Pool maintenance schedule

Daily: two minutes

• Skim the surface. Leaves that sink become food for algae and load for the filter.
• Empty the skimmer basket. A full basket cuts flow without the pressure gauge telling you.
• Look at the water. Clarity and level are the two cheapest signals you have.
• Glance at the filter pressure and confirm the pump is actually running.

None of this is chemistry. It is the part that stops you from having to do chemistry.

Weekly: half an hour

• Test and record: free chlorine and pH at minimum. Add total alkalinity every week or two.
• Brush walls, steps and the waterline. Algae starts on surfaces before it shows in the water.
• Vacuum, or run the cleaner a full cycle.
• Empty the pump basket and check the filter pressure against its clean baseline.
• Check the waterline for a scum ring and wipe it off before it cures.

Test at the same time of day each time — early morning, before the pool is used, is the most comparable. A reading taken after a party tells you about the party, not about the pool.

Monthly: the equipment pass

• Test the slower-moving numbers: cyanuric acid (CYA), calcium hardness, and salt if you run a salt pool.
• Clean the filter as the pressure asks — backwash a sand or DE filter, or hose a cartridge.
• Check for leaks and drips: pump seals, unions, valve stems, heater fittings.
• Inspect o-rings and lube them if they are dry, before they fail and you lose prime.
• Clean the salt cell if you have one, following the manufacturer's method and interval.
• Look at ladders, rails and the skimmer throat for cracks or loose fittings.

Seasonal: the two changeovers

• Opening: bring the water up to level, reconnect and prime the equipment, clean everything, run the pump a full cycle, then balance. Starting from a known volume makes every number afterwards meaningful — get your pool volume first.
• Closing: winterizing an above ground pool or closing an in-ground pool — clean, balance, protect anything that holds water, then cover.

The changeovers are the two days a year where doing the job properly saves you months of correcting afterwards.

The numbers worth knowing

Treat these as reference points, not targets we invented. Where a figure comes from a public health standard we say so; where it is industry convention, your test kit's own reference card is the authority for your product.

• CDC — Healthy Swimming (public pool water standards)

We publish ranges like these because they are widely available and useful for orientation. We do not publish our own dose amounts — that is a different kind of claim, and it needs a credentialed reviewer first. Every calculator on this site shows the source behind its number.

Log it, or you will never see the trend

A single reading tells you almost nothing. The useful information is the direction of travel: chlorine demand drifting up through July, CYA creeping up all season, or pressure climbing faster each week.

A paper notebook works. So does a photo of the test strip and the date. The point is that when something goes wrong, you can see when it started rather than guessing.

Schedule questions