Not every household in Perth has a swimming pool, so many residents rely on public pools for fun and keeping cool during the summer months. Cleaning a public pool is essential for everyone’s health and safety, but how often should a public pool be cleaned?
If you manage a public pool in Perth, its maintenance is your responsibility. Following the appropriate procedures and timetables will help local swimmers have better experiences patronising your public swimming pool.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when learning the best practices for cleaning a public pool.
Dangers of Dirty Public Swimming Pools
Cleaning a public pool will not only keep the pool water and its surrounds free of unsightly dirt and debris. It also reduces the risk of swimmers contracting a contagious disease or experiencing skin allergies.
With many adults and children playing in your community pool, it’s not unusual for the water to contain viruses, bacteria, and other contaminants that could lead to contagious water-borne diseases like:
- Giardia: a parasite that causes gastrointestinal issues like bloating, vomiting, and diarrhea
- e.Coli: a common viral illness that comes from fecal matter and causes gastrointestinal discomfort
- Salmonella: a bacteria in dirty pool water with fecal contamination from people or animals
Failing to keep up with a routine pool cleaning schedule will allow germs, bacteria, and viruses to thrive in pool water. Algae growths and other microorganisms will also become prominent, leading to cloudy water unsuitable for swimming.
How Often Should You Clean a Public Pool?
Your public swimming pool’s cleaning intervals depend on several factors: the pool’s size, location (indoor or outdoor), the season, and frequency of use. For instance, you will likely need to clean an outdoor swimming pool more often than an indoor pool because wind and rain can deposit dirt and leaves into the water.
Cleaning a public pool requires simple and complex tasks. Some actions should occur daily, while others follow a weekly, monthly, or seasonal schedule. Pool maintenance should generally include:
- Adjusting pool chemicals
- Checking the water’s pH levels often
- Applying shock
- Scrubbing the pool’s walls and floor
- Vacuuming the pool floor
Factors to Consider When Cleaning a Public Pool
Filtration and Filter Maintenance
Your public pool’s filtration system is essential for eliminating dirt, debris, and other particles from the water. A sand or cartridge filter will trap contaminants as water circulates through the system. Clean water will then flow back into the pool.
Ideal filter maintenance includes running the pool pump at least eight hours per day. Running the filtration system will clean the pool water, but the filter will develop build-up from trapped debris.
You can clean sand filters by backwashing or reversing the water flow into the filter. If you have a cartridge filter, you must remove it and clean it manually with a hose. You can schedule professional pool filter cleaning once a month during swim season or three to four times a year for an oversized filter.
Chemical Levels
Public pools must maintain the appropriate chemical balance to eliminate microorganisms and keep the pool water safe for swimming. Indoor public pools should have a free chlorine level of one milligram per litre for water temperatures below 26° Celsius or two milligrams per litre for water over 26° Celcius. Increase the free chlorine amount by one milligram for outdoor pools.
The pool also needs an appropriate pH reading to determine the water’s acidity or alkalinity. Chlorine’s disinfectant properties work best with pH readings between 7.2 and 7.8. You should check the water’s pH and free chlorine levels daily.
Disinfection
A public swimming pool will need regular chlorine applications to disinfect the water without harming swimmers. Chlorine eliminates human and organic wastes. It is available as a liquid (sodium hypochlorite) and a powder or tablet (calcium hypochlorite).
Besides contaminants introduced to pool water by swimmers and the environment, the sun’s ultraviolet rays can also break down the water’s chlorine. If that happens, the water is more likely to harbour germs, bacteria, and algae. You might need to use more chlorine to sanitiset the pool properly.
Adding a stabiliser like isocyanuric acid to an outdoor pool will protect the chlorine against UV rays. You will still need to chlorinate the public pool’s to a minimum of 2mg/l when using cyanuric acid. However, you may need to backwash the pool’s filter more frequently to prevent stabiliser concentration in the water.
Algae Growth
Most swimming pools will experience algae growth, especially in sunny, warm conditions. Algae is what turns pool water green within a few hours. However, chlorinating the water can dramatically reduce algae growth.
If algae are already noticeable in the pool, brush the walls and floor to loosen the growth off the pool’s surfaces. Vacuum the settled algae off the pool floor the following day. Be sure to check the pH level before allowing swimmers in the pool.
Best Swimming Pool Hygiene Practices
Most contaminants in swimming pools come from swimmers. Water can mix with a person’s sweat, trace amounts of fecal matter, or urine if a person doesn’t make it to a toilet in time. Contaminants can also come from lotions, sunscreen, dirt, and other particles on a person’s skin or clothing.
If you manage a public indoor or outdoor swimming pool, you can prevent the pool water from becoming dirty too quickly by encouraging patrons to:
- Shower with soap and water before entering the pool
- Take children out of the water often for bathroom breaks
- Avoid swimming after a recent bout of diarrhea or other gastrointestinal illnesses
- Keep pool water out of their mouths and avoid swallowing it
- Leave the pool to use the bathroom
Reach Out to 1 Pool Care Today
If you need help cleaning a public pool in Perth, look no further than 1 Pool Care. We are a top-rated pool service offering world-class pool cleaning services with professional techniques, state-of-the-art equipment, and affordable, upfront pricing. Our skilled team can expertly clean, repair, and maintain public pools of any size.
Cleaning a public pool is as easy as contacting 1Pool Care in Perth, Western Australia, so call 0456 75 75 75 today to request an appointment.