- The main concern regarding swimming pools in a time of drought is to minimize water leaving the pool.
- The most significant loss of water is through evaporation. To reduce evaporation, you can put a solid or solar cover on the pool when it is not in use. There are also smaller solid floating panels that can just be tossed in the pool to cover as much surface area as possible. At a minimum there are biodegradable liquid products that float on the surface of the water that do not allow as much evaporation to take place.
- In a time of drought you want to minimize backwashing the filter as much as possible.
- If your pool is heated, you might reduce the temperature of the water. Warmer water evaporates more quickly.
- You will want to shut down any unnecessary fountains and waterfalls. The splashing of the waters greatly increases surface area and thus increases evaporation.
- You can reduce splash out if the children change their behavior and minimize horseplay, cannon balls, water fights etc. or games where water leaves the pool.
- You may want to check to make sure there are no underground leaks in your pool where you might be losing water and never see it. You can do this with a simple “bucket test”.
- Turn off all equipment and let the water settle down.
- To do a test you need a 5 gal bucket and a marker. Take your bucket and fill it with pool water approximately ½ full and sit on the top step in the water.
- Mark the water level on the inside of the bucket and mark the water level on the outside of the bucket where the pool water is touching the bucket.
- In 24 – 48 hrs, mark where the water level now on the inside and outside of the bucket as you did before.
- You can then measure the distance between the first mark and second mark on the inside and outside of the bucket. If the measurement is the same, there are no leaks. If the distance is greater on the outside measurement than the inside measurement then there is a leak somewhere in the pool.
