When you’re new to swimming pool ownership there are some items about a swimming pool that seem mysterious. The swimming pool contractors from Seahorse Pools in Fort Worth, Texas help you with understanding your swimming pool by taking away some of the mystery and removing barriers to your having as full a knowledge of your pool as you want.
Understanding your swimming pool
Will you fill your pool with “city water” or “well water”? The type of water you use to fill the pool can impact a couple of things:
- How quickly it will fill
- How many chemicals you need to get the water ready for swimming
If you use well water, you may run the risk of draining the well — so be aware of that. If you use city water to fill the pool you may be charged a “discharge” fee aka sewage fee; city water officials feel if you’re using that much water, it must be draining somewhere and there is a charge for that. Talk with them and let them know you will be filling a pool but not discharging the water and that discharge fee may be written off.
What contaminants might be in the pool water?
- Insects
- Organic materials — from humans or the outdoors
- Leaves and debris from the outdoors
- Bacteria and algae
- Calcium, metals, nitrogen and other naturally occuring elements
Swimming pools have skimmers — suction on the side of the pool. This houses the skimmer basket and captures floating debris from the water. The water from the pool is sucked into the skimmer, pushed through the pool’s filter system then pushed back into the water — freshly cleaned.
The main drain in the swimming pool. Ths is a drain, typically located on the bottom of the pool in the deep end. It pulls water from the deep end of the pool and pushes it out into the filter. Make certain your main drain is protected as it can literally suck a bathing suit, hair or even your skin in and cause a drowning hazard.
The pool’s filtration system is the heart of the pool. It is made up of two components:
- The pump
- The filter
They are the items that make certain the pool water is clean and filtered and swimmable.
Some pool owners want a pool heater. This piece of equipment will heat the pool water and will allow you to swim well into the cooler months of the year.
You may want to talk with us about having a chemical feeder installed in the pool. This device will add pool santizer to your pool in a “fill it and forget it” manner. Fill it with sanitizer, put it in the pool and let it do its job.
If you have any questions about your pool and its inner workings, ask us the next time we pay a service visit.