A Maintenance Free Swimming Pool

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When we were building our inground pool, my goal was to make my pool as maintenance free as possible. During the summer, I am here at the office all of the time and my wife takes care of the pool, so I purposely chose equipment to make the job easier for her.

With a few of these “Easy Equipment” items, you can also enjoy your pool without maintenance worries.

Easy Pool Filters

There are three different types of filters that are available: Sand, DE and Cartridge filters. The pool filter I installed is a Cartridge filter. With a cartridge filter you do not have to add any additional media inside the filter like you do with a sand or DE filter. Also, there is no valve for backwashing, which means less wasted water, but also much less resistance to flow, so that my variable speed pump saves me even more money.

With a cartridge filter, as long as you over-size it properly, you can go 4-6 months without having to clean the filters. Virtually no maintenance either, and mine only needs to be cleaned at the end of the season.

Easy Pool Pumps

timeclock

When it comes to your pool pump one of the things I would recommend that will make your life easier is a mechanical time clock, or an automated control system, which we talk about later in this article. Timeclocks make it possible to program your pool pump to turn on and off at a desired time. With a time clock you will not have to walk over to the pump and turn it on because it will do it automatically.

Choose a pool pump with a large pump basket and a clear lid, so you can see if the basket needs cleaning, and you can quickly see the water volume moving through the pump. Install your pool pump close to the level of the water in the pool, but also try to make sure it would never be submerged by heavy rains or flooding. Pool equipment should be in a dry, sunny area, without mulch or overhanging plants.

VS pumps

The pump we use is a variable speed pump, which I can program to run at different speeds. It basically runs at low speed for 18 hours per day, and then high speed for 4-6 hours per day, depending on season. VS pumps run almost all the time, but uses less than half of the energy used by standard pumps. And, it also includes its own timer, no extra timeclock needed!

Easy Pool Cleaners

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Bandit the Robot

One product which I have on my own pool and strongly recommend would be a robotic pool cleaner. This is the easiest and best way to clean the pool. With a robot cleaner, you never have to vacuum your pool. While the cleaner is doing the work scrubbing the walls and floor of your pool you can sit back in your lounge chair with a cool refreshing drink. I hear to a lot of customers stress about the maintenance of their pool but, if you have the right pool cleaner you will not have to worry about it.

Robotic pool cleaners are the simplest to operate, some even have remote controlled operation. My 8-yr old son sometimes runs ours for his mother when he gets home from school. He just wheels the caddy over to the pool, lifts the robot (we call him Bandit) into the pool, and then plugs the cord into the low voltage transformer. In about two hours, the cleaning cycle is complete, and Bandit stops cleaning, waiting for my son (or me) to come retrieve him.

Easy Solar Blanket Reels

Without a solar reel, removing and installing a solar blanket cover can be a real hassle. Instead of using a manual solar reel we have an Electric Powered Solar Reel. No manual hand cranking, we can remove cover which just the touch of a button; this reel is completely automated and does all of the work for you.

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We heat the pool all summer to a nice temperature, so to conserve energy and evaporation, we try to keep our pool covered when we are not using it. Automatic pool covers can also be installed for maximum heat retention, and they keep the pool clean too.

Another easy method of solar, although more costly – is to use Cover Free, a liquid solar cover. It’s not quite as effective as a solar blanket, but is certainly much more convenient – just pour in the liquid!

Easy Water Level

We do not lose too much water to evaporation, but I’ve seen it lose 1/2 in. during hot days with a lot of use. I had an automatic water leveler installed under the pool deck, to maintain the water level in the middle of the skimmer. We also have deck mounted water levelers that you can connect to a garden hose. It does give me an extra step to do when I winterize the pool, but at least I do not have to drag the hose out and in all season long, to fill up the pool. And, I’ve never over-flowed the pool, from forgetting the hose was on!

Easy Pool Sanitation

Hayward Salt & Swim

When it comes to sanitizing your pool, instead of using chlorine tablets, I would recommend a salt water chlorine generator. With a salt system you eliminate having to purchase not only chlorine tablets, but also pool shock to shock the pool – the salt system will do that for you, too. Having a salt chlorinator on my pool has made my pool sanitation e-a-s-y.

After adding salt to the pool, my Hayward salt system creates all the chlorine I need to sanitize and shock the pool water. The Salt & Swim system has a replaceable salt cell, so it requires no cleaning. I no longer have to buy, transport, store, or handle chlorine tablets and also no longer have to breathe in chlorine gas when opening the bucket.

Easy Water Balance

Another pool chemical product I strongly recommend when using either Chlorine tablets, granular chlorine or salt water chlorine generator is called Sea-Klear, a natural clarifier that is made from crushed crab and lobster shells.

sea-klear

This product has some sort of magic that stabilizes my water balance. Check your water chemistry and balance your pH and Alkalinity before you add Sea-Klear to your pool. It then maintains the pH and Alkalinity – keeping it more or less balanced and stable for for at least a month, so I do not have to worry about testing the pool water so often. I didn’t believe it either, until I tried it – it really works! It also gives the water unbelievable clarity – it makes my pool water really sparkle!

What Can’t be Made Easier?

Just about any maintenance item for a swimming pool can be automated or made easier, it all depends on how much money you can afford. One task I can think of that can’t be automated are removing your skimmer basket to clean debris. We also have to clean out Bandit’s debris bag once our robot friend has cleaned the pool.

Another task that can’t be automated would be cleaning of our cartridge pool filter. There are automatic backwashing systems, for sand filters, but they are not very common on residential pools. They use a sensor to monitor the tank pressure, and an automatically operate the backwash valve when the higher pressure indicates a need for cleaning.

Now you can see – my pool is fairly easy to operate – and nearly maintenance free. I probably spend less than 10 hours working on it, all season long. If you want to discuss how to make your new or existing inground pool [more] maintenance free, give us a call!