It is summer; temperatures are warmer. Your pool is usually a go-to when you need a cooling dip. And you must find a way to lower those temperatures so they have some effect. This is where pool aerators come into play.
If you have a pool aerator, you can use it to aerate your pool. That’s what it’s designed for. In the course of this article, I will be dissecting how important a pool aerator is and how you can use one to aerate your pool.
How do I aerate my swimming pool?
Pool aeration is the process of infusing pool water with oxygen. There are a variety of reasons why pool owners do this. If you live in a dry climate, you will be very familiar with warmer temperatures, especially during the summer. Cooling the water during such periods is just one of the reasons. Among other things, they maintain pH and improve circulation.
Below, I will be listing ways in which you can aerate your pool.
- Installing dedicated pool aerators: Pool aerators are available for purchase and installation in your pool. They can be easily attached to the side of your pool. The coping of the deck is placed so the pool aerators can be set up. This device can be attached to the return line of your pool and a fountain of water is sprayed through it from the pump.
As this occurs, oxygen is added to the water. The additional air helps to bring down the temperature of your pool water.
- Make use of your pool features: Most pool features are already, by nature, pool aerators. These pool features could include any of the following: waterfall, spillover spa, deck jets/laminar jets, grotto, bubblers, misters, water walls, spouts/scuppers/sconces.
These pool features are most often designed to give your pool a more aesthetic feel and make it more attractive. They also add more fun and make you want to swim more. However, behind all that, most of these pool features help to aerate your pool.
Pool bubblers are miniature fountains that send columns of water into the shallow part of your pool. They send streams of bubbling water to the pool surface. This process of babbling infuses oxygen into your water.
Desk jets or laminar jets are another pool feature that can play a similar role. They are basically water jets installed on the deck surrounding the pool, which shoot streams of water in arches into the water. As they do this, oxygen is mixed with the water, hence aerating it.
Pool misters can also play this role. They work by forcing water into nozzles that can atomize water into minute droplets. The end product is a water mist that produces a fog-like appearance around the pool. This also helps to aerate the pool because the water is mixed with air as it is atomized.
- Angling your return jets: If you are not one who is primed to fix any other external hardware, you could just stick to modifying your pool’s return lines. Your aim is to angle them upwards and as close to the surface as possible. While you do this, you also turn on your pump to the highest settings so as to create a powerful upward surge.
To do this, all that is required is that you adjust the return fitting a bit, just to get the angle you want. is that
What does an aerator in a pool do?
An aerator in a pool has a number of uses. I will list them below.
- Cool your water temperature: As mentioned above, pool aerators can lower the temperature of your water. Just as exposing water to the sun heats it up, exposing water to the air cools it down.
The aerator attached to the side of your pool simply adds oxygen to the water. As these molecules of oxygen are being added, hot air can easily escape, and thus it leads to evaporative cooling, subsequently lowering the temperature of the water.
When the aerators return the water, they return it in spray form. This causes the water to be exposed to cooler air. For instance, if your pool water temperature was around 90°F, you can expect it to come down by about 5 degrees after some sessions of aeration.
- Increase the pool pH: Pool aerators are the best way to increase your pool pH without raising the alkalinity. The way this works is that aeration causes turbulence. This turbulence causes an outgassing or effervescence of carbon dioxide from the water. Carbon dioxide dissolved in water normally makes it acidic. So, by removing the carbon dioxide, this causes the water to lose its acidity and increase in pH.
- Increase pool circulation: Pool aerators help to increase pool circulation. Pushing water into the pool at high speeds causes disruption in the stability of the water. When water is disrupted like that, it causes the chemicals in it to move about better and carry out their functions more efficiently.
These chemicals can get carried to every aspect of the pool much faster and do the work of sanitizing and clarifying the pool water. Also, when water circulates effectively, it prevents stagnancy, which can lead to algae buildup. Algae naturally breeds excellently in stagnant water. But causing the water to move can hamper that and disrupt its natural tendencies.
You end up having a cleaner and algae-free pool.
How long does aeration take to raise pool pH?
Aeration is the only way you can increase pool pH without increasing the pool alkalinity.
Does aerating water change pH?
Aeration helps to cause the outgassing of carbon dioxide. When acid(muriatic acid) is added to reduce alkalinity, it causes carbon dioxide to be dissolved in the pool. The presence of carbon dioxide lowers the pH of the pool. Aeration makes the water turbulent and then causes the carbon dioxide to be outgassed, hence increasing the pH of the pool.
Does aeration lower chlorine?
When the pool is aerated, it releases air bubbles into the water. This causes a disruption in the water’s state. This can cause chlorine that is dissolved in the water to bubble up faster. This way, the chlorine levels are lowered.
When should I run my pool aerator?
Pool aerators are better run at night. At night, air temperatures are cooler. During the day, the sun will be out and will be hard at work warming the air around us. In very hot climates, running an aerator during the day can be ineffective because the air temperature is too warm.
Another benefit of running it at night is that you lose less water to evaporation. When the water is in spray or mist form, exposing it to high temperatures gets it easily evaporated. And this is what aerating under the hot sun does. Your overall pool volume will end up being reduced.
How do I aerate my water without a pump?
There are some alternate ways to aerate your pool water without a pump.
- Create a vortex: You can use a vortex cannon to do this. A vortex cannon creates vortices by releasing air bubbles into the pool. You can do this on multiple sides of the pool to cause disruption in the water molecules.
- Point your return jets upwards: Turning your water return lines upwards can help aerate the pool. This creates air bubbles that rise to the top very easily.
Does aeration cool water?
Yes, it does. As stated above, aeration is one of the best ways to bring the temperature of your pool down. Even if you don’t have access to a pool chiller that works by pumping cold air directly into the water, pool aerators can do just fine. Their work of releasing oxygen into your water can bring down its temperature by at least 4-5 degrees.
Do I need an aerator if I have a filter?
Yes, you will. You must understand that this equipment has very different purposes. The work of the filter is primarily to remove debris and other unwanted matter from the pool. Working in tandem with the pool pump, the pool filter helps to clean your pool and make it attractive to continue swimming in.
The filter contains a collection of fine sand particles which are compressed together. These fine particles act to strain the pool water and remove debris and other foreign objects from it. All these are very good capabilities, but the filter can never really replace the aerator.
During the hot seasons, the aerator’s work comes to the fore. The filter doesn’t really have much effect on the temperature of the pool. The work of the aerator is basically to supply streams of air into your pool water. This then cools the water, maintains pH and also, importantly, increases circulation. With this, you can see how important having an aerator is.
What is the difference between an air pump and an aerator?
The major difference between the two is depth. Air pumps are used in the deeper aspects of the pool, while aerators work better in the shallower regions. Their functions are basically the same. They cause disruption in the water, causing air to bubble through it more.
