Swimming Pool Chemicals their Use and Hazards

Steve - Pool Cleaner Blogmaster

The correct use of pool chemicals is essential for good swimming pool management. Pool chemicals are used to clean out algae, dirt and bacteria from your pool so you can swim safely without risk of infection.

Although using pool chemicals has many positive benefits, you should be aware of some of the health precautions of pool chemicals. Don’t be too concerned though, if you treat these materials with care and respect these chemicals are safe enough when used with caution and if stored properly.

Pool chemicals are used, in accordance with the manufacturers instructions when monitored by a water chemistry monitor, test kit, or controller.

Tests should be done daily so you can add chemicals if need be. Test kits commonly available use chemically treated strips that turn color when exposed to pool water, or tables that turn the water colors to indicate the condition of the water. These chemicals should be used in proper sequence, and the sequence will possibly vary with the system used, but for ecample one system suggests the following order of us: 1) balance pH; 2) chlorination; and 3) shock or super chlorination.

Adding too much of a chemical may be successful in killing the bacteria, but it makes your pool water harsh to sit in and may give you rashes. It will cost you more than necessary and it will also be corrosive to the pipes and pump, and increase your repair bills. Add to that the raised corrosive nature of the environment around the pool and the correction for a problem in one part or system may avoid problems later in a completely different area.

Critical parts of many pool filtration systems are not visible, adding to the difficulty when corrosion takes place. So, it pays to only dose you pool chemicals just as much as is needed and no more.

For those that are adding chemicals to their pool first time, the question is what chemicals should go into the pool on first time use? Additionally, pools use sanitizing chemicals to remove algae, harmful bacteria, dirt, germs, and organic matter carried into the pool on people’s bodies and by the wind. We recommend that you consult you pool supplier, or local specialist pool chemicals supplier.

These chemicals oxidize organic matter and are quite strongly corrosive. For this reason you should add chemicals while the filter pump is running to aid in rapid dispersal throughout the pool. Do not add chemicals while people are swimming and do not allow swimming again until the chemicals have dispersed for the specified amount of time.

Oxidizing materials (such as calcium hypochlorite) have the ability to react chemically to oxidize combustible (burnable) materials when in storage. To be an “oxidizer”, the material itself provides oxygen which combines chemically with another material in a way that increases the chance of a fire or explosion.

We canot stress too highly that oxidizing pool chemicals are highly reactive materials that, if mishandled, improperly stored or contaminated, may become unstable and dangerous.

If you are experiencing water quality problems even after correct chemical dosing, you should ensure that you have checked your filter carefully to make sure that all parts are in good condition, and replace necessary parts. Filters remove suspended particles from pool water, but don’t directly control bacteria or algae. Maintain a residual chlorine level of 1.0-3.0 ppm (parts per million) to kill bacteria and/or algae present in the water – always refer to your manufacturers instructions to confirm information given here.