Is Your Backyard Pool Drought Tolerant?

Pool Drought Tips

The California drought is one of the worst droughts in history, and is showing no signs of getting better. While this means many homeowners are letting their lawns turn brown and looking for drought tolerant landscaping options to help do their part to save water, it may not mean emptying out your backyard pool.

Studies have shown that a backyard pool, even though it can take thousands of gallons of water initially to fill up, does not use any more water than a lawn of the same size. In fact, swimming pools use about 8,000 gallons less water than more traditional landscape designs that are the same size.

While pools are not a huge water waster, there are some steps that you can take to help lower the amount of evaporation in your backyard pool, including:

• Turn off all water features, such as spillways and waterfalls. The more water that is exposed to the atmosphere, the more evaporation occurs.
• Point all eyeball type pool returns to face the bottom of the pool. The traditional method of facing them up will disturb the water causing more turbulence on the water surface, leading to more evaporation.
• Use solar rings or a solar blanket to keep your pool covered. Blankets and rings can be purchased at most pool supply stores, or you can make them on your own. Keep in mind that you will have to take a solar blanket off of your pool once a week to allow the pool to breathe and help avoid a green pool. You do not have to worry about taking off solar rings since the space between the rings allows the pool to breathe.

For all of your pool service needs, and to keep your backyard swimming pool looking its best throughout the drought, contact Clean and Clear Pools in Danville, California.