Public Pools Need Accuracy, Security, and Efficiency

As a commercial pool owner, maintaining water quality is paramount. Whether it's for a hotel, gym, apartment complex, HOA, or community center, ensuring that your pool water is clean, safe, and chemically balanced is essential for the health of your swimmers and the longevity of your pool. 

It’s also essential for your business and reputation. After all, nothing keeps guests away like concerns around if your pool is clean (and safe) or not. Yet, managing pool water isn’t easy. Pool water chemistry is complex, thanks to a mix of chemicals that must all be kept in balance in order to work effectively without causing issues. This means that any time an adjustment is made, complex chemical math is required. Even for certified pool operators, this gets tricky–not to mention time-consuming. 

One of the most efficient ways to streamline and enhance your pool maintenance routine is by using a pool chemical calculator. These tools can simplify the complex process of balancing your pool’s chemicals, saving you time, money, and the hassle and risk of guesswork.

What Is a Pool Chemical Calculator?

A pool chemical calculator is a software tool designed to eliminate the complex math of pool chemical calculations, as well as any guesswork. This helps pool owners determine the correct chemical dosages needed to maintain proper water chemistry. These calculators take into account key factors like pool size, current chemical levels, water temperature, and pH balance, providing precise measurements for how much chlorine, acid, alkalinity, and other chemicals need to be added.

For commercial pool owners, the stakes are high. With more swimmers and stricter regulations, the need for precision in pool maintenance is crucial. A pool chemical calculator can also help you avoid overuse or underuse of chemicals, which not only keeps the water safe but also saves you money on unnecessary chemical purchases.

Why Use a Pool Chemical Calculator for Your Commercial Pool?

1 - Accuracy and Precision

The primary benefit of using a pool chemical calculator is that it ensures accuracy. Balancing a pool’s chemicals by hand can sometimes feel like a guessing game, especially when dealing with large volumes of water and multiple pools. A well-designed pool chemical calculator removes the guesswork by considering various factors like the size of your pool and the current chemical levels. This way, you can be sure you’re adding exactly what’s needed.

2 - Time Efficiency

Pool maintenance can be time-consuming. As a commercial pool owner, you have a lot on your plate, as does your pool maintenance staff. Spending time manually calculating chemical dosages can take you away from more pressing tasks. A pool chemical calculator allows you to input your pool’s details and get the required dosage almost instantly. This reduces time spent on maintenance and helps you and your staff focus on other aspects of pool and facilities management.

3 - Cost Efficiency

Buying chemicals in excess not only wastes resources but also eats into your budget. Over-treating your pool with too many chemicals can lead to further complications, causing irritation for swimmers and lifeguards or requiring more maintenance and potentially costly repairs. A pool chemical calculator helps you determine the exact amount of each chemical, saving you from buying more than you need and reducing chemical waste.

4 - Improved Pool Water Quality

By using a chemical calculator, you're more likely to achieve the ideal water chemistry, which is critical for the comfort and safety of swimmers. Properly balanced water reduces irritation to the eyes and skin, prevents scaling and corrosion of pool equipment, and helps to ensure that the water is clear and visually appealing. This is especially important for commercial pools, where you regularly see large volumes of swimmers.

5 - Simplifying Compliance and Improving Risk Management and Liability

As a commercial pool, you’re responsible for staying compliant to your local and state rules and regulations. These regulations include requiring pools to meet certain standards in terms of chemical balance and water quality. Using a pool chemical calculator ensures that your pool is consistently within the required parameters, making it easier to stay compliant and avoid fines or penalties.

Insurance companies also expect you to operate your pool(s) responsibly and to follow health regulations to be protected. 

Using a pool chemical calculator can give you the peace of mind knowing that your commercial water operations are safe and healthy and that you have the records to prove it. 

Key Features to Look for in a Pool Chemical Calculator

You’ll find a lot of different pool chemical calculators out there, but it’s critical to choose one that’s designed specifically for commercial pool use. When choosing a pool chemical calculator, make sure it includes these key features:

1. Comprehensive Chemical Coverage – A good calculator should help with a variety of chemicals and water parameters, including chlorine, bromine, stabilizer, acid, alkalinity, and calcium hardness.
   
   
2. User-Friendly Interface – The calculator should be easy to use, with clear instructions and an intuitive design.
   
   
3. Customization – Commercial pools have unique requirements, and every state or county has different regulations. You should be able to customize the calculator easily, so you can turn on the pool chemical tests required by your state or county and turn off those you don’t need.
   
   
4. Test Results Integration – To help track chemical adjustments and monitor ongoing water quality, look for a pool chemical calculation that enables you to input real-time test results. The PoolShark H2O app integrates seamlessly with the optional LaMotte WaterLink Spin Touch, so that when used together, a complete water test for 10 chemicals is completed, logged, and analyzed in just 60 seconds.
   
   
5. Regulation and Health Department Compliance – Paper pool logs get wet or damaged too easily, and even laminated logs get lost. They’re also easier for staff to forge when tests and adjustments are missed. The PoolShark H2O app features a digital log that automatically locks and saves test results and chemical adjustments, so your pool logs are always Health Department compliant. PoolShark H2O also securely saves your pool log information for a minimum of 7 years, as is the requirement for some states. Results can be emailed to pool administrators, who can then print or email logs to share with state inspectors–as well as backup or import to other systems. Even easier, a pump room sign with a QR code provides instant access to all saved pool logs for inspectors.
   
   
6. Remote Management for All Facilities – PoolShark H2O is accessible remotely from anywhere, so managers and owners can easily check logs from any computer or mobile device and oversee staff remotely. Managers can also set up alerts so they are notified when tests are missed or there are pool water issues that need to be addressed quickly, reducing the amount of visits to your pools while still ensuring pools are properly maintained.
   
   
7. MAHC Certified – Because pool rules and regulations do vary across so many states and counties, the CDC has introduced a single, science-based reference guide called the Model Aquatic Health Code to help standardize pool codes nationwide. A MAHC Certified pool chemical calculator ensures that it “meet[s] strict standards to help protect people’s health and safety at public aquatic venues”--essential for operating any public or commercial pool.

Conclusion

Maintaining the right chemical balance in a commercial pool is crucial, not only for the safety and enjoyment of your guests and swimmers but also for the efficiency of your pool’s operation. A pool chemical calculator can streamline this process by providing accurate chemical dosages and ensuring that your water is always in optimal condition. By saving time, reducing costs, and improving pool quality, the right pool chemical calculator is a valuable asset for any commercial pool owner.

A pool maintenance system with a pool chemical calculator like Pool Shark H2O replaces traditional paper commercial pool logs with a simple, easy to implement and manage cloud-based solution that brings you and your team confidence that your pools are being managed right.