What's Your Daily/Weekly Pool Maintenance Routine Like?

[ellemgee]

I'm totally new to the whole pool thing and struggling to get the chemistry right on my new above ground pool in another thread, so I'd like to see a light at the end of the tunnel. For people who have their stuff together and this pool thing all figured out what's your daily or weekly maintenance for your pool look like? How often do you test? Which tests do you do most frequently? Which chemicals do you add daily or weekly? How often to do vacuum and clean out pool equipment? Or really do anything else pool related (aside from swimming)?

I have a 24' x 54" round AGP with a cartridge filter (no chlorine dispensing system in the filter, I plan on just using bleach poured right into the water if that works). How often should I expect to test my FC levels once the pool is clean and clear and up and running? How often should I expect to add more bleach? How about other tests that need to be performed or chemicals that need to be added periodically? Any idea of what I might be in for for the rest of my summers might be nice Thanks!

 

[LFrankow]

Daily
Remove solar cover in AM
Test water, my daily test is just FC and PH.
Visually inspect the pool mainly for water clarity, return jet, and skimmer, empty skimmer basket
Jump in vacuum the bottom, great relaxation and an excuse to go swimming.
Take a break remove hose and vac, empty skimmer and pump basket of trash.
Go for another swim.
Repeat.
Add Bleach or set time on swg depending on test results, about once a week or two add MA as I have a SWG and it tends to drive the ph up.
Replace solar cover.
Another edit.
Backwash Sand filter on sunday.

 

[oh_me_oh_my]

I feel like I'm cheating here. I will give away why at the end.

Daily:
Start pump and heater.
Look in skimmer.
Uncover pool. Remove 3 ants.
Dump bucket of balls and toys into pool
Swim. Throw balls. Side note, Warrior mini-hockey balls are fantastic pool toys.
Remove balls and toys from pool.
Test FC/CC. Add chlorine when needed (not needed often - hint #1).
Test pH. Marvel at beautiful colour.
Cover.
Stop pump and heater.

Weekly:
As daily, but remove big scary spider for significant other.

Monthly:
Vacuum pool deck and change room area with shop vac (1 hour).
Vacuum pool because of a few specks on the bottom (15 minutes - hint #2).

As needed:
Add 1/4 inch of water.

So you might already guess that nothing gets into our pool that isn't people - yes this is true. It's indoor - and when we were looking at homes, the prospect of an indoor pool seemed a frightening amount of work, until I did a ton of research, and found out that they are actually less work, not more. In four months of owning the house, I would estimate we've had to add less than 40 ppm worth of total chlorine (i.e. 2.5 ppm loss per week).

Now I have never backwashed... now there is a potential problem though. The backwash line and floor drains are connected, and something is slowing that line. It's quite a sight when the floor drains turn into fountains...