For proper pool maintenance, it is very important to keep the right hardness of water in your pool. Low calcium hardness in your pool water can cause damage to your pool surfaces and the surfaces of your robot pool cleaner, causing service issues, etching, and cloudy water. Fortunately, it’s easy to raise the calcium hardness. In this guide, we’re going to discuss how you can ramp up hardness in your pool, how it impacts your robotic pool cleaner, and why maintaining appropriate hardness levels is critical to a stress-free pool maintenance regimen.
In the next article, you can see the reasons Why You Should Raise Water Hardness.
Before we jump into the techniques for increasing water hardness, we should discuss the importance of this at least a little bit. Pool hardness (more specifically calcium hardness) is the concentration of calcium and magnesium in the water. These minerals provide protection against corrosion to protect your pool, while also keeping your water clean and your pool cleaning robot in the best condition.
Too low calcium levels are responsible for:
Corrosion of Pool Equipment — This can affect components like ladders and rails, as well as the internal systems of your pool vacuum robot and other equipment.
Surface Damage to Pools: Low Hardness Can Cause Surface Etching, Especially in Plaster and Tile
Pool Water Chemistry Problems: Low calcium can make it challenging to stabilize the pH and alkalinity of your pool water.
Inefficient in Pool Cleaning: A low-calcium pool lowers the efficiency of your robotic pool cleaner.
Prevent these risks when maintaining the ideal calcium hardness range of 200–400 ppm in your pool.
How to Increase Water Hardness in Your Pool
Now, when it comes to increasing water hardness in your pool, there are three ways to do it. Let’s take a look at the most common and effective options:
Add Calcium Chloride
The easiest and best method for increasing calcium hardness is adding calcium chloride to your pool water. Calcium hypochlorite is broadly accessible through swimming pool suppliers and is very capable of raising calcium.
How to Use Calcium Chloride:
Test the water: Before doing anything, check the calcium hardness of your pool with a reliable test kit.
Determine dosage: Calculate how much calcium chloride to add based on the pool’s volume and existing calcium hardness level. Pool supply stores usually have dosage charts to assist.
Add the chemical: Gradually distribute the calcium chloride into your pool near the deep end. This is done so it is distributed evenly throughout the water.
Enable mixing: Start up your pool vacuum robot or pool cleaning robot to help disperse the chemicals and mix them into the water.
Test again: After a few hours (or the following day), retest the water to make sure the calcium hardness level is desired.
For all types of pools, calcium chloride is a simple and economical method to increase the hardness of the water.
Use a Calcium Increaser
If your pool is in a soft water region, a calcium increase product may make sense. These are TO BE SPECIFICALLY FORMULATIONS to improve upon calcium hardness without interacting with other pool chemistry catalysts. If you experience low calcium frequently, then this option is great.
Use Hard Water Some People Get from Well Water or a Hose (If Possible)
If you are in an area where naturally hard water is present, fill your pool with water from a well or local water supply that has a higher mineral content. This will help incrementally increase the calcium hardness in your pool over time. On the flip side, avoid raising the levels too widely, as this can throw the pool’s chemistry out of balance.
Utilize a Pool Water Softener or Conditioner
If your pool’s water is consistently low in calcium, a pool softener or conditioner may help in some cases. These devices are made to introduce minerals into pool water to keep hardness levels within range long-term. They can be especially beneficial for homes that receive soft water naturally.
Consistent Maintenance with a Robot Pool Cleaner
Once the hardness has been adjusted, something like the Beatbot AquaSense Pro, a robot pool cleaner, is a great tool to help maintain your pool. While the robot pool cleaner doesn’t increase hardness, it can help in maintaining flow of the water, which is vital for ensuring the proper mixing and distribution of chemicals like calcium chloride around the pool. This also keeps debris at bay so as not to disturb the chemical balance of your pool, leaving it sparkling clean.
Beatbot and Other Robotic Pool Cleaners Keep Your Water Chemistry in Check
Having the appropriate calcium hardness levels is important, but it’s not enough that you can just take the day off from caring for your pool; it’s still going to take work. A robot pool cleaner like the Beatbot AquaSense operates through your pool’s chemistry, which ensures that your pool will be air and eco-friendly and, therefore, safe for bathing.
Another example of an excellent pool cleaning robot that can keep your pool crystal clear and well-balanced is the Beatbot iSkim Ultra. These toys also minimize how often you need to scrub manually, so you can focus on your chemical balance, while the robots do the dirty work.
Conclusion Raising Calcium Hardness For a Healthier Pool
Water hardness — in the proper range, of course — is key to the life of your robot pool cleaner, your pool surfaces, and the cleanliness of your pool overall. By learning how to raise calcium hardness level in the pool using the steps above as well as testing your pool regularly, you can keep calcium levels up in no time and prevent any potential damage to your pool.
Once you set your pool hardness, a robotic pool cleaner like the Beatbot AquaSense Pro will keep your pool perfectly clean and maintenance a breeze. After correctly balancing the hardness levels, you can sit back and not worry about maintaining the health of your pool.
