Pools

Before we start, please download a FREE copy of our Pool Guide as a reference for all your questions! It's also a good idea to get the facts written down on your pool. The size of your pool determines almost everything from this point forward. The following is a chart listing the sizes of pools and their gallonage.

If your pool's size is not on this chart, you can determine its gallons by using the following formula:

Round Pool:

Diameter in feet x by Diameter in feet x average Depth x 5.9
Example: 18 x 18 = 324. 324 x 4 = 1296. 1296 x 5.9 = 7,646 gallons

Oval Pool:

Length in feet x Width in feet x average Depth x 6.0
Example: 18 x 34 = 612. 612 x 4 = 2448. 2448 x 6.0 = 14,688 gallon

Rectangle Pool:

Length in feet x Width in feet x average Depth x 7.5
Example: 18 x 34 = 612. 612 x 6 = 3672. 3672 x 7.5 = 27,540 gallons

Quick Tips on how to Open Your Pool

• Remove water from the surface of your cover
• Remove your pool cover
• Hose down your pool cover, let air dry, and store your cover
• Reattach your skimmer, and begin filling the pool
• As your pool is filling, assemble filter and hook up hoses to your pool
• Once the pool is filled half way through the skimmer opening, prime your filter
• Use a leaf grabber to remove any heavy debris from the bottom of the pool
• Vacuum (or vacuum to waste)
• Check on baskets often and empty them
• Once vacuuming is complete, begin to skim the surface of your pool
• Test your water
• Add the needed chemicals
• ENJOY!!!!

When your pool isn't closed properly, opening can be such an exhausting task. You wonder, did my cover stay on? What does my water look like? How am I going to clean this swamp? If winterized properly, you shouldn't have to worry about any of these questions.

Saving the Cover

The cover is the first thing you need to tackle when opening your pool for the season. What you want to do is first remove the water that is sitting on top of the cover. We recommend using the Cover Saver or a small submersible pump. The Cover Saver creates a siphon that uses gravity to drain the water off, whereas a small submersible pump uses an electric motor to drain the water. Attach a garden hose and run the hose for drainage to somewhere in the back of your yard. Throw the Cover Saver or pump toward the center of the cover. With the weight of the submersible pump, all of the water should drain toward the pump.

REMEMBER: Do not run a submersible pump until it is submerged in the water. Running it without water can build heat, and ultimately cause the motor to burn out.

What will be left once the water is removed are a mess of leaves, twigs, dirt and debris. Your best bet is to remove those leaves and twigs using your skimmer net or leaf grabber before you take the cover off. Otherwise what could happen is all of that mess can fall right into your pool, leaving you with a bigger mess than you started with. It is easier to remove debris from surface of your cover than it is to remove it once it's in your water.

Now remove any cover clips or water bags used to keep the cover on (filled with chemically treated water, be careful not to kill any plant life when draining). Now you will untie your pillow and deflate it. Next, loosen the winch and the cable. Wind up the cable, and place both the winch and the cable inside of a plastic bag. Now remove the cover, walking around the pool one section at a time. Lay your cover flat on the grass. This is a good time to inspect your cover for any holes or tears. If your cover is not salvageable, throw it away. Visit the closest American Sale location and speak with a sales associate on purchasing a new cover. If your cover is in good shape, take a garden hose and rinse both sides of the cover off. Let both sides of the cover dry before you fold it up. This will help prevent mildew. Once dry, sprinkle some baking soda on both sides of your cover to help prevent mildew. Keeping your cover flat, begin to fold it into halves. Depress any air trapped between the folds to give it a tighter fold.

Once you've completed the folding, place the plastic bag containing your winch and cable inside one of the folds of your winter cover. This will prevent you from losing them. Then store your cover in a safe spot where rodents can not get to them (rodents can chew holes into your cover). Now that your cover is off, it is time to plunge into –pool maintenance. Depending on what your water looks like, will depend on how long each of these next steps take.

