CONSUMER'S WORLD: Coping; With Cleaning a Pool
By JOHN WARDE
Published: June 2, 1990
Maintaining clean water has always been the chief concern, and expense, for owners of swimming pools. Now, simple and efficient products are available that make it easier and less time-consuming to maintain a pool's water quality, and the price is reasonable.
A pool owner's best resource is still a knowledgeable pool service and supply retailer. Most are members of the National Spa and Pool Institute (2111 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, Va. 22314). Look for a retailer who can provide computerized water testing for characteristics like mineral content and total alkali and acid quantity.
Computer testing is often free. By analyzing water samples brought in monthly by the customer, service experts can tailor a schedule of preventive chemical maintenance for an individual pool that will be easy to follow, using a minimum of chemicals.It will also be less expensive and more effective than an unguided strategy based merely on reacting to pool catastrophes like rampant algae.
New and advanced pool equipment is more efficient and requires less maintenance than older models. The newest high-efficiency single-speed pumps usually save more energy than two-speed models and are easier to match in capacity to the pool's filter and overall size. Two-speed pumps, although they save energy, sometimes cannot provide proper circulation at low speed; this creates a need for the increased use of chemicals.
Cartridge filters, developed within the last decade or so, are as effective and easier to clean than the other two types used since the 1950's, high-rate sand filters and diatomaceous-earth filters. High-rate sand filters are cleaned by backwashing, which involves circulating the flow of water through the filter in reverse. Properly done, and with the addition of a filter-cleaning chemical, the sand can last indefinitely. Diatomaceous-earth filters are also cleaned by backwashing, but the earth requires replacement each time the filter is cleaned.
To clean a cartridge filter, the cartridge is simply lifted out and hosed off. When it wears out, which usually occurs in two or three years, a replacement cartridge is inexpensive. Their cost ranges from about $30 to $65, depending on size, and they are easy to install.
New skimmers help the filter by removing surface debris from the water and also enhance the efficiency of the pump by enabling it to draw water faster. They now provide even more benefits.
Models are available that incorporate a supplementary cartridge filter beneath the skimmer basket. These skimmers automatically dispense chlorine and shut off power to the pump when the water level drops below the skimmer opening in the side of the pool. This protects against air entering the pool's plumbing, which can damage both the filter and the pump.
For removing debris that sinks to the bottom despite the skimmer, automatic sweepers and vacuums can be obtained that travel unattended along the pool's floor. They clean by making random or programmed passes that cover the entire area in a few hours, and can be operated at night or when the pool is covered.
Regardless of whether monthly computer testing is performed, pool water should be tested weekly by the owner with easy-to-use test kits that cost about $5. The kits contain a test tube, two containers of drops and a color gauge. The drops turn the water sample in the tube into a color that is matched to the color gauge, which in turn tells you how much to adjust the pH and chlorine levels by adding appropriate chemicals.
For keeping chlorine levels satisfactory, an automatic chlorine dispenser is more efficient than adding chlorine by hand. Most dispensers simply hold chlorine tablets and release the chemical at the rate that the tablets dissolve. But new models can automatically test the water and provide varying amounts of chlorine based on the results.
Chlorine is not the only chemical effective for sanitizing pool water. Bromine has been used since the 1930's and is becoming more widely used because it is odorless, does not cause eye irritation and works more effectively than chlorine where concentrations of bacteria are higher, such as in spas. Among the disadvantages of bromine are that it costs more than chlorine, and it is somewhat more difficult to administer. Because bromine is available only in tablet form, an automatic dispenser is required.
Recently, at least one company (Oaktree Chemicals, 1017 South Bellevue Avenue, Langhorne, Pa. 19047) has begun marketing a copper sulfate compound, called SCI-62, has an advantage over chlorine and bromine of not evaporating, making it less costly to use.