Ways to Preserve Water in Your Home Swimming Pool

When it comes to swimming pools, you can expect a strain on your water supplies, especially if you are living in a drought-prone area. Even if you don’t have this problem, it is always a good idea to save pool water. 

In this article, we will provide you with different ways to preserve water in your home swimming pool.

1. Use a pool cover

If you don’t use a cover for your swimming pool, in a year, over half of the water will evaporate from your pool. By using a cover every day, you can reduce the evaporation by almost 90 to 95%. Without a cover, your pool might lose an inch of water every week during the summer season. In a year, this can result in the loss of about 7,000 gallons of water. This is a lot of waste. Installing a pool cover can also reduce algae growth, the need to use chemicals, and conserve heat.

2. Repair any leaks

When it comes to persevering pool water, finding any leaks is important. An ongoing leak can result in the wastage of several hundreds of gallons of pool water. You have to look for areas where water is exiting from the equipment lines or the pool. You can check your water bills to find a clue about the leak. Review your statements carefully to see if there is an increase in your normal bill. 

If you don’t get anything from your utility bill, you can still check if there is a leak in your pool. Use a tile along your pool’s interior perimeter to mark the water level. You can use a grease pen that is water-soluble or place some tape. Then, continue to monitor the water level. After a day, take a look at how much the normal water level has reduced. In case the water level has dropped over a quarter of an inch, it might mean that there are some leaks. Common places where a leak might occur are skimmers, main drains, lighting fixtures, return jets and pipe valves. 

Leaks are not always easy to locate. If you can’t find one on your own, you should not take any chances and contact a professional who specializes in it. After they have pinpointed the source, they will make the repairs. This fix might be simple or complex. The simple ones might be replacing an O-ring or tightening a pump fitting. The complex ones might include dealing with underground plumbing lines. The most challenging ones are the ones within the pool walls, along the tile line, around the return lines, and inside lighting systems.

3. Lower the level of your pool water

In order to conserve pool water, you should lower the level of your pool water. It will prevent water loss from boisterous water play and extreme splashing. You should keep it one inch above the bottom of your pool time. Discourage splashing and explain to the swimmers why the water must stay in your swimming pool.

4. Lower the pool’s temperature

In case you use a pool heating system, reduce the temperature. By doing this, you can reduce the water loss caused by evaporation. If your pool isn’t being used, this becomes especially important. 

5. Minimize the splashing

Everyone loves splashing the water, cannonballs, jack-knife dives, and water fights. However, this also results in a lot of water loss caused by water leaving the pool. If you want to prevent or reduce this, you have to enforce pool rules. Adults can resist the temptation of using the diving board or enjoying water play. It’s not the same with the kids. They won’t be as open to adapting to these restrictions. 

Depending on how old your kids are, you can help them understand why it is important to conserve water. Once they know why you have implemented these new guidelines, they will be more likely to cooperate. 

Another thing you can do is provide additional ways for your kids to have fun in the pool. This includes encouraging pool games such as scavenger hunts or Marco Polo. You can also get inflatable pool toys. With these, your kids will be able to have fun and remain occupied while ensuring that the water doesn’t leave the pool.

In case you have dogs who like to jump in the water, you should supervise them. 

6. Add sanitiser and chlorine at night

If you add chlorine and sanitiser during the day, these chemicals will rapidly evaporate. You should wait until it’s nighttime to add the chemicals. If you have an automatic system where the sanitiser is added when the pump runs, you should schedule it to run at night.

7. Landscape strategically

To ensure that you don’t lose your pool water because of wind evaporation, you should use privacy screenings or fences and plant shrubs near the pool area as barriers. This will reduce the amount and occurrence of the wind going across your swimming pool. It will reduce the evaporation rate.

8. Change the pool filter

Sand and DE filters can squander water. What you need is a cartridge model for the filter. With this move, you will be able to save a lot of water. The reason for this is that cartridge filters don’t have to be cleaned using a water-hogging backwash. For clearing the dirt and debris out of the cartridge filter, you have to simply open the tank and remove the cartridge. Use a garden hose to wash it quickly. This process might take up some water, but this is nothing in comparison to the amount of water you waste by backwashing.

For the best results, you should use an oversized cartridge filter. Since it has the maximum dirt-holding capacity, you won’t have to clean it frequently. So, there is a lesser need to hose it down. In fact, there are some filters that can store a lot of debris and require cleaning only once or twice every year. To find out more contact your local Fibreglass Pools New Zealand installer and they’ll be able to answer all the questions you have!

Wrapping up

Even though you can do most of these by yourself, if you think that your water wastage has increased to a level that you can’t handle, you should contact professionals. They will be able to find any leaks and repair them as soon as possible.

Sponsored post by Barrier Reef Pools

Comments

One response to “Ways to Preserve Water in Your Home Swimming Pool”

  1. That’s a very useful article – thank you! I only want to add a few words about cleaning the pool filter. Clean it only when really needed. The cleaning process, which is called backwashing, can take only a few minutes to complete, but for a typical pool, it consumes approximately 200 to 300 gallons of pool water! So, while your filter is losing unwanted dirt and debris — your pool is losing a ton of water. And that’s for a single backwash. Most filters require a backwash three to five times per year.
    To determine when your filter is ready for some housekeeping, check the pressure on its gauge: If it reads 8 to 10 psi above the normal starting pressure, it means that the internal dirt-holding capacity is filling—and yes, it’s time for a backwash.

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