How to open up your pool for the summer
In the Northern Hemisphere, Summer is on its way and for pool owners that can only mean one thing – it’s time to dust off the brushes and gather the pool chemicals ready to open up the pool for a summer of enjoyment.
Here at our unique performance testing facility our team have 5 pools to prepare for a season of pool cover testing.
All pool owners know that opening the pool for the season can be costly in time and chemicals, but few know how much easier and cheaper this can be with the right pool cover.
Selecting the right cover can dramatically reduce the maintenance time required to bring your pool back to a usable condition.
EnergyGuard™ Selective Transmission’s patented properties create a cover for summer and winter keeping the pool clear, reducing chemicals costs and saving time – giving you more time to enjoy your pool!
Read more about EnergyGuard™ Selective Transmission in The GeoBlog:
Product Feature: EnergyGuard™ Selective Transmission
Is it OK to leave an EnergyGuard™ Selective Transmission cover on your pool over the winter?
So with opening up the pools fresh in our minds, here is a comprehensive guide to a quick and cost effective pool opening.
Remove cover
Carefully wind up your pool cover, making sure that as few leaves and debris enter the pool as possible.
Clean your cover
Place your cover on a flat surface, flat side up with the bubbles facing down. If possible, create a flat surface between the reel and the pool by setting the reel system back. You can also lay the cover out on a lawn to be cleaned, but please take care not to leave your cover on your lawn for too long, as the cover’s solar heating properties may lead to scorched grass.
Rinse your cover down with a hose or jet washer (ensure this is kept 20cm – 30cm away from cover). Use a soft brush to remove embedded residue.
Clear your pool of debris
Use a deep net or skimmer net to clear leaves and debris from surface and floor of the pool. Open and empty the skimmer baskets, and clean inside of the skimmer.
Deep clean your pool
Brush away algae and dirt off walls and floor of the pool using a soft pool brush. Remove inlet cover plates and eyeball inlet nozzles and clean.
Vacuum the pool – Run your robotic cleaner to remove the last residue at the bottom of the pool.
Top up water levels
Run a hose line to the pool and bring the water level to the middle of the skimmer.
Set up the filter
- Ensure your pump is switched off and turn off inlets, main drain, and skimmer valves to pump and filter.
- Open the lid to the pump remove the pump filter basket.
- Clean the pump filter basket and reinstall.
- Ensure the pump seal is clean and reinstall.
- Use a bucket of water to help prime pump.
- Replace pump lid.
- Open inlets, main drain, and skimmer valves to pump and filter.
- Switch on pump for 24 hours, ensuring the multi-port valve is set to “filtration”.
- Backwash the pool filtration as required.
Check chemical levels and balance pool
Take water samples from the pool (ensure taken 20cm under the water level). You will need to check your:
- pH
- Calculate Total Chlorine (Free Chlorine + Combined Chlorine)
- Calcium Hardness
- Total Alkalinity
Take appropriate actions to balance the chemical levels, taking time to allow chemicals to settle. Add stabilised chlorine to level the pool between 2-4ppm and allow to settle. Recheck chemical levels
Shock the pool (if required)
Before shocking the pool, you should always ensure that you are wearing your PPE.
Weigh out shock chlorine, and fill your bucket with warm water. Add the required shock to the bucket slowly, and stir until dissolved. Slowly add the shock to the pool moving around the pool and ensuring not to splash and to pay attention around the skimmer. Ensure all of your pool equipment is cleaned thoroughly. Leave and allow the shock to do its work. Repeat as needed.
Top tips from R&D:
At GeoBubble™ headquarters we have a unique, state-of-the-art testing centre consisting of five identical outdoor test pools. Each of these pools are shut down over the winter, and opened up again ready for the summer. So if anyone knows how to efficiently open up a pool for summer, it’s our Research and Development team – they’re doing it five times a year!
Always add your chemicals to a bucket of water first – never put directly into pool
Make sure that you have separate buckets for the mixing of different chemicals
Remember to rinse your cleaning equipment after use to prevent the reintroduction of algae.
A flocculant can be used to help clear the dead algae dropping it to the pool floor where it can be cleared.
Remember that an imbalanced pool can generate false chemical readings. Use distilled water to dilute the test sample to double check any strange readings.
Take care not to leave your cover on your lawn for too long, as the cover’s solar heating properties may lead to scorched grass.
Ensure the pool cover is off the pool water until the free chlorine level has returned to 2 – 4 ppm (see our Who Killed the Cover Blog for more details)
Reinstall the cover
When the chemical levels have returned to industry standards, reattach your cover to reel and install on pool.
Set the pump and filtration timings
Check the inlet nozzles are set to provide the best possible circulation, and set the filtration time schedule ensuring enough time to completely circulate the pool. For best heating performance set filtration to turn during the sunlight hours between 11 and 4.
Check, check and Recheck
Recheck pH, Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine and Total Chlorine and make adjustments if required.
Now your pool should be clean and ready to enjoy for however long the summer decides to stay!
Remember though guys – a pool cover is only efficient when it’s on your pool. So whenever your pool is not in use, pop your cover back on and continue to take advantage of all the benefits of a GeoBubble™ cover.
Unique GeoBubble™ Design
Evaporation Control
Heat Retention
Temperature Increase
Debris Prevention
