Move to New Zealand – and get a Swimming Pool.
One of the most amazing things about our life in New Zealand is that we now have a chance to own a pool. Not only could we afford a house with a pool – we also have the most fantastic summer weather in which to use it.
Only – never having had a pool before – we didn’t have the faintest idea how to look after it – and within a few short weeks of moving out – our beautiful crystal blue pool had turned a disgusting shade of pond-scum-green.
So here is what we SHOULD have known – but didn’t.
1. The filter on the pool should be run at least 8-12 hours every day.
We have ours on a timer for 8 hours at night.
2. Run the filter for about 1/2 hour after adding any chemicals.
3. You should backwash the filter every few days or at least once a week.
This cleans the filter and the water goes to waste (usually somewhere in the garden).
4. Do NOT backwash the pool for 3 hours!
Usually a few seconds is all that is needed (depending on the filter – there should be a “sight glass” – on ours it’s near the back of the filter near the handle – when backwashing you will see water running through it and it goes from mucky to clear – that means the filter is clean)
Backwashing for a long time leaves the water level low and air gets sucked into the filter. This is bad.
5. Make sure you have the following:
A vacuum (we have an automatic one and a manual broom type – I really only use the manual one),
A leaf rake for getting crud off the bottom
A skimmer sieve for getting crud off the surface.
You only really need to vacuum when there is dirt on the bottom
6. Running a hose and pointing it in the corners is a good way of dislodging dirt from areas that the vacuum can’t reach.
We have a “patent pending” devise to make this easier – we taped the hose to a broom handle so we could direct the flow.
7. When the filter is on – if you gear a “gurgling” noise – that means you need to add more water to the pool.
8. Using a Floatron cuts down on the amount of chlorine you need.
A floatron is a solar powered device that sits in the pool and produces copper ions. Having copper ions in the pool stops algae from growing, and keeps the water clean. I was very sceptical about this – but I’ve now had one for 2 years and it really does work brilliantly. You need to clean the floatron every so often to remove build up, but it’s pretty easy.
9. Salt water pools still chlorinate
Bottom line – you have to have the same amount of free chlorine in the pool whether you use “Chlorine” or salt.
10. If your pool smells of Chlorine – it doesn’t have enough chlorine in it.
The smell comes from Chloramines – not free chlorine, which is the disinfectant. If you have enough free chlorine – chloramines don’t form, and you don’t get the smell.
11. Get a pool cover and a roller for it.
Pool covers do 3 main things:
They keep the pool temperature a few degrees warmer.
They cut down on evaporation from the pool so you need fewer tops up in summer (which is a must if like us you rely on tank water in a drought area)
They also stop quite a lot of debris from entering the pool.
12. You have to balance 4 different chemical reactions in the pool.
PH, Total Alkalinity, Chlorine and Cyanuric acid.
If you are worried about the effect of swimming on your hair – then make sure the pH and alkalinity are at the correct levels.
Cyanuric acid is there to help stabilise the chlorine (sunlight breaks down the chlorine without it and makes it useless).
If you use a floatron – you need a lot less chlorine in the pool – but you do need some.
You can get dipsticks that tell you the levels of all 4 chemicals in the pool within 15 seconds.
13. Find yourself a friendly pool supply shop.
When I first moved in to our house – I found that the local pool shop was invaluable in helping me learn the ropes. And they didn’t once laugh at me when I turned up saying my pool had turned green.
14. If your pool turns green don’t panic.
It’s easy to fix – you just add a packet of “Shock Treatment Chlorine” and run the pump for 24 hours. Then add some Algaecide and run the pump for another 24 hours. You will probably need to do a big Hoover and lots of backwashing – but that’s about it.
15. You can winterise the pool.
This basically means adding a bottle of winteriser to the pool when you know you won’t be using it for a long time.
Winteriser basically dumps a whole lot of copper ions into the pool to stop algae growing. You probably don’t need this if you use a floatron.
16. Floatrons don’t seem to work quite so well if you use them with a cover in place.
Basically this means that over winter – you just need to pull the cover of and check the pool occasionally. I have found it best to leave the cover off over winter and then the Floatron works perfectly. I just put the cover back on at the start of October to warm the pool up, ready for the summer.
17. If you have plants around the pool – take them out.
Plants near a pool are your enemy. They dump leaves, seeds and petals into the water – which you have to get out and it adds to the work tremendously. If you want plants near the pool – choose plants like Aloes and Agarves which don’t dump stuff into the pool. (Roses and Flax are especially bad!)
18. Maintaining and looking after a pool is really not that hard.
I possibly spend about 15 minutes a week looking after the pool. A quick check of the chemical levels – adding some chemicals if they are needed, and a Hoover every few weeks and we are done. I spend a lot more time IN the pool having fun.
Related posts:
- The life and times of a Swimming Pool
- Frugal moneysaving tip for New Zealand.
- Do you need to move to New Zealand to get a new life?
Comments
5 Comments on Move to New Zealand – and get a Swimming Pool.
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Tom Arrineezilm on
Fri, 19th Dec 2008 1:17 am
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Avalon on
Sat, 20th Dec 2008 5:34 am
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Alan on
Sun, 26th Apr 2009 6:10 pm
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Anni Russell on
Tue, 7th Jul 2009 2:57 pm
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Avalon on
Tue, 7th Jul 2009 6:25 pm
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
Thank you very much. Thats very nice to hear 
One of the fun things I never knew about pools was that you could actually have fun cleaning them. Grab a snorkel, water hose, and go diving! Great fun to be head clearing out all the dust collecting in the bottom corners of the pool. Of course,people sitting by the side of the pool providing ‘helpful’ direction may get the odd ‘splash’..
Where did you get your hoover from, have looked and cant seem to find anything on the internet about them?
We have just bought our first house (complete with pool) in Tauranga after arriving here from the UK in February this year. We are very much looking forward to using it but know that we have to work at it to keep in clean so any “time saving device” info is gratefully received.
Great blog have copied and printed off your tips and will keep looking back for info.
Hi Anni,
Our local pool shop carries them, so you should be able to get them fairly easily. There are two types, an automcatic one and manual.
We use a manual one, which is basically a hoover head (around $80) and about $120 worth of piping. This gets attached to the pump via the main filer basket, and you basically use it like a normal hoover.
The automatic ones are a bit more expensive, are hooked up the same way – but have this wierd sort of “skirt” on the bottom. Whenever the pump runs, the hoover works its way around the pool. We found though, that it just didnt work as well as if we used the manual hoover.
So basically – the shop you will be using to get your pool chemicals from should have the hoover bits you need as well.
Hope that helps.
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