5 Savvy Pool Cleaning and Maintenance Hacks
Owning a pool can be like having your own personal oasis right in your backyard. But as we all know, even a paradise has its own cleaning and maintenance challenges to keep things looking great. We’ve compiled 5 savvy hacks that will not only save you time and effort but might even get you some extra appreciation from your family and friends when they see how amazing your pool looks. From effortlessly taming pesky leaves to expertly wrangling all that fine debris that seems to pass right through your net when you skim your pool, we pass these pool secrets on to you. So grab your sunscreen and swimsuit and lets dive into these 5 savvy pool hacks that will leave your pool gleaming and have you feeling like a pool cleaning and maintenance professional.
1. Dish Soap Hack: Ever wish you had a magic wand to whisk away those pesky leaves from your pool’s surface? Well, we’re not magicians but we do have a handy potion that might just leave you spellbound. Before you net or skim your pool surface next time, try this pool cleaning and maintenance hack. You simply take a squeeze bottle (we use a 1-quart bottle, but any will do) add 1 part dish soap to 3 parts pool water, close lid, and shake to mix. Take your squeeze bottle with mix and spray a line down the center of your pool. This will part and push the leaves and debris that are spread across the surface of the pool to either side of the line you sprayed and toward the pool sides. Now instead of reaching your pool pole and net out to the center of the water over, and over, and over again, you can easily walk the perimeter and net or skim against the tile line and collect leaves and debris much quicker.
2. Tennis Ball Hack: Ever wonder how to get rid of the shimmering oil that sits on your pool water’s surface? It’s a pool party paradox- a great pool party with friends, but a greasy oil slick afterwards. After your next pool party, try this pool cleaning and maintenance hack. Simply take 2 or 3 (or more) tennis balls and toss them into your pool and allow them to freely float around. As they float around, they will work like magnets to collect the grease and oil that sits on the surface of the water. Now this alone will not collect all the oils, but along with proper filtration and pump run time, it will help to get your pool looking good again.
3. Pool Pole for Rough Measurement Hack: Step into the world of ingenious pool hacks as we unveil the Pool Geometer. Just kidding, it’s just a pool pole, but we’ve all faced the conundrum of sizing up a pool for maintenance and realizing we don’t really have the proper tool. While you usually have a tool to measure inches, or a few feet, when it comes to tens of feet, or submerged distances, the tool selection of most is a little thinner. If you have a rectangular pool, you can use a pool pole (usually a standard 8 ft length) laid down along the perimeter of the pool and flip end over end until you reach the end of each side, to roughly determine the length and width. When you get to a section of the pool perimeter shorter than your 8ft pole, use those handy tools you have for measuring inches and feet (Ruler/measuring tape) to measure the difference. This would give you your rough length and width, which you could then use to calculate a rough surface area. You can also use the pole dipped into the bottom of the pool to determine a rough depth at the shallow and deep ends. With a rough surface area, and depth at the shallow and deep ends, you can calculate the rough volume of your pool which is needed for many dosing instructions.
4. Chlorine Tab on Grout Line Hack: Behold, another secret weapon to vanquish algae that has found a home in the grout lines along your pool’s water line, or spillway. None other than the handy 3” Chlorine tablet that many pool owners already have a bucket of or can get at any store that carries pool supplies. What you want to do is take your chlorine tablet, break in half, then use the more jagged edge to rub against the tile grout lines along your water line. This will remove some algae on the spot and leave a white residue from the chlorine tablet. Leave this white residue from the tablet on your grout lines for at least 15 minutes to a few hours, then use your pool brush to splash and scrub the chlorine tablet residue and algae away from your grout lines. In most cases this will remove the stubborn algae stains and return it to its previous condition. While this technique works great in most cases, if you have a green pool and the algae has spread all along the entire tile, you may need more serious treatment like a chlorine wash, acid wash, or bead blasting. At that point, we would suggest to contact a pool cleaning and maintenance professional for a consultation.
5. Pantyhose Around Skimmer Basket Hack: Dive into a world where the finest of debris stands no chance against the power of resourcefulness. We introduce to you one last secret weapon, the old pantyhose over the skimmer basket trick. What you do here is take a pantyhose section and wrap over the top of your skimmer basket and replace inside your skimmer as normal. What the pantyhose will do is trap and collect fine debris like dust, dirt, and tiny bugs that normally would’ve passed through your skimmer basket and made their way into your filter or back into your pool. Now when you empty your skimmer basket you just need to shake out or use a hose to spray and clean your new skimmer basket liner.
Well, there you have it folks, 5 savvy pool cleaning and maintenance hacks to hopefully help make your life as a pool owner a little easier. If you’re in the South Orange County area and find yourself needing assistance with any pool cleaning and maintenance tasks, please give us a call at 949-292-1927 or contact us to schedule a free at home estimate for weekly pool cleaning service or any of our services offered. We offer expert pool cleaning and maintenance service that you can rely on.
