Maintenance

The primary reason that we treat pool and spa water with sanitizing chemicals is to prevent swimmers and bathers from getting sick. Untreated pool and spa water is the perfect environment for the growth and proliferation of potentially dangerous bacteria. These bacteria can cause infections and lead to such diseases as Poliomyelitis, Meningitis and “Swimmers Ear”. Bacteria control is simply a matter of adding a sanitiser (usually chlorine) regularly, and then filtering all of the pool or spa water to remove the dead bacteria. It is important to ensure that any new bacteria entering the water is met by a chlorine residual in sufficient concentration so that it is killed in as short a time as possible.

The primary sources of bacteria entering the water are swimmers and bathers. Also top up water, debris such as leaves, grass etc. and animals can contribute significantly to the bacteria levels. A large dog can contaminate as much as 20 times the volume of water that a human can. It is generally accepted that most bacteria will be killed when exposed to a “free chlorine” residual of between 1 and 2 milligrams per litre (mg/l).