Despite what we see on TV, owning a backyard swimming pool isn’t easy. You need to monitor the pH levels and check the chemicals. If you don’t, you’ll quickly start to have problems.

If you’re having issues with your pool, the pool chemistry could be off. In this guide, we show you some of the most common mistakes people make.

Are you making any of these mistakes?

1.     Not Inspecting Your Pool Regularly

It all begins with monitoring your pool. You need to perform checks as often as you can. This means regularly weekly checks throughout most of the year.

Even if you can do this, you need to remember to accelerate the checks during the summer. Pool chemicals need topping up more often during periods of heavy usage.

If you don’t inspect your pool regularly, it’s harder to fix the problem later. It’s easy to make slight adjustments to the pH. Where it gets more difficult is when you’re trying to make a big adjustment.

2.     Understanding pH

Everything revolves around pH levels. There are three main stages of pH.

Anything below seven would make the water acidic. The water would cause skin irritation and burns, if you jumped in it.

Alkaline water is anything above seven. This can cause the same problem as acidic water. To give you some context, alkaline pH is bleach and acidic pH is sulfuric acid.

Even slight changes can change the safety of the pool. It doesn’t always cause health problems, but it can cause various molds and funguses to grow.

3.     Wrong Time

You need to add the chemicals at the correct time for them to work. Nowhere is this more important than when dealing with chlorine. Chlorine is what keeps the water clear and safe. It stops bacterial colonies from growing.

Unfortunately, direct sunlight starts to turn the water green. It breaks the chlorine down. As chlorine reacts and breaks down, it forms a strong green color. It also forms free radicals. These are harmful to humans and can cause a series of health problems.

Chlorine tends to break down fastest when the sun is at its hottest. It’s why you wouldn’t replace the chlorine at midday.

It’s always best to apply your chemicals on overcast days. If this is unavoidable, try to do it late at night when it’s dark. This prevents the immediate breakdown of the chlorine particles.

4.     Prepping the Pool for Parties

Most of us have service technicians that manage our pools. After all, they understand more about the process than the average person.

You need to prep the pool for any major event you have. As a general rule of thumb, the more people in the pool the more chlorine you need.

Nobody should attempt to estimate the amount of chlorine they need. Only a professional should take care of this job. You’re departing from your normal pool care routine, and that requires an expert touch.

If you do this wrong and people are injured, you’re liable. Any injured parties could quite easily sue you for compensation.

5.     Algaecide

Algaecide does exactly what you would expect it to. It gets rid of algae and prevents its formation. Brands like Yellow Treat work wonders for any pool with an algae problem.

What a lot of people fail to realize is its effect on other chemicals. Algaecides are well-known for diluting the chlorine content.

A lot of people don’t replace the chlorine lost through applying algaecide. They might get rid of one problem, but they’ll quickly encounter another.

6.     Employing a Service Technician

The fact is all these scenarios are common scenarios. We all have pool parties and a need to get rid of algae growth. The problem is we aren’t professionals and we don’t know how to do this.

Although it might cost more, we would always recommend employing a service technician. They will come around to your pool on a regular basis and do everything for you. You can call them out for additional visits for special events.

Make sure you employ someone reputable. Ask any pool owning friends who they would recommend. It’s better to pay more for quality than have the job done incorrectly.