You relax, we maintain.

As part of the normal maintenance of your swimming pool, periodically your water must be drained and refilled much like changing the oil in your automobile. This is due to the TDS and Cyanuric acid (CYA) levels accumulating in your pool.

TDS, or Total Dissolved Solids, is the measure of the sum of all the substances dissolved in your pool water. Common dissolved solids are magnesium, salt, calcium, sulfates, irons, and other minerals. Everything we add to the water increases its TDS including chlorine, algaecide, and clarifiers. Even swimming in your pool adds to your TDS level with sweat, hairspray, deodorant, perfume, and other substances coming off the bodies of swimmers. Also, everything that blows in on the wind or washes in from the rain also contributes to your TDS level. But, the largest driver of TDS is from the water that refills your pool as it evaporates. We live at the end of the Colorado river system and our water is very “hard.” This hardness is referring to the solids like calcium and iron in the water coming from the tap. The water evaporates and fresh water refills the pool, but the elemental solids in your fill water continue to increase the TDS in the pool. As time goes on these levels continue to increase and become more concentrated. We recommend you drain the water in your pool when the level reaches 2800-3000 ppm. High TDS can over-saturate your pool water causing water quality problems. Pool water with a high TDS reading can affect your PH which can be aggressive or corrosive causing cloudy water, elevated hardness, scale deposits, skin and eye irritation to swimmers, and problems with your pool equipment. 

Cyanuric acid (CYA) is one of the most important pool chemicals. You may have heard it called “pool stabilizer” or “pool conditioner”. The sun’s UV rays break down chlorine at an alarming rate. Within 2 hours, sunlight can actually destroy 75 – 90% of your pool’s chlorine. When in direct sunlight, the half-life of chlorine is a measly 45 minutes meaning 50% of it is gone within 45 minutes. Chlorine is essential to the hygiene of your pool. Without it you would be swimming in a swamp! The good (and sometimes bad) thing about CYA is that it does not get used up like other chemicals. Once you put it in, it stays in the water. Many types of chlorine, including chlorine tablets, have CYA in them and so it can increase over time. At levels under 50 ppm chlorine is stable. Over 100 ppm, chlorine is less effective, and the water becomes corrosive having a low PH. When water becomes corrosive it begins to negatively affect the pools surfaces and equipment. Low PH can stain and damage plaster, tile or fiberglass, and damage pool filters, and heaters.  

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When you have high levels of CYA in your pool we recommend an Acid Wash on Plaster Pools Only. 
CYA can become embedded in your plaster and when we drain and fill the pool the CYA goes back in the water and needs to be drained again in as little as a year.

When we recommend that your pool needs to be drained it is due to the aforementioned issues. If you choose not to drain your water, you may encounter negative effects that are beyond our control.