What to Use to Raise pH In Your Pool

As a pool owner, you know the importance of proper maintenance and upkeep. A pool well cared for is bound to provide endless fun in the sun, while keeping your swimmers safe and protected. 

When it comes to maintaining the health of your pool, it is important to ensure that your pool water has proper pH levels. If you want to know how to raise pH in pool water or how long to wait after adding pH to pool water, you have come to the right place. Pool Care Guy knows the importance of properly caring for pools and takes pride in offering a vast collection of resources to help make the process smooth and easy. 

What Exactly Is pH?

Your pool’s pH is a measurement that reflects how acidic or alkaline it is. A comfortable and balanced pH in a pool will fall somewhere between 7.2 and 7.8. Anything below or higher than that range comes with a heightened risk of skin irritation and poor water health. Nobody wants to take a swim in a pool and come out with skin or eye irritations, which is why it is incredibly important to raise the pH level in your pool until it falls in the recommended range. 

What to Use to Raise pH In Pool

If your pool is out of balance, here are several products that you can use in the water to increase its pH level:

Sodium Carbonate (Soda Ash)

Sodium carbonate, also known as ‘soda ash,’ is one of the most popular and widely used products for raising the pH level in a swimming pool. It is found at most home improvement and pool supply stores. 

Soda ash is an alkaline product that helps raise the pH level in water. Remember, a pool pH measurement that is under 7.2 is too acidic. This is an instance in which soda ash would be recommended because it can help raise the pH between 7.2 and 7.8.

Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) 

Baking soda is one of those staples that ends up being the answer to so many of life’s dilemmas. Here’s another use to add to your list—it can be used to help balance pH levels in pool water. It just happens to be another alkaline product that can raise the pH levels of the water to ideal levels.

Because baking soda is less expensive than soda ash (and is easier to find), it is a great choice to help keep your pool water balanced. However, before you go reaching for the baking soda on your next grocery store run, keep in mind that baking soda needs to be used in larger quantities for it to be able to properly adjust pH.

Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda)

Unlike soda ash and baking soda, caustic soda is a very strong alkaline product. While it can help raise the pH levels in your water, it does come with an added risk of raising your pool’s total alkalinity levels too much because it is so strong. Total alkalinity is a measure of the water’s ability to resist rapid fluctuations in pH levels.

In Summary

If you need to raise the pH level in your pool, there are several products you can add to the water to make this happen. If you need more advice, Pool Care Guy’s got you covered–even if you’re wondering how long it takes aeration to raise pH!