Ideally, you should run every drop of pool water through your filter every 24 hours. We know what you’re thinking and … no, you don’t need to constantly run your filtration system. Fortunately, the average system will usually turn your water over twice or even three times every day. Because not all systems are built the same or run the same, how do you know what time is best for you? Read on to learn about the timing and importance of pool filtration.
Importance Of Pool Filtration: Cost Versus Convenience
It’s a battle of cost, convenience and use. Let us explain. Swimming more means you’ll run your filter more. More use means a higher utility bill. Fortunately, proper filtration at the right time of day can remove a lot of bacteria and debris that throws off your pool’s chemistry. The best time to run your pool filter is overnight for a period of 12 hours. Timing is everything and during that downtime, you won’t be using as much electricity as you would in the daytime. There’s a good chance you won’t be swimming in your pool for that long overnight. Far less debris and dirt will be brought into the pool as well. Every time you add new chemicals into your pool, it’s a good idea to run your filter during the day as well.
Additionally, the more your water is filtered, the better balanced and cleaned it will remain. Less algae and bacteria will creep into your system overall. A good solution for those who battle with time and money is to corporate a variable speed pump. We’ll blog more about this in the future, but for now, let us summarize. The purpose of a variable speed pump is to run constantly, but speed up the process of filtering water.
Removing Visible Matter
Every pool will have leaves, bugs and other dirt fall into it at one point or another. If you have a pool skimmer, you’ll easily see the leaves and bugs. When you add in the human elements such as hair, skin, and dust, there’s more to worry about. Most of these elements are harder to see with your eyes.
Do what you can to remove the obvious debris. The rest will be handled by your filter. Your pool’s filter is the first line of defense against cloudy water and irritants, including those from the human body. Those particles that cause cloudiness can also aggravate your skin, lungs, and eyes if you’re present in that dirty water too long.
Once the chlorine attacks and breaks down the cloudiness, it “dies” and produces that strong chlorine odor. An effective filter will remove everything before they have the opportunity to throw off your chemical balance. Maintaining your chemical balance can require daily maintenance if you are not running your filter often enough. Filtration is an extremely important part of maintaining high quality pool water.
Cleaning Your Pool Filter
Eventually, you will need to clean your pool filter–clean the tool that cleans your pool. We advise some of our clients to clean their filters every 3 months; we advise others to clean their filter only once a year. It depends entirely on how often they use the filter and how dirty their pool gets. The same goes for you. Here are some signs to watch for that will let you know that it’s time to clean your pool filter:
- Check the pressure–if your pressure is 8 pounds above it’s average level, it’s time to clean your pool filter. Higher pressure means it’s getting harder to clean due to possible clogging.
- Check the calendar–the 8 pound increase may come at a 6-week interval for regular-sized pools. If the gauge doesn’t show 8 pounds, it can still come at 6 weeks. Cleaning or not, still check your filter every 6 weeks.
- Dirty pool–if you had an algae bloom, fix the problem and clean your filter. Treat the filter as the source of the problem. Without a clean filter, it’ll continue to circulate algae through your pool. The same goes for any other type of dirt or bacteria.
- Bad water quality–any obvious change in the quality or consistency is a sign to check your filter: cloudiness,
- Your maintenance team recommended it–pretty self explanatory. They should tell you if there’s a chance they have noticed and advise you, not sell you, on a pool filter cleaning service. Or if you prefer to do it yourself, go for it.
Erik’s Aquatic Care is always here to answer questions you may have as a current or future pool owner. Cheers!
