Residential and Commercial Pool Care in Fall

With fall temperatures around the corner, Clark County Pool & Lawn wants to make sure your swimming pool is ready for the offseason. In our area, there isn’t much that is done differently because we don’t shut down swimming pools but there are ways to save money and we hope this blog post informs you on how to do that. During the long and hot summer, we know pools get a lot of use and need to be maintained once a week or more but that can ease up a bit especially when the water temperatures cool down. But, pools still need to be maintained. Now with fall around the corner, checking chlorine, pH, CYA, and Total Alkalinity usually takes a back seat compared to summer but so does brushing the tile line, the interior finish of the pool as well as the steps and benches. This can’t be how you take care of pools. We still recommend balancing your water chemistry and brushing your tile, steps, and benches regularly. You will also want to net debris and empty your skimmer and pump basket too. Pools will still get dirty and they still need to be cleaned. With cooler water temperatures, however, water chemistry levels change and the following are what is appropriate:

Chlorine: 1 – 2 ppm 

pH: 7.2 – 7.8

CYA: 30 – 80 ppm

Calcium Hardness: 200 – 400 ppm

During the cooler months, you can begin to save money by lowering your chlorine levels and your filtration run times. These are the two biggest areas of money savings but you will still need to monitor the pH because if it climbs above 7.8 the water can become cloudy and scale on the tile can occur. We mention this because many will put one chlorine tab in the floater each week and walk away. This isn’t a practice we recommend!!

So, with all that said, between the chlorine decrease and filter run time decrease, this will definitely put money back in your pocket and typically the time where you can make up for the expensive summer months. Typically, in September and October, you can lower your filter run times to 8 hours and during the winter they can be lowered to 6 hours.

Now that fall is here and cooler temperatures are here, remember to still take care of your investment because high levels of Calcium Hardness can still scale your swimming pool, and not keeping it clean can cause damage to your interior finish and filtration equipment. If you should have any questions about the changes that can be made when the weather cools down, please contact us today!