Guide to Swimming Pool Chemicals

There are so many great things about owning a swimming pool: From much-needed relaxation from the day to day, to swimming a few quick laps, to relaxing on the deck with a good book, your swimming pool is an awesome source of fun, fitness, and stress relief.

Of course, if you want to keep your pool clean, healthy, and ready for use, you’ll need to keep your pool water balanced. That means learning to test your water -- and it also means learning how -- and when -- to add pool cleaning chemicals and specialized treatments like pool shock, algaecides, clarifiers, stain removers, balancers, and sanitizers.

In addition to chemicals for routine maintenance, you might also need to add some specialized chemicals to your pool care toolkit. For example, in some climates, you might need to shut down your pool for the season, which means that you’ll need to invest in pool closing chemicals, and pool startup chemicals (or chemicals you need for opening a pool). And, depending on the type of pool you have, you might also need to look for specialized chemicals like saltwater pool chemicals or above ground pool chemicals.

Ready to explore swimming pool chemicals? Select a category to begin: