Around this time of year your thoughts may be turning towards the impending opening of the pool. If you have a dirty pool, or allowed yours to turn sour over the winter, you will have a lot to do before you can swim. Don’t put it off too long – it will only get worse. If you have not opened up your own pool before, and you are in any doubt as what to do, our advice is to call in your local pool centre/service engineer to do the job for you. If you want to do the work yourself, the following should be helpful.

Remove surface water and debris from the winter cover before taking it off. Clean and thoroughly dry it, ready for storage. A cleaning mixture can be made from 100cc of liquid chlorine in 10 litres of water – scrub it onto the top and underside of the cover to kill off algae and mould spores.

Using a leaf net, remove as much rubbish and debris from the pool as possible. Clean tide marks from the pool walls with a 50/50 mix of hydrochloric acid and water. This mix is also good for cleaning the white ‘Coronation Stone’ surround to pools. Apply to the surround with a broom and scrub away to remove staining and embedded dust. Work quickly to minimise the effects of the acid and rinse off into the pool water. (Any acid that is still active after cleaning the surround will help to reduce the pH of the pool water.)

Make sure all electrical connections are free from damp or condensation - call in an electrician if you are in any doubt about what you are doing. Replace the fuses or reset the circuit breakers. Set the timer clock to the correct time of day and correct operating period – 4 hours in each 12.

Check that there are no obstructions to drains, outlets and the pump strainer basket. Top up the water to 75mm (3”) above normal level; bleed the air from the filter, pipes and pump. Replace skimmer baskets if they were removed for the winter.

Set the rotary valve to ‘Filter’. Turn on the pump and check that the filter, skimmers and drains are all working. Don’t worry if the water from the circulation is initially discoloured.

Vacuum the bottom and steps to ‘Waste’. Then run the pump on ‘Circulate’ for 4 hours; this will collect any remaining debris in a few spots on the pool-bottom. Vacuum the clusters of debris to ‘Waste’. Check and empty the pump strainer basket again.

Check the pH and get it as near as possible to 7.4. Superchlorinate to10 ppm with liquid chlorine to kill any algae that may be present - dosage rate is 2.1 litres per 50 cu m. Place 1 crushed and 1 whole Tricloro tablet per 50 cu m of pool water in the skimmer basket. Set the Rotary Valve to ‘Filter’ and run the pump for 24 hours. Thoroughly scrub all surfaces with the pool-brush. This may turn the water cloudy; if so the filter will clear it but you may have to backwash a couple of times during the 24 hour period of filtration.

If you notice and spots of black algae on the grout-lines, add 3 grams per cubic metre of Copper Sulphate crystals and scrub the algae daily until it disappears. Do not overdose with Copper Sulphate, or you may get green hair when you swim!

Backwash the filter and top up with fresh water. Remove the filter lid and examine the sand. If it is still dirty after the backwash, or lumpy, it may need to be changed. Zeolite is a far better filter media than sand; see our website, page http://www.deep-blue-pools.com/zeolite.htm for fuller details. Check the chlorine and pH. Get pH as near as possible to 7.4 as soon as you can. If your main sanitiser is unstabilised chlorine, such as calcium hypochlorite, add stabiliser (cyanuric acid), to prevent loss of chlorine to sunlight, at a rate of 250 grams per 50 cu m of pool water. If you use Tricloro tablets this will not be necessary. Fit a pool-cover to warm the water more swiftly. Last one in’s a wimp!

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Copyright remains with Author

Ken Walker, PoolSchool and Deep Blue Pools. Contact info@poolschool.eu