While most swimming pool and spa owners don’t comprehend how their pool equipment works. Which typically leads to their repair and maintenance being focused on the pool’s shell and cover. These pieces of machinery are, at the end of the day, the interworkings (or brain) of your pool and are what make your pool run smoothly.
Neglecting or damaging your swimming pool equipment can quickly lead to malfunctions and a pool filled with dirty water nobody wants to swim in. It can quickly lead to malfunctions and a pool filled with dirty water nobody wants to swim in.
This is why it’s so important to pay attention to your swimming pool equipment, including your pool’s pump, heater, and filter, in order to keep your pool in the best shape possible for the entirety of its lifespan. Unfortunately, managing swimming pool equipment requires extensive knowledge and training to ensure the job is done correctly, making it unsuitable for amateurs. With this in mind, you should turn to the swimming pool equipment maintenance professionals — like The Pool Butler — in order to ensure your pool’s equipment is cared for correctly.
After all, only a professional will know a problem when he or she sees it and will have the tools and knowledge necessary to fix it promptly and correctly. This will not only keep your pool in tip-top shape in the short term but will avoid any ongoing issues in the future.
To gain a better understanding of the complexities involved in maintaining your swimming pool equipment, let’s explore some of the most common equipment maintenance tasks regularly handled by us at The Pool Butler.
Maintaining Your Swimming Pool Pump
Unlike some of your swimming pool or spa equipment, your pool’s pump, for the most part, requires very little maintenance. This is due to the fact that most pumps are self-priming, meaning you don’t have to fill them with water before the start of the swimming season.
With that said, your pool’s pump does contain interior parts, such as the strainer basket, which do require consistent cleaning in order to keep debris out. When you hire a swimming pool professional to maintain your equipment, he or she will be able to reach your pump’s basket and keep it clean on a regular basis to avoid any issues.
While cleaning your pump’s strainer basket, your swimming pool maintenance technician will oftentimes inspect the basket’s gasket (or O-ring) for cracks or deterioration. Upon identifying any damage, our technicians will promptly replace the gasket since a damaged gasket hinders the lid’s ability to form a crucial seal required for the pump’s operation.
During your swimming pool maintenance, our technician will actively search for pump leaks and promptly repair them to prevent potential irreversible damage. Ignoring leaks for extended periods can lead to costly full pump replacements.
Maintaining Your Swimming Pool Filter
Swimming pools will typically have three main types of filters — sand, cartridge, and diatomaceous earth — however, no matter what type of filter you have, it will require cleaning periodically in order to keep your pool water clear.
How frequently you use your swimming pool or spa, along with the type of filter you have, will dictate how often you’ll need to have your filter cleaned by a swimming pool cleaning professional. Filter cleaning frequency ranges from once per month to three or four times per year.
Cleaning your filter more frequently than necessary can hinder the filtration process, as a slightly dirty filter surprisingly performs better in terms of efficiency compared to a perfectly clean one.
In fact, dirt particles lodged inside the filter aid in trapping additional debris particles, leading to a faster removal from your swimming pool. This highlights the beneficial role of dirt particles in the filtration process. A swimming pool technician typically recommends cleaning the filter before any water deterioration in your pool becomes noticeable.
In order to avoid any serious issues, a swimming pool technician will inspect the filter’s pressure gauge (located on the line into the filter) and flow meter (located on the return line out of the filter) in your pool. The difference in flow between the gauges will begin to increase once the filter becomes dirty.
The time to clean the filter is when the flow difference reaches 10 to 15 pounds PSI (or Per Square Inch).
How The Professionals Clean Your Pool’s Filter
Because each filter is different in terms of function and materials, they each require different methods for cleaning. Here’s how a swimming pool professional will carry out cleaning for each type of filter:
Cleaning Cartridge Filters –
Cleaning a cartridge filter begins by shutting the pool’s pump off completely. Afterward, the technician will proceed to remove the filter, rinse it off with a hose, and then soak it in a suitable detergent for thorough cleaning.
Cleaning Sandpaper Filters –
Once the technician has turned off the swimming pool’s pump, they will then proceed to circulate water through the sandpaper filter in the reverse direction for approximately 10 minutes. This process is known as backwashing and should be repeated once every month.
Cleaning (DE) Diatomaceous Earth Filters –
Once the pool’s pump has been turned off, the technician will then backwash the DE filter before adding more diatomaceous earth to the skimmers. The pool’s water will transport diatomaceous earth back to the filter to recoat it. This process should be repeated every 3 to 4 months.
Maintaining Your Swimming Pool Heater
Out of all of your swimming pool or spa equipment, the heater is the one item that requires the least amount of maintenance.
For example, gas pool heaters can typically last about 1 to 2 years before ever needing professional servicing, while electric heaters can go even longer. However, it’s important to have the equipment manual inspected, no matter what type of heater you have.
When your pool’s heater fails to heat the water, your swimming pool professional will check the heater’s tubes, which may be experiencing flow restriction due to a build-up of calcium scales.
To remedy this issue, the professional will take apart the heater and clean out the tubes using either a wire brush or acid.
Professional Swimming Pool Equipment Maintenance In Atlanta
When it comes to maintaining your pool’s equipment in Atlanta, no company outshines The Pool Butler. Our company provides Atlanta pool owners with consistent maintenance plans that include regularly maintaining your pool’s equipment.
At The Pool Butler, we understand how difficult it is to find a swimming pool services company in Atlanta you can trust, which is why we only hire the best in the industry to perform all of our maintenance, cleaning, and repair jobs. This not only ensures you get the best maintenance for your swimming pool possible, but it also prevents any future problems from occurring in or around your swimming pool.
Our technicians have the experience, knowledge, and equipment necessary to keep your pool running on all cylinders so you can fully take advantage of your swimming pool to end the swimming season.
We maintain everything from your swimming pool or spa’s heater and pump to the filter and time clock. No matter the size or age of your pool, The Pool Butler can help keep it running like new for the remainder of the season and beyond.
Feel free to check out our testimonials page to see why our customers are raving about their experiences with The Pool Butler, or contact us today to learn more about any of our wide range of swimming pool maintenance, cleaning, and repair services.