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Owning a swimming pool in the backyard of your home is a dream come true. Or perhaps you’re the owner of a spa or are operating a water ride whose maintenance falls under your responsibility. Regardless, swimming pools are the absolute best for relaxing and socializing. That still does have its own issues, though.
There are questions that need to be addressed and answered. Maintaining a pool is strenuous work, and if you don’t look over it well, the problems that arise can be endless.
Just how much work goes towards maintaining a pool? What are the ways to look after a pool at your home especially, with no expertise around? Are there any criteria or a checklist that we must follow to ensure the pool and the water is healthy to swim and laze in?
We answer these and many other pressing questions about pool maintenance. More importantly, in this article, we are going to resolve and show the possible solutions to keeping good pool health.
Best Pool Test Strips for Swimming Pools
All test strips are handy and profoundly convenient to use. They come in varieties and serve vastly different purposes in addition to testing the water. Here is a list of a few pool test strips that fit the description:
The JNW water test strips give the best service for their worth. Their accuracy is perfect while measuring the bromide, Chlorine, and the hardness of the water on that day. It measures the seven standard parameters of pool health, namely Bromine, Chlorine, hardness, cyanuric acid, Alkalinity, and pH.
These strips are also accompanied tied to an application available for PlayStore and iOS that keeps track of your testing history. It also guides the user with how to maintain the pool and ready it for the next use. Has 100 strips.
Pros.
- Gives a really precise reading of all the parameters
- The product maintains records and suggests remedies accordingly.
- Fairly accurate readings
Cons.
- The scales are different from that of the standard scale.
- Do not detect salt content in the water.
- Not very sensitive; is unable to detect smaller values.
- Cannot be stored for a long time
AquaCheck’s test strips are pointed, accurate, and incredibly quick. The pack of 50 strips is sensitive and detects Alkalinity, pH, Bromine, and Chloride. Especially useful for pools that use Bromine for treatment. It comes with a handy booklet that elaborates on guidelines and remedies, and instructions.
Pros.
- Easy to use for testing and reading
- Accurate readings
Cons.
- The chart is not easy to use. It is not durable, and the colors do not match.
- It cannot be used for all tests; only suitable for bromine pools.
Smart Test’s 50 strip bottle of pool test strips are the best solution to test for four parameters of pool health. Free Chlorine, Bromine, Alkalinity, and pH results on this strip gives perfect results and can be stored easily. The sensitivity of these strips is very good.
Pros.
- Check 4 of the most important parameters
- Can be stored conveniently and for a long time
- The results are accurate.
- Swift results
Cons.
- Does not test for the other three components
- It is only suitable for pools and not spas.
These yellow pool test strips are excellent for analyzing cyanuric acid in the pool water alongside the other components. Made to last for more than a few months, these yellow strips provide results in less than a minute with the highest accuracy. This is important because cyanuric acid keeps away the harmful effect that UV rays have on the Chlorine in the pool.
Pros.
- Accurate and quick results
- Available in many packages from 1 to 3
- Neat packaging, therefore, good storage.
Cons.
- The chart is not easily readable.
EasyTest’s strips are easy to use and give an accurate reading of the four main parameters of the 7. The strips give sharp results against Bromine, Chlorine, Total Alkalinity, and pH. The strip begins to change color immediately after dipping it into the water and reads the colors mentioned specifically on the chart. These comprise of specialty paper and thus last for a long time.
Pros.
- Quick and easy to use
- Accurate and readable chart
- Convenient to store and can be stored for nearly two years
- You can test these for pools and spas
- No color bleeding
- Available for various water spaces in different packagings
Cons.
- Does not test the remainder of the parameters
Clorox offers its strips that stand to test against six parameters of the pool health criterion. The packaging comes with 50 strips that test the water for Chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness, and Cyanuric Acid Stabilizer. You can also pair it with the Cloroxpool application that provides the user with many benefits.
Pros.
- Mobile application support for tracking history and providing remedies to possible imbalances
- Lets you scan the strips instead of you having to manually read the chart and input the values.
