And, of course, muriatic acid is also a big seller at pool supply stores, where it’s often used as a stain remover. It’s also used to reduce high alkalinity or and lower the pH in pool water.
pH is a measure of how acidic your pool water is. Things that can affect your pool’s pH include rainfall, outside temperature, and how often your pool is used.
Ideally, you want your pH to be somewhere between 2 and If your pH is below 2, it’s too acidic. If your water is above 8, it’s not acidic enough. When your pool has high pH/low acidity, chlorine is less effective, your pool water can become cloudy, and you may notice scaling on your waterline tiles and other surfaces.
The quickest way to get your pH back to an acceptable level is to use a chemical pH reducer. Pool supply stores sell muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate as pH reducers. Sodium bisulfate, or dry acid, comes in a powder form and is more mild than muriatic acid, so it’s a little safer to use, but many pool owners use generic muriatic acid as a substitute for pH reducers.
First things first: You need to know how much muriatic acid to use. For an average-sized pool (think 15,000 to 20,000 gallons), you’ll need about a quart of muriatic acid. If your pool is much larger or much smaller than average, you should check with your pool professional.
Fill a five-gallon bucket with clean water (you’ll want to make sure the bucket is safe to use with muriatic acid – it can be too harsh for some types of plastic). Add the muriatic acid to the water (be sure to pour slowly to avoid splashing) and stir carefully with a wooden stick.
Slowly pour the mixture into the deep end of your pool, and wait a few minutes for the solution to disperse. Wait a few minutes, then turn on your pool pump so the muriatic acid can circulate through your pool’s filtration system.
Wait a few hours and test your swimming pool water again. If the pH is back within an acceptable range, you’re good to go. If your pH is still too high, you’ll need to go back to step one and repeat the process.
Muriatic acid isn’t just helpful as a pH reducer: It’s super-helpful for cleaning cartridge filters (it breaks down buildup in a snap). It’s also a powerful stain remover: Muriatic acid can take rust stains off of your pool’s surfaces, and it can even clean the grout between your swimming pool tile.
Muriatic acid works well for removing stains on gunite pools, but it’s too harsh for vinyl liners. Instead, look for a cleanser that’s specially formulated for vinyl pools.
Of course, whether you’re using it to balance your pool water or keep your swimming pool free of stains, the most important thing to remember about muriatic acid is safety.
Is muriatic acid dangerous? Like any other swimming pool chemical, it can be harmful if not used as directed. But as long as you follow proper safety procedures, there’s nothing to worry about.
If you do get muriatic acid on your skin, wash the area with clean water right away (it’s a good idea to keep a garden hose or a bucket of clean water nearby).
When it comes to swimming pool maintenance, muriatic acid keeps your water balanced and your chemistry in check. And when everything is in balance, you’ll spend less time scrubbing algae -- and you’ll have more time to enjoy your pool.
pH is the term used to refer to the degree of activity of an acid or base (alkali) in the water. It is the most important chemical factor to be maintained in swimming pools. pH is measured on a scale from O to 14 with 7 being neutral. Pool water pH is best when kept in the range of 2 to
A value of 7 to 14 is considered basic with 14 being the greatest base activity. Another word for basic is alkaline; however, this is not to be confused with total alkalinity. pH and total alkalinity are not the same but can be influenced by each other.
A pH value between 0 and 7 is considered acidic with 0 being the greatest acid activity and getting weaker as it approaches a value of When pH remains below 2, the water is considered to be corrosive. This means etching of plaster and metals in equipment such as heat exchangers will result. In addition, it is more difficult to keep chlorine in the pool because while more effective as a sanitizer at the low pH, chlorine is also much less stable resulting in the consumption of larger quantities of chlorine than would be used at normal pH levels.
Maintaining the pH higher than 8 will increase the tendency to form scale or cloudy water. Calcium, the major component in scale, is a relatively unstable mineral and when the pH is high, the calcium is not as soluble and it will have a greater tendency to precipitate or "fall out" of solution resulting in cloudiness or scale. High pH will also reduce chlorine effectiveness resulting in the need to maintain higher chlorine levels to achieve maximum sanitization.
If the pH is low, a pH increaser is added to raise the pH. If the pH is high, pH Down is used. pH Down comes in two forms: liquid acid or dry acid.
Pool Builders Gold CoastChanges in the pH of pool water can be caused by many factors but one of the most significant causes is the sanitizer used. Since the sanitizer is the most frequently added chemical in pools, it can have a powerful impact on pH and overall water quality.
Of the sanitizers typically used in pools, chlorine is the most common. Chlorine comes in a variety of forms and varies widely in pH. For example, most tableted forms of chlorine have a very low pH and will tend to lower pH over time, while liquid chlorine is very high in pH and will tend to raise pH values. Salt is also very alkaline and will require frequent additions of acid to maintain the proper pH and overall water balance.
