Frequently Asked Questions

Our prices vary depending on the size of your pool, its condition, and the frequency of our services. Please contact us for a free estimate.

Water balance is a complicated topic. Pool water can be safe to swim in but not balanced properly. In pool care the goal is to do two things simultaneously, make sure the water is safe to swim in AND make sure the water is not causing any damage to your pool or the equipment. These are two very different problems but are easily solved when you have an experienced team servicing your pool. For a pool to be safe to swim in you want 1.5ppm of chlorine in the water and a pH between 7.2 and 7.6. This will ensure proper sanitization of the water and make sure bacteria and viruses can’t live in the water column. Having chlorine and pH balanced doesn’t mean that you aren’t causing serious harm to your equipment and surfaces of your pool. (Have you ever seen a white line of scale build up on your pool tile? This is because your water is out of balance for the pool's health!) Balancing water is dependent on a lot of factors including water temperature (that's right the balance can change week to week). Improper balance of the pool water can cause premature wear on the plaster and take half of the life out of a typical 10 year plaster! A pool is typically your second largest investment, that's attached to your largest investment, your home, make sure you're doing all you can to protect it! Anyone can add chlorine to a pool and call it good, but all the money you are saving is really going to cost you in an increased repair cycle!

Chlorine lock is a potentially dangerous scenario in which no amount of chlorine added will kill water borne diseases or algae. The leading cause of chlorine lock is high levels of cyanuric acid (CYA) which is a necessary chemical in small quantities but has dangerous consequences if it gets too high. CYA is used as a sunscreen to protect chlorine from the sun's UV rays. When CYA levels are too high, instead of protecting the chlorine from the sun, the CYA completely encapsulates the chlorine particles and inhibits the chlorine from oxidizing anything harmful in the water. While the water might stay clear in chlorine lock, don’t be fooled, this is an unsafe environment for you and your family. Please read our section on safe CYA levels to learn more about keeping your water healthy! 

Aggressive water in pools happens when water temperature changes and allows the water to uptake more minerals than what are present in the water column. An easy example of this; a cup of hot water can dissolve exponentially more sugar into the water column than its cold counterpart. This is perfectly fine because typically a cup isn’t made out of sugar so the structural integrity of the glass container is never at risk. In your pool, as water temperature LOWERS it INCREASES the amount of calcium your water can uptake into its water column (the opposite of sugar in water). Your pool is a glass of water that's made of sugar because the structural integrity of your plaster heavily relies on calcium. So as the fall and winter approach and people stop paying attention to their pool because they no longer need it to be safe for people to swim in, they often neglect the most important time to monitor your water balance for your pool’s health. Aggressive water can take years off of the pool plaster life and prematurely wear out seals in your filters and pumps. Water conditions change with the temperature fluctuations which is why it is so important to have a competent pool team taking care of your pool year round to prevent unnecessary maintenance bills!

Your pool water is said to be scale building if conditions exist in the pool that no longer allow the water to hold minerals in solution. Scale building is the opposite of aggressive water. Scale building water can be just as hazardous to your pool’s health as aggressive water. Scale building water can leave staining on mosaic tile if left for extended periods of time, it can also cause mineral deposits to build up in your filtration system (UV Sterilizers, chlorine puck feeders, salt cells, etc.) 

High Tide Pools recommends running your swimming pool pump 1 hour for every 10 degrees of outside temperature. (80F outside = 8 hours) This easy to remember calculation ensures your pool is circulating the necessary sanitation chemicals to fight off algae and water borne illnesses that can be introduced to your water! We understand that pumps are a drain on electricity and can be costly to run during the day, especially with electric providers offering deals like “free night time electricity” but it is important to note that the pump must be running during daylight hours. If electric consumption is something you are concerned about, there are great options to lower your bill like an energy efficient variable speed pump!