African Suns Pool Maintenance & Repairs

Offering pool schooling 101 for $125

African Suns Pools LLC will have one of their owners come to your home for an hour and teach you everything you wanted to know about your pool, the equipment and how to maintain it. Including what chemicals to use and when. Please call 480.263.1563 to make appointment.

We also offer maintenance, repairs and tile cleaning. Please visit http://aspoolmaintenance.com/gallery/pricesandpromotions/

1. Remove most of the large debris from the pool floor with a large leaf net (not a hand skimmer!). This will stir up the water, and may make your pool look much worse temporarily, but the stirred up debris will settle within a few hours. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VACUUM THE POOL IF YOU CANNOT SEE THE BOTTOM OF IT OR IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF DEBRIS ON THE BOTTOM. YOU MAY CLOG YOUR SKIMMER, FILTER OR UNDERGROUND PIPES !

2. Adjust the pH and Alkalinity levels of the water using pH Plus, pH Minus and Alkalinity Plus. These levels must be within the proper ranges or the water will never clear.

3. Shock the pool. This means super chlorinating the water to kill off any bacteria and algae. If your pool is very dirty, it may need MANY gallons of liquid chlorine (shock) over a period of days before the water clears. Start off by adding 3 or 4 gallons, and if you see no results overnight, add 3 or 4 more gallons the next day. Continue this process until you notice the water changing color to either cloudy white, light green or clear. YOU CANNOT OVER SHOCK A POOL ! The more you add, the quicker it will clear ! Note…shock is available in liquid or powdered form, but we recommend using liquid (it works faster). You may also want to add a high quality algaecide to the water at this point.

4. Run your filter 24 hours a day and backwash 3 or 4 times a day for quickest results. Green or cloudy water will quickly clog a filter, therefore you may have to backwash your filter many times a day until the pool clears. THIS IS NORMAL ! Remember, you cannot over-backwash a pool filter. The more you run your pool, and the more you backwash the filter, the faster the pool will clear up. If you have a D.E. filter, remember to add new D.E. to the skimmer closest to your filter after each backwashing. A D.E. filter is more work than a sand filter, but the D.E. filter will clear a green pool about 50% faster than a sand filter.

5. If you follow these instructions and your pool does not clear up within 4 or 5 days, your filter may not be functioning properly. If this is the case with your pool, have the filter system checked out by a professional. The pool will never clear up if the filter is not working properly !

6. Once the water does clear up, you will most probably see debris on the pool floor (dead leaves, algae, etc.). If there is only a small amount of debris present, you may want to vacuum it up using your own pool vacuum system. If there is a lot of debris on the pool floor, you should have the pool professionally POWER VACUUMED. This will save a lot of wear and tear to your filter system, as well as assuring that no debris gets clogged in your pool pipes

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This is going to be an area where I write about my job as a pool guy with African Suns Pools To get started I get asked all the time how do I keep the calcium off my pool tile? Well there are a lot of different answers out there on how to do this. There are tile sealers you can paint on, spray muratic acid, drain your pool every so often, scrub weekly with a wire brush…The truth is there is no real way to prevent it. Here in Phoenix we are blessed with hard water and inevitably your tile will begin accumulate some build up. The best way to remove this scum and calcium is to use a Pool Tile cleaning company.

Please make sure you use a reputable company such as African Suns Pools they can clean your tile leaving it looking like new for a minimal cost.

TIP of the week: Now that summer is approaching it is a good idea to get a pool guy out to your pool to check all your equipment make sure everything is operational for the fast approaching summer.

Questions, Comments or concerns can be emailed to me at africansunsllc@yahoo.com

Until we meet again, Swim Safe

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When we come to do an Acid Wash we drain the entire pool using a small QUIET electric pump.  We set up the pump, normally in the afternoon, let it run overnight then come back the next morning to work.

An acid wash is a popular choice for cleaning tough stain off plaster pool walls.  An Acid wash uses gallons of Muriatic Acid. The acid will literally “etch” or eat away a small layer of the pools plaster, revealing the fresh and white layer underneath.  This type of cleaning is intense and better suited for removing tougher stains in the plaster.  However, due to the nature of an acid wash, this type of cleaning should NOT be performed on a regular basis.  A yearly acid wash, for example, would shorten the normal life span of a plaster pool as layer after small layer would be removed each year.  However, the occasional use of an acid wash is a great tool for restoring a “clean look” to a dirty surface.

The best results from an acid wash is when the plaster is still in decent shape.  An acid wash is normally not possible, nor will it help, when the plaster in very old and thin. Although an acid wash works well on most stains, some stains are too deep to be cleaned. The stains may be penetrating through many layers of plaster, and cannot be cleaned, even with an acid wash.  Pebble Tech pools are also acid washed when they have stubborn stains.  An acid wash is very effective on Pebble Techs with mineral stains (mineral build up will appear purple).  The Pebble Tech surface is much stronger than a plaster surface and can withstand an acid wash more regularly.

You should always hire a local pool cleaning service company who have experience doing acid washes to perform the acid wash. The muriatic acid is a toxic chemical and needed to be handled as such. If the acid is left too long on the pool plaster it will literally start burning into the plaster. It is highly advised that you hire a professional pool company such as  African Suns LLC to perform this type of pool cleaning.