First, remove your cover. I have a "safety cover" which allows water to pass through the mesh during the closed season. This results in very terrible looking, and smelling, water in the spring/summer. Removal of this 16' x 32' cover takes 20 minutes and requires the assistance of my 8 yr old.
That looks good right? You can see the cover at the top of the photo, it is upside down and I hose it off and let it sit in the sun to dry before rolling it up and storing it. Hosing takes 10 minutes, drying takes one day, and the folding/storing process takes five minutes. I have also put the ladder back in even though the pool is unusable. This is a safety precaution in case someone were to fall in.
Next, I remove all plugs from the returns, vacuum outlet, and skimmer. I REPLACE the plugs in the pump and filter and fill those two devices with water. Yes, you have to stick your hand in the nasty water. Worse than that the skimmer basket had 10 or 12 giant hairy spiders in it.
Fill the pool to the appropriate level. Notice the dark stuff on the bottom of the pool. These items are the occasional leaf I missed during the last vacuuming, and this year tons of worms.
After the water level is up, and the pump and filter are running I add six pounds of shock and six 3-inch chlorine tablets. You can add more shock if you want to speed up the process but my yard gets direct sun all day so any more than this would burn off before the benefit was realized.
48 - 96 hours later vacuum up the crud and check your chemical levels. Mine needed one pound of pH+ and the six chlorine tabs were gone. I added three chlorine tabs, replaced my cartridge filter and the pool is 76 degrees Fahrenheit and ready for our first pool party Friday. FYI when a pool party involves more than five children I always increase the chlorine level quite a bit. Yes, that ruins their swimsuits faster but it's worth the "accident" payoff.
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