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It could be argued that testing the water should be the first discipline of pool water management but keep in mind that the B.O.A.S.T. programme is a continuous and circular system and testing leads you on to Balancing, Oxidising, Algae prevention and Sanitising.
There are broadly four methods of testing pool water, test strips, pooltesters, comparator test kits and electronic test kits. For the testing of domestic swimming pools it is usually test strips or pooltesters that are used. Regardless of the testing method you choose, it is important that your pool water is regularly tested, ideally every day during the swimming season but, twice a week is the minimum.
Blue Horizons Test Strips
Under the Blue Horizons label there is a choice of three different test strips:
• 3-Way Test Strips (chlorine, pH & total alkalinity)
• 3-Way Test Strips (bromine, pH & total alkalinity)
• 5-Way Test Strips (free chlorine/bromine, total chlorine, pH, total alkalinity & calcium hardness)
Although not as accurate as using a test kit, test strips are very quick and easy to use and take the ‘chore’ out of testing your pool water. Simply take a test strip from the pot, dip it into your pool water, hold level (being careful not to shake off the excess water), wait for the prescribed length of time and then compare the colour of the pads with the colours printed on the test strip pot.
Pooltesters
Pooltesters are test kits that use reagent tablets to determine the chlorine, bromine or pH levels. Take the Pooltester to the poolside and turn it upside down, lower it into the pool to about an elbows depth and then turn it the correct way up so that it fills up with pool water. Once full of water put the kit on a level surface and add a Phenol Red tablet to test the pH level and a DPD No.1 tablet to check the free chlorine level.
You will have noticed under the section Balance Your Pool Water there are other things that also need to be tested, such as calcium hardness, total alkalinity, total dissolved solids and chlorine stabiliser (Cyanuric acid), there are kits available to check all of these, but if you don’t want to test them yourself – bring a one litre sample into our showroom every few weeks and we will be happy to perform the tests for you.
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