I pulled my ladder out today to scrub the pool real good and noticed algae growing all in the back side of the ladder. Its a plastic type of ladder, and has a bunch of areas on the backside for junk to grow.

I just recently had an algae bloom in the pool and used yellow out to get rid of it, the pool is sparkling clear, but then I saw the backside of the ladder. I would have thought that using yellow out and shocking the pool would have gotten rid of the algae, but I guess not.

Just curious, how often should I be cleaning the ladder, whats the best way to clean it, etc.?

It is best to clean the ladder when opening the pool and keeping the FC in range so algae blooms don't start. After an algae bloom you should check behind the ladder and any other nooks and crannies with poor circulation and give them a good scrubbing. You shouldn't be able to swim behind the ladder and they are too much of a pain to pull and wash on a regular basis. When adding bleach to the pool pour a little around the ladder to make sure you get some chlorine in the area.

We have a very similar setup and every year that I remove the ladder there is a lot of green algae growing in the back. This year is my first with TFP and it's philosophy of pool care so I kept a very close eye on my water levels. Never had a CC problem, never had an algae outbreak, never flunked an OCLT which I run weekly and never lost more CL per day than expected. I had a great pool year and for the eleventh year straight, I pulled my ladder out to close the pool and it had algae behind it.

My conclusion? With the best water maintenance imaginable, if there is an area that gets little circulation, algae will form but it does not mean your pool is in trouble.