Pool Chemistry and Maintenance From a Backyard Pool Owner
Nadia Caldwell · October 23, 2026
I have lost count of the number of people who have messaged me, a few days after their new plaster went in, with a photo of a floor covered in fine white scratches and a question along the lines of “I followed the brush guide and now it looks awful.” Nearly every time, they bought … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · September 2, 2026
I’ve been around pools across the Southwest for years, and I can tell you exactly which chemical problem makes pool owners want to pull their hair out: you test the pH, it reads low at 6.8, you add pH increaser, it climbs to 7.6, and two days later—boom—it’s back down at 7.0 again. So you … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 12, 2026
Your pool’s eye-stinging reputation may have nothing to do with excess chlorine—and everything to do with chemistry you’re not actually measuring. Back in the middle of a Scottsdale summer, I helped a neighbour with a pool that had been causing irritation for days. The numbers they had were 3.0 ppm total chlorine, which looked like … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 10, 2026
Suppose you’re dosing shock at 20 ppm and your CYA reads 110 ppm. That’s the moment people start screaming “chlorine lock” online. They’ve dumped chemicals, nothing visibly improves, and panic sets in. The chlorine won’t budge on the test kit. They’ve absorbed the cyanuric acid chlorine lock myth wholesale, treated it as settled fact, and … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 3, 2026
Dose 20 ppm of calcium hypochlorite shock at a CYA level of 50 ppm, and your free chlorine will oxidize contaminants efficiently. Miss either variable, and you’re wasting money on a treatment that won’t work as intended. That’s the essence of what I want to cover in this guide — the specific numbers, the reasoning … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 1, 2026
Two competing pieces of advice circulate constantly around pool decks and online forums, and they directly contradict each other. One says “pH drops naturally over time, so you shouldn’t add acid unless it gets above 8.0.” The other insists “high alkalinity causes everything, lower it first and pH will follow.” One of these is wrong … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · June 26, 2026
Tuesday morning, I was in the equipment room of a neighbour’s pool. The salt chlorinator’s display panel was flashing “Inspect Cell,” the water was turning cloudy despite readings that showed adequate salinity, and the owner standing next to me was convinced the entire generator had failed. Wrong diagnosis. The cell itself just needed a thorough … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · June 24, 2026
Across years of chasing water chemistry on my own pool and half the neighborhood’s, one pattern showed up without fail: the instant someone pulls out a test strip and squints at its color chart is precisely when the chemistry management process starts deteriorating. The scenario unfolds predictably. You submerge the strip, observe the blue-green shift, … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · June 23, 2026
Combined chlorine in your pool isn’t just an unpleasant chemical reading—it’s a sign your water is no longer protecting the people in it. During the summer months, a property owner reached out requesting an urgent visit. “The water reeks,” she explained. “It’s absolutely overpowering—like a gymnasium locker room. My children are complaining their eyes hurt. … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · June 23, 2026
Across fifteen years of chasing pool chemistry around Arizona—one refrain surfaces with remarkable consistency from owners who maintain regular water chemistry testing. They tell me: “Nadia, my pool pH won’t stop climbing. I dose pH down, let it sit for a full day, run another test, and it’s back at 8.0. Feels like I’m flushing … Read more