10 tips for your summer splashdown

BY ROSIE ROMERO

Warm weather has arrived and by the end of this month, the entire family will be ready for major pool time.

Here are some pool maintenance tips and other ideas that you may want to do before the pool gets too busy:

1. Make sure the pool cleaning system still works properly. Check for leaks and listen for strange noises. You may have to call a pool company for repairs.

2. Is calcium building up on tiles along the edge of the pool? With a lot of elbow grease, you can scrub this off yourself, but it can take a while. Pool services can shoot a stream of beaded glass at the tiles to remove those white marks.

3. Check handrails, diving boards, steps and slides to be sure they are secure and in good shape. Be sure your home insurance covers accidents, involving diving boards and slides.

4. Be sure that locks work on the pool gate. Check over pool gate and fence and make necessary repairs in order to keep small children out when unaccompanied by adults. Gates need to have self-closing hinges. Remove boxes or chairs that children could use to climb over the pool fence.

5. Maybe this is the year to buy a really secure pool cover, particularly one with fasteners that anchor into the pool decking. This way you can have peace of mind when you go on vacation or during the winter when the pool is not in use.

6. A solar cover can help keep heat collected from the sun in your pool. In the fall, the solar cover will keep your pool at 80 degrees for several more weeks than usual, without using your heater.

7. Cover heavily traveled areas of the pool deck with no-slip mats. This will prevent wear and tear.

8. Keep metal furniture off the pool deck. Rust stains from metal chairs can stain your pool deck.

9. Clean the pool deck frequently with a leaf blower or hose and clean up spills as soon as they happen to prevent staining.

10. At summer's end think about replacing that 10-year-old pool pump with a new variable speed pump. Such pumps use far less energy. It will take a couple years for the new pump to pay for itself, but after that you can save up to $400 a year in electric bills.