Swimming Pool Tips and Reviews

Pool maintenance often fails for a frustrating reason: the homeowner unknowingly fights the system you are trying to keep stable. One of the biggest issues starts at the pool filter. When customers “take care of the filter” without understanding the details, filtration drops and the water never quite clears. With a DE filter, running with no diatomaceous earth, running with barely a dusting, or dumping in an entire bag can all cause cloudy water and poor performance. Cartridge filters get neglected too, with elements left in place for years until pleats spread, bands break, and the fabric clogs with oils and debris. For pool service pros, diagnosing these problems quickly is a key skill because a clean-looking equipment pad can hide a filter that is no longer doing its job. Filter neglect is not limited to DE and cartridge systems. Sand filters can be ruined by years of never backwashing, turning media into a hardened mass that channels and stops filtering, sometimes to the point where...

Pool filter PSI is one of the fastest ways to spot circulation problems, but only if you understand what the pressure gauge is actually telling you. PSI means pounds per square inch, and on a pool filter it reflects resistance as water tries to move through the system. As resistance rises, water flow back to the pool drops, which can show up as dull water, weak returns, a spa spillway that turns from a strong sheet into a trickle, or water features that barely run. The key pool maintenance habit is to learn your “clean filter pressure” for each pool, because every equipment pad, plumbing run, and filter type can start at a different baseline.   A clean starting PSI is your reference point, not a universal number. When a filter is freshly cleaned, note the gauge reading and treat it as the baseline for that specific pool. As the filter loads with debris, PSI often climbs and circulation slows, but the rate of change depends heavily on the filter design and surface area. In gene...

Shocking a pool gets talked about like it’s a single action, but it’s really a process of raising free chlorine high enough, long enough, to oxidize contaminants and kill algae. When a pool turns green, the root cause is almost always too little effective chlorine relative to what’s in the water. That “shock” word hides the real work: measuring conditions, adding enough liquid chlorine or cal hypo to reach a meaningful ppm target, then testing again because results are not instant. Think of it like cooking: you don’t check a cake after one minute and declare it done, and you can’t add a small dose of chlorine to a swamp and expect a miracle. For pool owners and pool service pros, learning the pool shock process means fewer return trips, faster green pool cleanup, and less frustration when chlorine seems to disappear overnight.   A practical starting point for a severely green pool or heavy mustard algae is an aggressive dose that matches the demand. A field proven rule of thum...

Pool service pros live for those “how did you do that?” moments, and nothing creates them like a fast green pool cleanup. When a customer has burned through hundreds of dollars in pool chemicals with no progress, your process is the difference. Two common approaches dominate: the floc method and the shock and awe method. Floc uses aluminum sulfate to bind suspended debris and algae, drop it to the floor, then you vacuum to waste after about 48 hours with the pump off. Shock and awe relies on raising free chlorine extremely high to oxidize algae and organics, then filtering out the dead material. Which option makes sense depends on your region, pool filter type, and whether you can vacuum to waste with a multiport valve. Speed comes from removing bottlenecks, and the pool filter is often the biggest one. In cartridge filter pools, old, compacted cartridges can slow circulation and trap fine debris poorly, making a green pool cleanup drag on. Swapping in new cartridges during a cleanup c...

Zero chlorine in a swimming pool is one of the fastest ways a clean backyard turns into a cloudy, algae-prone headache. For pool service technicians and homeowners, a “0 free chlorine” reading usually means more than just forgetting a dose. It often follows heavy bather load, a pump left off for days, not enough chlorine added last visit, or a buildup of organics that rapidly consumes sanitizer. The key pool maintenance lesson is speed: the longer the water sits without sanitizer, the more bacteria, microalgae, and debris multiply, and the harder it becomes to recover water clarity and safe sanitation.   A critical step is testing the right numbers, not guessing. When a pool zeroes out, combined chlorine (chloramines) is commonly present, which is why the water may smell “chlorine” while still being unsafe. Use a proper pool test kit that measures total chlorine and free chlorine so you can calculate combined chlorine (total minus free). This matters because breakpoint chlorin...

Saltwater pools still run on chlorine, and the heart of the system is the salt chlorine generator cell. When the salt cell starts failing, the pool can go from clear to cloudy fast, and many owners misdiagnose the problem as “low salt” instead of low chlorine production. A key reason these parts are expensive is construction: titanium plates coated with precious metals like ruthenium or iridium. That coating is what makes chlorine generation efficient, and it is also what gets damaged by neglect, scale, or harsh cleaning. For pool maintenance and pool service professionals, keeping a cell alive means understanding both equipment limits and water chemistry, not just turning the output knob up and hoping. Sizing is the first leverage point. Many builders undersize a salt cell, leaving no production margin during heat waves, heavy bather load, or long sunny days. Looking at chlorine production rates helps: a Pentair IC15 produces about 0.60 lb/day, an IC20 about 0.90 lb/day, an IC40 about...