How to save money on pool chemicals

One of the main reasons people would not want to own a swimming pool is because of the costs associated with owning one. Of these many costs, one of the largest is the chemicals needed to maintain the pool water balance. As any pool owner knows, if he lets the pool turn green, he will end up spending a great deal of time and money on the water to restore it to a clean state.

This is a classic example where a better understanding of water chemistry could have saved a lot of money.

For example, if you understand that maintaining a level of disinfectant or chlorine in the pool is of paramount importance, then you could have avoided this green pool situation. If you keep a minimum of one part per million free chlorine in the pool at all times, the water will not turn green. The water only turns green after an extended period of time, maybe up to 12 or 24 hours or more, without chlorine levels before you see algae formation. However, it is not as simple as putting chlorine in the pool. There are a couple of different circumstances that could cause unexpected variations in chlorine levels. For example, high levels of rainfall or prolonged periods of direct sun and heat can consume large amounts of chlorine. Also, the lack of cyanuric acid, or stabilizer, in the water will allow sunlight to burn off chlorine at an exponential rate.

The second step to saving money on your pool chemicals is to understand that too much or too little stabilizer in your pool will cost you money. By keeping your stabilizer level at around 50ppm, you can be sure you are getting the most out of your chlorine. If you added chlorine to your pool and had a stabilizer level of zero, the next day you would have no chlorine in your pool. Even if you don’t understand what stabilizer is or how it works, just know that you need 50ppm of stabilizer or your chlorine could be gone. In simple terms, the stabilizer acts as a sunscreen for chlorine. Without the sunscreen, the chlorine will just burn off. However, it is worth noting that too much stabilizer can cause chlorine lockout and prevent chlorine from activating in your pool water, so this is not a situation where more is better. Buy a granular stabilizer and hang it on a nylon sock from your pool ladder. If it goes above 70ppm stabilizer when you test the water, take the sock off for a few days.

One of the easiest ways to save money on your pool chemicals is to have your water tested regularly. Not only using test strips or titration kits at home, but also taking your water to a professional water lab for analysis. There are many conditions where a water lab might notice something in the water before you do. One of the best ways to avoid spending a lot of money on chemicals is to catch the problem before it becomes a bigger problem. If you catch a chemical deficiency while it’s still in its infancy, you can quickly and easily correct it.

The final tip on how to save money on your pool chemicals is to simply learn pool chemistry. If you can honestly admit that you don’t understand the relationship between pH and total alkalinity, or the importance of calcium hardness or disinfectant in your water, then you need to educate yourself on the subject. By understanding what is happening, you can avoid the situation where you make the problem worse by taking the wrong corrective action. Pool chemistry is actually pretty easy to understand when you hear it from someone who really knows their stuff.