Over time, swimming pool water will grow in total dissolved solids or T.D.S.  This is a natural phenomenon due to evaporation. As pure water evaporates, all the minerals, byproducts, and other micro-particulates stay in the pool water. You can expect hard water in your swimming pool over time and you should use pool water recycling or drain and refill your pool every 5 to 10 years. Spas need to be drained and refilled more often due to the popularity of chlorine tabs in spas.

There are some tips we can share that we use to elongate the life of your pool or spa water. Hard water will eventually need to be replaced or recycled, but here are 3 tips that can help elongate the life of your pool or spa.

1. Use liquid chlorine as much as possible
2. Backwash regularly and for good length of time
3. Use a bubble cover

Use Liquid Chlorine As Much As Possible To Elongate Life Of Pool Water

Believe it or not, the type of chlorine you use is very important to your pool water. Chlorine tabs contain pool conditioner which is very important to have up to 50 ppm to 80 ppm, but more than that can be bad.

Read through our articles for detailed information on pool conditioner, but we try to limit adding pool conditioner with chlorine tabs by switching to liquid as soon as possible after summer and for as long as possible until summer. Chlorine tabs have several advantages like slow dissolving rates and easy storage. We can keep a high ideal level of chlorine far more consistently with chlorine tabs vs. liquid.

For instance, we need to instantly add enough liquid chlorine to last a full week. In the summer, this means high levels of chlorine in the pool water for a few days which will drop down to ideal by the time of our next pool service. This initial spike causes slightly aggressive pool water in the summer which is why we use chlorine tabs in the summer.

We try to switch to liquid chlorine as soon as possible after summer to avoid over conditioning. Still, over 5 to 10 years, high pool conditioner and/or hard pool water are nearly impossible to avoid. We may be able to limit over-conditioning, but every time we add fresh pool water, we are adding new calcium and other minerals to our pool water which leads us to our next tip.

Backwash Regularly For Good Length Of Time

The more hard pool water we backwash and replace with fresh tap water, the more we dilute the existing hard water in our pools. We like to backwash every month or two for a few minutes and longer for pools with high conditioner or hard pool water. The more hard water you backwash and replace, the more hardness you can take out. We can’t stop evaporation, but we can regularly replace hard water with fresh tap water. The next section will show how we can limit evaporation.

Solar Bubble Covers Will Limit Hard Water 

Nearly every pool service expert I know dislikes the big, annoying bubble cover. They invite pool algae, more debris, and take a lot of time to deal with. Still, I can’t help, but admit that they do efficiently warm up pool water, conserve pool water chemicals, and limit evaporation even if they are a pain.

I have to admit that these bubble covers will limit hard water since they limit evaporation. Less evaporation equals less new tap water filled with minerals and calcium flowing into the pool with existing hard water.  Remember only pure water evaporates while minerals and all other products stay in the hard water.

Hard water is inevitable in most swimming pools and spas. We have a strategy to elongate the life of our customer’s swimming pools, but every 5 to 10 years, it is wise to use pool water recycling or drain and refill the swimming pool. We recommend draining and refilling spas multiple times a year. By following these tips, our pool service experts help elongate the life of our customer’s swimming pools. All that’s left for our customers to do is save money and enjoy their swimming pools and spas!