Never take your pool treatment chemicals for granted. The pool water may look clean and clear, but you may be surprised with what can be lurking amongst the depths.

Poo in the Pool

If you do not frequently clean and treat your pool, then you are probably swimming in poo. Don’t just take our word for it, the experts have proved it.

An American study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, found that of 161 public swimming pools in Atlanta, Georgia 58% contained material such as Escherichia coli. You may know this by its shortened name ‘E. coli’.

But what does the presence of E. coli mean? Well, it means there is poo in the water, and many people could be adding it to the mixture without realising it.

Have you ever wondered why public swimming pools ask you to shower before entering? Well, the average swimmer will have 0.14g of faeces on their bottom, which can be rinsed off with water. If you do not shower first, this poo goes into the pool.

0.14g doesn’t sound much, but imagine 300 people enter a public pool on a sunny Saturday. By the end there will be 42g of poo in that pool. That is roughly the same as a Dairy Milk chocolate bar. Eww!

How Pool Chemicals Can Help

If there is a little accident in your pool, or it just hasn’t been treated for a while, get the chlorine out and shock it. Draining, cleaning and refilling a pool can take hours, maybe even days, so, instead, a shock treatment of chemicals is used.

This chlorine treatment will kill off any bacteria or germs in the water; and when the chlorine levels drop back down people can get back in the water. How long this shock treatment takes however will depend on how much product you use and how big the pool is.

There are other benefits to shock treatments of chlorine too. It can break down dirt, grime and unsightly algae. And it will generally make your pool look more inviting.

Which Chemicals Are Best?

Here at Online Pool Chemicals we sell a number of different shock treatments for swimming pools, but our best seller is our chlorine shock granules.

chlorineshock
These granules should be dissolved in water in a large bucket, before being introduced to the pool near its return inlets. This ensures that it is circulated throughout all of the water. No swimming is allowed for 12 hours after the treatment is added, so we recommend doing it overnight.

The granules will break down any dirt or organic matter so that the pool filter system can remove the harm from the water. Done once a week during the warm summer months these granules can keep your pool clean and safe for swimming.

We hope all of this information doesn’t put you off swimming. After all, it is a great thing and we love it. But it is always best to be in the know.

Read more:

Which is Better: Inground or Above Ground Pools?

Crazy Cool Pool Tech and Accessories

How Long Should You Really Wait After Eating to Swim? And Other Myths Busted

 

(Image: Marcus Vinicius under CC BY 2.0)