Sam from Georgia wrote in and asked,
I badgered my husband into taking the cover off the pool last weekend at our new house. The cover ripped part way off the pool and dumped a lot of ‘stuff’ into the water. Should we wait to test until all the junk gets removed? And what should we test for?
First of all, congratulations on the purchase of your new home and ownership of a swimming pool.
We suggest you begin testing your pool water as soon as you have finished filling it up to the proper level, assuming you had to add water after taking the cover off. Often times the water people use to fill their pools may contain dissolved metals so you definitely want to test after you top off your pool.
At the beginning of each pool season we suggest people test for the following pool water parameters before adding anychemicals to their water:
- Free/Total Chlorine
- pH
- Alkalinity
- Calcium Hardness (in some cases total hardness)
- TDS
- Cyanuric Acid
- Iron
- Copper
Most people take a sample of water down to their local pool store in the beginning of the season and have trained pool water specialists examine their water. This works out well because they can get all the corrective and maintenance chemicals they need at the same time. It doesn’t hurt, either, that most pool stores don’t charge for water tests!
Suppose I Want to Test My Own Water… What Do You Suggest?
To start, we suggest that new pool owners not attempt to diagnose and fix their own water chemistry issues w/o assistance from experienced pool water professionals… so that means most people should take their water to a store and get it tested at the beginning of every swimming season.
Persons w/ degrees in chemistry and/or water science exempted from previous statement. 
Now should you choose to go it alone, you have roughly three choices when it comes to testing your own water:
One of the most important thing you can do at the start of any pool season: TEST the WATER before you add chemicals!
Why? Because one of several things could happen if you don’t:
1. You may waste chemicals by adding them to water not properly balanced and the chemicals will not work properly.
2. You might not add enough of what you need and your water will take a lot longer to clear up and/or get properly balanced.
3. You may add too much of something and need to add MORE chemicals and/or drain water to counteract what you added by accident.
The best way to get an accurate reading of your pool water’s chemistry involves taking a trip to your local pool store where you pick up your pool chemicals and having trained staff test your water. Short of making that trip, you have a few pool water testing options: Liquid Test Kits, Test Strips (Pool Check, Aquachek) and Meters.
Liquid Test Kits
Pool Testing Meters
Pool Test Strips
For a lot of people the phrase Water Chemistry brings back memories of nightmarish chemistry exams in school. In this case, though, checking the chemistry means keeping track of certain parameters in the water and making sure they stay in the proper ranges.
Monitoring the water chemistry in a pool will not cause you the pain you suffered through earlier in life. For the average pool owner, simple dip-n-read Pool Check test strips will work just fine. They allow for easy monitoring of the basics: Chlorine Level, pH, Total Alkalinity, and Hardness. Additionally, a trip to the pool store with a sample of water works equally well. Plus the fine folks at the store will give excellent directions on how to correct any problems they may find.
For those who maintain commercial or public pools, use of dip-n-read test strips will typically NOT suffice.
Most local Health Departments prefer to see pool/spa professionals using EPA Compliant methods for the monitoring of certain things like Free & Total Chlorine. They also want to see a host of other parameters like Cyanuric Acid (chlorine stabilizer) monitored on a regular basis. Sound intimidating? Let us help you with that.
Prior to the introduction of portable, easy-to-use handheld meters like the eXact Micro 7+ Advanced Photometric System, EPA Compliant chlorine testing required messy wet kits, dropper bottles, titrants, tablets and/or irritating dusts. No other chlorine detection method involving DPD Chemistry existed.
Now, however, with affordable EPA Compliant (for chlorine monitoring) water quality testing meters such as the eXact Micro 7+ Advanced Photometric System which makes use of a new, more convenient DPD Delivery System known as DPD ReagentStrips available, chlorine testing has become a lot easier and pretty much anyone can obtain accurate, reliable water test results in minutes.
