How to Test and Balance your Pool Water

Keeping your pool water balanced is one of those things that sounds complicated but really comes down to a quick test and a few easy adjustments. Do it twice a week and your pool stays clear, comfortable, and ready to swim. Here’s exactly how.

What You Need to Get Started

You just need two things:

• HTH™ Pool Care 6-Way Test Strips (or the HTH™ Pool Care 6-Way Test Kit if you prefer drop-based testing)
• Your pool’s volume in gallons. Not sure? Use the HTH™ Pool Volume Calculator to find out quickly.

Your test strips check six things at once: free chlorine, bromine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and cyanuric acid. That’s everything you need to know in one 20-second dip.

6 Simple Steps to Test and Balance Your Pool Water

Step 1: Turn Your Pump On

Make sure your pump is running before adding any chemical to the pool. This distributes the chemicals quickly and evenly throughout the pool and helps the products to dissolve. Adding balancers to still water can damage pool surfaces and give swimmers a very unpleasant experience.

Step 2: Dip Your Test Strip

Grab one HTH™ Pool Care 6-Way Test Strip from the canister without touching the colored pads. Dip it into the water for 2 seconds, wrist-deep, and away from any jets or return lines. Pull it out with the pads facing up and do not shake off the water. Hold it flat for 20 seconds.

Quick tip: The pads need that water to work. Shaking it off or reading the strip too early will throw off your results.

Step 3: Read Your Results

Three easy ways to get your numbers:

1. HTH™ Test to Swim™ App (fastest): Download the HTH™ Test to Swim™ App and scan your test strip with your phone’s camera for digital results. Download it from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Text it in: Quickly snap a photo of your test strip and text it to 484-123. You’ll be asked for your pool volume, then get back a list of exactly what your pool needs and how much. Place the strip on a gray or blue background for the clearest photo.
3. Color chart: Match each pad to the chart on the side of your canister. Quick, reliable, no phone needed. You can also use the HTH™ interactive pool test chart online.

Step 4: Adjust Your Water in the Right Order

If anything is off, add balancers one at a time and always in this order: alkalinity first, then pH, then calcium hardness. Let each product fully circulate before adding the next. Never mix pool chemicals together.

Safety reminder: Wear gloves and eyewear when handling any pool chemical. Never mix products together before adding them to the water. Always follow the label.

Total Alkalinity: Adjust This First (Target: 60-120 ppm)

Think of alkalinity as the stabilizer for your pH. When it’s low, your pH swings around constantly and nothing stays in balance. HTH™ Pool Care Alkalinity Up brings it back into range fast. Just broadcast it evenly around the pool with the pump running.

pH: Adjust After Alkalinity (Target: 7.2 - 7.8)

pH tells you how acidic or basic your water is. Too low and it stings eyes and corrodes your equipment. Too high and your chlorine stops working as well as it should, leading to cloudy water. Use HTH™ Pool Care pH Up to raise it or HTH™ Pool Care pH Down to lower it.

Calcium Hardness: Check Monthly (Target: 200 - 500 ppm)

Calcium hardness keeps your water from becoming corrosive. When it’s too low, the water starts pulling calcium from wherever it can find it, including your pool walls, liner, and equipment. HTH™ Pool Care Calcium Up raises it back to a safe level. If you need to raise it by more than 50 ppm, add it in thirds and wait 4-6 hours between each dose.

Free Chlorine: Check Twice Per Week (Target: 1 - 4 ppm)

Chlorine is your pool’s main defense against bacteria and algae. If it drops too low, things can go wrong fast. Keep it topped up with HTH™ chlorine tablets, granular chlorine, or liquid pool chlorine. Pair with a weekly cal hypo shock treatment to keep it working at full strength.

Cyanuric Acid (CYA): Monitor it at Each Testing (Target: 20 - 25 ppm)

CYA is sunscreen for your chlorine. Without enough of it, the sun burns off most of your free chlorine within hours. Use HTH™ Pool Care Chlorine Stabilizer added directly into the skimmer. One important note: do not let CYA go above 90 ppm. Too much of it actually makes your chlorine less effective. If you use stabilized chlorine tablets regularly, your CYA is likely already in range, so test before adding.

Step 5: Let It Circulate

Run your pump for at least 8 hours after adding any chemical. Then re-test before adding the next one. Rushing this step gives you inaccurate readings and can create unintended reactions between products.

Step 6: Test Once More Before Swimming

A final quick test confirms everything is where it needs to be. Free chlorine should be between 1-4 ppm and pH should be 7.2-7.8 before anyone gets in. If either is still off, re-dose, give it another full circulation, and test again. You’re All Clear with HTH™.

Quick tip: When using test strips, all key water parameters are checked at once—just dip once for a complete reading.

Why Balanced Pool Water Makes Everything Easier

Here’s the honest version: when pool water is balanced, chlorine works, algae can’t get started, and swimming is comfortable. When it’s not, you end up chasing problems instead of preventing them.

Unbalanced water is behind most of the frustrating pool issues people deal with: cloudy water, green water, red eyes, rough skin after swimming, stains on the walls, and equipment that wears out too fast. None of that is inevitable. Two tests a week with HTH™ Pool Care 6-Way Test Strips and the right pool balancing chemicals keeps all of it from starting in the first place.

A weekly pool algaecide rounds out your routine. Add it 24 hours after shocking as a backup layer of protection against green, black, and mustard algae, before you ever see a problem, not after.