What a Weekly Pool Service Visit Actually Covers

From the patio, a weekly pool service looks simple. Someone arrives, works around the water for a while, and leaves. What you're really paying for is the checklist that person follows and the record they leave behind. Here is what a weekly visit from Del Sol Pool Service & Repair covers for pool owners in Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix, and why each item earns its place. Weekly service starts at $90 per month.

The nine items on every visit

This is the list exactly as it appears on our services page. Nothing on it is optional filler.

• Sweeping the walls, benches, and steps
• Netting all surface leaves and debris
• Emptying and cleaning pump and skim baskets
• Equipment check
• Water testing and routine chemical addition
• Routine salt system maintenance (as applicable)
• Back washing as needed
• Vacuuming as needed
• Service slip is left detailing work performed

Sweeping, netting and baskets: the work you can see

Start with the surface. Palo verde litter, mesquite pods and monsoon dust all land on the water, and a pool that sits under a block wall catches more than you'd expect. Netting the surface leaves and debris is the quickest way to keep that material from sinking, breaking down, and feeding algae. It also keeps the skimmer doing its job instead of fighting a mat of leaves.

Brushing the walls, benches and steps matters just as much, and it's the item owners most often forget about. Algae doesn't start in the middle of the pool. It starts on slow-moving surfaces, like a shaded step or the corner of a bench, where circulation is weakest. Brushing breaks up the early film before the eye can see it. Skip it for a month in July and you'll usually find out the hard way.

Then there are the pump and skim baskets. A full basket chokes the flow of water to the pump, which makes the whole system work harder for less result. Emptying and cleaning them every visit is cheap insurance for the motor you can't see.

Water testing and routine chemical addition

This is the item that actually keeps the water safe to swim in. A test shows where the water stands on sanitizer, pH and the other balance readings, and routine chemical addition brings it back where it belongs. The point of testing every week, rather than when the water looks off, is that pool water changes before it looks different. By the time it's cloudy, you're already treating a problem.

Arizona makes this harder than most places. Afternoons in the East Valley regularly pass 110 degrees, and heat plus sunlight burns through chlorine quickly. Our water is also hard, so minerals build up as evaporation leaves them behind. General guidance is to test often in summer and adjust in small steps rather than big swings, and that is the habit a weekly visit builds.

Equipment check, back washing and vacuuming

The equipment check is a look at the pad: pump, filter, valves, and any visible leaks, drips or odd noises. Most equipment problems announce themselves before they become failures. A weekly set of eyes catches the small ones, like a weeping fitting or a pressure gauge creeping upward, while they're still inexpensive.

Back washing is done as needed, which is the honest way to say it. A sand filter clears itself by running water backward through the sand, and it needs that when pressure tells us it's loaded with debris, not on a calendar. Vacuuming is also as needed. A pool that gets a heavy dust event or a windy week gets vacuumed. A quiet week doesn't need it.

Routine salt system maintenance, as applicable

If your pool runs on a salt system, the visit includes routine maintenance on it. The cell that turns salt into chlorine slowly collects scale, especially in hard water, and a scaled cell makes less chlorine. Keeping an eye on it means you don't discover the problem when the pool goes green. If your pool uses a traditional chlorine setup, this item simply doesn't apply, which is why it says as applicable.

The service slip

The last item is the one that makes the other eight visible. A service slip is left detailing the work performed. If you're at work on Tuesday when the visit happens, you still know what was done: what was cleaned, what was added, and anything that needs a look. It also gives you a running paper trail, which helps when you want to know whether the cloudy water last month came after a storm or after a skipped week.

Del Sol is family owned and operated, fully licensed, bonded and insured under ROC#275375, and our promise is simple: YOUR satisfaction is OUR guarantee. If you'd like weekly service at your home or business, read the details on the weekly pool service page, then send the office a note or call (480) 272-7260 between 8am and 5pm, Monday through Friday.