What are the Common Mistakes Made While Maintaining Salt Water Swimming Pools?
Nowadays, people are focused on increasing the aesthetic value of their homes by adding innovative solutions and some of these solutions not only increase the appeal of your property but also help you in staying fit and healthy in the long run like a salt water swimming pool.
Having a swimming pool in your home helps you in unwinding after a tiring day and besides that, swimming are considered one of the best forms of workout to keep one free from any lifestyle diseases. However, a salt water swimming pool differs from a normal swimming pool in certain aspects and one of these is maintenance.
When it comes to maintaining a salt water swimming pool there are many misconceptions held by people and this often leads to mistakes being committed when it comes to taking care of salt water swimming pools. There is no doubt that salt water swimming pool maintenance is a bit different from traditional swimming pools.
When you are aware of the mistakes being made by people, then it will help you in avoiding those issues and take proper care of your salt water swimming pool. Here in this article, we will discuss the common mistakes made by people while maintaining their salt water swimming pool.
Issues Related to Chlorine
A common misconception prevalent among individuals is that salt water swimming pool doesn’t contain any chlorine. This is completely wrong because when you add salt to the water, your salt water generator uses this dissolved salt to create chlorine for your pool water.
Most people think that when they are not adding any chemicals to the water, then there is an absence of chlorine in the water. However, you must understand that when you are adding salt to the water instead of chemicals, then this produces chlorine but in small quantities unlike chemicals.
This means that the water is quite friendly on your skin and eyes. However, the problem arises when people add chlorine to the water and don’t test the free chlorine level of their water for a long time. You should test the water for free chlorine level & balance the free chlorine level which will help you keep the water sanitized.
Keeping a Tab on the pH Levels
The pH level of both a salt water pool and a traditional pool will differ vastly. Whenever you are checking the PH level of your salt water swimming pool and then expect it to run higher than that from a traditional pool because the salt water generator raises the pH as the system runs.
However, remember that pH levels higher than 7.6 can cause skin irritation and burning eyes. It can even damage certain pool equipment. This is why it is recommended that you must keep a tab on the pH level of your salt water swimming pool rather than thinking that the salt water doesn’t need any pH balance.
Nevertheless, if you find that the pH levels are consistently staying higher than 7.6, then get in touch with a swimming pool maintenance contractor who can help you out.
Adding Too Much Salt
One of the common mistakes made by most individuals owning a salt water swimming pool is adding too much salt to the waters of the pool. Now, salt doesn’t evaporate and when it is added to water it stays there and gets continuously recirculate through the salt water generator which produces chlorine.
Adding too much salt is going to disturb the chemical balance of your water and it will be a tedious job to bring back the pH level. Moreover, the salinity level of your swimming pool water can only be brought down through rain, or splashing out, or manually.
Not Testing Alkalinity
The alkalinity of the water is very important because it helps in stabilizing the pH of your water and prevents its rapid fluctuations. The alkalinity levels of your salt water pool should be between 100 to 150 ppm. However, your pH levels will increase gradually when running the salt water generator.
This means that your alkalinity will lose its importance in the long run and might go below 100 ppm which is perfectly fine.
Finally
The above-discussed factors are some of the common mistakes made by people owning a salt water swimming pool. Most of these problems are avoidable if you are apt in the knowledge of maintaining a salt water swimming pool. If you are new to this, then seek assistance from a swimming pool contractor to help you out in the initial months.