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What is pH and Why Does it Matter for Pools?

What is pH and Why Does it Matter for Pools?

Owning and maintaining a pool comes with its challenges. One of those is ensuring that you have the right pool water pH level. Now, of course, you can do this easily by hiring a pool service company in Atlanta to analyze your pH level.

They can offer you tips on how to maintain it correctly and help you maintain it consistently. But that being said, what does pH do for a pool in the first place?

Let’s talk about the top five reasons that pH is so essential to a clean, safe, fun pool experience.

What is pH?

The term pH refers to how alkali your water is. It’s the most important factor for maintaining a clean swimming pool.

The proper swimming pool pH level should be somewhere around 7.2 to 7.8. This is on a scale of 0 to 1 to 14. If you have an 8 pH for instance, this means the water is alkaline. This varies depending on the different factors of your pool.

What does high pH do to a pool?

Ultimately, the right pH level is important for keeping the other chemicals in check in your pool, such as chlorine, calcium, and more.

Why Is pH Important In Pool Water?

So why is pH so important when it comes to pools? Let’s take a look at the top five reasons:

1. Chlorine effectiveness

Your chlorine will have more effectiveness depending on the alkalinity or acidity of your pool. Therefore, if your pH levels are off, you’re going to have to spend more money on chlorine management.

2. Vinyl liner damage

If you don’t have balanced pH, it can damage the liners of your pool. It can cause wrinkling and expansion.

A vinyl liner will age much better if you keep the pH levels correct. This results in spending less money overall on the pool.

3. Corrosion

Mechanical equipment like metal ladders or slides can corrode over time without the right pH balance. Acidic water, for instance, corrodes a lot of pool accessories.

And therefore one of the answers to “why is pool pH important?” is excessive costs for replacing those.

4. Irritation

Skin and eye irritation can occur. Even nasal irritation is common. If the pH is off, it can be dangerous to the skin’s natural oils. It makes you dry and itchy. It even makes your hair dry.

Nobody wants that. So make sure you have professionals check your pH levels asap.

5. Cloudy water

When you think about a pool, you want clear, crisp water. Murkiness is unattractive and less fun to swim in.

That’s not to mention the health hazards that we already addressed. So if your pH is off, it’s going to cause murkiness.

Again, pH’s job is to maintain proper chemical levels in your pool on a holistic level. That requires consistent maintenance, checking, and cleaning.

Ensure the Proper Pool pH Levels Today

Don’t hesitate to reach out to the experts in pool cleaning, repair, and maintenance. Now that you know how important pH is, you know that it’s nothing to delay fixing.

If you haven’t corrected pH levels, your pool is going to get dirty or dangerous. Either of those are unacceptable if you want to be able to swim in it year round.

So reach out to Absolute Pool & Spa Care today and take this complicated chemical science off of your hands.