What do you mean by ‘regular basis’?

We will address this question first by giving a list of definite reasons to test one’s pool water:

• Brand New Pool – Better to run a full battery of tests that includes things like dissolved metals in your source water and remove any you find or risk having those metals come out of solution and stain your brand new pool when you add chlorine/bromine. Also, you will want to know exactly what to add (i.e. pH adjuster, alkalinity adjuster, hardness, etc.)
   
• Opening Your Pool – After adding source water, and before adding chemicals, test the water to make sure you have no dissolved metals and also so that you do not add other pool chemicals (i.e pH, alkalinity, hardness, etc.) unnecessarily.
   
• After a Natural Event – Test your water for the basics (i.e. sanitizer level, pH, alkalinity, hardness, etc.) after periods of heavy rain, heavy winds, etc.
   
• When Nature Calls – Should you ever realize that someone has taken a ‘phone call from Nature’ in your pool, get everyone out and follow suggested pool shocking practices which usually require maintaining sanitizer levels at or above a certain level for a specified period of time before allowing anyone back into the water.

  You will need to test for those elevated sanitizer levels in order to know that you have followed the procedure… and then you will need to test to make sure those have sufficiently decreased before allowing bathers to re-enter the water.
   

• In the Event of Algae and/or Cloudy Water – If either of these two pool water conditions afflicts your pool then you should certainly test the water to find the problem, obtain the correct chemicals to correct the problem, and test to make corrected the problem.
   
• After the Crowd Has Left – The larger the bather load, the greater the likelihood of a shift in a pool water chemistry balance. Suntan oils, sweat, and, um undetected ‘liquid accidents’ all have an effect on the water’s pH, alkalinity and sanitizer levels
   
• Closing Your Pool – Always test the water and correct any problems with the water before closing the pool because water problems that exist at the end of the season will only get worse when the pool sits idle over the Winter months.

Getting to the actual question in the title of this article, though, we suggest testing the water as often as you can. In all honesty, with the correct pool water testing product, taking a quick snapshot of your pool’s water quality ought not take more than about a minute.

We suggest daily pool testing, but let’s face it… kids, school, work, chasing the neighbor’s cat out of the yard, and darn near 1 million other things rob most of us of any remaining, few, and precious seconds of ‘free’ time as it is — so how about testing each time you go out to check the skimmer?

Or, for those with automatic chlorine or bromine feeders (very useful gadgets, by the way!), how about every time you go poolside to fill up your feeder?

In the end, though, just like the owners of private water wells, no government agent will come out and make you test the quality of your water. Therefore, it becomes a personal choice as to whether or not a pool owner wants to test regularly and potentially stop pool water problems before they get out of hand (cloudy water, algae, bacteria, parasites, etc.) … or spend money to correct each of those problems after they occur.

Economics of pool water testing?

A bottle of Pool Check 6-Way Test Strips costs around $12 and provides 50 fairly comprehensive pool tests… with each test taking a bout a minute.

On the other hand, not testing a pool regularly can result in a pool owner having to spend an estimated $4 to $6 per 10,000 gallons of pool water for shock (liquid or powdered), no less than $5 or $6 for a gallon of standard algaecide ($20+ for the concentrated stuff!), and in really bad cases… $20+ per quart for stain remover.

Did we mention that correcting pool water problems usually also involves time spent brushing down walls, backwashing (and possibly having to acid wash) filters clogged with algae, and getting a real workout scrubbing stains off of pool surfaces?

And in conclusion…

You do the math on whether or not regular pool water testing makes sense.

For more information on pool water testing, please check out the pool water section/category of this site.

Even worse, a good number of the sufferers contracted their illnesses not from public pools and swimming facilities, but rather from private pools at friends’, neighbors’ and family members’ homes.

If I can smell chlorine, the water is safe, right?

Not always and in some cases the powerful smell of chlorine in the air ought to tell you something may have gone wrong with the water recently. In general, with indoor pools excluded (for the most part), an intense smell of chlorine in the air tells you the pool may recently have received a dose of chlorine shock OR the water has very recently had a larger than normal biological load (i.e. people in the pool, someone had an ‘accident’ in the pool — see 1 in 5 Americans Admits Peeing in Swimming Pools), or the water has an overabundance of combined chlorine with little or no free chlorine available to combat bacteria, viruses, etc. in the water.

