Swimming Pool Articles

Every operator who has been working in a commercial pool or spa for any length of time has experienced it: They open the lid to the skimmer only to find a dead rodent, snake, or bird inside. Yikes! What do we do in this situation?? This week's article is going to focus on what to do if you find a dead animal inside your pool or spa. 

The issue of broken glass in a swimming pool is every commercial pool operator's nightmare. Cuts related to broken glass in the pool or the pool area can spell major hassles for a property. The problem is particularly scary when the glass is broken in the pool itself, as it is nearly impossible to visually see the glass inside the water once the glass has been broken. It is even more impossible to detect glass if the shards have turned into slivers. So, what exactly is the best route to take when cleaning glass out of your pool? There are dozens of chat threads, web pages, and reddit pages devoted to this conversation, butnone of them address how a commercial pool operator should react to this situation. In this week's article, we are going to explore what you should do when someone breaks glass in your swimming pool.

In this series, we have been exploring the various different types of filtration equipment you can use for you pool and spa. We have already covered sand filters here and Diatomaceous Earth here, and this week we will be exploring the world of cartridge filters. We will cover the following information:

• How Does a Cartridge Pool Filter Work?

• The Benefits of Cartridge Pool Filters?

• The Cons of a Cartridge Pool Filter

• Cartridge Filter "Need To Knows"

• Should I install a Cartridge Filter For My Pool?

Our last article covered the ins and outs of sand filtration, and in this article we are going to be turning our focus toward another kind of filter media, diatomaceous earth. This article will cover the following information: How Does A DE Filter Work, Pros Of Using A DE Filter, Cons Of Using A DE Filter, and Should I Be Using A D.E. Filter? It is our goal that by the end of this article, you will be able to know if using a D.E. filtration system is the best system for you or if you should be looking elsewhere.

Filtration, alongside with disinfection, is key in preventing dirty and cloudy water. We capture this filth and debris inside of our filters through the use of a filtration media. There are numerous media on the market used for the purpose of filtering our pool and hot tub water, and sand media is one of the more popular ones. In this article we will be exploring one of the most common types of filtration media: Sand.

Your dentist always talks about the value of brushing at least twice a day, but when was the last time your pool professional talked to you about the merits of brushing your pool? Believe it or not, brushing your pool is just important to the health of your pool as brushing your teeth. In this article we will cover the benefits of brushing, the best equipment for the job, good brushing habits, and finally, the consequences of not brushing.

If you have been working with pools and spas for any length of time, there is a good chance you have heard the word stabilizer, conditioner, or pool sunscreen used before. But what is water stabilizer? Do I really want a conditioner in my pool? And honestly, what is pool sunscreen!? All of these words like stabilizer, conditioner, and sunscreen are all words used to describe something called cyanuric acid. In this article, we will discuss what cyanuric acid is, how it works, its positives and negatives, and dosage recommendations. 

Believe it or not, feces in the pool is a fairly common occurrence. It is even more common in areas that service a high amount of children at your facility. If not treated properly, this poop can lead to a multitude of Recreational Water Illnesses such as:

• Cryptosporidium
• Giardia
• Shigella
• E. Coli
• Norovirus
• Hepatitis A

These Recreational Water Illnesses (RWI's) can be deadly or can ruin someone's vacation at the very least. Making sure we react properly as pool and spa operators in a fecal incident is crucial in preventing the spread of Recreational Water Illnesses (RWI). In this week's article, we are going to be exploring what you need to do to keep your property as safe as possible in the event of an Accidental Fecal Release.

We've all dealt with it before, we show up to our pool on Monday morning only to find the pool looking like someone has replaced our pool water with 2% milk. You panic because you have a busy pool schedule ahead of you this week and need to fix this problem quickly. What do you do!?

Cloudy water plagues all pools and spas at some point in an operator's career and knowing how to effectively solve the problem is key to saving time being closed, and, potentially, a lot of money. Many times a service company will come in a sell you a thousand things that will make your pool clear up for a time, but inevitably, a few days later, the cloudiness comes back. In this article we are going to cover the best ways to attack cloudy water by attacking the cloudiness at the source. 

In previous articles, we've talked about the importance of the skimmers for keeping the surfaces of your pools and spas clean, but what about the stuff that sinks to the bottom of the pool? In this article we are going to discuss everything you need to know about cleaning the floor of your pool or spa. 

When discussing skimmers in regard to your pools and spas, we usually use the term to refer to two different things: A mesh basket attached to a utility pole used for scooping up surface debris, or the devices installed at the surface of the pool to help with circulation and cleaning of the pool and spa.

Though understanding how both work is important, this article will focus on the latter of the two, the devices that aid in surface water removal and debris collection. Across the pool and spa industry there are a few different styles of skimmers you may encounter, but the primary types we use in the commercial industry fall into two different styles. 

There is a lot of information circulating on the internet surrounding the topic of main drains that are found in most all pools and spas. There is also a lot of information on the internet surrounding the dangers of main drains being used. Finally, there is unending amounts of misinformation on the internet surrounding the dangers and operation of a pool or spa main drain. This article seeks to do address the following information surrounding Main Drains...