Pool opening checklist
Openings go wrong in a predictable order: water too low, pump run dry, chemistry dosed off a strip, and a client swimming in a pool that is still at shock level. Five stages, each with a gate you do not pass until it is true.
Five stages, each with a gate you do not pass until it is true. Tick as you go; print the blank for the truck.
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Cover off, water up
Gate — Water at mid-skimmer before anything runs
Equipment back on line
Gate — Pump primed and holding pressure, no air in the trap
First full test
Gate — Do not dose from a strip — use a drop or photometer kit
Shock and circulate
Gate — Pool stays closed until free chlorine falls under 3 ppm
Hand over
Gate — Two consecutive clean tests, 24 hours apart
Why gates instead of a flat list
A flat checklist lets you tick “prime the pump” while the water is still below the skimmer. Gates stop that: each stage names the one condition that has to be true before the next stage is even sensible. It is the difference between a five-day opening and two call-backs.
The chemistry order, again
Total alkalinity, then pH, then stabiliser, then chlorine. Winter rain dilutes CYA, so a pool that closed at 50 ppm can open at 25 and burn its chlorine off by lunchtime. Use the stabiliser calculator before the first shock, not after it.
Do not swim
An opening shock puts free chlorine far above the WHO ceiling of 3 mg/L for public and semi-public pools. The pool is closed until a test says it is back under — not until it looks blue.
The two things people forget
Refit the drain plugs before priming — every tech has flooded a pad once — and photograph the equipment pad before you leave. The photo settles next spring’s “was that valve always like that?” in five seconds. Then set the timer from the turnover calculator rather than leaving last year’s hours in place.