Having your own pool is a dream come true, right? It’s great to enjoy the outdoors in the spring and summer months. It’s perfect for outdoor entertaining and hosting all of your neighbors. There is, however, some maintenance that needs to occur to keep the pool clean and clear. One part of pool maintenance is testing your water on a regular basis. Have no fear, though, because water testing is pretty easy if you know what you are doing! Keep reading to find out a few ways that you can test your pool water so you can ensure that you and your loved ones have a happy, safe summer full of fun.
Test Strips
The easiest method of testing your pool water is to buy a water test strip kit. These kits come with special paper strips that, once dipped in your water, can tell you a large amount of information. With one quick dunk, these strips can indicate where your chemical levels are. Most paper test strips will measure total chlorine, total bromine, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, pH, total hardness, and total alkalinity. Using these strips provides you with a quick and easy way to test your pool water.
Test Kits
A pool water test kit uses liquid reagents that can measure your water chemistry. Drops of the reagents are combined with your pool water. The resulting color can then be compared to a chart that is available in the kit to determine your chemical levels. When you are using pool test kits, however, make sure that you follow the directions exactly. One extra drop in your pool water can alter your readings and lead to an incorrect interpretation of the results. Test kits are great because they are extremely accurate and many pool professionals use these as their testing methods of choice. Lots of users also find the color changes to be more distinct than the test strips are.
Questions? Pepper’s Pools & Spas Is Here to Help
If you still have more questions about pool water testing methods, Pepper’s Pool & Spa is here to help you out. At Pepper’s Pool & Spa, located in Kansas City, MO, we have trained professionals that can help you with anything and everything pool related. We offer free water testing where you can bring in a sample of water so we can test and print out detailed instructions on how to balance and maintain your pool water properly. When taking a sample of your pool water please use a clean water bottle or container and take the sample away from skimmers, returns, and from around 18 inches deep into the water. Please also bring us the sample as soon as you can once you’ve taken it as this ensures the water sample is as accurate as possible.
