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What pool equipment do I need to maintain my swimming pool?

Pool Equipment,Pool Maintenance

Well, that’s a good question. Is this a comprehensive list? Nope.

This short list will not make Billy, over at the corner pool store, who is peddling thermometers with shark heads on them, or arachnophobe friendly spider attachments for skimmers (which are actually kind of awesome), very happy at all. There are so many cool gadgets that are fun to try, but before you go spending all of your birthday money on the fun toys, here are a few basic necessities. Once you get the hang of these basics, you can decide what else you want to buy based on your pool’s need.

  1. A chemical test kit – NOT STRIPS!
  2. A tele-pole.
    Don’t get the cheapest one or it will break the first time you get a decent collection of leaves in your pool net. Which reminds me…
  3. Pool net or leaf rake.
    This is personal preference, but I like the bag nets with the leaf rake on the front. It allows you to not only net the leaves floating on the water’s surface but you can also easily scoop leaves, rocks, diving toys and other debris off the bottom of the pool.
  4. Vacuum head
    Don’t skimp on this; a good vacuum head cuts your vacuum time way down. I like the ProVac 214. Check it out, you will thank me.
  5. A vacuum hose.
  6. A pool brush.
    If you have a liner pool, make sure you get nylon bristles.
  7. Chemical balancers.
    This varies based on your sanitation system. Be careful of Billy at the corner store…he may try to sell you a lot of chemicals you don’t need or massive quantities of chemicals you will rarely use. If you’re not sure, do some research (give us a call and we are happy to tell you what you do and don’t need) Nobody wants a stale bucket of Water Hardness Plus sitting in their garage for 7 years.

    “…to clean your pool and keep it sparkling, you truly only need the few items”

Yep, there are a lot of cool salt systems, automatic vacuums, variable speed pumps and the like that you could buy. I think those are great things for convenience, but to clean your pool and keep it sparkling, you truly only need the few items listed above.

If you find that putting chlorine pucks into an erosion feeder gets your goat, then let’s talk about a salt system. If the chemicals don’t cause you to sweat, but vacuuming really pushes your buttons, then let’s talk about an automatic vacuum cleaner. Until then, save your nickels until you know what you really want to buy.

(Seriously though, if you don’t like bugs crawling on your hands, the skimmer angel is fantastic; or you could just put on your old yellow cleaning gloves before plunging your hand into the skimmer to clean those little critters out.)

Tags :
chemical balance,pool equipment
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