So how does your swimming pool stay clean and clear? Water flows from your pool, through your entire filter system and back into the pool. Sounds simple enough, right? Actually, it is a little bit more involved.

Swimming pools come in all shapes and sizes, but nearly all of them, from the backyard personal pool to the water park wave pool, work in the same basic way. They use a combination of filtration and chemical treatment to continually clean a large volume of water.

The basic idea is to pump water in a continual cycle, from the pool through the filtering and chemical treatment systems and back to the pool again. In this way, the pumping system keeps the water in the pool relatively free of dirt, debris and bacteria. Some pools also include heaters in the mix, in order to keep the water at a certain temperature.

To the left is a list of the equipment on your pool. Click on each link to find out what it does, what it looks like, and more about each product.

Now remember, you may have some of the pool filter equipment listed, but not all. And it's possible to have more then one filter system too depending on the size of the pool, if it's an above-ground or in-ground pool. Also, the complexity of the design of the swimming pool will add to the quantity of pieces.