You Can Use a Magic Eraser to Clean Your Swimming Pool—Yes, Really!

While the theme of the season continues to be "hot girl summer," admittedly, we're more into clean girl summer. There's just nothing like the feeling of cracking open a brand new package of rubber gloves, taking a whiff of the bright, lemony scent of cleaning products, and scrubbing every nook and cranny of your home. Lucky for us, (and just in time for the heatwaves to come), one Facebook user has found the secret to your cleanest swimming pool ever, using a handy cleaning product that everyone already knows and loves—Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

In a Facebook post that originally appeared in 2018—and has since gone viral—Lisa Pack, a pool owner in Ohio, claimed that the best way to clean a stubbornly green pool is with the all-purpose Magic Eraser. And the technique couldn't be easier. "Now mind you, my pool wasn't green but it looked like it was getting cloudy," she wrote on Facebook. "I threw one of these in the skimmer basket and the cloudiness left and my sponge looks like this," she said, holding up a photo of the green-tinted eraser in front of her newly-clean swimming pool. Pack, along with hundreds of thousands of commenters, have since been in awe over how effective such a small and inexpensive product is at cleaning a swimming pool. "I'm pretty excited to think something so cheap could help so much," she said.

Since publishing her cleaning hack on Facebook, the post has been shared over 450,000 times and has generated 159,000 comments. "People think I'm probably crazy for trying this, but it works," she told Inside Edition. Park said that her pool is surrounded by trees, which she believes contribute to the green tint in her pool, in addition to regular landscaping maintenance like mowing her lawn. Prior to putting a Magic Eraser in her pool skimmer, which was actually her daughter's idea, Park would spend at least 45 minutes each week cleaning her pool to rid it of natural grime and debris. Now, all it takes is seconds to drop the eraser in the pool—and less than a day for the product to work its magic.

Typically, it can cost a pretty penny and take lots of chemicals to prevent your pool from turning green—not to mention the effort (and hours) to remove it once it's begun to form. Although green pool water is not harmful (it's caused by the presence of large amounts of algae), it's certainly unsightly, especially when you're hosting a backyard barbecue or picnic. With this method, Pack says that the eraser should absorb the excess green hue and make the water look crystal clear once again—well within 24 hours. That means in the time it takes to make a no-bake cheesecake or churn and freeze a batch of homemade ice cream, your pool will look as good as new. Pool algae can be stubborn, but this inexpensive powerhouse may just be the secret to your cleanest, coolest summer yet.

Have you tried this viral pool hack? Let us know how it works in the comments below!

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