Having your own above ground swimming pool has many benefits for fun and for your health. Getting in the swimming pool on a hot day is a great way to enjoy yourself with your friends or family. Having your own swimming pool also gives you the opportunity to teach your children how to swim. When you have your own swimming pool it requires regular maintenance to ensure its upkeep and pools can also pose a number of safety risks. So here are 5 helpful tips to help anyone who owns a swimming pool.

1. Buy A Solar Cover For Your Pool - Solar swimming pool covers are a great idea as they are designed to heat the pool using heat from the sun. A solar cover will reduce the amount of heat that is lost when the water on the surface evaporates. As ninety percent of the water's heat is lost through the evaporation of surface water a solar cover stops this process and keeps the water warm. One of the great advantages of this is that it also helps to reduce the amount of money you will spend on heating the pool.

2. Put In Some Elbow Grease - Keeping the water topped up with swimming pool chemicals is only part of the cleaning job. It is a good idea to use a brush to sweep any algae or dirt off of the swimming pool liner. You should also get a good vacuum to clean the bottom of the pool. Automatic robot vacuums are perfect for this as you can just leave them to clean the bottom of the pool when you aren't using it. However you will still need to regularly skim any leaves or other debris that have fallen in the water.

3. Rain Or Shine Will Effect Your Pool - Weather conditions can have a dramatic effect on your pool. If you have a lot of rain and wind it will cause the swimming pool chemicals to be used up more quickly. Sunny weather conditions will have similar effects as the heating up of the water will cause the chemicals to react more quickly. One of the best ways of dealing with this problem is to regularly give your pool shock treatments.

4. Get The Right Chemicals For The Job - If you have a pool then you have to have swimming pool chemicals and a home testing kit to make sure you're putting in the right amount of chemicals. Using a testing kit will help to make sure that the swimming pool chemicals like chlorine are strong enough to kill germs with out irritating your eyes and skin.

5. Replace Your Filters - A swimming pool filter is one of the most important pieces of equipment in your swimming pool. The main function is to remove any dirt from the water and this means that they need to be cleaned a lot. If you have a sand filter then you will need to backwash the filter. For those of you with paper filters it is simply a case of washing them with a hose but you will find that you will still need to replace them on a regular basis.