10 Things to Have on Hand When Starting Your Pool

After an abysmal April and a lackluster start to May, it does seem like we’re finally starting to move into the swimming season here in Minnesota. But before we break out the swim suits and goggles, there’s some work to be done. Make sure you have these 10 items before you begin to start up your pool and you will enjoy a much smoother opening process!

1. Test Strips/Reagents

These handy dandy pool balance checkers allow you to get a glimpse into what’s going on with the water chemistry in your pool so that you can add the appropriate amount of the chemicals your pool needs. Pool test strips are easier to use but won’t be quite as accurate as the reagent pool testing drops, so it’s a trade off of convenience for accuracy, although both will work well enough for most pool owners.

2.  Pool Shock/Preferred Pool Sanitizer

Very few people will start the season with a clean pool, and even less will start with a clean and well sanitized pool, so make sure you have some sanitizer on hand. Whether that’s chlorine, bromine, or biguanide, you’ll most likely need a whole lot of it for starting up your pool.

3. Pool Balancers

You’ll most likely want to have your pH, alkalinity, calcium, and metal levels balanced before adding chlorine, so make sure you have the appropriate balancers on hand to get all your levels balanced from the start.

4. Pool Pole

The Swiss Army Knife in the pool pro’s toolkit, make sure you have a nice strong pole for scooping leaves, brushing, and vacuuming.

5. Pool Brush

One of the best things you can do for your pool right after taking the cover off is to give everything a good brush down. This will release all the built up dirt and grime from the pool walls and floor so that it can be incorporated into the water and cleaned and filtered out of the pool.

6. Pool Vacuum

An essential attachment for your pool pole, a vacuum head will allow you to filter and clean the debris on the floor of your pool.

7. Pool Net

Another handy attachment for your pole that will allow you to scoop out leaves, sticks, and other debris with ease. Use in conjunction with the vacuum to most efficiently get all the debris out of the water.

8. Teflon Tape

A useful item in any pool kit, Teflon tape can be used on threaded plugs, pressure gauges, and any other fittings that must be water tight. Without using teflon tape on these items, you can be prone to air leaks and other issues with your pool equipment. So it’s always better to take the time and use it to avoid future issues. Just wrap fittings 3-4 times in a clockwise direction.

9. Magic Lube

Magic Lube has a similar use as Teflon tape, and is used to create airtight seals on gaskets and 0-rings. When applying lube to older gaskets, make sure to give them a good cleaning to remove dirt and grime before applying a fresh coat of magic lube.

10. Automatic Pool Vacuum

An automatic pool robot can make your start up, and overall pool life, much easier. These machines do the hard work of vacuuming your pool for you, so you can relax while they intelligently brush over all your pool surfaces and suck up debris.  They can also be set to run automatically on a weekly timer, ensuring a sparkling debris-free pool all summer long.

If you’re missing anything on the list, feel free to stop in to your local PPS with a water test and we will get you set up with everything you need.

Happy swimming!