Pool Care Tips

Discover expert tips to simplify pool care and keep your water crystal clear all season long.

Master Tips

By following these pool cleaning tips, you can enjoy a sparkling clean and inviting pool throughout the swimming season. Our commitment to effective pool maintenance makes your pool care routine efficient, ensuring a safe and enjoyable swimming experience for you and your family.

Surface Skimming

Regularly use a pool skimmer or leaf net to remove floating debris such as leaves, insects, and other contaminants. Consistent surface maintenance helps prevent materials from settling at the bottom, reducing buildup and supporting more efficient overall pool care.

Water Chemistry Management

Maintain proper pH and sanitizer levels to support clean, clear water and swimmer comfort. When pH rises above 7.8, water may appear dull, and sanitizers become less effective. Champion pH Down is a liquid pH reducer that offers a safe, efficient way to restore balance. Ideal for saltwater systems.

Polish Protocol

Routinely brushing the pool walls and floor helps prevent algae and other unwanted buildup, keeping your pool both clean and inviting. This simple step not only enhances the pool’s appearance but also supports clear, sparkling water. Don’t forget to skim the surface with a pool net to remove leaves, insects, and debris before they settle. A quick daily skim makes overall maintenance easier and keeps your pool swim ready.

Sanitation Station

Sanitizing your pool is key to keeping the water safe. Maintaining 1-3 ppm of free available chlorine is usually enough to keep algae and harmful bacteria at bay. To give your pool a deeper clean, consider occasional shock treatments; they help eliminate stubborn contaminants, restore chlorine levels, and break down organic matter before it becomes a problem.

Free available chlorine is the chlorine in the water that is still active and ready to kill bacteria, viruses, and algae. It hasn’t yet reacted with contaminants.

Filter Focus

Keep your pool’s filtration system running smoothly by cleaning or replacing filters as recommended by the manufacturer. A well-maintained filter efficiently removes impurities, helping your pool stay in top condition for everyday enjoyment.

Cover Control

When your pool is graced with a cover, keeping it clean and free of debris acts as a barrier against contaminants, helping to protect your water quality and ease the strain on your filtration system.

Pool Treatment FAQ

Test pool water two to three times a week. Use a test strip or test kit for the following: CHLORINE, pH, ALKALINITY, and CYANURIC ACID (stabilizer). Chlorine should be between 1 to 3 ppm, pH level should be between 7.2 to 7.6, Alkalinity should be between 80 to 120 ppm, and Cyanuric Acid should be between 30 to 50 ppm.

Shocking the pool water is the intentional over chlorination of pool water for a certain period of time. Organic materials such as oils, lotions, sweat and algae are consumed by the chlorine in the water turning them in to Chloramines. This demand on the chlorine lessens the effect of chlorine to sanitize the water.

Shocking your pool weekly with Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock will maximize your chlorine performance and keep your pool water in a pristine safe condition.

Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock is the most economical way to chlorinate your pool. One gallons of liquid chlorinator is equal to 2 chlorine tablets. Liquid chlorinator is easy to use, simply pour around the perimeter of your pool water with the filter running. Liquid chlorinator is fast acting and does not change your pH balance. Liquid chlorinator does not add cyanuric acid to the pool water. The buildup of cyanuric acid in your pool water can cause the chlorine less effective, and the sanitizing of your pool water, and every time you add tablets you are adding cyanuric acid.

Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock is safe and easy to use, as well as more economical and available. One gallon of Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock is equal to 2 pounds of Calcium Hypochlorite. With Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock simply pour around the perimeter of your pool water with the filter running, and you are finish. Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock does not change the pH and leaves no residue. Shocking with Calcium Hypochlorite or Cal Hypo requires mixing of product with water before adding to the pool water. Also, Cal Hypo is not recommended in Salt, Vinyl Liner or Fiberglass pools because of the rick of fading the surfaces. Shocking with Cal Hypo will also raise the calcium hardness level in your pool water which can cause cloudy water and scaling of surfaces. High Calcium harness levels can cause poor circulation in your filtration system. Calcium Hypochlorite is a Class 3 oxidizer is very flammable.

