You shocked, you brushed, you vacuumed, and yet your pool still looks like a giant glass of skim milk. You swear you did everything by the book, so clearly it must be some kind of pool conspiracy. Spoiler alert: it is not. Let’s dive into this mystery.
Chapter One: The Clues
The homeowner insists they tested their water daily. Chlorine levels looked fine. pH? Supposedly balanced. They shocked the pool twice, vacuumed, even tossed in a clarifier for good measure. And yet, the pool stayed cloudy. Something was off.
Clue number one: the filter pressure gauge hadn’t been checked in weeks. Clue number two: the filter hadn’t been backwashed properly. Clue number three: nobody remembered the last time the cartridge was cleaned or sand was changed.
Chapter Two: The Interrogation
Ask any pool owner what they do when water looks bad and they’ll swear they “do everything.” But ask them about their filter maintenance schedule and suddenly it’s crickets. The filter is the unsung detective of pool care, yet most homeowners treat it like background noise.
When pressed, our homeowner admitted that the filter ran only a few hours a day. Worse, the cartridge looked like it had survived a dust storm. That means all the chlorine in the world was fighting algae and debris without backup.
Chapter Three: The Twist
Turns out, test strips were giving misleading results. Because the water circulation was so poor, tests were not showing the actual chemical levels throughout the pool. That “balanced water” was just surface deep. The hidden truth was that dead spots in the pool had lower chlorine, allowing algae and cloudiness to creep in.
Chapter Four: The Confession
After weeks of denial, the homeowner opened up the filter lid and stared into the grimy evidence. The filter was clogged beyond reason. That was the smoking gun.
Case Closed: The Solution
Cloudy pools are rarely a mystery. They are a timeline of ignored maintenance, half-done tests, and filters begging for attention. The fix is straightforward:
- Run the filter 8–12 hours daily
- Backwash or clean the filter regularly
- Replace sand every 3–5 years or cartridges as needed
- Test water in multiple spots, not just at the surface
- Balance chemistry before shocking
The case of the cloudy pool is closed. The verdict? Respect the filter, trust the chemistry, and stop blaming the pool for crimes you committed by skipping steps.
