Digital Water Analysis & Chemical Balancing
Digital water testing on every visit across Wilmington and Brunswick County, dosed to the reading. Well water and city water behave differently.
Water chemistry is the part of pool ownership people find genuinely opaque, so this page explains what we measure and why it matters.
What we test
Free chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness and cyanuric acid, on a digital photometer rather than a colour-match strip. Strips are fine for a rough check; they are not precise enough to dose against.
Why your fill water changes the answer
Where your top-up water comes from changes the whole problem:
- CFPUA / municipal supply around Wilmington is treated and predictable. Chemistry mostly drifts with rain, bather load and sun.
- Brunswick County supply is lime-softened to remove excess calcium and iron from well-sourced water — worth knowing, because hardness behaves differently from what a generic guide assumes.
- Private wells commonly carry iron and manganese. These are invisible in the water and become visible as brown staining the moment you shock the pool or the pH rises.
A pool topped up from a well needs a sequestrant in the routine. A pool on city water usually does not. Treating them identically is how people end up scrubbing stains they caused.
Saltwater pools
A salt pool is a chlorine pool that makes its own chlorine. The cell still needs inspecting and descaling, and the chemistry still needs balancing — “saltwater” is not the same as “maintenance free”, whatever the installer said.
We cover Wilmington, Leland, Southport, Oak Island, Carolina Beach and the surrounding area — see our service area, or read more about pool service in Wilmington.