 Swimming Pool Problems
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Pool problem help& pool maintenance tips
Most pool owners have similar complaints about their pool water problems and say things like: "My swimming pool always turns green with algae!", "My eyes and nose burn when I swim and I can smell the chlorine," or "The swimming pool water is cloudy. How do I know if the water is safe for my kids?" This site addresses these and other questions about pool water chemistry and swimming pool problems. Step by step guides take you through all aspects of pool water testing, balancing the water chemistry and general swimming pool maintenance. To make life easier, there are convenient water calculators to help you work out how much of each chemical you need. You can also work out the volume of your swimming pool or make conversions between gallons and litres. The pages dealing with identifying and solving the most common swimming pool problems will no doubt be of use to all pool owners, pool maintainers and swimmers alike. Problems such as algae, cloudy water, swimming pool illnesses and chlorine smells are covered. Please feel free to request help on topics not covered on this site. Visit the new Swimming Pool Help Forum where you can air your views, exchanges ideas and thoughts about pools, or ask for online advice from countless pool owners and professionals. If the Frequently Asked Questions hasn't got an answer for you, please feel free to post your question or problem for quick and professional swimming pool advice. No registration is required because your privacy is important to us. A comprehensive glossary of swimming pool and pool maintenance terminology has been added. If you can't figure out the pool manuals or maintenance guides, then this can really help to solve your problems.
Burning Eyes and Nose If the swimmers complain about burning eyes and nose, or dry, irritated skin, there is most certainly a problem with the pool water chemistry. This could be caused by various factors:
By testing the swimming pool water and correcting these levels, the problem should disappear. Even at the recommended levels, chlorine can cause eye irritations. To enable effective sanitation at lower chlorine levels, consider installing a mineral pool sanitizer which requires only about 25% of the chlorine normally necessary. Pool Chlorine Smell
Many pool owners complain that the swimming pool water is not really clean, but they can smell the chlorine so there must be enough in the water to ensure disinfection. Unfortunately, if you can smell chlorine, the swimming pool hasn't got enough - strange, isn't it?! What you can smell are chloramines. These are formed when insufficient levels of free available chlorine react with ammonia and other nitrogen-containing compounds (swimmer waste, sweat, urine, etc.), resulting in their only being partially broken down (creating halomethanes). To confirm this, measure the free available chlorine and total chlorine. You will be able to calculate the unwanted, irritating combined chlorine compounds as follows: Combined chlorine = total chlorine - free chlorine You will probably find that there is little or no free available chlorine and too much combined chlorine. A chlorine shock treatment or other pool water sanitiser is necessary to complete the disinfection and dissipate the combined chlorine. The combined chlorine in the pool water can also be destroyed with a non-chlorine shock if you prefer not to use large quantities of chlorine. Cloudy Swimming Pool Water Clear, sparkling pool water is a joy to look at. A cloudy swimming pool loses its beauty and becomes uninviting for swimmers. Cloudy swimming pool water can result from one of several factors:
By testing and correcting the above, the cloudy pool water problem should disappear. More help for cloudy water problems can be accessed at the Cloudy Pool Water Forum.