Getting Your Pool Started

First, make sure you have proper supplies to get started:

• Start-up chemicals
• Skimmer net
• Leaf grabber
• Telescopic pole
• Vacuum
• Vacuum and filter hoses
• Hose adapters
• Clamps
• Skimmer and strainer baskets
• Teflon tape

Once the cover is off, you want to remove the skimmer plate and reattach the skimmer. Check the skimmer gaskets and make sure they are not stretched out or cut. Replace them if they are worn. Do this before you attach your skimmer, otherwise they may leak, and you will have to drain your pool to replace them. Once the skimmer is attached, take your garden hose and begin filling the pool with water. Fill the pool until the water line is about half way up your skimmer opening. As your pool is filling, begin assembling your filter. Hook up all of your hoses and make sure to use Teflon tape anywhere there are threaded pieces (this will prevent it from leaking). Once the pool is filled to the proper level, you must prime your filter. After your filter is primed you will be ready to vacuum.

Removing the Mess

Even if your water is crystal clear, there is a great chance that there are an accumulation of leaves and dirt on the bottom of your pool. This is sometime deceiving, because what can look like only a few leaves, could actually be several layers thick. What you want to do first is use your leaf grabber to scoop the leaves from the bottom of your pool. Empty your net into one large pile of leaves and debris to make it easier on yourself for clean up.

Now hook up your vacuum. If you have a sand filter put your filter valve on the waste/bypass setting. All the dirt and debris will then go out your waste port. Some earth filters will also have a backwash port, and you can have your filter on this function while vacuuming also. Do keep in mind since DE filters capture smaller particles, your filter will clog a lot sooner while trying to vacuum. You will be backwashing and re-adding earth quite often.

Slowly begin vacuuming the bottom of your pool. If you move to fast it can cause the leaves and other debris to float up off the bottom of your pool, and become suspended in your water. These particles are so small, they may pass through the net or a leaf grabber. Once this debris is in your water your clarity is reduced, and you are forced to wait for it to settle back down to the bottom of your pool. Continue to vacuum until all the dirt and debris is removed.

You will have to empty your baskets quite often when opening a pool. A good indication that your baskets need to be emptied is the water entering back from the return fitting will no longer be clean and water flow is sluggish. When you see dirty water entering back into your pool, it is time to empty the baskets. Once you're finished vacuuming, then take your skimmer net and remove any dirt and debris from the surface of your pool.

Once your pool is looking clean, it's time to test the water.

Bottom Drain Openings

Bottom drain owners will follow a bit different path. You want to remove the drain cap, and put your 3 way valve on the pipe. Put your valve to full main drain which is the bottom drain setting. Begin circulating the water. As you're doing this, begin filling your pool. While filling, your bottom drain is working to suck any leaves, twigs, dirt and debris into the drain leading to your filter. This will cut your vacuuming time down. Once your pool is filled to the proper level, make sure to change the valve to skim only which will shut off your bottom drain, and allow you to vacuum.

Below is a list of the 5 most common pool problems is above ground swimming pools:

• Green Algae
• Black Algae
• Cloudy Water
• Chlorine Odor
• Eye and Skin Irritation

Water hardness in a pool is a very important part of balancing water chemistry. If water has too little hardness, it will be aggressive water. This aggressive nature of water will need to satisfy its mineral appetite. If there are not enough minerals in solution to satisfy it, the water will look places to satisfy its mineral hunger. The surface of plaster pools and spas are very vulnerable to this search for minerals. Pool heaters are also very vulnerable. Pool water should seek a hardness rating of 175 - 225 PPM.

How Temperature affects Hardness

The aggressiveness of the water changes with the temperature of the water.

• When the water is cold, it looks to dissolve calcium from the surface and equipment.
  This will result in corrosion or etching of the pool surface.


• When the water is warm, it forces the minerals out of the solution and is more likely to form scale.

