For all things related to pool care and maintenance, your water chemistry first-up needs to be balanced so your pool cleaner, pool vacuum, or pool cleaning robot can run smoothly. The pH and alkalinity of almost every cleaning operation are essential for efficient cleaning. One of the most commonly found chemicals needed to maintain the balance of things is Muriatic acid, a powerful and commonly used pool chemical.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at what muriatic acid does to your pool levels, how it impacts your water balance, and how it might affect your robotic pool cleaner efficiency including Beatbot AquaSense Pro, Beatbot AquaSense and Beatbot iSkim Ultra.
What is Muriatic Acid?
Muriatic acid or hydrochloric acid, a strong acid often added to pools to reduce pH when the water is too alkaline. In pool water, alkalinity is a pH stabilizer or buffer, but if there is too high of a level of alkalinity, it can hamper your efforts to lower or raise pH levels. To balance this, it’s possible to bring the pH back down with a product such as Muriatic Acid.
How Muriatic Acid Impact Pool pH Levels
The pH of your pool (ranging from 0 to 14) determines whether the water is acidic or basic. The pH of pool water should ideally be somewhat alkaline, with a level of about 7.4–7.6. So a pH that’s too high (over 7.8) can cause several problems:
Reduced Effectiveness of in-Robotic Pool Cleaners: Maintaining a high pH may result in your robotic pool cleaner (e.g., Beatbot AquaSense models) not working promptly or not clean value utilizing.
Cloudy water and Scaling: High pH levels are one of the issues causing scaling on the surface of the pool or pool systems, including your pool vacuum robot, which automatically makes it harder to clean your pool and causes unnecessary wear on your pool vacuum cleaner and other systems.
Skin and Eye Irritation: High pH can irritate swimmers’ skin and eyes, too, making your pool uncomfortable to enjoy.
When muriatic acid is introduced into pool water, it works to lower the pH of the solution by dissociating hydrogen ions into the solution, making the water more acidic, and therefore lowering the pH to be nearer to the optimal range.
Does Adding Muriatic Acid Raise Alkalinity
Besides reducing pH, muriatic acid can also influence the pool’s total alkalinity. Alkalinity is what helps with this — it’s a pH buffer, turning off the tap on dramatic swings. But if you reduce alkalinity too low, the pH will not be stable, leading to more frequent adjustments and danger to your robot pool, pool vacuum, and other cleaning-type gear.
Ideal Alkalinity Levels: The recommended level of alkalinity in pool water ranges from 80 to 120 ppm (or parts per million). Too much alkalinity makes lowering the pH more difficult, even if you’re adding muriatic acid. If it’s too low, however, the pH can vary widely and give your swimming pool robot cleaner even more trouble.
Muriatic acid lowers both the pH and alkalinity of the pool over time, which means you’ll want to pay attention to both levels while using this chemical.
How to Use Muriatic Acid in Your Pool
Although muriatic acid is an effective means of lowering pH and alkalinity levels, and should only be used when needed. Here are a few indications that your pool water could use a dose of muriatic acid:
High PH levels: When the pH levels of your pool exceed the 7.8 mark, it is time for you to add muriatic acid to lower it.
Excessively High Alkalinity: If your pool’s total alkalinity levels are above 150 ppm, you can safely lower it with muriatic acid.
Struggling with Cleaning: If your pool robotic pool cleaner or vacuum cleaner for the pool isn’t pulling off the dirt as well as it used to, unbalanced pH levels could be preventing it from cleaning effectively!
Scaling Problems: Muriatic acid can help keep calcium scaling on pool walls or equipment at bay.
Safe Method of Using Muriatic Acid
First and foremost, safety is essential when adding muriatic acid to your pool. The acid is extremely corrosive, and wrong handling can lead to personal injury or lesions and damage to the surfaces and equipment of your pool. Here is how to use muriatic acid safely and effectively:
Test The Water: Test your pool’s water pH and alkalinity levels with a reputable pool water testing kit before adding muriatic acid. Then you will know how much acid you need.
Dilute Acid: Always dilute muriatic acid in water before adding it to the pool Do not ever add water to acid because it can cause splattering and dangerous reactions.
Slowly Add Acid: While the pump is running, pour the diluted acid into the deep end of the pool so that it mixes with the pool water. This distributes the acid evenly around the pool.
Wait and Re-test: Let that acid circulate for a few hours, then re-test your water’s pH and alkalinity to ensure it is in the recommended range.
Run Your Pool Equipment: After adding and mixing the acid, run your pool vacuum, pool cleaning robot, and skimmer for circulation. This way, the pH will be evenly spread in the water and your robot pool cleaner will work it is best.
So in summary, pool balance chemistry affects how well your cleaner performs.
It is used specifically for lowering the pH and alkalinity in your pool, making it a valuable tool in keeping your pool clean and healthy. This ensures proper water chemistry balance not just for a good swim but also for the best performance from your robot pool cleaner, pool vacuum robot, and the rest of your cleaning equipment.
Chlorine only works effectively if applied at the right levels, and while muriatic acid can help balance your pool pH and alkalinity, it must be carefully dosed. Routine testing and maintenance will keep your pool clean, clear, and swim ready.
