Swimming pool ownership is one of the most sought after items after a house purchase. Some want to own a swimming pool because of the status of owning such a luxury item. Meanwhile, some still desire as the ultimate host to a summer time, backyard party. Nevertheless, no matter what your reason is you are going surely endeavor to get the maximized use out of the pool. Surprisingly, however, does not have to be a chore or part time job to maintain. This is what we will be talking about today some simple steps and reminders to help you and your new investment.

There is no common element to Gilbert pool service like there once was, as there used to be only round and rectangles. Now, of course, you can have cut corners, roman ends, or full free form pools. Of course, full custom, free form pools will be more expensive, they will turn your pool in to your dream style. However, no matter what shape your pool will take you will want to know the size, and how many gallons your pool will be. Therefore, for simplicity we will assume a very common size pool for the duration of the article an in-ground 16×32 pool with a shallow depth of 4 feet and deep end depth of 8 feet.

Why are we using that kind of precision? This information is because you will need to know in order to properly size your pool’s gallonage to keep it balanced, filtered and clean. Therefore, in our example the size of our pool is 23,040 gallons. This is figured by taking your length times the width times your average depth times the gallons in a cubic foot (16x32x ((4×8)/2) x7.5). From this number we can now size your pump and filter accordingly to the pool, as all things clean start here.

Now, we move on to which filter we want, as there are three types. First, there is sand (not to be confused with play sand) this filter is a workhorse, and you will have to do little maintenance aside from backwashing for 3-5 years. However, it is worthy to note your best clarity will not generally be in the first year, as this filter will actually use containments to help it filter out particles. Next is a cartridge filter, and this uses a paper medium to filter your water. With this, there is no backwashing; however, you will have to occasionally clean the filter. Therefore, it is recommended to have a backup cartridge to avoid pool downtime during cleanings. With this said, an average life of cartridges is 1-2 years, doubled if on a rotation with a second cartridge. Finally, there is a diatomaceous earth filter, otherwise known as D.E. This filter will filter to 1-2 microns (human eye sees around 30-35 micron), and will give best clarity right away. The only thing that is negative about the filter is that it tends to be clogged fast with an algae infestation. For the sake of our pool, we will go with the workhorse filter, the sand filter.