Simply put, the pH is the measure of acid vs. base of a solution. In your case it is the pool water.
Your pH objective is to find the proper pH range for maximum swimming comfort and sanitizer effectiveness. First, you need to be familiar with the pH scale. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14 with 7.0 being the neutral point. Pure distilled water has a pH of 7.0 and is said to be pH neutral, neither acidic nor basic.

When the pH falls below 7.0, your pool becomes acidic. This means your water will become aggressive to pipes, vinyl and plaster pool walls, and metal components in heaters, pumps and filters. All of these elements may become corroded. Low pH water also causes skin and eye irritation, making the eye look red. In addition, the sanitizer becomes very active which results in higher effectiveness, but has a rapid depletion rate.
High pH can also create problems of its own. When pH values climb too high (7.8 and up), the pool water has a tendency to look dull or flat. High pH can also cause skin and eye irritation. When the pH rises, the sanitizer becomes less effective. This means the pool will require more sanitizer to keep it clean.

The pH of pool water has a great effect on how comfortable it is for swimmers. Your eyes have a pH of about 7.3 to 7.5. As mentioned above, when pH strays too far from this point, pool water becomes increasingly uncomfortable. Red, irritated eyes are an indication that pH might be out of balance and should be checked.
Taking all this into consideration, you will meet your objective by keeping the pH between 7.2 and 7.6. This range combines the maximum swimmer comfort with sanitizer effectiveness.

CHAMPION LIQUID CHLORINATOR/POOL SHOCK DOES NOT EFFECT pH.

TABLETS LOWER pH OF POOL WATER.

CALCIUM HYPO CHLORITE RAISES pH OF YOUR POOL WATER.

Algae can grow in swimming pool water for many different reasons. It can be caused from run off of lawn chemicals, bird droppings, and other outside means out of your control. The best preventive to stop algae growing in your pool water is to maintain a proper chlorine level of 1 to 3 ppm. Also a weekly dose of Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock will help to raise the Chlorine level to kill algae spores. It is also ideal to use a weekly Algaecide to prevent algae from growing in the pool water. Other than obvious green water, signs of algae starting to grow in your pool are slippery surfaces and cloudy water. If algae exist in the swimming pool water or on surfaces, you need to kill the algae by shocking your pool water with Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock to bring the chlorine level to 10 ppm. Balance your pH to 7.2 to 7.36, vacuum pool and brush walls, steps, and ladders. Then depending on your filtration system, change DE, backwash sand, and clean or replace cartridge.

If your pool water is cloudy, hazy, or lack of sparkle, the most common problem is unbalanced pH, early signs of algae growth, poor filtration, or more than likely, low chlorine level. The solution is balance the pool water pH to 7.2 to 7.6, check your filtration system to make sure it is working correctly, and then shock your pool water with Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock.

When using tablets that contain CYA you are building up the amount of CYA in your swimming pool. If your CYA level is higher than 50 ppm, the buildup of CYA in the pool water will significantly reduce the effectiveness of chlorine in killing germs, bacteria, and algae. Champion Liquid Chlorinator/Pool Shock does not add CYA to the swimming pool water.

The filter system is designed to remove debris by circulating the pool water and screening out insoluble particle such as dirt, bacteria, algae, hair, suntan and body oils, and leaves. The importance of proper filtration cannot be over overemphasized in the overall condition of properly sanitized pool.

Whether using a DE, Sand/Glass, or cartridge filter system it is important to change the media according to manufacturing instructions. The filter should run long enough to run over the water at least once daily, although for best results, running the filter 24 hours a day insures consist circulation and screening of debris.

The most effective way to lower the pH level in your pool water is to use Muriatic acid. It is fast acting and does not add any TSD (Total Dissolved Solids). While very effective, this product should be handled with great care. As it has strong fumes, and can burn skin if it comes in direct contact.

Another way to lower pH is to use Sodium Bisulfate or dry acid. This product is a much slower process to lower the pH, it must circulate in the pool water for 3 to 5 hours. It will also leave TSD and is not recommended in salt water pools.

Champion pH Down is the smart way to balance water. It is a fast acting pH balancer that does not require mixing and it is formulated to work in conventional pools as salt pools. It also protects your pool from harmful scale buildup, and will not leave any residue (which is especially important in salt water pools). Simply open and pour, ready to use, no mixing required, quick results, much safer to handle, low to no fumes, and will not burn intact skin, no residue. It is dyed blue to dissipate when pH starts to drop.

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