Pool Shocking is a Very Important Part of Pool Maintenance
When it comes to keeping your pool safe to use, pool shocking is a very important part of the routine. When you shock a pool, it means you add different chemicals to the water to make sure it is safe. What chemicals you will add are determined by what the pool chemical levels are before you begin the process. You should always test the water levels before going swimming. If the chemicals are off, it could put you at risk while swimming. It could also cut down on the longevity of your pool. Proper pool maintenance is critical for many reasons.
What Exactly Is Pool Shocking?
Pool shocking is going through and adding different chemicals to your pool to maintain the right chemical balance. You need this chemical balance to ensure that there is nothing in the pool that is dangerous to swimmers or to the life of the pool. What you want is a chlorine level that is high enough to kill off bacteria, algae, and chloramines. None of these are safe for a person to ingest while swimming, and they also quickly break down the inside of your pool.
What you want is to get to where there is what is commonly called break-point chlorination. This means that you have the right amount of chlorine to keep the pool safe, plus enough left over to freely float around the pool to kill off any contaminants that would be harmful to the pool or swimmers. The chlorine then freely moves around in the water, killing these contaminants as it comes across them. This happens when you have around 10 times the combined chlorine added to your pool that the water needs. The only way to know if you are at the right level of chlorine is to test the chemicals in your water.
Why is Pool Shocking So Important?
There are two reasons that pool shocking is really important. First, is to make sure the water is safe for swimmers. When you swim in the pool, if there were bacteria floating around, you would absorb it. As some of the bacteria got into your nose or mouth, it could make you sick. Second, is to make sure that you get as much life out of your pool as possible. The more you can keep water levels within the right limitations, the longer your pool will survive. When chlorine levels are too high or too low, algae can bloom. This means that you get a lot of algae around your pool that can eat away at the different parts of your pool. It can eat away your pool’s plaster and cause your pool to leak.
If you were to go through and close your pool without the levels being in the right range, you could open your pool next year only to find it has no water in it. The water could have leaked out all winter long, and the pool could be unusable. Algae and bacteria can also eat away at the pool tiles, making it to where they are brittle. This can lead to cracks and a need to have your pool tiles completely redone before the pool can be used for the swimming season. By simply keeping up with pool shocking each week, you can delay this becoming part of the lifecycle of your pool.
How Often Do You Need to Perform Pool Shocking?
When your pool is only being used now and again, and the weather is consistent, pool shocking needs to only be done about once each week. However, that changes depending on the circumstances surrounding your pool. First, the more people you have using your pool, the more you need to shock it. Second, if the weather has been rainy, you need to check your pool levels more. The additional water in your pool can throw off the chemical levels of your pool. Extra water can reduce the number of chemicals in your pool. Plus, rain can increase how many bacteria grow in your pool, making it to where you need extra chlorine.
When the weather is extremely hot and sunny, you need to check your pool levels more often as well. The dehydrating effect can concentrate the chlorine levels in your pool. This could mean that you need to add chemicals to decrease the level of chlorine in your pool. Ultimately, you want to make sure that you never let the free chlorine levels within your pool decrease down to zero, or rise above 0.5.
The Benefits of Having Someone Come In and Do Your Pool Shocking for You
If you are not able to keep up with your pool needs on your own, hiring a professional can make that process much easier. They can come in, check the chemical levels of your pool, and perform pool shocking as necessary to keep the water safe. You can trust that your pool will be safe to use when you want to use it. Plus, by keeping your pool constantly within the right chemical limits, you allow your pool to last as long as possible.
You have options when it comes to hiring a professional to help with your pool maintenance. If you want to hire them full time to care for your pool, that is an easy way of knowing it is always ready to go. Alternatively, if you just want to hire them now and again to come out when you are out of town or busy, it saves you the headache of trying to keep up with it on your own. Let the professionals keep your pool ready to go. That way, you can enjoy your pool without the stress of maintenance and remembering all of the nuances that go with taking care of a pool.