The first thing to work out is how much energy your pool requires per day to run. Did you know that if you have a standard single speed pool pump it uses a lot of electricity to run? Most pool pumps for an average size pools are 1-2 Hp which equates to 700-1400watts. If you have solar heating on your roof (These are different to solar panels), then you probably also have a 0.5hp pump running (300-400watts) in order to pull the water up to your roof (through the heating tubes) and back into your pool (solar heating is therefore not free).Then add a controller and chlorinator which will add a further 200-300watts. Running these for hours a day can add thousands to your yearly electricity bill.
Depending on the size of pool most companies recommend running 4-6 hours in winter and 8-12 hour in summer. So based on the above power figures for a larger pool running a 2 Hp filter pump with a 0.5 hp solar booster plus controller and chlorinator in summer this could easily using up to 20KWh per day (in winter you could halve this figure as a rough guide). Less drop this to 10w (18KWh if run for 10 hours) to ere on the side of being more conservative for the below calculations.
This will depend on your energy plan (numbers easily available in your monthly bill). In Australia, all new houses are installed with a smart meter and the days of having an old meter (which gives you a huge advantage of a fixed rate across the day because energy companies can’t see per hour usage) are disappearing as energy companies continue their push to swap out these with smart meters.
In NSW, having a smart meter forces you into one of two types of plans, either Time of Use (where you have peak, off peak, shoulder tariffs across the day) or Demand (where you have a fixed rate across the day but are charged a demand charge which essentially penalizes you for having high usage in peak period. an explanation on this is beyond this article but sufficient to say it likely won’t be in your interest to be on this type of plan if you are a high energy user during peak times …. ie if you are running a pool at the wrong time of day, cooking with an electric oven/stove, got kids gaming and use air conditioning in Summer in the magic 2-8 hour window, this is definitely not the plan for you)
If you run your pool pump at the wrong time of day then you could be costing you hundreds of dollars a month. Many TOU (Time of Use) peak charges are 60c now per KWh and peak normally runs from 2-8pm. Based on recent AGL TOU rates as of Jan 2024 (rounded to nearest cent). If you were to run your solar pump for this full 6 hour window (10w x 6 hours =. 8KWh @ 60c = $48 then if you where to run the remaining 4 hours in Shoulder = 10w x 4 = 2KWh x 31c = $ Add these together and multiply by a 31 day month = $270 over summer!!. Alot of money just for one appliance!
If you are smart enough to run your pump only during offpeak (at night normally between 10p and 7am) then this will cost 10 x 10w x 23c = $13 per day (or 128 Dollars over the month).
Unfortunately, Australian Electricity prices have pretty much doubled in recent years so these excessive costs are a relatively recent phenomena. So without solar no matter how you time your pumps, your pool is easily using $1-2,000 dollars a year by itself.
One might think, I just won’t run my pumps or reduce the time they run. This is great until your kids get sick as you are not actively circulating and sanitising the water.
Run these pumps in a 10 hour window over the course of sunny day means your pumps are being driven by the solar and not the grid and therefore not costing you money. Don’t get me started on over selling of Solar systems to say you will never pull from the grid however, many sales people will tell you you won’t have a bill however this is a straight out lie as all you need is some cloudy or rainy days (clouds do exist on most days) and your system won’t be generating enough continuously to cover your electricity requirements unless you have a battery (but in saying this, your solar does still generate some power and its better no generation).
Generally you will see Solar ramping up from about 7am in Summer and ramping down after 5pm. Since your system won’t be hitting maximum capacity at the start and end of day, you are best to run your system in the middle of your solar generation window (middle of the day).
It is highly likely a 6KWh system won’t cut it. Unless you are someone who runs very little in your house (in summer a large air conditioning can consume much of a solar systems output) you will want a bigger system. You will likely want to run a 8-13KWh system but you are best to talk with your local solar supplier on the correct size.
Many modern pool owners are looking to upgrade their outdated swimming pools to the new smart pool, a tool which technologically advances your pool so that it can keep up with your busy lifestyle and work for you. Through a system that is easily accessible from anywhere via your mobile device, smart pools provide some relief to the time and monetary efforts pool owners must put in to maintain a pool. Find out more about what makes a pool “smart” and how your pool can be updated to fit the modern lifestyle in this article.
A smart pool (also often referred to as an intelligent pool, clever pool, or future pool) simplifies the normal tasks of maintaining a pool by grouping together maintenance features so that they can be easily accessed from a device of your choice. These features can be accessed from your everyday laptop, smartphone, or tablet, so no new device is necessary. This means that pool maintenance can take place anywhere in or away from your home, freeing your personal schedule from the need to stick to your pool’s maintenance schedule. This groundbreaking technology takes the effort out of pool ownership so that rather than worrying about the technicalities of maintenance, you can enjoy your time in the sun.
While many new pools are being built with smart technology to simplify the maintenance process, adding smart technology to an older pool is still possible for those who are interested. Pool owners who are looking to add some intelligence to their current pool can contact a professional pool builder who should be able to walk you through the process of updating an old system to include smart technology. This small step will help save pool owners hours of wasted time, and thankfully, this process is now cheaper than ever before. Smart pools are becoming more and more common as pool owners are choosing to invest in their own time, driving down the price to make your investment even more affordable.
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