With water shortages in many regions, it is more important than ever to conserve swimming pool water. Heck, we should be trying to conserve water regardless of a drought situation. A huge waste of water would be having to drain a swimming pool, especially prematurely.
We know that swimming pools need to be drained approximately every 5-7 years, depending on the volume. It also depends on when certain fields become too high. Sometimes it's just the age of the pool water that requires a drain. Sometimes it was because of our own poor swimming pool water chemistry. This can be resolved by testing, testing, testing! Using your Pool Shark H20 App regularly is going to prove to be key in helping you conserve water with unnecessary drains. Let’s talk about some things that can cause you to prematurely need to drain your swimming pool.
Cyanuric Acid
This is a required chemical for any outdoor, chlorine, or salt swimming pool. It helps the sanitizer from burning off in the sun in a matter of hours. Too much and it has an adverse effect. It becomes a problem instead of a helper. When cyanuric acid gets too high, normally over 100 ppm, it causes chlorine to be less efficient. This causes you to have to keep your free chlorine level higher because to what degree it is inefficient cannot be measured. This is for the safety of your bathers. This is why when stabilizer levels get too high we are forced to drain partially, or all, of our swimming pool water.
How do we cause this? There are a number of reasons your cyanuric acid levels can get too high, too quickly. Using Dichlor and tablets together is a prime example since they both contain conditioner. The number one culprit is pool operator error. You added conditioner when you didn’t need it. This could have been avoided if you were regularly testing your levels. This is a field, luckily, that Pool Shark H20 has.
Calcium Hardness
This is a naturally occurring element of swimming pool water. A minimum of 200 ppm is advised to keep the pool water from leaching out of the surface. Too much calcium can throw off our LSI and cause scaling. Not familiar with how to calculate LSI (Langelier Saturation Index)? This is a complete measure of if our swimming pool water is neutral, corrosive, or scale forming. While each individual field is important to test, the overall health of the water needs to be taken into consideration. Sure, there are formulas you can use to manually figure out your LSI. You probably remember them from your CPO class. But, seriously? Who wants to do math? The Pool Shark H20 App calculates the LSI for you so you need only make the adjustments necessary to keep your LSI in range. Peace of mind and accuracy? Sign me up!
If draining to lower calcium levels, make sure to test your source water first. If the calcium is high out of the tap and this is your reason to drain, then it is pointless. You’ll have to live with the high calcium and adjust other fields to compensate. This is why LSI is so important!
Total Dissolved Solids
Total dissolved solids are another culprit for needing to drain your swimming pool. When we add chemicals to the pool water, they only break down to a certain molecular level. They leave something behind. These are known as dissolved solids. The measure of the total amount of these particles is known as total dissolved solids. When this level gets too high, adding more chemicals becomes like too many people trying to get on a freeway at the same time. They burn themselves of efficiency trying to find room to dissolve. Once again, to what degree cannot be accurately measured thus the need to drain when they become too high? Keeping an eye on TDS to know when the water actually needs to be drained to keep our swimmers safe is the responsibility of any pool operator. In the interim of draining, please use the LSI to balance the water to keep it as safe as possible. Don’t forget! The Pool Shark H20 App has this feature built-in.
High Salt
If you are caring for a swimming pool with a salt system, you’ll need to invest in a method of properly testing the salt levels. The Pool Shark H20’s best friend, The Lamotte testing system, has spin discs that have salt as a field. And the results are sent right to your device! The number one cause of high salt being the reason to drain a pool? You guessed it. Operator error. Adding salt when it is not needed. Just because the salt system reads “low salt” does not mean dumping in a bunch of bags. This could be indicative of the need for a salt cell clean. It could also be a bad cell or an issue with the board. ALWAYS check your salt level independently of relying on the system’s reading.
Well, there you have it. Even if you don't live in an area with a need to conserve water, swimming pool water conservation can save you time and money.
Almost all of these factors can be prevented with accurate, and often, pool water testing. Why make life harder on yourself? Save yourself, and the need to drain your swimming pool, easily with the Pool Shark H20! See you poolside!
