Anyone knows how public swimming pools are maintained? Do they completely change the pool water at the end of day, or weekly? Anything they do to the pool overnight (just circulate like daytime, or do nothing, or change entire pool water)? Is the water cleaner in early morning than evening because of this? Thanks.
I lifeguarded and maintained pools for about six years beginning in high school and through most of college. I worked at community pools, a country club pool, and several pools at an Air Force base in San Antonio.
We never drained the pools. Water wasn't expensive then but it is now.
In my experience water quality was always best in the morning unless circulation was turned off overnight. I haven't been in a "public" pool that had filtration to keep a pool crystal clear throughout a day when people were in it. But overnight the filters catch everything because nothing new is being introduced into the pool.
People bring dirt into pools. Sweat, skin flakes, suntan oil, etc.
Chlorine breaks down in the sun - so chorine use is much higher during the day for an outdoor pool. We occasionally forgot to turn the chlorine down (when we had a chlorinator) at the end of the day. The result was very high chlorine levels in the morning. Chlorine doesn't work as well when the ph is wrong - so the chemical balance is important.
Filters also need to be cleaned or backwashed (reverse the direction of water flow to rinse dirt out of the filter media (like sand).
Algae grows too - and is usually taken care of with more chlorine. The algae is killed, but needs to be physically removed from the pool via vacuum or the filters (not effective because the dead algae settles on the bottom).
I don't think there is any excuse for frequently cloudy water. Pools will not be crystal clear all the time but the water should be appealing most of the time.
I lifeguarded and maintained pools for about six years beginning in high school and through most of college. I worked at community pools, a country club pool, and several pools at an Air Force base in San Antonio.
We never drained the pools. Water wasn't expensive then but it is now.
In my experience water quality was always best in the morning unless circulation was turned off overnight. I haven't been in a "public" pool that had filtration to keep a pool crystal clear throughout a day when people were in it. But overnight the filters catch everything because nothing new is being introduced into the pool.
People bring dirt into pools. Sweat, skin flakes, suntan oil, etc.
Chlorine breaks down in the sun - so chorine use is much higher during the day for an outdoor pool. We occasionally forgot to turn the chlorine down (when we had a chlorinator) at the end of the day. The result was very high chlorine levels in the morning. Chlorine doesn't work as well when the ph is wrong - so the chemical balance is important.
Filters also need to be cleaned or backwashed (reverse the direction of water flow to rinse dirt out of the filter media (like sand).
Algae grows too - and is usually taken care of with more chlorine. The algae is killed, but needs to be physically removed from the pool via vacuum or the filters (not effective because the dead algae settles on the bottom).
I don't think there is any excuse for frequently cloudy water. Pools will not be crystal clear all the time but the water should be appealing most of the time.
