How Long After Shocking Pool Can You Swim?

We’ve all been there, you have to shock your pool. It’s not fun, but it happens. Then starts the countdown to when you can swim again. How long after shocking pool can you swim? That is the most important question on a hot summer day.

Unfortunately, as we will explain, it comes with a less than optimal answer. If you don’t like dealing with these tasks yourself, you may want to hire a pool service company. Sometimes, the pool builder that you chose will have a complimentary department for pool maintenance. If you’re confused about shocking your pool, watch this how-to video.

How Long After Shocking Pool Can You Swim?

As a general rule, you should wait 12 – 24 hours after shocking your pool. Otherwise, you could risk irritating your skin or eyes severely. Nobody wants that, so if you’ve just shocked your pool, go sit in front of the A/C until the countdown clock expires.

Reasons To Shock Your Pool

While there are many reasons to shock your pool, you can generally boil the answer down to whether or not the chemistry of your pool has changed and may be unbalanced. For example, if you’ve had a large thunder shower and a lot of rain has entered your pool. Or, perhaps you had a pool party and your pool chemistry couldn’t keep up.

If you live in a northern state where the temperature reaches freezing, a routine time to shock your pool is at the opening and closing of pool season. Another reason you may want to shock your pool is if you start to notice algae build up. Finally, the last and least obvious reason to shock your pool is if you accidentally add too much chlorine to the pool. As you you can see, there’s infinite reasons the shock your pool, so you knowing how long after shocking pool pool can you swim comes in very handy.

What Is Shocking Your Pool?

Shocking your pool means you increase the chlorine amount above normal limits. You’ll need to mix the chlorine with water in a bucket before shocking your pool. Next, confirm that your pool pump is operating and pour the chlorine around the edges of your pool.