The second major aspect of pool care is testing your water.  Testing is a portion of maintenance that is often neglected, but is crucial to ensure everything is being done correctly with the water chemistry.  There are two types of testing:  in-store testing and in-home testing.  Here’s a brief overview of each:

• In-home testing:  This is something we recommend be done at least once a week.  The more often the water is tested, the easier the pool will be to maintain and avoid problems.  It’s a good idea to test it before adding chemicals each week, because it verifies that the correct amounts of product are being applied.  Testing should take one minute.  There are a few different methods for in-home testing and we recommend using the method that works best for you.
  • Strips: This is the most common method for testing.  It’s as simple as dipping the test strip in your pool and comparing the colors to the chart on the bottle.  The strips give you a ballpark range of where your levels are for pH, alkalinity and chlorine.
  • Drops: This is an older method, and involves a multi-vial kit with different solutions that are added to your water samples to check your levels for pH, alkalinity and chlorine.
• In-store testing:  This is something we’d like to see happen once a month.  We offer a computerized water analysis that covers far more facets of water chemistry than any other available method of testing.  We can show people exactly what is necessary to balance the water, along with going over proper application methods.  It’s one way we can make caring for the pool even easier!