Pool water gets in eyes, noses, ears, mouths… and unmentionable areas areas each time you take a dip in the water. Allow us to repeat ourselves for the purpose of making our point:

Pool water gets in eyes, noses, ears, mouths… and unmentionable areas areas each time you take a dip in the water.

We hope this posting will teach at least a few folks the importance of carefully monitoring the quality and condition of pool water.

PLEASE don’t get us started on spa and hot tub water. 😉

As a final, and quite NASTY reminder, some folks out there DO use public (and private) pools as a way to clean themselves after a day (or few days days) out in the hot sun.

Gross? Yes. But STILL a reality. Remember that.

Two years ago, an outbreak of illness caused by a germ called Cryptosporidium (“Crypto” for short) made at least 69 people ill in Dubuque. Health officials said Flora Pool was the probable origin of the outbreak.

“Those illnesses can last for weeks,” said Mary Rose Corrigan, public health specialist with the city of Dubuque.

Such illnesses also can lead to hospitalizations. Roth recalls a recent incident involving a diarrhea illness originating at a parish festival.

“We had people in the (intensive care units) at both hospitals because the diarrhea had put their electrolytes out of balance,” Roth said.

“The general public thinks you get diarrhea for a couple days and that’s it, but what happens for some people is this can be a near-death experience. It’s not always a benign situation.” ( source )

Still not convinced? Think of it this way: The United States Environmental Protection Agency and the National Ground Water Association urge private well owners to test their water on a regular basis because the slightest contamination can cause massive illnesses in the users of the wells… so what do you think they say about pool water, huh? They say things like…. this.

How can you test you pool water? Check out the new Swimming Pool & Spa Testing Supplies Web Site.

For most people opening their swimming pool means raising the water level off with fresh, untreated water from a garden hose or in some cases, a delivery truck. Once full of water, the testing can begin.

How Should Pool & Spa Owners Test Their Water?

Excellent question! In the ‘old’ days most pool and spa owners had a simple two-sided test kit for chlorine/bromine and pH which looked like this:

click here for more details Part Number: A8100

2-Way Liquid Solution Water Test Kit 2-Way Test Kit “Pool water test kit reagents should be replaced every year. Testing swimming pool water every day will ensure proper chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels in the pool water. In The Swim pool test kits.”

… and each year the owners of these pool water and spa water owners made a pilgrimage to their local pool store to acquire replacement reagents for their pool and/or spa water test kits which looked like this:

click here for more details Part Number: A8120

2-Way Liquid Solution Water Test Kit Reagent 1 (chlorine) 1 oz. “Pool water test kit reagents should be replaced every year. Testing swimming pool water every day will ensure proper chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels in the pool water. In The Swim pool test kits.”

click here for more details Part Number: A8122

2-Way Liquid Solution Water Test Kit Reagent 2 (pH) 1 oz. “Pool water test kit reagents should be replaced every year. Testing swimming pool water every day will ensure proper chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels in the pool water. In The Swim pool test kits.”

While at their local pool store picking up the replacement reagents for their pool/spa water test kits, pool and spa owners would usually submit a sample of water from their freshly filled pool or spa to a smiling person behind the counter at the ‘water testing station’. Within minutes of handing over a soda can, mason jar, yogurt container or other (hopefully) sealed container full of water the same smiling water station attendant would return with a sheet of paper telling them the free chlorine, total chlorine, ph, alkalinity, total (or calcium) hardness, cyanuric acid, total dissolved solids, copper and iron levels in their water.

Can’t Pool & Spa Owners Test Their Own Water?

Of course they can. Swimming pool and spa water test kits

Then came the fun part: Picking up and paying for all the various tubs and canisters of powders and liquids that would hopefully bring their water back in line with what pool and spa water professionals consider healthy.

This seems like a good time to end today’s posting. Later we will go into the different methods a person can use to test their OWN pool or spa water: At-Home Pool & Spa Water Test Kits & Water Testing Meters and At-Home Pool & Spa Water Test Kits and Testing Supplies