If hardness is high, the water will tend to form scale on the surfaces of the pool such as the plumbing, equipment, liner, and heater; especially if the water temperature is high. The only way to lower the hardness is to drain some of the water and add water from a new water source, or to use a chemical product. For decreasing the hardness in your pool, American Sale recommends Proteam Metal Magic. If the hardness is low, the water will corrode the pool equipment and plumbing and may also etch the pool surface. This tendency is also intensified if the pH and the total alkalinity are low. Plaster pools are very susceptible because the surface is very rich in calcium. For increasing the hardness in your pool, American Sale recommends Proteam Calcium Up.

When nitrogenous compounds enter a pool the Chlorine is attracted to them. When Chlorine and Nitrogen come in contact they form Chloramines or Combined Chlorine. Nitrogen is a colorless odorless gas. It is a common element found in urine, perspiration, cosmetics, lotions, rain, and fertilizer. When Chlorine and Nitrogen combine to form Chloramines, the chlorine is no longer free to kill bacteria as effectively as Free Available Chlorine. This many times will make the water smell bad with chlorine like smell, irritate swimmers nose and eyes, and look cloudy or dull. To clean up Chloramines, the pool must be shocked.

Shocking a Pool

To destroy Chloramines, the Free Available Chlorine in the pool must be raised to over 10 ppm. It is important to raise the level over 10 ppm because if the level is not brought over 10 ppm the Chlorine will not break down the Chloramines in the water. Breakpoint Chlorination also oxidizes body oils, perspiration, urine, and suntan oils in the water. American Sale recommends Malibu Power Shock or Malibu Shock Hard for effective shocking of a pool. It is important to shock your pool regularly to control the chloramines.

Things to Remember when Shocking your Pool

It is important to leave the pool uncovered for at least 8 hours after shocking your pool. For indoor pools, it is also important to provide adequate air circulations. Lastly, it is important to provide adequate time for this reaction to occur. It is best to perform this on a schedule that controls the buildup of chloramines. The frequency in which you should shock your pool is affected by the amount of nitrogen introduced into the water. Some things that will effect this is the number, age, and type of swimmers, the amount of rain and ground water runoff, the geographic location of the pool, and the exposure of fertilizers to the pool.

Shock and Swim

Chlorine is not the only oxidizer that destroys chloramines. Proteam Shock and Swim (potassium monopersulfate) destroys Chloramines. Any potassium monopersulfate added to the water will destroy as many chloramines as it can without needing to achieve a high breakpoint level. For Shocking without the use of Chlorine, American Sale recommends using Proteam Shock and Swim.

Chlorine is the most common form of sanitizer used in pools today. Chlorine's job is to keep your water crystal clear and provide you with a safe environment to swim. It achieves this by killing bacteria and algae and oxidizing (burning up) any particles to small for your filter to remove.

How Chlorine Works

Chlorine that purchased is typically combined with other compounds to be safe to handle. Once the chlorine comes in contact with water, it changes to an active form that kills bacteria and algae in your pool. This killing form is called hypochlorous acid. As the chlorine destroys the bad guys, the chlorine level in your pool will be reduced or get used. Sunlight and splashing will deplete your chlorine level. This is the main reason it is important to keep proper levels of chlorine in your pool at all times. With all of these factors diminishing your chlorine level, there is not much available chlorine to fight off any other bad guys that your water may come in contact with.

Types of Chlorine

There are two types of stabilized chlorine:

Dichlor
DICHLORO-S-TRIAZINETRIONE, or called sodium dichlor, has 65% available chlorine. Dichlor is a white granular form of chlorine that has a slightly low pH, but for the most part can be considered neutral. Since dichlor comes in granular form, you cannot use it in chlorine feeders or automatic chlorinators. Dichlor dissolves fast when added to water American Sale recommends to pre-dissolve it in a bucket of water before use.

