Maintaining a pool is no joke, as you’ll need to dedicate a lot of time and care. However, a swimming pool is an investment as it increases the value of your house and allows you to have fun with your family and friends. After all, who doesn’t love pool parties?! Therefore, it’s important that you always take care of your pool with these Fall pool maintenance tips.
Pools need regular maintenance all year round, and even more so before and during the fall. It would be best if you prepared it for an early freeze so that the pool walls and the systems don’t suffer from internal damage, which can be pretty costly to repair.
This article discusses eight tips for Fall pool maintenance. Using these tips, your pool will be safe and clean even through the freezing winter.
1. Clean Out the Leaves and Debris
Our first fall pool maintenance tip is to clean the pool thoroughly. The first thing you should take care of when cleaning the pool is removing the leaves on the water. It’s better to skim them out every time you see any on the water’s surface. Otherwise, they may sink to the bottom of the pool, encouraging the growth of algae on the pool floor.
You can skim them out with a net or a leaf vacuum for pool, whichever you find more efficient and easy to operate. Taking the leaves off your pool will help you prevent getting green pool due to algae and will reduce a lot of cleaning time for you in the future.
In this process, you’ll also be taking out any pool toy left inside and thus prevent issues like clogging in the future.
2. Clean the Pool Deck and Pool Cover
Cleaning the pool deck and cover is another vital fall pool maintenance tip. Once you have skimmed off the pool, check whether the pool cover is clean or not and whether it has any debris, branches, or twigs. If there are any, you should remove them instantly to prevent the pool from getting dirty.
Inspect every inch of the pool cover to ensure no holes or damage. If you see any, repair the damage immediately or replace the pool cover if it’s beyond repair.
The pool deck accumulates a lot of dirt and grime from every step people take on it. Dead skin from our feet and body, oils from our skin mixed with the pool water, sunscreens, and lotions can all encourage the growth of algae and other foreign substances, making the edge slippery.
To prevent these from happening, scrub and clean your pool deck every time you and your family or friends dive in. You won’t just keep the deck shining but will also prevent any accidents from happening in the future.
3. Clean the Baskets and Pool Filter
Another fall pool maintenance tip is to regularly check and clean the pool’s baskets and filter. Make sure the pool filter and the baskets are functioning well. It’s essential to have the baskets in place and turn the pool filter on during or after every use before fall.
Pool filters suck the pool clean of debris as much as possible, and baskets trap any leaves and debris and stop them from getting into the pool system. The pool will need to filter a lot more leaves and debris during fall, along with lowering temperatures, which is why starting the season with a clean filtration system and baskets is essential.
You must invest in a pool filter to keep your home safe. If you have cartridge filters, you’ll need to clean or replace them by the end of summer. And if your filters are of sand and earth, then backwashing will do the job.
4. Maintain the Water Temperature
It’s not uncommon to have an early freeze in the fall. Freezing temperatures can have a detrimental effect on your pool’s structure, causing damage that you may not want to deal with.
That’s why our next fall pool maintenance tip is to always maintain the temperature of the pool water. As soon as you get a hint of early freeze, cover the pool with an insulating pool cover, especially at night and when no one’s using it. This will prevent the pool from developing ice crystals and protecting it on the surface.
However, surface insulation won’t be enough during the fall. You need to install a pool heating system to regulate your pool temperature.
5. Adjust pH Levels
Our next fall pool maintenance tip is to always check and adjust the chemicals in your pool. Pools always need chlorination and other chemical treatments to prevent the water from getting murky and the pool walls from getting stained.
Chemical treatments help maintain the pH levels of water, which you can test using pH testing strips. These chemicals also act as disinfectants for the water and will prevent you from getting skin infections.
Sometimes, however, the normal levels of chemical treatments don’t work. The altered pH in the water makes the pool look cloudy, and simply filtering the pool won’t work. That’s why you need to ‘shock’ the water to clear the cloudiness.
Pour a higher concentration of chlorine solution into your pool water and allow it to work for twelve hours. After that, filter and drain the water and replace it with new water. You’ll have a well-maintained pool for a longer time, and be prepared for the next pool dips!
6. Adjust Your Pool’s Heating Cycle
With leaves falling and the early freeze approaching, it’s more important than ever to maintain your pool’s heating system. If you haven’t invested in one, then you should consult a good swimming pool builder who will suggest pool heaters and how to maintain a comfortable water temperature.
A thermal regulator will have variations of heating cycles to maintain the water temperature. Depending on the season and the temperature, you’ll have to adjust the cycles to enjoy swimming in comfortable and warm water instead of freezing cold.
Types of Swimming Pool Heaters
You can choose any of the three types of swimming pool heaters: heat pump swimming pool heaters, gas swimming pool heaters, and solar-powered swimming pool heaters. Each has its own function and efficiency.
Heat Pump Swimming Pool Heaters
The heat pump swimming pool heaters are the most efficient and resilient and detect when to adjust the water temperature. The basic heat pump pool heater functions much like an air conditioner.
It runs on electricity, pulls warm air from the environment, and transfers it to the pool water to warm it up. When the pool gets too cold, the heater pulls more warm air and generates a higher temperature to adjust the water temperature to the set level.
Solar Powered Pool Heater
The solar-powered pool heater requires the least amount of electricity since it absorbs solar energy and converts it to usable electricity. It’s easier to maintain, doesn’t have operation costs, and is environmentally friendly.
However, you can’t always find enough power to heat up the pool, especially in seasons when the sun barely shows. That’s why you need a backup heater of a different type if your primary pool heating source is a solar-powered one.
Gas Swimming Pool Heater
Gas pool heaters are the least efficient. Sure, they provide good water heating, but it’s expensive and requires a lot of maintenance. Besides, gas is a finite resource, and with the scarcity of fuel nowadays, a gas heater isn’t a good option.
7. Repair Any Leaks in the Pool
Before fall starts or even during the season, dive deep into your pool, or call a professional for a deep pool inspection. Pools can develop cracks and damages that you may not be able to notice from the surface.
Fall is the perfect time to repair any damage since you won’t use it much. Therefore, you should thoroughly investigate not just the pool walls but also the other parts of your entire pool system.
Most materials shrink a lot during cold temperatures, creating cracks on surfaces. Freezing temperature can also aggravate old unrepaired damages and cause significant issues inside the house as well. Algae can also develop inside the cracks, causing significant issues when you try to clean it later.
Repairing damages before fall will ensure the pool is safe throughout the season and during winter. You should also check the pool thoroughly once winter has passed so that you can repair any new damages that may have appeared on the pool walls or the filter pipes.
8. Winterize the Pool
Lastly, winterizing the pool is a must when it comes to how to maintain your pool for Fall. It means you must prepare your pool for winter to prevent any damage on and inside it.
Here are the steps you must follow to save your pool from early freezes during fall:
- Keep the water level below the filters and other pipe systems. It would be best if you did this to prevent internal damage in the pool filtration and heating systems.
- Keep the water hardness and pH levels balanced to prevent the pool surface from etching.
- Drain any pool lines that may have water seeping inside.
- Seal off the mouth of each system to prevent water from getting in. The freezing of water and thawing of ice significantly damage the pipes, which will cause leaks inside the house shortly.
- Empty the pool after sunset, as the temperature drops significantly after these hours.
- Cover the pool with an insulating pool cover.
Conclusion
You must invest quite some time and money into your pool maintenance, even during the fall. While it may seem too much, the end result is always worth it. Besides, you have the chance to feel like a scientist with all the chlorination and testing of the chemical balance of your pool!
We hope you found these Fall pool maintenance tips helpful and will use them to maintain your pool during the fall.