What to look for in an above-ground pool cleaner: Keeping a pleasant and clear prime floor pool is important for getting your swim in, however putting in and using excellent cleaning products is equally important. You might have heard that vinegar can help clean pool tiles and surfaces, but can you add vinegar to the water itself? In this article, we will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of pouring vinegar into your pool and how combining it with a robot pool cleaner like the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro can be a valuable addition to your pool maintenance.
What Is the Use of Vinegar for Pools?
Vinegar is a natural acid (acetic acid) that is used in many cleaning applications — even in pools. It is reputed to dissolve hard water deposits, mold, and algae, making it a great solution for cleaning pool tiles and skimmer baskets.
If the pH of your pool water is slightly too alkaline, the addition of vinegar will help balance it out, making it beneficial regarding water treatment. But before you dump vinegar straight into your above-ground pool water, please understand some important things.
Is It Safe to Use Vinegar in Your Above-Ground Pool?
While you can use vinegar to clean the surfaces of your pool and tiles, adding it in its pure form directly into your pool water is not ideal. Here’s why:
Impact on pH Levels: Vinegar is acidic, and pouring it into your pool water will drastically reduce the pH, making that water overly acidic for swimming. To ensure maximum comfort and security, the pH of a pool should be maintained between 7.4 and 7.6. Adding vinegar may throw this balance off and cause skin irritation, eye discomfort, and equipment damage to the pool over a time period.
Chlorine Interaction Pools are generally treated with chlorine to disinfect the water. Adding acidic items like vinegar may hinder the effectiveness of chlorine, significantly decreasing the chlorine’s effectiveness in sanitizing the water. This results in a decrease in water quality and higher chlorine consumption.
Water Chemistry Balance, Cloudy Water, Scaling/Corrosion: The overall water chemistry can become out of balance due to vinegar impacting factors such as pH, TA, and the water’s calcium saturation level, resulting in cloudy water, white water line scaling and/or damaging of the pool equipment due to corrosion. The key to a safe and clean pool is maintaining the right chemical balance.
But Wait! How to Clean Your Pool with Vinegar Safely?
Even though it’s not the best practice to use vinegar in your pool water, you can scrub designated areas in and around your pool with it. Here’s how:
How to Clean Pool Tile Above Water Line?
Vinegar is one of the best for cleaning the tiles above the waterline in pool maintenance. — Acetic acid is a strong enough solvent to break down mineral deposits and grime. Just combine equal amounts of vinegar and water, using rubber gloves, apply to the affected tiles, and scrub with a soft brush. This is a proven way of keeping your pool tiles clean and sparkling, without the use of any harsh chemicals.
Cleaning Skimmer Baskets:
The debris skimmer baskets scoop up debris from the water’s surface, and they can fill up with slime. Submerging the skimmer baskets in a vinegar soaker will eat away any sticky stuff (from algaecides) that may have collected or calcium buildup ensuring a proper operation.
Cleaning Pool Equipment:
Tear down the vacuum cleaner for pool application or parts that need cleaning and vinegar is the best option for you. This will assist in maintaining the performance of your pool cleaning robot or swimming pool robot cleaner.
How does a Robot Pool Cleaner work?
If you want to keep your pool clean without using harsh chemicals, invest in a robot pool cleaner, the Beatbot AquaSense 2 , or the Beatbot iSkim Ultra. Some robots perform cleaning functions while maintaining the necessary chemical balance of your pool water.
A robotic pool cleaner operates autonomously with scrubbing and scrappers to remove dirt and algae from your pool floor (and walls if it has the ability to climb up). It’s also able to access hard-to-reach places like corners and pool steps where vinegar may not do the job so well. For inground and above-ground pools, it features advanced cleaning technology in the form of the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro.
How a Pool Vacuum Robot Can Help
Robot pool cleaners are great general-purpose cleaning devices, but a pool vacuum robot is particularly useful when you need to remove dirt and algae that have settled on the bottom of your pool. Algae can also be more persistently stuck to the walls of the pool, so a pool vacuum for algae can also help in removing these contaminants as compared to manual cleaning methods.
The pool cleaner with wall climbing capability even cleans the vertical surfaces of your pool, leaving no corner dusty. These include common features that help save time and effort, thus making it easier to maintain pools.
Is a Pool Robot going to Remove Algae?
This leads many to wonder if a robot pool cleaner can effectively deal with algae. The answer is yes! There are various models of swimming pool robot cleaners such as Beatbot that come with sufficient suction and scrubbing power needed to get rid of algae buildup. Algae can break out anywhere, be it on the floor, on the walls, or in hidden spots which is why a robot pool can come in handy for cleaning your pool and leaving behind clear pool water.
Conclusion
To wrap everything up, vinegar can certainly be a powerful natural cleaner for certain elements of your pool tiles or some equipment however adding large amounts of it directly to your above-ground pool water is not advised. Vinegar should be used in diluted form if you are looking to clean a specific area, whilst for overall pool cleaning use the like of the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro. Where natural cleaners and all-around solutions from high-tech solutions (pool vacuum robots) come together to ensure that your pool remains clean, clear, and open for swimming at all times.