Trichlor
TRICHLOR-S-TRIAZINETRIONE, or more commonly known as trichlor, has 89% available chlorine. Trichlor dissolves slowly into pool water, therefore is found mostly in tablet or stick form. These tablets and/or sticks are placed in a chlorine feeder or automatic chlorinator to help maintain proper levels of chlorine. Using an automatic chlorinator or feeder eliminates the hassle of constantly adding chlorine to your pool water. Most chlorinators and feeders can hold a one to four week supply of chlorine, and can be adjusted if the demand for more chlorine is needed. You will find that when there is more sun or when you have more swimmers than usual, you will need to increase the amount of chlorine feeding into your pool.

Unstabilized Chlorine

Unstabilized chlorine does not have an UV protector. Unstabilized chlorine is available in liquid or granular form. The different types of unstabilized chlorine are: sodium or calcium hypochlorite.

Sodium Hypochlorite

Sodium Hypochlorite is also known as liquid chlorine. Chlorine in this form is easy to use and quickly increases the chlorine level. Liquid chlorine has a pH about 13 ... with 12% to 13% active chlorine. Since liquid chlorine is not stabilized, sunlight will cause the chlorine to dissipate quickly. You will need to add more chlorine because of this and need to add it more frequently. Liquid chlorine does NOT have a long shelf life. The longer it is stored, the weaker the chlorine gets, so make sure when purchasing liquid chlorine to use the product within a short period of time.

Liquid Chlorine will add a tremendous amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) to your water, making all your other chemicals less effective.

Calcium Hypochlorite

Calcium hypochlorite is a white powder with a high pH of 11.8 and 65% active chlorine. Like liquid chlorine, it will dissipate quickly with sunlight. However, calcium hypochlorite is stable and can be stored for long periods of time, unlike liquid chlorine. This product should be stored in a dry, cool place and can ignite if contaminated.Comparing Stabilized and UnstabilizedOn average, 3 ounces of trichlor will give about the same sanitizing power that one-gallon of liquid chlorine or a 1 lb. bag of calcium hypochlorite. We definitely recommend stabilized trichlor because of this. A majority of our customers use trichlor because of these benefits:

• Easier to store
• You'll use less chlorine
• Only needs attention once a week
• Costs less per season

Stabilized chlorine is definitely the better bang for your buck!

Green Grass is Good-Green Pool Water is NOT!

Now that your pool is properly balanced, you must not forget to sanitize it. The biggest problem with pools is algae, the biggest reason why, is not enough chlorine. To maintain crystal clear, bacteria free water, you can use any of the different types of chlorine discussed. You should keep the chlorine level in a range of 1 to 3 ppm. Your water will remain sanitary as long as the chlorine level does not drop below 1 ppm.

Every day your chlorine usage is different. This is dependent on many factors such as how many swimmers, weather, as well as dirt and debris in your pool water. The more factors present, the more your chlorine is being used. Since the amount of chlorine in your water is changing everyday, it is recommended that you test your water chlorine level daily.

What's that smell?

If your pool water smells like there's too much chlorine, actually it's telling you there's not enough. When you add active chlorine to your pool, it automatically begins to do its job by attacking any algae and bacteria present in the water. The chlorine that was used is now called combined chlorine. The chlorine remaining that can still be used to fight is called free chlorine. Only free chlorine is left as the active chlorine to keep your water sanitized.

Combined chlorine, or chloramines is chlorine being tied up by ammonia groups. These chloramines are what cause skin and eye irritation and also that strong chlorine odor that everyone has experienced. When chlorine is tied-up in chloramines, it is not an effective sanitizer.

There are test strips that test for free chlorine and total chlorine. Ideally, total chlorine should equal free chlorine, which tells you none of your chlorine is being tied-up. If you show a high amount of total chlorine, but hardly any reading on free chlorine, your test kit is telling you that your chlorine is being tied up in chloramines. In order to activate this chlorine you must superchlorinate ... or shock your pool water.

Shocking your water means bringing your chlorine level up to 10 ppm. Once you raise your chlorine level to this range, the chloramines will break down and free your chlorine that has been tied up. You should shock your pool on a bi-weekly basis or as often as needed.

