Is it safe to put vinegar and soda in a swimming pool?

If you are someone who is interested in using natural products in your home, you’ve probably already discovered that baking soda and vinegar are a pretty miraculous team. They can do everything from cleaning ovens and floors to unclogging drains, but do they have any uses for your pool? Unsurprisingly, the answer is yes! You can use baking soda in a pool for a few different things, and the same applies to vinegar. Baking soda and vinegar in a swimming pool can be used as cleaning agents, but you can also lower pool pH with vinegar or raise it with baking soda. Let’s take a closer look at how these two common household staples can benefit your pool.

What does baking soda do for a pool? For one thing, you can use baking soda for pool cleaning. It works well for removing algae, and it makes a good alternative to products with bleach. Making it into a paste, you can scrub parts of the pool contaminated with algae. You can also increase the pool’s pH with baking soda. How much making soda is needed to raise pH in a pool? Be prepared to add about four pounds for every 10,000 gallons. Start by putting half that much on the water’s surface, then check the pH and add more as needed.

So, what’s the purpose of vinegar in a swimming pool? Just as you can raise the pH with baking soda, you can lower pool pH with vinegar. It is not, however, the most effective additive for this purpose. You’d have to add so much vinegar, in fact, that it would raise the sugar level of the pool and become food for microbes. It’s better to use pool chemicals designed for this purpose and save the vinegar for other purposes.

You can use either white vinegar or apple cider vinegar for a pool, but white vinegar is a better choice because it won’t stain your surfaces. Here’s how to clean pool tile with vinegar: just mix a solution of half water and half vinegar, then use a scrub brush to apply it to the tile and scrub clean. Vinegar can also be used to remove mineral deposits from a pool, shine up metal surfaces, clean your pool filter, and get rid of algae and other things growing in your pool. You can use a vinegar solution and scrub brush to accomplish most of this and use undiluted vinegar for stubborn stains. To clean metal, you’ll want to use a sponge instead of a brush, and to clean a pool filter, there are a few steps to follow. Just mix equal parts of vinegar and water, soak the filter in this mixture for at least three hours, then rinse it with clean water.

When you need someone to help maintain or repair your pool, Millennium Pools and Spas can help. With over 30 combined years of experience in the pool industry, we provide a comprehensive range of pool services for both residential and commercial customers in Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland. When you hire Millennium Pool Service, you get a well-qualified, industry-trained staff of pool contractors and technicians, services that are tailored to your needs, and a commitment to 100% customer satisfaction. Contact us for more information.