- Fairly accurate
- Can be used for spa and pools
Cons.
- Clear instructions on how to use them are not provided on the packaging.
- Charts are not readable
OK ...
Testing the Waters
A pool in the backyard of your property for whatever uses it is intended for begins as an ambitious investment. That, therefore, brings the responsibility of looking after the pool to make sure it is safe to swim in the water. The pool needs to be clean and entirely clear of any fungal damage that usually tends to collect over in damp areas.
The water, though constantly replaced, needs more testing done to determine the balance of the water and whether or not it is suited for all body types and other warnings. You can do this by tools like Pool Test Strips/Kits.
Pool Test Strips
True to their name, pool test kits are the testing equipment meant to guide you about what is happening with your pool. Their instant feedback helps in pinpointing the disturbance in the waters, which may otherwise be detrimental to the body.
Pool kits tell you about the chlorine level in the pool, the pH of the water, and its Alkalinity, all of which amount together to be called the ‘water balance.’ These are the three things that must never be glossed over during checks; they’re the key component to keeping your pool clean and safely usable.
Pool test strips also test the levels of minerals and other chemicals in the water, such as the amount of salt, copper, and bromide, the calcium hardness of the pool water, cyanuric acid, etc. They are the indicators of your pool, telling you if there is something wrong that must be checked out or if everything else is in a perfectly safe condition.
These strips are inexpensive and simple to use, making them the most reliable and convenient way of testing the waters, literally and figuratively.
How to Decide Which Strips to Buy: A Guide
Paying close attention to the type of strips you intend to purchase is naturally advisable. Though it remains unclear on what criteria exactly you must rule out products. This is a prioritized list of features, warnings, and key points to keep in mind while buying pool test strips.
Factors the Test Strips test
There are a few important parameters that add to a pool’s health. They are the following:
- Alkalinity
- Chlorine
- Bromine
- pH
- Calcium Hardness
- Cyanuric Acid (Stabilizer)
- Algaecide
All of the above mentioned have ranges to them. The tests that provide results to them will be compared against the chart, which will then help us decide on the treatment of it.
You know the pool you own and what are the different sanitizers you use. On that basis, decide the kind of test that is suitable for your pool, test it against the chart, and decide on a solution.
The first four in the list above play a critical role in keeping the water healthy; therefore, keeping them within the range is essential.
Longevity
Not all strips that you purchase have long lives. It is important to not use old strips for testing as they have lost the material in them to natural conditions that usually help in examining the state of the pool water. Their shelf life is important to note.
Also, take note that the strips are made out of paper. They are extremely vulnerable to natural changes, so storing them in dark but dry places is appropriate. A few other strips need to be used up immediately; therefore, their dynamicity matters while making the purchase.
Place of Use
Not all strips are suitable for all water spaces. What works for a home pool will not work for a spa. And, what works for a spa will not suit that of an aquarium. All strips serve different purposes for different water spaces and thus, you should treat them as such.
Warnings and Aftermath
Maintaining pool water is not difficult. However, a few precautions are always in tow.
- Following the instructions as specified on the packaging is advisable. Do not try to modify it to your liking, as the test results might change.
- Try to keep your strips away from water. Though this sounds ironic, the water strips comprise of paper and will crumple or sog away if they are not stored properly.
- Therefore, store your test strips in tight containers so that there is no exposure to sunlight and rain. The tests will prove ineffective if you use degraded strips.
- Do not use wet fingers to take out strips from the container. You risk spoilage of the rest of the strips that way.
- Always maintain a record of the results you find in your testing. As long as they are in the range, there is nothing to worry about. Sometimes the values may shift, but unless they are alarming, they are not very concerning. In fact, it means that you maintain your pool incredibly well.
- Use these strips every time before you use the pool.
A Final Word
That sums up your home pool maintenance. Taking good care of the pool with these strips will ensure the longevity of both the strips and your pool. Pool test strips are great and inexpensive. They offer quick, easy, and fair results almost all the time.
The charts make it simpler to deduce if something is off about your pool. And in case that’s true, the strips will confirm it and help in preserving the pool’s health and yours.
