Swimming Pool Maintenance Steps You Should Never Forget

In Blog, Maintenance Tips by Cathy Erntson

Time is often more precious than gold in the working day of a pool operator. There never seems to be enough of it. And in a hectic day of maintaining an entire aquatic facility, it’s common to see basic, routine maintenance fall to the wayside.

With so many of our customers running salt generators, it has become a routine part of maintenance to inspect and clean the cells regularly. But when was the last time you cleaned the tips of your probes? If you are using an automating controller, you can have the cleanest cells known to man but, if the ORP probe reading is compromised because the probe is dirty, it’s not going to do a very precise or correct job of running the sanitizer systems. Or how about TDS meters for salt pools, when was the last time you used calibration solution to verify that your TDS meter is reading as close to true as possible? Having too little or too much salt can ruin your cell.

Forgetting the “little” things like clean probes and sensors, expiration dates on reagents, using unlabeled scoops with your dry chems, not putting equipment and safety tools back in place…all these things can cause huge catastrophes to the facility’s bottom line BUT ALSO to the safety of your patrons.

We all know the lights under the water line in a pool are lit because electricity is being fed to them. When was the last time you checked the casings and the hardware that keeps them in place? Recently, a man lost his life due to faulty light fixture. And while I hope it is the last, it certainly was not the first instance of this happening in our field.

Most facilities have checklists; for opening/closing procedures, for maintenance schedules, for staff training, etc. Do you actually utilize them? And do they contain the “little” things that are so easy to overlook or forget? Or are you not using them because they contain too many things that are not applicable? Spending an hour editing a checklist so that it is tailored to include everything it should for your facility can not only save you time and money, but it can also help ensure the safety of your patrons.