It is that time of year to open and start enjoying our pool. This is an exciting time a year as we are only able to use our pool for about three months a year.

Maintaining a pool is a huge pain in the ass and a never-ending amount of work

Actually, no it isn't. If you use the pool store method of maintaining your pool, it is not only a huge amount of work it is extremely expensive. That is not the only way to manage a pool, and in fact, it isn't the best.

I have a very large 42'x23' pool and the number of chemicals to open our pool exceeds $600 if we were to follow the path laid out by our local pool store. Local pool stores are around to make money first, and help you with your pool 10th or 11th.

This is my pool sometime during last year's pool season, and where I spend a lot of my time in the summer. I am constantly told how amazed people are with how clean my pool is. I spend very little time working on my pool and most of the time is spent enjoying it. In fact, most pool owners are told to shock their pool every two weeks, I never need to do this!

What's your secret?

When I bought my house about two years ago, I was determined to learn how to properly care for a pool. In the past, I had a small 22' round above ground pool and it was difficult and time-consuming to maintain. I eventually took it down when the liner ripped and it started to buckle and my only option was to replace the entire pool or get rid of it.

I started to do some research and was directed to a site called Troublefree Pool. I was extremely skeptical about the process but spent a lot of time researching their suggestions and found many small pool companies who use their techniques with amazing reviews.

So it was decided, I would follow their guidelines and take charge of my pool. The first and most important step of their process was to acquire a professional pool testing kit. Pool test strips are useless and very inaccurate. You need a real test kit with chemicals and the experience to use it.

Taylor Deluxe DPD Test Kit - K-2005

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The gold standard test kit is the Taylor DPD test kit. This has chemicals to test all the important levels you need to maintain a healthy and clear pool.

Chlorine
Free Chlorine
Bromine
Alkalinity
Calcium Hardness
PH
Cyanuric Acid

For most people, this kit will last the entire summer, but there is a larger version that has larger bottles. I use the test kit offered by Troublefree Pools as you get more reagents and a better price.

TF-100 Test Kit

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It uses the same reagents as the Taylor kit (in fact some of them are directly from Taylor).

I am not going to go through the process I use to maintain my pool in this post, as I highly suggest going through their Pool School and learning the process yourself.

There are a few key tenants behind the Troublefree Pool method of pool maintenance, the first and most important is to have a good quality test kit, the second is knowing how to use it. While most pool stores have their own test kits you can bring water to have checked for free, the accuracy of their tests is inconsistent and highly dependent on your local store. Regardless, it is important you learn to read and understand a professional test kit without depending on a third party pool store.

Understanding the chemicals used in pool care and how to properly use a test kit isn't very difficult and is the first step to maintaining a healthy pool. I suggest you start here with ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

Once you understand what the chemicals do, how they interact with each other, and how to test for them, you need to stock up on chemicals. The number one change with the Troublefree Pool method is dumping the chlorine pucks and using liquid chlorine. The problem with chlorine pucks is they use stabilization, stabilization is used to prevent the sun from burning out the chlorine but doesn't burn off daily like chlorine daily. So every time you add stabilization (Cyanuric Acid) to your pool, you are increasing the total amount of Cyanuric Acid in your pool. The more Cyanuric Acid in your pool, the more chlorine you need to maintain it. By using "pucks" you are driving your CYA (Cyanuric Acid) higher and higher throughout the season and decreasing the efficiency of the chlorine pucks.

By using liquid chlorine, you are only adding chlorine (and some salt) to your pool. This is an important technique in maintaining a troublefree pool, using a specific chemical for a specific job and minimizing the impact of other chemicals in your pool. While it is unavoidable to completely eliminate affecting other levels you can minimize it dramatically.

The Troublefree Pool method can be summarized in a few steps

Stop depending on a pool store and their advice
Understand pool chemistry
Acquire a proper professional test kit
Learn how to properly test your pool
Use the correct products that have minimum collateral damage to your pool chemistry
Test daily, at minimum chlorine and free chlorine, some tests can be done weekly or even monthly.

My daily routine

On a daily basis, I grab a sample of water and quickly test the chlorine to see where I am at. I have a target of 6 ppm, and will add liquid chlorine (usually 11% shock or if in a jam typical household 6% bleach). For my size pool and daily sun levels, I typically need to add 1/2 - 3/4 of a gallon daily. This is the most expensive/time-consuming part of the process. It takes me about 5 minutes a day.

About once a week I will test the pH balance of my pool and add muriatic acid or soda ash depending if it is high or low. I usually only have to adjust every 3-4 weeks, depending on how many large parties I have.

About once a month I will check my Cyanuric Acid levels, this doesn't typically require a lot of adjustment, once I get it right at the beginning of the season, it is typically good to go most of the season.

I test calcium hardness when I open the pool since I have a liner pool, this isn't a very critical measurement, but I will test it once a month when I do the CYA test.

Total Alkalinity I like to test every 2-4 weeks, this goes hand and hand with pH and isn't something I have to chase if I have it done properly when I open the pool. I found I have the best results maintaining pH when I keep the alkalinity on the lower side of the scale.

That's pretty much it, every time I go in the pool for the first time for the day I do a quick skim for any leaves or bugs and dump the skimmer. My pool cleaner (see below) handles most of the daily cleaning. Every so often I will get a frog or small animal in the pool but this typically only happens a couple times a year.

Pool Cleaners

Another thing I use that isn't related to the TroubleFree Pool method of pool care is a cleaning robot. This has dramatically increased my quality of life and has saved endless hours of work.

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I use a Maytronics Dolphin M400 Professional Pool cleaner. It ran me about $1,200 on sale (normally $1,400) and I throw it in the pool after we go in for the night. It spends about 3 hours cleaning once a day by going over the pool floor and scrubbing the walls. I empty the cartridges about once a week during the normal parts of the season and a little more often when opening or closing.

It is a life saver and allows me to spend more time enjoying my pool rather than working on it. If you want to see it in action, it is really fun to watch.