What Does Regular Pool Maintenance Look Like with an Oxygenated Pool System?

Did you just finish your first appointment with a Shasta pool designer? Now, you are wondering is Shasta Pure Oxygenated System right for you. You like the idea of swimming in water that feels softer, is packed with oxygen and without the chlorine smell. What am I going to have to do every week to keep this thing running?

We talk to homeowners who assume "low maintenance" means "no maintenance." We also talk to people who think an oxygen system requires a chemistry degree. The level of maintenance matters more at your tap water than any other factor.

Shasta has been building and servicing Arizona pools since 1966. Our own team has used Shasta Pure on their own homes. The maintenance strategies are developed from our own homes and our service team that works with homeowners everyday.

This article shows the Shasta Pure weekly maintenance schedule. Next, we share what changes depending on where you live in Arizona. So, you know can handle it yourself or want Shasta's Weekly Pool Care team.

Table of Contents

• What maintenance do you have to do with Shasta Pure?
• Is an oxygenated pool set it and forget it?
• What happens if you skip maintenance for a few weeks?
• How does your local Arizona water affect oxygenated pool maintenance?
• Shasta Pure is Low Maintenance not No Maintenance

What maintenance do you have to do with Shasta Pure?

There are two different things for pool maintenance. One is keeping the water itself sanitized and balanced. The other is keeping the physical equipment running. Shasta Pure handles most of the water sanitation work for you, while your pool vacuum or infloor cleaning system handles the dirt and debris. The equipment side still needs your attention. Shasta Pure is not removing debris from your pool.

• Weekly water testing (like any normal pool)

• Rare dosing muriatic acid to reduce pH levels if they stay above 8 pH for too long

• A small dose of phosphate remover every other week or so

• Cleaning out physical debris 

Chlorine is Not Sanitizing the Water

"Now, where you're going to use virtually no chlorine and significantly less acid is with an oxygen nanobubble system. Remember, the main purpose... of keeping your pH in balance is so that your chlorine lasts as long as possible. Well, in an oxygen nanobubble system, chlorine is not what is sanitizing the water, so you can let that go longer than a typical pool sanitation system." — Skip Ast III, Director of Sales, Shasta Pools

Is an oxygenated pool set it and forget it?

Many homeowners confuse the idea of a low maintenance pool. There's no such thing as a pool that runs itself completely. An oxygenated system gets you closer to zero work than anything else on the market right now. Set it and forget it not realistic for any pool. You can trade a daily chemical routine for a 30-second weekly check.

You're not adding chlorine tablets every few days. You don't have to monitor salt levels for a salt-chlorine generator cell. You do still need to glance at your water chemistry on a weekly basis. Cleaning debris that blows into your pool is the top weekly chore. We been running Shasta Pure residential system for three years, still tests weekly and pull leaves out after a monsoon. It's "big brother" system, mainly on commercial pools, has been on pools since 2014.

Low Maintenance Pool Systems

"I think misconceptions people have in general about water sanitation when they hear low maintenance systems from the pool industry is they expect almost no maintenance. There's no such thing as absolute zero maintenance. But the oxygen system, the nanobubble system, is as close as I've ever experienced." — Skip Ast III, Director of Sales, Shasta Pools

What happens if you skip maintenance for a few weeks?

On a nanobubble system, if you skipped maintenance for a couple of weeks, not a lot can happen. When it comes to the water sanitation, for an oxygenated nanobubble system, you can skip two weeks, no problem. Customers have skipped a month and have had no issues but we don't recommend this.

No issues with sanitation isn't the same as nothing to worry about. A few things still need attention even when the water chemistry holds up fine.

• Physical debris doesn't pause just because you did. Leaves, dust, and monsoon debris keep piling into your skimmer and leaf baskets.

• Your cleaning system still needs to actually pick that debris up. It can only handle so much before baskets overflow.

• Phosphates build up the longer debris sits. Phosphates is just a fancy, scientific word for leaves and organic material breaking down in the water that is basically algae food.

A month is pushing it. Skipping a week or two on testing is genuinely fine. Skipping a month on pulling debris out of your pool during monsoon season is asking for an overflowing skimmer basket and a phosphate problem you didn't need to have. Clean the debris out of your pool and baskets at least weekly.

How does your local Arizona water affect oxygenated pool maintenance?

How much work your Shasta Pure system takes is about what's already in your tap water. Arizona water carries dissolved solids. That's just the reality of where we live. Some cities have it worse than others, and it's not something the pool system controls. Your automatic water leveler pulls straight from your tap, so whatever is in that water becomes part of your pool's baseline.

For any pool system, regardless of the sanitation; it could be chlorine tablets, it could be ozone systems, or salt chlorine generators. Because nanobubbles are electrostatically charged, and why the water stays so clear, you'll see the effects of bad source water faster than you would in a cloudier chlorine pool. One professor put it to us like this, "...nanobubbles, because of their charge, are sticky; they want to stick to things in the pool like phosphates or total dissolved solids (TDS)".

What does good water looks like on a test?

• Nitrates: less than 10 parts per million

• Phosphates: less than 100 parts per billion

• TDS (total dissolved solids): less than or equal to 500 parts per billion

Good Tap Water

"If your tap water is in these ranges, then your water good to go. Most Arizona families land somewhere in here, and if that's you, the maintenance routine I described earlier is pretty much the whole story. Weekly testing, occasional phosphate remover, done. The nice thing is, most pool supply stores will test the phosphate and TDS of your water for free." Skip Ast III, Sale Director Shasta Pools

What does challenging water looks like?

• Nitrates: 11 to 25 parts per million

• Phosphates: 101 to 500 parts per billion

• TDS: 501 to 1,500 parts per billion

What difficult to maintain water look like?

• Nitrates: greater than 25 parts per million

• Phosphates: greater than 500 parts per billion

• TDS: greater than 1,500 parts per billion

Difficult Tap Water

"If it's coming out of your tap at this level, just know that it's not going to be a lot of fun to maintain that pool, regardless of the sanitation system you choose. You may even want to employ a professional pool service to help you with that." Skip Ast III, Director of Sales Shasta Pools

You'll want to test more deliberately. A real water test at a pool supply store catches what's building up. You may need to drain a portion of your pool periodically just to flush out accumulated total dissolved solids.

Phosphate remover becomes a routine step. Every other week, a few ounces guidance assumes decent source water. Challenging water needs closer attention so phosphates don't creep up and feed algae.

For difficult tap water a professional pool service starts to make more sense. It's not a failure on your part if your tap water is just genuinely tougher to manage.

Shasta Pure is Low Maintenance not No Maintenance

For most Arizona homeowners, Shasta Pure, or an oxygenated nanobubble system, is a great low maintenance option. If your tap water tests in that "good" range, you're looking at weekly water chemistry. Sometime you will need an occasional small dose of phosphate remover or an even rarer dose of acid for your pH . You will always need to pull debris out after a windy day or a monsoon.

If you're in an area with high TDS or phosphates, the workload goes up no matter what sanitation system you choose. That's when Shasta's Weekly Pool Care team starts to make more sense than doing your own maintenance.

Get a free water test on your tap water before you decide. It takes less than a minute at most pool supply stores. It tells you more about your real maintenance commitment than anything else.

If you're still working with your designer, bring that water test result. Shasta can help you figure out exactly what your week-to-week would look like before you ever sign off on the build.

References

ShastaPoolSupply.com Shasta Pure

ASU.edu Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment