Pool Maintenance, Week by Week and Season by Season

A pool rarely goes wrong all at once. It goes wrong over a long weekend away, or a week of thunderstorms in July, or a heat wave when everyone’s in the water and nobody’s checking the chlorine. Regular maintenance is what keeps those weeks from turning into a green pool.

Here is the routine we’d suggest for a typical residential pool in Toronto. Adjust it for your pool’s size, trees and how much it gets used.

Every two or three days in summer

• Skim the surface and empty the skimmer and pump baskets.
• Test free chlorine and pH, and adjust (target ranges are in our pool chemicals guide).
• Glance at the water level. It should sit around the middle of the skimmer opening.

Weekly

• Brush the walls, steps and waterline, working toward the main drain.
• Vacuum, or check that the automatic cleaner is actually covering the whole floor.
• Test total alkalinity.
• Check the filter pressure gauge and note the reading.
• Shock if the pool has had heavy use, a storm, or cloudy water.

Monthly

• Test calcium hardness and stabilizer.
• Clean the filter if the pressure is up by roughly 8–10 psi from its clean reading, or as your filter’s manual says.
• Look over the equipment: drips at fittings, a pump that’s louder than usual, a heater that’s slow to fire.
• Clean the waterline tile or liner with a non-foaming cleaner made for pools.

Through the season

Problems worth catching early

Water that looks slightly dull. It is usually the first sign of low chlorine or a tired filter, and it’s far easier to fix than green water. If it has already turned, our post on why pool water turns green walks through recovery.

Water level dropping faster than usual. Evaporation in hot weather is normal. A drop of more than a few centimetres a week without heavy splashing can point to a leak. Here are the common signs your pool has a leak.

Rising filter pressure soon after cleaning. This can mean worn sand, a clogged cartridge, or something partly blocking the return side.

Air bubbles from the return jets. There’s an air leak on the suction side, often a pump lid O-ring that needs lubricating or replacing.

What realistically takes the time

Most owners find the brushing and vacuuming manageable. The part that slips is chemistry, because it needs doing at regular intervals whether or not anyone feels like it. That’s honestly the main reason people hand weekly maintenance to a service. For some households that trade is worth it. For others, the routine above is part of the fun of owning a pool.

Questions we get asked

How long should the pump run each day?

Long enough to filter the whole volume of water at least once a day in swimming season. With a variable-speed pump, that is usually many hours at a low speed. See energy-efficient pool pumps.

Do I still need to maintain the pool if nobody’s swimming?

Yes. Sun, rain and leaves keep using up chlorine whether or not anyone swims.

What does a weekly service include?

See what’s included in weekly pool maintenance, or our weekly pool service page for Toronto and York Region.