The Complete Guide to Pool Maintenance in Centurion
Living in Centurion means your pool deals with very different seasons: hot, stormy summers, a short autumn, and a dry, cold winter with frost on the lawn. Each one changes what the water needs. This guide covers the chemistry that matters, a weekly routine you can actually keep, how the Highveld climate affects all of it, and when it makes more sense to hand the job over.
What does a pool need every week?
A clear pool comes from three things working together: circulation, filtration and sanitation. The pump moves the water, the filter takes out what is floating in it, and chlorine kills what the filter cannot catch. If any one of the three falls behind, the other two cannot make up for it for long.
A practical weekly routine looks like this:
- Test the water for free chlorine, pH and total alkalinity, and correct whatever is out of range.
- Skim leaves and insects off the surface before they sink and start to stain.
- Empty the weir basket and the pump basket.
- Brush the walls, steps and waterline, working towards the main drain.
- Vacuum the floor, or check that your automatic cleaner is reaching the whole pool.
- Check the filter pressure gauge, and backwash when it has risen roughly 50–70 kPa above its clean reading.
- Look at the pump, timer and chlorinator, and make sure they run when they should.
Done every week, that takes most pool owners well under an hour. Skipped for two or three weeks in January, it becomes a green pool.
What should my pool water readings be?
These are the ranges most pool professionals work to for a residential chlorine or salt pool. Your test kit or strips should cover at least the first three.
- Free chlorine: 1–3 ppm. This is the chlorine still available to kill algae and bacteria. After a hot weekend or a heavy storm it can fall to almost nothing within a day or two.
- pH: 7.2–7.6. Above about 7.8, chlorine works far less effectively and calcium starts to come out of the water as scale. Below 7.0, the water becomes aggressive to plaster, grout and metal fittings.
- Total alkalinity: 80–120 ppm. Alkalinity is the buffer that keeps pH steady. Too low, and pH swings from day to day; too high, and pH keeps creeping up however much acid you add.
- Calcium hardness: roughly 200–400 ppm. Too little and the water pulls calcium out of the plaster; too much and it deposits on the tiles, in the filter and on a salt cell.
- Stabiliser (cyanuric acid): around 30–50 ppm if you use stabilised chlorine. It protects chlorine from sunlight, but it builds up over time, and too much makes chlorine sluggish.
Correct one thing at a time, in this order: alkalinity, then pH, then chlorine. Add chemicals to water, never water to chemicals, and never mix two products in the same bucket — pool acid and granular chlorine together release chlorine gas.
Why is pool care different on the Highveld?
It is not harder than at the coast, but it is different, and the differences explain most of the problems we see.
Summer sun and afternoon storms
The Highveld sun is strong, and unstabilised chlorine breaks down quickly in direct sunlight. Then the late-afternoon thunderstorms arrive. A heavy storm dilutes whatever chlorine is left, washes dust, pollen and leaves into the pool, and can knock the pH around. A pool that looked perfect on Friday can be hazy by Sunday. After every big storm, empty the baskets, test the water and top up the chlorine the same evening.
Hard water and calcium
Much of Gauteng's municipal water is hard, and a pool concentrates what is dissolved in it: water evaporates, but the minerals stay behind. That is where the white crust along the tile line comes from, and why salt chlorinator cells here scale up faster than you might expect. Keeping pH in range is the cheapest way to slow it down. Once the line is established, waterline tile and coping cleaning at R800 removes it properly.
Load-shedding and pump hours
Your pump has to turn the whole pool through the filter at least once a day, which for most family pools means six to eight hours in summer. When power cuts land in the middle of the pump's timer window, those hours are simply lost, and timers can reset or drift after an outage. Check that the pump actually runs when the timer says it does, and move the schedule into the hours your area usually has power.
Dry winters and spring wind
From May to August the pool is used less and needs less chlorine, but it still needs its pump and its weekly look. August and September bring wind and dust, on top of leaves that have been falling all autumn. A neglected winter pool is the most common reason for a green pool in September.
How long should the pool pump run each day?
As a starting point: six to eight hours a day in summer and four to six in winter, split into two runs if that suits your power schedule. Increase it after a storm, during a heat wave, or while you are clearing cloudy water. The goal is a full turnover of the water, not a number of hours for its own sake — a pump that is too small for the pool, or a filter that is overdue for new sand, will never keep up however long it runs.
How do I keep the filter working?
Most pools in the area run on sand filters. Sand traps dirt between its grains, and as it fills, the pressure gauge climbs. Backwash when the gauge says so, rinse briefly afterwards, and return the valve to Filter. Always switch the pump off before you move the multiport valve.
Filter sand does not last for ever. Over a few years the grains wear smooth and clump together, particularly with hard water, and water starts to channel straight through without being filtered. If the pressure climbs straight back after a backwash, or the water stays dull even though the chemistry is right, it is probably time for a sand change and filter service. We price those by the number of bags your filter takes, from R1,450 for a 3-bag filter.
When should I call a professional?
A lot of pool care is well within reach of an owner with a test kit and a routine. These are the points at which it usually pays to bring someone in:
- The water is green, or cloudy, and does not respond to a shock dose and a day of filtering. Green pool recovery is priced by pool size, from R1,200 for pools up to 30,000 litres.
- The pool needs a thorough reset — at the start of summer, before a party, or after tenants move out. A once-off deep clean is R1,200 for a small pool, R1,500 for a medium pool and R1,800 for a large one.
- Equipment is noisy, leaking or tripping the power. Water and electricity are not a do-it-yourself fault.
- The readings keep drifting and you cannot find out why.
- The surface is scaled or stained and needs an acid wash, which is best done in winter.
Is a weekly pool service worth it?
That depends on your time and how much you enjoy doing it yourself. A weekly pool maintenance plan takes the whole routine above off your hands: the water is tested and balanced at every visit, the pool is cleaned, the filter is backwashed when it needs it, and the equipment is checked so that wear is caught before it becomes a failure.
Plans are priced by pool size: R950 a month for pools up to 30,000 litres, R1,199 for 30,000–50,000 litres and R1,499 for larger pools. A once-off establishment fee of R1,499 applies when a plan starts, and on a plan the call-out fee for coming out to look at equipment falls away. We run weekly routes across Centurion, where our office is, and into Pretoria East, Pretoria and Midrand.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I test my pool water?
At least once a week, and again after heavy rain, a heat wave or a pool party. In mid-summer, testing chlorine every few days is worth the minute it takes.
Why is my pool cloudy even though the chlorine is fine?
Usually a pH that has drifted high, a filter that needs backwashing or new sand, or a pump that is not running enough hours. Check those three before adding more chlorine.
Should I shock my pool after a storm?
If the storm was heavy and the chlorine reading has dropped, yes. Empty the baskets first, then add the shock dose in the evening so the sun does not burn it off.
How do I work out how many litres my pool holds?
For a rectangular pool, multiply the length by the width by the average depth in metres, then by 1,000. That gives you litres, which is what every chemical label and our price list use.
Talk to us
If you would like a hand with any of this, WhatsApp or call Crystal Reef on 081 577 5051, or email sales@crystalreef.co.za. Our office is at Block 5, Central Office Park, 257 Jean Avenue, Die Hoewes, Centurion. For more on the seasons, read why pools turn green and how to prepare your pool for winter.