Free printable
Pool Log Sheet
Record every water test and every chemical added on one sheet. Fill it in on screen and print it, or print it blank for the clipboard. It is free, and there is no email address to hand over.
Free, no sign-up. Leave it blank to print an empty sheet.
Pool Chemical Log
Readings in ppm unless noted
| Date | FC | CC | pH | TA | CH | CYA | Salt | Temp | Chemicals added | Init. | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Typical targets: FC 3–5 ppm and at least 7.5% of CYA · pH 7.4–7.6 · TA 80–120 (salt pools 60–80) · CH 200–400 for plaster · CYA 30–50 (salt pools 60–80) · Salt per the cell's manual, usually 2,700–3,400. CC is combined chlorine, total minus free.
What to record
What Belongs on a Pool Log
A pool log is only useful if the next person can read the water's story from it, so each column earns its place. Free chlorine and pH are the readings that change fastest and the ones every visit should record. Combined chlorine, the difference between total and free chlorine, shows whether contaminants are building up faster than the chlorine can deal with them.
Total alkalinity, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid and salt move slowly, but they decide how much chlorine the pool needs, how easily pH drifts and whether the water will etch plaster or scale a salt cell. Water temperature matters because warm water uses chlorine faster and leans toward scale, which shows in the saturation index.
The chemicals added column is the one most logs leave out and the one that makes the rest make sense. Write the product and the amount, such as “1 gal liquid chlorine 12.5%”, so the next reading can be explained and the amount can be adjusted next time. Initials and a short note, about rain, a party or an equipment fault, finish the record.
How often
How Often to Test Each Reading
For a home pool, test free chlorine and pH two or three times a week in summer and at least weekly in cooler months. A weekly service visit records them every time, and a public pool records them as often as its health code requires, which is usually at least daily.
Weekly: combined chlorine, total alkalinity
Monthly: calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, salt
After heavy rain, a party or a heat wave: free chlorine and pH again
Reading a few weeks of log together is where it pays off. Cyanuric acid that rises by a few ppm every month points to stabilized chlorine, alkalinity that keeps falling points to too much acid, and chlorine that disappears overnight points to algae or other contaminants building up before they can be seen.
Reading the numbers
Typical Ranges to Compare Against
The ranges printed at the foot of the sheet are typical starting points for an outdoor residential pool. Free chlorine needs to rise with stabilizer, so a pool at 50 ppm of cyanuric acid needs more chlorine than one at 30. Salt pools usually run alkalinity lower and stabilizer higher. Plaster pools need enough calcium to avoid etching, while vinyl and fibreglass pools can run lower.
When a reading is out of range, the pool chemical calculator turns the log's numbers into doses in the right order, and the LSI calculator shows whether the water is balanced as a whole. Public and commercial pools should follow the limits in their local health code rather than these ranges.
For pool service companies
Keep these records without the clipboard
A paper log works until somebody else needs to read it. In Pool Runs the technician logs readings and works through the service checklist on their phone at the pool, and each visit lands in the customer's service history and report without anyone typing it up later.
- Readings, doses and checklists saved against each pool, with the saturation index for every visit
- A mobile app that works offline in a backyard with no signal
- Chemicals and parts tracked on every truck and in the shop
Try Pool Runs free
Free for 30 days, month to month, with white-glove onboarding to move your customers in.
Questions
Pool Log Sheet FAQ
More free tools
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Pool Chemical Calculator
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The weekly and monthly jobs that keep a pool clear, with a column to tick off each week of the month.
Open the sheetLSI Calculator
Calculate the Langelier saturation index with the cyanuric acid correction, then set targets to see the new index and the doses to get there.
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