POOL CHEMISTRY 101: How to Keep Your Water Balanced | Swim University

Keep your pool water balanced and close to neutral, and avoid scaling, corrosion, and cloudiness, all with just three pool chemistry components. This isn't just about pool chemicals for beginners, though. Bet you could use a refresher.

⏰ Timestamps:
00:00​ - Introduction to Pool Chemistry
01:10 - What Is pH
02:35 - What Is Alkalinity
04:03 - How To Balance pH and Alkalinity
08:09 - What Is Calcium Hardness

Swim University®️ has made swimming pool and hot tub care easy for more than 10 million homeowners. And each year, we continue to help more people with water chemistry, cleaning, and troubleshooting. We know taking care of a swimming pool or spa can be difficult. And it’s hard to find a trusted source of information. We get it! This is the reason we created Swim University®️.

[poollogicdurbanville]

As a pool company I find your content very useful as a training tool. Keep it up.

[dannymckinsey]

I wish this industry would STANDARDIZE these chemical names! Even between stores, they call the same additive completely different names! Please, just pick ONE CHEMICAL NAME, and stick with THAT.🤦🏼

[Julian-lwtu]

Learned more in your 10 minute video then I did in the last week trying to understand basic pool maintenance. Thanks for making it easy to understand!

[billybrooks]

My PH is always trending up while my alkalinity is trending down. I just add baking soda to raise alkalinity, then a little acid to drop the PH. I do this every week or two

[WereIMakePlayLists]

The way you explain things is very understandable. It's like having a conversation with a friend and they're teaching you to take care of your pool. Thank you!

[siminakaradimas]

Thank you! Appreciate it, I've recently decided to take over responsibility of the pool since my husband is always saying i do it but never does. It's alway been green. So i've scrubbed all the algae off the tiles after shocking it. All crystal clear now. This is the next step 🙏

[azhotmom]

As a newby pool owner I appreciate these videos! I walked into a pool supply store for the first time in my life today and felt kinda smart ; )

[nightlightYT]

helping my mom out by taking over the pool cleaning so she wont have to pay and ur videos are what are helping me keep it clean otherwise she was gonna cover the pool with dirt! so thank you

[freekarella]

This is the best explanation ever. Your videos make me feel so confident about pool maintenance on my own as a new pool owner. Thank you.

[jonathandeuire]

Battling low alkalinity and high ph. After the latest round of baking soda and muriatic acid (4hrs apart), I’m at 83 TA and 8.2 pH.

[grumpy_]

Thanks man, Now my pool is crystal. And my skin dosn't peel anymore. Needed PH up (soda ash) too fix 2 things. Thanks again for explaining the importance of PH and acidity.

[catsdivinelydesigns]

I can't thank you enough for these informative videos. I am a new pool owner and am lost. These have helped me enormously. I feel so smart now...well not really but thanks!

[marslegare]

This is the most helpful accessible video about how to balance my pool that I have found!

[Privateersman]

My belief is that Water balance is governed by 3 key parameters: pH, alkalinity & calcium hardness. If these 3 parameters are correctly balanced, the water will be clear. This I understand is the basis of the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI). I also believe that you get the calcium hardness to the right level before you adjust alkanility and pH particularly at the start of the season.

[PamelaRose-kivy]

Thank you! You’ve guided me to perfect Pool water. !

[JpHSaltS]

Excellent Video! I Love Your Teaching.

[robertwadas]

Simple, I add 1/4 cup Copper Sulfate in meash netting in strainer basket in start of year. I do same 1/2 way thru the season. I spend $12/yr and have never used chemicals like chlorine or worried about water balance and there has never been green anything in my pool for 10 years. Neighbor has same pool and costs him $120/mo during swim season. If he gets called away for work in 2 weeks he has a green lagoon.
I was in hospital for 3 weeks, and came home to a crystal clear pool.

[johna]

Alkalinity or (base) is anything above 7 on the P.H. scale. It's the opposite of Acidic. They aren't different the ppm of alkalinity is contingent on conditions of water and is used to balance PH.

[robinyipp]

Your video gives new pool owner like me a fundamental and good knowledge on water balance and keeping. Thank you.

[WyMustIGo]

Question:

I have a 10, 000 gallon pool, and test results are that I have high chlorine and high pH, but my alkalinity is on the low end:

Chlorine = 7.5ppm
pH = 8.0ppm
Alkalinity = 80ppm
Calcium Hardness = 450

If I try to correct Alkalinity first by adding about 6 pounds of baking soda, isn't that going to drive the pH high which means I'd need to add Muratic Acid which will then lower both pH and Alkalinity again?