Keeping your pool water clean and free of pathogens is essential to making the most out of your investment. But properly maintaining swimming pool water chemistry involves more than just tossing in a few chemicals into the pool and you’re good to go. Ensuring a proper chlorine level in pool is sometimes more about getting the right balance, but it’s essential to keeping your pool healthy.

Proper Chlorine Level in Pool - Poolowner Basics

The proper chlorine level in pool should be between 1.0-3.0 ppm and have a pH level of 7.2.

Shocking

First off, if your pool has a lot of built-up organic materials, adding normal doses of chlorine won’t solve the problem. You’ll have to start by shocking your pool, which simply means adding heavy amounts of chlorine to your pool, albeit for a short time to destroy all organic matter and bacteria in your pool completely. If you’ve just filled your pool or haven’t shocked it in a while, be sure to shock it first so the chlorine can work its magic. Shocking your pool should also be a part of your routine maintenance of your pool.

pH

The next step of the process is to measure the pH level of your pool water. If the pH level is too high, not even the right amount of chlorine will make the water is safe to swim in. This is because chlorine is less effective in acidic water. As such, aim for a pH of around 7.2. If the pH is too high, you can slowly adjust it by adding some muriatic acid in the deep end while the pump is running.

Adding Chlorine

Once the water is ready, you can start adding chlorine. Pool chlorine will usually come in sticks or tablets that you can place into automatic feeder. You want to avoid poor quality tablets. Good quality tablets will usually dissolve evenly, getting smaller over time while maintaining their shape. This is especially crucial if you’re going to be using a floating chlorinator.

Chlorine feeders are very popular with pool owners because of their relative ease of use. These feeders will dispatch precise amounts into your pool automatically, giving you a means of precisely controlling the amounts of chlorine dumped into your pool.

Regardless of the system you use or frequency of adding chlorine to your water, keep your pool healthy by ensuring the level stays between 1.0 and 3.0 parts per million (ppm). Higher levels of chlorine are associated with skin hazards such as swimmer’s itch and red eyes. Even at the highest levels, chlorine will only give off a slight smell. A strong smell of chlorine, therefore, is a sign that your pool needs shocking.

Establishing how much chlorine to add will involve some basic math, with the most difficult part being determining the total water capacity in the pool. Fortunately, many pool houses provide online calculators that can help. Also be sure to add chlorine to your pool when your pool is at a certain temperature.

Bottom Line

Once you know the volume, then an ounce of chlorine will give you a 1 ppm reading in 75,000 gallons of water. Nonetheless, the most critical factor when ensuring a proper chlorine level in pool is consistency. Be sure to check pH levels every two to three days as it will affect how well the chlorine works.