Essential equipment for your pool

You’ve just installed a brand new fibreglass pool, and it’s bound to be the highlight of your entire family’s summer. However, just because you’ve got the pool installed, doesn’t mean that all of the work’s been done.

You’ll need a range of equipment that’s necessary for maintaining your pool, such as equipment to clean the pool, prevent bacterial growth, and test the water pre and post-clean. This guide offers some insight into some of the equipment that you’ll need to keep your pool at its best.

Pool pumps

Once you’ve got your pool built and filled with water, it’s crucial that you keep the water in the pool moving, so that it doesn’t end up stagnant, as this will result in the buildup of algae and harmful bacteria in your pool, making the water potentially hazardous to jump into in a mere matter of days.

In order to stop this buildup of bacteria and stagnation, you’ll need a pool pump to circulate the water, as the constant movement of water prevents the buildup of chemical imbalances and those unsightly algal blooms. There are two types of pool pumps that you can choose from, with these being single speed pool pumps and variable speed pool pumps.

As the name suggests, a single speed pool pump is going to operate at a single, fixed speed, and is the more traditional option of the two. The main attractions of a single speed pool pump is how simple they are to operate and affordable they are. As you don’t need to worry about different speeds, all you’ll need to do is turn it on and watch it go. As well as this, because they’re the more simple option, they’re often more affordable to purchase and easier to maintain, due to their less complicated build.

A variable speed pool pump allows for a lot more flexibility in its operation, allowing you to operate it at different speeds to best suit your pool’s requirements. As your variable speed pool pump isn’t forced into one setting the entire time, you can adjust the pump speed and power it needs, which means that you can either save money on the power needed, or you can divert that power to other pool equipment.

Pool cleaners

Now that you’ve prevented the buildup of bacteria in the water, what about the bacteria on the pool itself? If you let algae and refuse build up on the pool floor, it can be kicked up and disturbed when people use your pool, resulting in a drastic drop in water quality. Thankfully, there are a range of pool cleaners for you to choose from, so you can pick the one that best suits your needs.

Robotic pool cleaners

If you want to bring the future into your pool, it’s difficult to look past robotic pool cleaners. The main benefit of these pool cleaners is that they’re almost “set and forget” in their operation, all you’ll need to do is put them in the pool and turn them on, and with a range of them being able to climb the walls of your pool and make their way up to the waterline, you can rely on them to clean your entire pool.

Suction pool cleaners

Lastly, we have suction pool cleaners, a tried and tested option that a number of pool owners are probably most familiar with. These pool cleaners work by being connected to your pool pump, which provides most of the suction, rather than the cleaner itself. As a result, suction cleaners often require little maintenance and are often inexpensive to run, although their cleaning capabilities can be dependent on the power of your pool pump.

Pool covers

It’s no secret that Sydney, like every other Australian city, is exposed to a lot of sun throughout the year. So, why not make that sunshine work for you and your pool? A solar pool cover allows your pool to retain a large amount of the heat from the sun that hits it, keeping it warmer for longer periods of time, and even makes your pool more comfortable during times of the year where you just wouldn’t use your pool at all.

Not only does a pool cover keep your pool warmer, but as it covers the entire length and breadth of your pool, they’re also ideal for keeping out any debris, keeping your pool clean and reducing the likelihood of bacteria and algae building up.

Shocking your pool

Almost every pool owner knows that chlorine is essential for maintaining your water’s quality, and everyone associates pool water with that all too familiar smell. However, rather than this smell meaning that the pool water is clean, it actually means that there’s a build up of bacteria, and that it’s time to add chlorine to the water again.

One way you can prevent the buildup of bacteria (and that classic pool water smell) from surfacing is by “shocking” your pool, which is adding a high-concentration dose of chlorine to your pool in order to kill off any bacterial growth that may have surfaced in there. Ideally, you should be doing this once a week during the busier months, or once every other week if you’re not using your pool as often.

Pool water testing kit

Once you’ve got the pool pump working, you’ve set up the cleaner, and you’ve shocked the pool just to be completely sure that there’s no unwanted bacteria in your pool, you’ll need to make sure that the pool water isn’t too clean. After all, too much chlorine in your pool water isn’t ideal either, as it can cause symptoms such as red, itchy eyes, irritated skin, or coughing fits.

One way to make sure that your pool water isn’t too chlorinated is by using a pool testing kit. Simply take the test strips that come with the kit, dip them in the water, see what colour the end of the strip becomes, then compare it with the chart that’s provided with your test kit. By doing this, you should be able to assess your pool’s water hardness, the amount of chlorine in the pool and your pool’s pH reading, all from a single sample.

Talk to Sydney Poolscapes about essential pool equipment today

These are just some of the tools that you’ll need in order to make maintaining your pool a lot easier and a lot more understandable. At Sydney Poolscapes, although we don’t directly sell pool equipment such as pool shock or pool testing kits, our years of experience means that we’ll be able to assess your pool and let you know what you need. Give us a call on 1300 112 488 to discuss your pool today.