Swimming Pool Problems - Illness Waterborne Pool Illnesses Swimming pools are exposed bodies of water and are thus subject to contamination. The contamination can be carried into the pool water by the environment (e.g. wind, rain) or by swimmers. There has been a dramatic increase in infections and infectious diseases from swimming pools over the past few years. Some strains of bacteria and viruses have built up resistance to the chlorine we use as a sanitiser in our swimming pools. Others are destroyed very slowly. Consequently, there has been an increasing demand for alternative sanitisers able to quickly and effectively destroy the disease carrying organisms. Unfortunately, it is impossible to prevent bacteria and viruses from entering the pool water. In swimming pools with a high swimmer load, the level of contaminants entering the water are especially high. Ill or recovering people are requested to abstain from swimming, but many ignore this plea. Chlorine breaks down very fast in the presence of high contamination and swimmer load and due to the effects of the sun's UV rays and heat. With these factors in mind, many swimming pool maintainers over-chlorinate the pool water in the hope that illness can be prevented. This creates another dilemma - chlorine, too, can cause health problems and overuse should be avoided at all costs. A total reliance on chlorine for swimming pool disinfection is illogical in the light of research results. There is unequivocal proof of the efficacy of non-chlorine additives or pool water treatments that can supplement chlorine to create safer pool water. Elements such as copper and silver have become widely accepted as potent anti-bacterial and anti-viral agents. These are some of the diseases that can result from infected pool water:
Below are some references to illnesses resulting from swimming pool water:
Pool water testing - no pool problems
At least once a week, the swimming pool water needs to be tested to ensure certain levels of pool chemicals. This is most conveniently done after backwashing the filter. A balanced swimming pool really only needs to have the pH and chlorine levels checked and corrected on a regular basis, the other chemical values being measured less frequently. A good pool test kit is a must - preferably one that uses tablets rather than liquid drops. Expired tablets/ test liquids (reagents) should be thrown out as they very often give inaccurate readings, resulting in us pouring unnecessary (expensive) chemicals into our swimming pools. Always keep the test kit in a cool dry place out of the sun and out of the reach of children. When testing the pool water, rinse the cells of your test kit thoroughly before filling them with water from at least 20-30 cm below the surface of the swimming pool. When you're finished the tests, never empty the test solution back into the swimming pool. Weekly pool water testing: If there are no obvious problems in your swimming pool, the following tests need only be done every 3 months or so but preferably every month. They are either undertaken by a professional swimming pool consultant who comes to your pool, or they can be done at many specialist pool shops if you take them a pool water sample (in a clean glass jar!). Monthly pool water testing: If the water in your area is free from any metals and your swimming pool shows none of the symptoms of iron or copper presence, the test for these metals is unnecessary. If, however, you notice staining on the walls and floor of the swimming pool, you should have the levels of these metals checked. Balancing pool water chemistry
According to the results of the pool water tests, we may need to add chemicals to bring the pool water back into the ideal balance for swimmer safety and visual clarity. We are required to regularly adjust the pH and chlorine levels as these tend to fluctuate according to the weather conditions and swimming pool use. It is extremely important to adjust the pH before adding the chlorine. When the pH is 8.0 the chlorine is only 20% effective and at a pH of 8.5 the chlorine is only 8% effective. Chlorine becomes overactive when the pH is lower than 7.0 . Despite a balanced pool water system, the swimming pool can sometimes become cloudy and lose its sparkle. This is usually a result of minute suspended particles of dirt in the water that are too small to be trapped in the filter. These particles can usually be cleared using a flocculant/ coagulant, which clumps them together, allowing them to be removed from the pool. One of the effects of the Pool Wizard ia a coagulant action, making the use of flocculants or coagulants redundant when a pool sanitizer is installed. Swimming pool maintenance
In ensuring a clean, clear swimming pool, our efforts are concentrated in two major areas: maintaining or adjusting the chemical balance of the pool water, and removing the unwanted dirt and foreign particles from the swimming pool. The chemical balance of the swimming pool water cannot be maintained by adding pool chemicals when we remember to. We need to regularly test the pool water and adjust the levels, by adding pool chemicals, according to the results of the pool water tests. In order to remove unwanted substances from the swimming pool, we rely on a water circulation and a filtration system. Regular brushing and vacuuming of our swimming pools ensures a minimum of foreign material in the pool water. Of course we also need to clean the filter itself and replace the filtration medium when necessary. In order to determine how much of each chemical you might need to balance the pool water chemistry, we have provided some swimming pool calculators to take out the guess work. A regular swimming pool maintenance program can help to prevent swimming pool problems and avoid pool water problems. Prevention is better than cure, and much easier.
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