Protect Your Pool Over the Cold Winter Season
Keeping an above-ground pool in top swimming condition means more than just running the pool filter. Several chemicals must be added to keep the water clear and clean. There’s chlorine to kill the bacteria, cyuranic acid that helps to retain the chlorine in the pool, muriatic acid that modifies the pool’s pH level and algaecide to prevent the growth of algae. Administering each of these chemicals properly can be the difference between maintaining a clean pool and creating a toxic nightmare.
Instructions
Place chlorine tablets in a skimmer or chlorinator. Never dump chlorine tablets into the pool swimming water to allow them to dissolve. Chlorine tablets should be placed either in the skimmer or chlorinator, whether manual or automatic. Dumping chlorine tablets into the pool water will eventually cause discoloration to the pool liner.
Broadcast shock into the water via the pool return. Turn on the filter, stand by the pool return and slowly pour liquid shock into the return flow. To work effectively, shock should be distributed throughout the pool as quickly as possible. You don’t want to have a high concentration of shock sitting in one area of the pool. The high chlorine concentration can bleach the vinyl liner.
Dilute crystallized cyuranic acid in a bucket of hot water before pouring it into the pool. Similar to the shock, broadcast it into the pool via the return. Cyuranic acid in crystal form is difficult to dilute and may take several buckets of hot water to fully dilute. Once the cyuranic acid is added to the pool, sweep the bottom of the pool to prevent the undissolved crystals from sitting on the bottom. Sweeping helps the cyuranic acid to get back into the flow of the filtration system.
Add algaecides at the pool return. Similar to shock, algaecides get distributed quicker if added at the pool return. Because algaecides won’t damage the pool liner, adding it to the pool return water flow isn’t mandatory, but it does help to distribute it around the pool quicker.
Sprinkle muriatic acid directly into the pool water toward the center of the pool. Use a sweeping motion and refrain from dropping large clumps of muriatic acid. By sprinkling it lightly, it will quickly dissolve in the water. Large clumps will sink and can damage the pool lining
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