Taking care of your swimming pool isn’t as simple as just running the filter. Like any body of standing water, swimming pools can become filled with debris and algae if they do not receive proper maintenance, and nobody wants to swim in a dirty pool. If you’re an inground swimming pool owner in Minnesota, keep reading to learn some of the weekly maintenance you should be performing to take care of your pool.
Weekly Swimming Pool Maintenance Checklist
- Empty your inground swimming pool’s skimmer baskets every single day to keep debris from piling up. You should also skim the surface of your pool with a net at least every other day to remove leaves, needles and other floating debris.
- Brush the walls and ladders of your swimming pool where they protrude above the water twice per week. Algae can still grow in these moist areas and won’t be killed by the chlorine in your water unless you brush it down into your pool.
- Twice every week, sweep off the area around your pool and then hose it down to wipe away additional dirt and grime. Cleaning your pool area doesn’t just make it look nicer, it also prevents debris from being tracked into the pool and it reduces the risk of a slip and fall injury.
- Run your pool vacuum two to three times per week. Whether you have a manual or automatic pool cleaning vacuum, using it a few times per week is an important form of swimming pool maintenance that removes algae growing on the bottom of your inground pool.
- Perform a test of your swimming pool water chemistry once per week. Make sure that levels of pH, chlorine, calcium hardness, and alkalinity are all in the proper range, which should be:
- pH: 7.2 – 7.8
- Alkalinity: 80-120 ppm (parts per million)
- Calcium Hardness: 180-220 ppm
- Chlorine: 1-3 ppm
