Tulsa Pools : Remove The Debris

Cody: Welcome to the Dive Time Show, I’m your host Cody Albright. With me as always is my lovely wife and co-host.

Rachel: Rachel Albright.

Cody: Together we’re the owners of Sierra Pools and Spa in Tulsa. You can find us online and sierrapoolsandspas.com or you can give us a phone call at 918-884-8427. Again that’s sierrapoolsandspas.com, or give us a phone call at 918-884-8427, or find us on Facebook and like us there. We love that.

Today we’re going to be talking about your Tulsa pools. Let’s without wasting time, let’s talk about opening your Tulsa pools. What’s the first step Rachel?

Rachel: When we’re talking about opening your Tulsa pools, this just means getting it ready for the swim season. Right now it’s springtime, so we’re getting ready to warm up, a lot of people will be opening their pools. Sun’s coming out, things are warming up, so it’s time to get our pools ready for summertime.

There’s a process to this. Some people leave their pools open year round, but you have to maintain it if you do that. It’s just a personal preference really. If you do close your pool after the swim season is over, you’ll have to open it. The first thing that you’re going to have to do, if you close your pool that means you have put a pool cover on it for the winter season.

The first thing that you’re going to need to do is remove water and debris from the pool cover. You’ll want to do this because when you’re taking the pool cover off, you don’t want all that stuff to fall into the water of the pool. You’re going to need to remove all water, leaves, and debris from your pool cover. To remove the water, you can buy a pool cover pump. You can get these at Home Depot, online, Amazon. It just helps remove the water.

Then after you remove the water, you’ll want to remove the debris. You want to be careful because you don’t want the debris to fall into the water underneath like I was saying before. A tip that you can do is; once you get the water removed with that pump, you can wait a day or two and let the sun dry out the pool cover. Then just blow off the debris with a leaf blower or broom, that’s probably the easiest way to do it and the best way so you make sure you don’t get that debris in the water.

Step number two is going to be to actually  Tulsa Pools pull off that winter pool cover. Again, you want to be careful taking the pool cover off just so that if there is any-

Cody: Leaves, debris, sticks, leaves.

Rachel: Any dirt, you don’t want to get that in the pool. It’s not a big deal if you get it in the water, but you’ll just have to remove it from the water later.

Cody: Just more of a hassle.

Rachel: It’s just another step that you have to add in. It’s best if you can get it off without getting anything else in there.

Step number three is you’re going to want to store that pool cover properly so that it doesn’t get damaged and it stays clean for the summer season, so that when you go to put it back on in the winter it’s ready to go. The best thing to do is lay the cover out on your lawn or somewhere nearby.

Then you want to clean it. You can use water and soap, then you want to use something soft to scrub it. Don’t use anything hard or sharp because you could puncture the cover. You can use a winter cover cleaner, you can get these at Amazon or pool supply companies. Some of these cleaners will even allow you to store the cover wet. That’s really nice because you don’t have to wait for it to dry out. You can just clean it, roll it up, put it away, and it’s good to go.

Another good tip on that is to get a heavy duty plastic container that you can store your cover in, and you want to have a lid on it as well. This will just keep bugs and rodents from chewing on your cover or making nests in it while it’s put away in your shed or your garage. It’ll just help extend the life of your pool cover.

Step number four is going to be remove winter plugs and skimmer ice compensators. You want to walk around your pool and make sure all the winter plugs are removed from any openings in your pool. You’ll want to make sure that you check return jets and step jets. Then you’ll need to replace the lines with the eyeballer jet fittings.

When you close your pool, you put these plugs in there to keep things from icing over and just keep everything sealed up. You want to make sure all of those are taken out and the proper fittings are put back on. Then you’ll want to remove the ice compensator or compensators from your skimmer buckets. Then remove the winter plugs from the bottom, and then replace the skimmer baskets there. Then you’ll skimmers will be ready to go for the season Tulsa Pools.

Step number five is to reinstall your deck equipment. When you close your pool for the winter, you’ll remove any pool ladders, or diving boards, or step rails because you’re going to need to put the cover over the pool; all those things will have to come out. When you’re opening your pool, if you do have anything like that you’ll want to reinstall those. Make sure you lubricate all the bolts to prevent rusting throughout the summer.

