- [Instructor] A little extra water
in your pool can't hurt, right?
If you've had a rainstorm or even several light showers,
your pool water chemistry and equipment will need some help.
Here are eight steps to properly drain
and clean your pool after it rains, check it out.
First, do you even need to drain the water from your pool
after it rains?
Well, it depends.
If it was a light sprinkling or a short rain shower,
then you probably don't need to drain
any water from the pool,
but test the water
and make sure that the water is still balanced.
If anything is off, adjust as necessary.
On the other hand, if you've had a major storm,
you may need to drain out some water from your pool,
especially if the skimmers aren't visible
above the water line,
and there's water slopping out onto your pool deck.
When the skimmers are covered by a high water line,
debris like leaves and twigs
can make their way into the skimmer baskets,
and that much extra water added to your pool
can actually dilute any chemicals you've added.
So how do you drain and clean your pool after it rains?
It's actually pretty simple,
but you'll wanna do these steps in the right order
for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
Step number one, clean the pool deck.
Sweep up any debris from the pool deck
and use a garden hose to clean off any dirt.
Step number two, manually remove debris from the pool.
Attach a leaf net or a flat skimmer
to your telescopic pole and remove all the leaves, twigs,
and other debris from the water surface.
If leaves, twigs and other debris have accumulated
inside the skimmer and pump baskets,
the filtration system won't work properly
when you turn it back on.
Use a pool skimmer or your hands
to get everything out of the basket.
Step number three, turn on the pump and filter.
You wanna get the water circulating again
to remove all the contaminants that the rain introduced
into your pool.
Step number four, brush the pool.
Use a good, full brush to move dirt and debris
away from your pool's steps and ladders.
If there's a drain at the bottom of your pool,
push the debris towards it.
Step number five, vacuum the pool.
If there's not a lot of debris at the bottom of your pool,
you can use an automatic pool cleaner
and let the robots do the work for you.
But if there's a lot of debris,
you'll have to manually vacuum the pool.
Turn your filter to waste before you start vacuuming.
This will keep the debris from entering your filter
and will actually drain
some of that extra water from your pool.
Continue vacuuming until all debris is removed
and the water line reaches the halfway point
on your skimmer plate.
If the water line reaches the desired level
but there's still debris to vacuum,
turn on your garden hose and place it in the pool
to maintain the water level while you finish cleaning.
Real quick before we continue,
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Step number six, drain some of the water from your pool.
If there's still a lot of water
in your pool after vacuuming, you have a couple options.
You can continue to vacuum to waste
until you've removed enough water from the pool,
or you can stop vacuuming, keep the filter turned to waste,
connect the backwash hose to your filter's waste port
and turn the pump on.
You can pump out all the water
until the water line reaches the desired level,
which is about the halfway mark on your skimmer.
You can also use a sump pump attached to a garden hose.
Step number seven, test and balance the water.
A lot of rain and debris
can affect your pool's water chemistry.
Use test strips or a liquid test kit
and then balance the water.
Now pay special attention to the pH,
which may have dropped considerably,
especially if the rain itself was acidic.
Remember that if the pH was drastically affected,
it's likely that the alkalinity was as well,
so be sure to test both.
And if you have any other questions about water chemistry,
be sure to check out our other videos.
Next, check the chlorine level.
Rain can introduce contaminants to the water,
and when the sanitizer starts fighting them off,
the amount of available sanitizer,
also known as free chlorine, will drop,
leaving your pool vulnerable.
And then finally, check the calcium
and cyanuric acid levels.
These may have been diluted by the rain.
Soft water can cause problems for your pool and equipment,
and low cyanuric acid means the chlorine isn't stabilized,
which will affect its performance.
Step number eight, consider shocking your pool.
It's not absolutely necessary
to shock your pool after it rains,
but it's also not a bad idea either.
Remember to clean up debris
and drain the water from the pool first,
then balance the water, then shock.
And you'll want to shock your pool at dusk or at night,
so the sun doesn't burn off the chlorine.
If there's a pool care topic you'd like us to cover
in a future video,
please leave a comment to let us know,
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if you found this video helpful.
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That's it, thanks again and happy swimming.