Preparing your pool for the winter is called ‘winterising’, and it’s a process that keeps your pool in good condition with minimal maintenance over the months where it is dormant. The general process that we recommend consists of four key tasks. These include cleaning the pool, cleaning the filter, balancing the pool chemicals and monitoring throughout the winter.
After ‘winterising’ your pool (see the above section), you will want to re-open your pool when the weather heats up again. There are a few steps to follow, these are cleaning the pool, bringing the water level to normal, ‘priming’ the pump with water before starting, cleaning the filter and balancing the pool chemicals. There are a few more things you might want to do, and several hints and tips. We recommend reading the full article below.
Spas are set up in a very similar way to pools, but there is one main difference that you should be conscious of; spas heat the water to high temperatures, so sanitisation becomes crucial. High water temperatures are a prime environment for bacteria, and this coupled with the high person-to-water ratio can sometimes cause unhealthy bacteria to develop. Chlorine is one treatment, but there are other sanitisers that are more healthy and effective in hot water temperatures. These include bromine, lithium and OxyShock. See our Pure Protection Spa page for more information.
This depends on a few factors. The general advice is to run it 8-10 hours per day in summer and 4-6 hours per day in winter. Please refer to our article for a more detailed calculation.
Building a new pool is an exciting project, and you get to make a lot of creative decisions along the way.
Your first choice concerns the kind of pool you envision it to be – a lap pool, a fun family pool or an architectural masterpiece to name a few.
Next, you have a choice of location. Sun, shade, size, slope and other factors come into play.
And, you have a choice of construction material - concrete, fibreglass, vinyl-lined or above-ground.
We all love our pools, but it’s true that they can be quite energy-intensive. Therefore Zodiac has made sustainability a top priority throughout our history of innovation. Our current product range is more sustainable than ever. For instance, many of our robotic cleaners use less energy than an LCD TV. And many of our heat pumps draw over 80% of their heat from the surrounding air.
In the simplest pool system, a pump draws water out of the pool and into a filter, which feeds clean water back into the pool. But, in most pools, a few more devices are involved. The pool filter may feed water to the pool heater and/or the saltwater chlorinator before returning heated, chlorinated water back to the pool.
Additionally, your pool may have a robotic pool cleaner that operates independently of this system. It has its own pump and filter that are specialised at cleaning large debris that sinks to the bottom of the pool.
Generally speaking, the optimum pH is 7.4, a safe chlorine range is 1-3ppm and a good calcium hardness is 180-220ppm. We recommend testing pH and chlorine levels at least once a week and getting into a schedule of adding a certain amount of acid or base (alkaline) and chlorine that you aim to follow each week. If you maintain this schedule, your pool will stay balanced and be very low maintenance.
We also recommend taking a sample of pool water to a pool shop to get it tested. The pool shop will tell you if any of the other chemicals could be improved. For instance, if you have a high calcium hardness in your pool your water can become cloudy and even damage your pool equipment.
There are five main causes of cloudy or green water. They are inadequate filtering, low circulation, low chlorine levels, high calcium hardness and pool algae.
Inadequate filtering and low circulation can be addressed by running your pool filter for longer and more regularly and checking that it’s working properly.
Low chlorine and high calcium hardness levels are a result of a chemical imbalance in your pool. See the section below regarding the right balance of chemicals to help you understand more about this issue and how to fix it.
Pool algae can be removed by maintaining an even balance of chemicals and by regularly cleaning the bottom and sides of your pool. Robotic cleaners work well against algae.
If you have done all the above and your pool doesn’t clear up after a few days, there may be other chemical factors at play. Importantly, your pool needs the correct pH balance (acid/alkaline balance) in order for the chlorine to work effectively. If you are unsure, take a sample of your pool water to a local pool shop.
Please submit your details via the form on this page to lodge a new service request/warranty claim. For all other enquiries please click on the Chat with an Expert button on the same page to talk to our LIVE CHAT support.
A heat pump is a good choice for getting the most value out of your pool year-round, but the right heat pump is a complicated choice with many factors. Luckily, our Heat Pump Calculator allows you to easily search for the ideal heat pump for your pool.
You will find these resources in our Equipment Assistance page. Simply search by the name of your product and you will find resources written by our Zodiac pool professionals.