Step number six is fill your pool up. If you drained your pool during winter or if it lost water over the winter, which it probably did. If the water level is below the midway point of the skimmer opening, you’ll need to fill it back up. You can just use a garden hose to do that. You want to make sure it is at least halfway in between the skimmer. If it’s any lower than that, you’ll need to fill it up otherwise your skimmer won’t work properly.

Step number seven is to set up your filter and pump. You want to replace the drain plugs that you put in your filter and pump in the winter, you want to replace those and other parts including your pressure gauge. Your filter should have one major drain plug, and your pump might have one or two. Just make sure you double check on those, make sure you get them all out Tulsa Pools.

A tip on your filter and pump, you’ll want to check the O-rings. Make sure there’s no cracks in the rubber, because in the winter time it gets really dry. If they dry out, it can become cracked. It’ll cause your filter to pull air, which isn’t good. If your O-ring is cracked or anything like that, you’ll need to replace it. Again, you’ll just have to get that from a pool supplier. You definitely want to make sure that your O-rings are in good shape.

Step number eight is going to be to go ahead and fire it up. You’re going to turn on the power to your pump and filter. You’re going to make sure that it starts up properly and watch for any leaks or drips. If your pump isn’t pulling any water, you’ll have to prime it Tulsa Pools.

To do that you’ll need to shut off your filter system, you’ll have to remove the lid of the pump, and then you’ll have to fill the housing with water. You can use a garden hose or just a bucket of water from your pool. Then you’ll want to replace that lid and turn it back on. This should hopefully help to get the pump to pull water from the skimmer in the main drain.

Step number nine is clean it up. You’ll want to clean up any debris that’s in the pool water. You can use this using a telescoping leaf net and just walk around and remove any of the leaves or debris that is in your water. If there’s a large amount of debris on the bottom of your pool, you’ll have to scoop that up carefully with a net. You want to try to remove as much debris from the water as possible.

Then you can attach a pool brush to your pole and brush the walls and the floor. This will just help get dirt into suspension and allow your filter to remove it. If it stays on the pool wall, that filters not going to be able to clean it out. You want to make sure it’s floating around in the water and that it runs through that filter.

Step number ten is to shock your pool. What does it mean to shock your pool?

Cody: It means to take a sample from the water to a local pool supply store and professionally analyze it.

Rachel: Yeah. Basically a pool shock is you’re going to over chlorinate it to kill all the Tulsa Pools-

Cody: I was incorrect. Sorry, I wasn’t listening.

Rachel: That’s okay.

Cody: I hope no one reads this, because I was just reading from a script and I didn’t hear your question.

Rachel: When you shock your pool, you do this anytime there’s a large amount of debris or bacteria in the water. This will happen over the winter season because you’re not maintaining your pool. You want to make sure that your PH and alkalinity are properly balanced. Then once it’s balanced, you can add the sanitizer, the chlorine.

First, before you shock it, you want to make sure your PH and alkalinity are properly balanced. If not, you’ll have to go through the steps of balancing those. Somebody at a pool supply store can help you with that if you don’t know how to do that, or a pool maintenance company can help you do that.

Once it’s balanced, then you’re going to shock the pool with the chlorine or the bromine, whatever sanitizer you’re using. You probably will want to double shock your pool just to really make sure that it’s good to go, it’s clean, your water is bacteria free, and good to go for the summer Tulsa Pools.

You’ll want to use two lbs or two bags of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water, or five gallons of liquid chlorine per 20,000 gallons of water. That’s a good number to remember. You’ll have to know how many gallons of water your pool holds and then shock is accordingly.

Those are the ten steps to opening your pool for the summer season. I hope that helped you, and I hope it helps you get ready for the swim season this summer.

Cody: That’s about all the time we have for today. Thank you Rachel for all that information and ten steps of opening your Tulsa pools. Thank you for joining us today and listening in. As always, I’m Cody.

Rachel: I’m Rachel.

Cody: And we’ll talk to you next time. Thank you, bye.