Each of those options that suit a range of budgets have been carefully considered to ensure that we’re doing the absolute utmost in how we treat that water, how we effectively turn and stir that water through the pool. We want to ensure that we make it healthy for everybody to swim in that pool with the least possible effort, time and energy having to be spent on your pool. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.

Looking for a self cleaning pool: discover the in-floor cleaning and circulation system

Video transcription: One of the exciting things about working here is I can’t tell you the number of times that somebody has walked in the door or I’ve turned up at somebody’s house and I’ve said, how did you hear about Compass Pools? They’ve said, Joe down the road, has one of your pools, he’s had it for eight years and he’s never cleaned it. We hear that a lot. The reason for that is that Compass Pools was the first company in the world to create the world’s first in floor cleaning and circulation system for fibreglass pools.

That’s not something you have to have but it is pretty hard for us to install a pool today without somebody giving it really serious consideration or adding it to their swimming pool.

When we talk about in-floor cleaning and circulation it’s really important not just to think about the system as a cleaning system. It’s so much more. In fact the first systems were designed to circulate water. That is the real challenge swimming pools have.

The exclusive Paramount Vantage in-floor cleaning and circulation system and exclusive to Compass is more than just a cleaning system. It’s a system that is designed to circulate water effectively. This means the distribution of chemicals right throughout the pool, proper circulation that reduces the pool’s consumption of pool chemicals. It gives us the ability to properly connect other features such as energy efficient pumps with the pool. It ensures that we run them in such an effective way that we’re really reducing the overall cost associated with owning a swimming pool. This is all with the benefit of not having to put any effort into cleaning. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.