The Best Cleaning Tips in Medford, Oregon

By putting in a little effort and time, you can easily maintain your swimming pool all year round. We, at Clearwater Oasis, love to share our knowledge about basic pool maintenance with our patrons. There are a few necessary procedures that are efficient and save time which anyone can follow.

Determine the surface composition before starting the pool filter cleanup procedure.

Clearwater Oasis is proud to offer the following Cleaning Tips to you:

Deck and Cover Cleaning

Remove as much debris as possible from the pool or spa deck and cover before removing it. A quick sweep or hosing can remove the debris. If the cover is a floating type without a roller system, be sure to fold or place it on a clean surface. Otherwise, when you put it back in place, it will drag leaves, grass, or dirt into the pool. If it is a mechanized cover system, any small amount of standing water on top of the cover will slide off as you roll it up. If there is a more significant amount of water, the motor will be laboring, so you will need to use the water removal pump. Also be careful to avoid abrasive or sharp surfaces as you drag the cover off of the pool.

Surface Skimming

Dirt floating on the surface of the water is more accessible to remove than from the bottom. Remove floating debris off the surface, using a leaf rake and telepole. As the net fills, empty it into a trash can or plastic garbage bag. Do not leave your skimming debris into the garden or on the lawn for it’s likely to blow right back into the pool as soon as it dries out.

There is no particular method to skim, but as you do, scrape the tile line, which acts as a magnet for small bits of leaves and dirt. The rubber-plastic edge gasket on the professional leaf rake will prevent scratching the tile.

If there is scum or general dirt on the water surface, squirt a quick shot of tile soap over the length of the pool. The soap will spread the scum toward the edges of the pool, making it more concentrated and more accessible to skim off.

Tiles

Always do the tiles first. Dirt falls from them as they are being cleaned and settles in the bottom of the pool. If you need to remove stubborn stains with a pumice stone, the pumice itself breaks down as you scrub, depositing debris on the bottom.

Use the tile soap and tile brush to clean the tiles. Apply a squirt of tile soap directly to the brush, and start scrubbing. To remove stubborn stains and oils, mix one part muriatic acid to five parts of solvent. When cleaning tile, scrub below the waterline as well as above. Evaporation and refilling can change the water line. Never use abrasive brushes or scouring pads to clean swimming pool tiles as they may cause scratches.

Water Level

If you add an inch or so of water to the pool each time you service it, you will probably keep up with normal evaporation. If you wait a few weeks until the level is several inches low, it will take hours to fill. Never leave the water on to fill by itself for it may take longer and most likely you may forget to turn it off.

After the rain, you might need to lower the pool level. In this case, use your submersible pump and a backwash hose or extra vacuum hose for the discharge. Alternatively, you can run the pool circulation system and turn the valves to waste. If you use this method, remember to return the valves to normal circulation.

Equipment Check

Checking your equipment and maintaining your support system is the best way to solve the small corrective problems.

Circulation System

Start with the circulation system by following the path of the water. Clean out the pool’s skimmer basket and emptying the contents of the skimmer basket into your trash can or garbage bag.

Pump Strainer

Next, open the pump strainer basket and clean it. Check the pressure of the filter. There is no point in checking it before cleaning out the skimmer and strainer baskets because if they are full, the filter pressure will be low and will come back up after cleaning the baskets. If the pressure is high, the filter might need cleaning.

Heater

Now check the heater for leaves or debris. Turn the heater on and off a few times to make sure it is operating correctly. While the heater is running, turn the pump off. The heater should shut off by itself when the pressure from the pump drops. Performing this type of safety check on a pool heater is very important.

Time Clocks

After that, check the time clock for the time of the day, setting for the daily filter runs, and setting for the cleaner’s timer. Always check the clock because trippers come loose and power fluctuations or some service work on household items unrelated to the pool can also affect the clocks. Furthermore, electromechanical time clocks are not exactly precision instruments. One might run slightly faster than another, so over a few weeks, one might show a difference of an hour or more, upsetting your planned timing schedule.

Leaks

Finally, after the equipment check, look for leaks or other early signs of equipment failure. Clean up the equipment area by removing leaves from around the motor vents and heater to prevent fires, and clear deck drains of debris that could prevent water from flowing away from the equipment during rain.

Vacuuming

If the pool is not dirty, merely brush the walls and bottom, skipping the vacuuming entirely. If the pool or spa is murky, however, you have two ways to clean it: vacuuming to the filter or vacuuming with the Leaf Master.

Vacuuming to filter sends vacuum to filter dirt collected from the pool or spa to the circulation system’s filtration center.

Circulation System

Run the circulation system correctly ensuring all suction concentrates at the skimmer port. Use your skimmer diverter for this process if dealing with a single port skimmer. If the system includes valves for diversion of suction between the main drain and the skimmer, close the main drain valve entirely and turn the open skimmer valve completely. If there are two skimmers in the pool, close off one by covering the skimmer suction port with a tennis ball, thereby increasing the suction in the other one. With larger pools, you might have to vacuum each half separately. Attach your vacuum head to the telepole and attach the vacuum hose to the vacuum head.

Skimmer

Slowly feed the hose straight down into the pool; water will fill the tubing and displace the air. When you have supplied all the tube into the pool, there is water at the other end. To avoid draining the water from the hose keep it at water level, slide the hose through the skimmer opening and into the skimmer. Attach the tube to the diverter (with two-port skimmers, insert the hose cuff into the skimmer’s suction port). The hose and vacuum head now have suction.

The suction port might be in the side of the pool below the skimmer in older pools. In this case, you might need to put tennis ball over the skimmer suction port to increase the suction at the wall port. Make sure the hose does not contain a significant amount of air for if air reaches the pump, you will lose prime. If this occurs, remove the vacuum hose, re-prime the pump, then try again. To vacuum a pool or spa, work your way around the bottom and sides.

If the pool is dirty, vacuum slowly to pick all the dirt, for moving the vacuum head too quickly, will stir up the soil rather than suck it in. If the suction is strong it sucks the vacuum head to the pool surfaces; then you need to adjust the skimmer diverter or valves to reduce the flow. You might also need to lower the wheels on the vacuum head, raising the vacuum head itself. If the suction is weak, you might want to reduce the vacuum head, or you might need to move the head more slowly around the pool to vacuum it thoroughly.

Strainer Basket

If the pool is filthy, the strainer basket or filter may be full. When suction becomes weak, stop vacuuming and empty the strainer basket or clean the filter.

Keeping your swimming pool clean is a simple process if you follow the maintenance tips mentioned above on a regular basis.

Contact us today or call us directly at 541-772-CHEM (2436) for more pool cleaning tips.