The Top 5 Household Products That Can Clean Your Pool

Pool maintenance chemicals can be very expensive and sometimes hard to come by. This makes some pool owners struggle getting the chemicals. As a result, you may wonder whether you can find these chemicals while packaged in products that are made for entirely different purposes. Well, this is possible and in fact, at a much lower price.

There are many household products that you can readily use to clean your pool. These products are available at convenient stores around the world at a fraction of what they cost at the local pool store.

Test the water first

Just like in other types of pool treatment, you need to test your water first before using alternative chemicals. Use the right testing kit to get the right water chemistry reading in your pool.

The warning

Although you may be excited to get alternative chemicals that you can use to maintain your pool, it is important to check the labels of the products to be sure of the chemicals in the package. If you don’t, you could end up either damaging the liner of your pool, corroding the piping in your pool or even lowering the quality of your water.

Alternative pool chemicals work well in chlorine based systems. Also, you should not expect them to perform as well as the traditional store chemicals that are designed for pools. However, the household chemicals come to the rescue of home owners who are operating on a tight budget.

Household products that can be used in a pool

There are many household products that have the same active ingredients as the chemicals you use in pool maintenance. However, the household chemicals come at a fraction of the cost of traditional pool chemicals. These products include:

Baking soda

Baking soda is basically sodium bicarbonate and can be used to raise alkalinity of the water in a pool. You can put in 1.5 pounds of baking soda to raise the alkalinity of water by 10 ppm. However, you cannot use the pool version of sodium bicarbonate to cook at home.

Household bleach

Household bleach is also known as sodium hypochlorite and can be used to shock a pool just as pool shock. Also, if you have hard water in your pool, the bleach will help soften the water as well. By adding a half gallon of bleach into the water, you can raise chlorine level by 5 ppm. This is looking at a 10,000 gallon pool. However, be careful not to use scented bleach in your pool as this will produce a funny smell.

Muriatic acid

Muriatic acid can be used to lower the alkalinity of pool water. It is very effective as it can easily lower it by as much as 10 ppm in a 10,000 gallon pool. The good thing is that, it is usually less expensive than normal alkalinity decreasers from the stores.

Borax

Borax is another household product that can be used in the maintenance of your pool. This product is found in the laundry area at the shop. Borax can raise the PH level of your pool if it gets too low. The amount of borax used depends both on the size of the pool as well as the difference in PH levels.

Plastic broom

Plastic broom used at home can be helpful at the pool as well. This is because; the broom can be used to sweep leaves lying at the bottom of the pool to one place. After that, you can vacuum it with ease.