Just because you shocked your pool does not mean you can refrain from chlorinating the rest of the week. As you might have read, some of your chlorine is used up right away, some is held on reserve. After the shocking, as part of normal maintenance, you should always add a routine amount of chlorine to your water once your chlorine level returns to 3 ppm.

What if you need to shock your pool and you have a party in 2 hours? There is another chemical you can purchase made by Proteam called Shock and Swim. Shock and Swim is a chlorine free shock, which allows you to swim in 15 minutes!

Quick Tips on How to Close Your Pool

• Make sure before you start that you have all the proper materials needed
• Add winterizing chemicals (make sure they are pre-dissolved)
• Choose what type of winterizing plate you are going to use on your pool
• Drain your pool (if needed)
• Wedge a plug in the return fitting
• Disassemble and clean your filter
• Store your filter in a dry, warm area
• Check for correct cover size
• Loop cable through eyelets
• Inflate and tie up ice compensator
• Fasten cover to pool
• Use Cover Clips or Water Tubes

Closing your pool properly is very important. Properly closing your pool will greatly impact how much time you spend on opening your pool in the spring. If you cut corners, your pool will show it.

Do you have everything you need?

First before starting anything, make sure you have all the supplies you need to complete closing your pool:

• Cover
• Skimmer face plate
• Cable and Winch
• Cover Clips
• Winterizing Chemicals
• Water Tubes
• Ice Compensator
• Main Drain Cap (if you have a bottom drain)
• Air pump to blow the water out of the bottom drain plug plumbing (Hairdryer, Wet/Dry Vac, Compressor)
• Screwdriver - Flathead and Phillips
• Return fitting plug
• Gizmo skimmer protector (for in-ground pools)

Adding Chemicals

The addition of chemicals is very important in closing your pool. You don't want to add just any type of chemicals, but rather winterizing chemicals. Winterizing chemicals have higher concentrations of what you're adding into your pool, which will last the duration of the winter months.

Balance the water chemistry

• Adjust PH to 7.2-7.6
• Adjust Total Alkalinity to 80-120ppm
• Adjust Hardness to 180-220ppm
• Vacuum pool to remove any debris on the bottom such as leaves or dirt
• Vacuuming the debris will leave less chance for algae over the winter season

Purchase the correct size Malibu Winter Kit

There are 3 sizes. Please remember to follow all instructions on the labels of each product for complete application instructions.

Add Malibu Winterizing Powder to your pool.

This magic formula gives you double protection against algae and keeps your pool crystal clear for the entire season into spring.

Add Malibu Liquid Super Strength Winterizing Gallon

For the extra protection you need.

Add Winter Alkalizer

This is a PH stabilizer which helps prevent the PH from changing during the winter months. A PH that varies may cause extensive corrosion to pool equipment.

Add Winter Chlor to pool

Will maintain your chlorine residual as long as possible after closing your pool. This helps keep water algae-free during winter. Circulate the water for ½ hour. Add Metal Out to help keep metals present in your water from staining the liner over the winter. Place Grease Monkey oil absorber in the water to soak up contaminants that enter the water throughout the winter.

Circulate Filter for 3 hrs

Circulating the filter for 3 hrs will allow a good dispersion of the closing chemicals.

**NOTE** These kits are made to provide protection for your pool water all through the winter season, until you once again open your pool. Inferior kits are on the market. These inferior kits do not give you protection throughout the whole off season. Inferior kits will result in an ugly mess come spring and cost more in start up chemicals than a quality kit.

Aquador Face Plate

With the Aquador, your first year you must drain your pool below the skimmer opening to install the plate, but after that initial year, you'll never have to drain your pool again!

First, remove the skimmer face plate. Using the screws that you removed from the skimmer face plate, install the Aquador face plate. You install this from the inside of your pool. Do not use power tools to attach the Aquador, and avoid over tightening the screws. Over tightening can cause the faceplate to crack. The Aquador faceplate is permanent, and will then stay attached to your skimmer. The Aquador winterizing plate is a bit different than a traditional face plate. It is a clear, flexible plastic door that looks similar to a tupperware lid. This snaps onto the Aquador face plate preventing any water from escaping.

