In my latest digital guide The Art of Pool Care, I talk a lot about the importance of pool cirulation because it’s often overlooked. Without effective water flow, you’re pool will constantly be dirty and force you to clean it manually. Remember, your filter system is there for a reason: to filter and clean the water. We need to help it out by setting up a good water flow.
Below is some quick action steps you can do RIGHT NOW to get better cirulation in your pool. Think of your pool like a giant cup of coffee. When you stir in your cream and sugar (if you take it that way) you dip the spoon all the way in to the bottom and stir. You do this because the sugar lives on the bottom and you mix in the cream much faster. If you were to only dip the tip of your spoon in, you’d get a lousy stir and a sugar rush on your final sip. best robotic pool cleaner
Here’s how to stir your pool with the whole spoon, so to speak.
- Make sure all of your skimmers and main drains are pulling water into the filter system. If you have an above ground pool, you will only have one skimmer. You can test this by putting your hand near the suction port under the skimmer baskets, but not too close. You will have to mess around with your valves to make sure you’re pulling from all ports. Once you figure out how your valves work, LABEL THEM!!!
- Angle your return jets to either 7 or 4 o’clock, and make sure all your jets are angled in the same direction to allow your pool water to spin away from your skimmers. Angling them down is like putting your whole spoon in the coffee to stir from the bottom up.
- If you have step jets, angle both or one of them towards the top step so it will push dirt off of the steps.
- Make sure your pressure gauge is running at normal pressure. To find out your normal pressure, take a look after a fresh backwash and that should be normal. You should also feel your return jets for high water pressure. When (and only when) your pressure gets to about 8 to 10 pounds over the normal, should you backwash or clean your filter.
- Check and lube your orings. Your filter system has a few orings that should be in great condition and lubed, but the most important is your pump best pool pump lid oring. Check for cracks by bending it between your fingers, and if it’s cracked, buy a new one. If it’s not, or when you get a new one, use a teflon based oring lube to create a better seal and better water pressure. No air should be getting into your filter system. If you have air bubbles, check out this guide.
We’re going to talk about cleaning best automatic pool cleaner in the next email, but I wanted to tell you to brush your pool’s dead spots. Dead spots are areas of your pool that don’t get much circulation. This could be steps or under ladders or the furtherest area away from your jets. Either way, you should brush these areas frequently so dirt, debris, or algae doesn’t build up.