Opening your above ground or inground pool is the best part of spring! Goodbye to the dreaded cold and hello to the warm summer months. We know you will want the process to go as stress free and quick as possible. To avoid any extra work, you want to do the set up correctly the first time. You don’t want to start off with a dirty unbalanced pool or having to replace broken equipment. We’ve created a list of steps to help you open your pool easily, limit the time it takes and spend more time enjoying your pool.
Before you open your pool, it would be in best practice to have all of your materials bought, laid out and ready to go. Having all of your supplies already in front of you makes it so you do not have to keep running to the store or in and out of your garage. You’ll want to have the following items easily accessible:
After a long brutal fall and winter, you will notice that your pool cover has accumulated debris and water on top of it. If you don’t clean anything off of the cover, you’re risking the gunk getting into your pool and making a bigger mess for yourself later on. It will also be harder to pull your cover off if it is weighed down by debris and water. Below are instructions on how to clean either a solid or mesh cover before removing it.
If you drained your pipes and plugged everything up, they will all need to be unplugged so your pool can go back to functioning as normal. If you fail to do so you could inflict damage to your pool and/or your equipment which can add up to hundreds of dollars.
Anything that has been taken apart or stored for winter will need to be reassembled before you get your pool up and running. There is no time requirements or specific order they have to be assembled in but they should all be assembled and properly placed before adding water to your pool or turning anything back on. Below are some (and maybe not all) examples of what you may need to reassemble.
You’ll have to check the chemistry of your pool because most likely the chemicals that laid sitting stagnant for months will need a boost. It will take trial and effort to make your pool chemicals fall within the desired range; test kits can greatly help you with knowing what the current chemical make-up is in your pool. You’ll know after the test what you’ll need to add, listed below are the ranges your pool should fall into.
We have more information on how to test your pool on our blog “How to Test your Pool Simply and Easily”.
After adding water to your pool and connecting everything that needs power to a source of electricity you are ready to turn everything on. Your pump should already be primed, your filter should have one of the following: a cartridge, sand or DE in it, and the filtration system should be turned on. You will want to run your system for a while to make sure everything is working properly and let it clean some of the debris that may be floating around still.
The filter should do a good job at picking up the debris but anything that it missed should be cleaned out before you test your water. You may use one or multiple of these cleaning methods to pick up the remaining amount of debris: vacuum, automatic pool cleaner, brush and/or leak rake.
When you open your pool, the chemistry is most likely going to be off. After sitting stagnant for months, it's going to take some effort to get your pool chemicals to fall within the desired range. There are a variety of test kits that will help you know what the current chemical make-up in your pool is. They will then tell you how much of what you'll need to add. Listed below are the ranges that make up a balanced pool.
To find out more about how to test your pool, check out our blog "How to Test Your Pool Simply and Easily". This post will go into more detail on different methods of testing your pool, so you can go ahead and pick the way that's best for you!
After testing your pool, you are ready to adjust your chemicals so that they match the ranges above. Depending on how dirty your pool is you may want to start off with additional shock for good measure. It will kill any pesky bacteria that has accumulated over the winter as well as getting your pool one step closer to a balanced state. Don’t be discouraged! It is important to remember that depending on the current state of your pool’s water it could take up to three weeks for it to completely balance out and be considered clean. You may want to see our spring opening kits that include everything you will need to make the adjustments and have a nice clean pool for the season! Once your water is all balanced out the pool is ready to be enjoyed! To learn more in depth instructions on your pools chemicals and how to balance them, check out our blog “The Chemicals Behind a Balanced Pool”.
