Guide to understanding pH
The following guide will help you understand one of the most important elements in managing your swimming pool – understand what pH is and how you should manage it.
Why pH is Important
There are many mistakes that can be avoided with proper pool water and pool maintenance. Water maintenance plays a key role in keeping issues to a minimum; allowing for full enjoyment as long as you have the pool.
In order to enjoy our pool on a regular basis, it’s crucial to maintain proper water quality. This means checking and looking for any signs of a problem need to be done on a regular basis. The following information is to help you identify problems with you water in order to avoid pool water problems and possibly costly repairs down the road.
What is pH?
The pH of your water measures of how acidic or how alkaline your water is. A neutral reading of “7” on a scale of “0” to “14” means the water is neither acidic nor alkaline. When the reading goes below “7”, the water becomes more acidic and if it rises above “7”, it’s more alkaline. For most pools, it’s recommended to keep your pH slightly alkaline at 7.4-7.6.
Low pH levels (below 7.0) can affect your plaster by eroding the protective cover while high levels of pH (above 8.0) contribute to the formation of scale and stains. Maintaining proper pH levels not only helps the aforementioned problems, but also helps your chlorine remain effective in killing germs and eliminating algae.
A good thing to know is that salt chlorination raises the pH of your water. If you don’t add enough muriatic acid to your pool water on weekly basis, you will develop scale. Scale appears as white streaks and encrustations on your pool plaster which is especially troublesome on colored plaster pools.
Follow these tips and you will have no problems maintaining good water chemistry and ultimately good water quality that your friends and family can enjoy.
