What Happens if You DONT Take Care of Your pool?

Aside from building pools and spas and selling equipment and chemicals, most of what we do is help pool owners maintain their pools as best as possible via free water testing, water maintenance, and giving the best possible advice we can based on all known factors. We do this because we love helping out our customers and there is a lot to manage when you get a pool for the first time. When it comes to pools, the old saying “it takes a village” comes to mind. 

 

So what if you as a pool owner weren’t considered with various maintenance and upkeep tasks? What if you let everything go to the wayside? What would happen to the various parts of the pool ecosystem? Let’s find out. 

 

Chlorine

Perhaps the most important part of maintaining a pool is keeping it sanitized. This is one issue most pool owners probably have no trouble with. Just one pound of chlorine per week per 10,000 gallons of water in the pool is enough to keep most pools sparkling and it isn’t a very laborious task either, meaning most pools will meet the minimum standard here. 

 

So what if you stopped putting chlorine (or alternative sanitizer) in the pool and just let your filter do all the work? In short, an apocalyptic level of filth. Chlorine is necessary for pools to prevent algae and eliminate bacteria and other contaminants. Stop adding it, and within a week or two, your pool is going to take on a swamp-like appearance that will make the marshiest bayou blush. Aside from all the algae buildup, there will also be a slick, oily film on the pool walls and surfaces that in addition to being utterly disgusting, can also be a tripping hazard. 

 

The fun doesn’t stop there. Without proper maintenance and sanitization, your dirty pool will be home to all sorts of recreational water illnesses that can make you and your guests sick. These illnesses can cause ear and respiratory infections, rashes, and inflamed lungs/eyes. 

 

So let’s all just add chlorine on a regular basis, yeah? 

 

pH/Alk

Managing your pH and alkalinity properly is paramount to ensuring pool success. Your pH and alkalinity should be checked and balanced every few days, but what if you just didn’t bother? 

 

The effects it will have will depend on whether the pH swings too high or too low without being controlled. A low pH can cause corrosion on pool equipment and skin and eye irritation, whereas a high pH can cause cloudy water or make your chlorine effectively useless. Both high and low pH levels can cause damage to vinyl liners. When you don’t maintain proper alkalinity levels, which help keep your pH in line, it will just exacerbate all the above issues. 

 

Regular Maintenance

Aside from taking care of the pool water, there are a lot of things we do to keep the pool up and running that takes place out of the pool. Cleaning filters, replacing filter sand, cleaning skimmer baskets, checking pumps, etc. The answer here is simple: don’t take care of this stuff, and it WILL break. Pool equipment handles a lot, and it needs to be regularly checked and serviced to make sure it’s up to the task. Water, no matter how filthy, can always be cleaned up or changed. If you neglect your pool equipment, your pool will break, full stop. 

 

So now that we know what happens when you don’t take care of your pool, maybe we will all do a little more to make our lives easier and prevent pool problems before they occur by maintaining proper water chemistry and performing routine work on our equipment.