The following years after installing the Aquador, all you do is snap the lid onto the housing, and you're done! No more tools or hassles of draining your pool. Now when you open your pool, you don't have to wait for your pool to fill, you can get started immediately. The Aquador is a great system that saves you time, which means more enjoyment in your pool.

Doughboy Pools

Doughboy makes a winterizing plate specifically for its own pools.With this system, you want to drain your pool 4 - 6 inches below the skimmer. Loosen the face plate screws, but do not remove them. This should give you enough room to remove the skimmer, but leave the skimmer face plate loosely attached. Use the same gaskets from the skimmer if they are in good shape. If they are worn, replace them with the ones provided in your winterizing plate kit. Position the winterizing plate from the outside of the pool over the skimmer opening. Make sure the screws are through the openings on the gasket, and then align the holes in the winterizing plate. Make sure not to over tighten the screws, otherwise it can cause the winterizing plate to crack. Aquador also makes a winterizing plate that is made to fit a Doughboy skimmer opening. Follow the instructions for Aquador on how to install.

Return Fitting Plug

After deciding the skimmer face plate, choose a return fitting plug size. You can purchase a small plug, and just plug up the eyeball of your return fitting, or you can take apart the return and seal the entire opening with a larger plug. Either plug will perform the same task. The plug has a wing nut that you can tighten that causes the rubber plug to expand inside the opening. This fills the gap and restricts water flow. If you have an inground pool, insert a Gizmo skimmer protector to prevent water and debris from getting down into your pipes and also to absorb the force of any ice that may freeze inside the skimmer over the winter. Drain your water below the skimmer if you do not use an Aquador face plate.

Filter

Now that all of the openings are covered, you can dissemble the hoses and filter. Unclamp each hose from the filter and the pool. Also, empty any media out of the tank. Replace the media the following season. Hose down and clean the filter tank. Make sure to wipe out and completely dry the inside of your tank. Store your tank somewhere indoors (i.e. garage, shed). Take any hose adapters, clamps, etc. and store them in the strainer to keep from losing them.

Caution: Do NOT leave media inside your tank, or leave your tank outdoors. Both actions can cause any water left in the tank to freeze. Water freezing can lead to your filter tank cracking.

Putting on your Cover

First what you want to do is to make sure you have the right cover. On your cover, it should read two different sizes. The first size is what pool size the cover is made for, and the second size is the actual size of the cover. Your winter cover should be 3feet larger that your actual pool size. So for a 24 foot pool, the actual cover size will be 27 feet. Make sure to check the label before putting your cover on. This can save you valuable time if it is not the right size.

Next, what you want to do is begin weaving the cable in and out of the eyelets of your cover. Then, inflate the ice compensator and tie it loosely so that it floats in the center of the pool. Make sure to only fill the ice compensator half full. If you fill it too much, it can cause the ice compensator to burst. Slide the cover over the pillow and rails of your pool. Secure the pool cover by attaching the cable into the winch. Tighten the winch, and your cover will secure itself under the rails of your pool.

What else can I do?

Keeping your cover from flying off can be difficult depending on where you live. Some areas have strong winds that can catch beneath the cover, causing the cover to fly up. Here are a few ways that can help your cover from becoming a parachute.

Cover Clips

Cover Clips can be used either on its own or in conjunction with the cable and winch. These clips are made of a heavy plastic, that snap the cover onto the underside of your pool rail. You want to space these clips evenly apart all the way around your pool. Read the packaging to find out how many clips you need on your size pool.

Water Tubes

Using water tubes is another way to help keep your cover secure. Fill the tubes up with either pool water or water from a hose. Then space these tubes out on the rails of your pool. Tubes work excellent also if you have a deck or walk-around where you can not secure a cable. In addition to these tips, you can also spray an inch or so of water on top of your cover. The weight of the water will help keep the wind from getting under your cover.