Baking soda is more than just a chocolate chip cookie ingredient
Whether you’re maintaining a saltwater pool or a chlorine one, baking soda is a good ingredient to have on hand. From keeping your pool water crystal clear to tackling algae, this pantry staple can be your pool’s best friend when it comes to keeping your pool clean. One of the most common ways homeowners use it is in their pool.
Just like in your grandma’s cookie recipe, baking soda raises the pH of a pool—bringing it to the right level for safe and comfortable swimming. This recipe calls for a bit of math mixed in with a small science lesson, so take out your notebook and read on to learn how to add baking soda to your pool.
This DIY doesn’t require much prep outside of purchasing test kits and baking soda. You can get both from Amazon or even at your local pool store. If you’re using baking soda to spot-clean your pool, a pool brush may be handy to have as well.
Ideally, you’ll add baking soda to your pool on a day when there’s little wind. That way, your measurements don’t get thrown off if some of the baking soda doesn’t make it into the pool because of a strong breeze.
Before you begin, you’ll need to know what kind of water you’re working with. Follow the directions on your pool test strip to see the current levels of your pool.
Your pool should be somewhere between 110 and 150 parts per million for alkalinity and have a pH between 7 and 7.6. Anything higher than 7 is called basic (like bleach or drain cleaner) and anything lower is called acidic (like battery acid or orange juice). The goal is to land in that sweet middle spot.
The next two steps are the hardest parts of this whole DIY: math. Before you can start adding baking soda to your pool, you need to know your pool’s total volume of water. The math is relatively simple, but it may have been a while since you’ve done this type of calculation.
Here are the formulas for both a rectangle and a round pool:
Rectangular pool: Length x width x water depth x 7.5 = volume in gallons
Round pool: Diameter x water depth x 7.5 = volume in gallons
If your pool isn’t the same depth all the way across, use your average depth from the water line to the pool floor for the calculations. To do this, add together the deep end and the shallow end, then divide by two. So if your deep end is 7 feet deep and the shallow end is 3, the average depth would be 5.
We multiply by 7.5 because that’s how many gallons of water there are in each cubic foot.
To raise the alkalinity by 10 ppm, you’ll need 1.5 lbs of baking soda per 10,000 gallons of water. So taking your number from the calculation above, you’ll do another math equation.
So if you need to raise it by 30 ppm because it’s at 80 ppm per your test strip, and your pool is 10,000 gallons, you’ll need 4.5 lbs of baking soda. You can use an online calculator to do this math quickly for you.
Back to the easy part. After you know how much baking soda you need, it’s time to pour it in. Work your way around the pool, dumping a little bit of the baking soda as you go. Once it’s all poured in across the pool, turn on the pool’s jet system to help it circulate efficiently.
Wait at least six hours before you test the pool again (and ideally 24 hours) to give the baking soda enough time to fully dissolve.
As one final check, test your pH balance again. If it’s below the recommended amount, repeat the steps above.
If it’s above the recommended amount, you have a few options. You can either add more water and chemicals to dilute the baking soda more, wait another 24 hours to see if it naturally lowers, or use muriatic acid to lower the alkalinity. If you choose muriatic acid, your pH will lower too, so you can either add more water (which will require more chemicals because they’ll be diluted), wait for the alkalinity to naturally lower, or use a chemical like muriatic acid to lower it.
If you use muriatic acid, your pH will lower as well, so you’ll need to raise the pH levels in your pool accordingly.
Purchase baking soda in bulk. This will require quite a bit of baking soda, so your small grocery store boxes may not cut it. To save you time and money, buy it in bulk either online or at a bulk food store.
Work slowly. You can always add more baking soda if you need to, but you can’t take it back out. If you’re unsure about this DIY, start by adding a little bit at a time, testing as you go. That way you can be sure you end up with just the right amount.
Use baking soda to clean tough areas. There are other ways you can use baking soda in your pool. Mixed into a paste with water, baking soda is an effective treatment for algae spots. To use, slather the paste on the spot and use a scrub brush to remove the algae.
Pool maintenance is relatively simple and affordable, as long as you have the time for it. Most homeowners find that the best way to stay on top of their pool maintenance is to maintain a consistent pool maintenance routine so they can catch small issues before they become big disasters.
If you don’t have the time or energy to keep up with your pool—or if you have rental properties and need a helping hand—you can hire a local pool maintenance service. The average cost to hire a pool maintenance company is $230.
The company can come to your house on a regular basis, like once a year to winterize your pool, or on an as-needed basis when you don’t have the time yourself.
You don’t need to dilute the baking soda before adding it to your pool. While you can if you want, adding too much water into your pool can throw off your math and chemicals. Your pool’s circulation system will do most of the dissolving work for you, so it’s OK to skip the dilution.
There are many reasons why a pool may be cloudy, including a chlorine imbalance, algae, debris, or a pH imbalance. If it’s due to a pH imbalance, baking soda may help clear a cloudy pool by bringing its levels to perfect harmony. But if the cloudiness is due to other reasons, baking soda won’t help solve the issue.
If you put too much baking soda in your pool, your alkalinity will rise. That means you’ll need to take steps to lower your alkalinity. You can either add more water (which will require more chemicals because they’ll be diluted), wait for the alkalinity to lower naturally, or use a chemical like muriatic acid to lower it.
You should wait at least six hours after adding baking soda before swimming in your pool. Even better, wait at least 24 hours to ensure it’s fully mixed in and dissolved. While it’s likely not harmful, if you get in the pool too early, the baking soda may irritate your skin or eyes if you’re sensitive to it.
