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Insurance in the Deep End: How UPA Keeps You Afloat

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Pool service looks simple from the curb, but the real work lives in the details you can’t see: water paths, deck materials, code quirks, and chemistry that never stops changing. The three biggest loss drivers for pool pros—water damage, chemical spills, and water chemistry—show up in predictable ways yet carry unpredictable price tags. One hose left running becomes a river to the living room. One open fill valve on a rooftop spa tests gravity and grace. One rushed pour near stamped concrete starts a fight your insurer has to finish. Understanding why these incidents spiral and how to change the habits that precede them is the difference between a flat premium and a closed business. Water damage is the heavyweight. Claims spike when techs “help” by adding water or by draining without a plan. Elevated pools and spas raise the stakes because water always wins and height multiplies loss. The lesson isn’t heartless; it’s disciplined. Stop setting the precedent of filling customers’ pools. T...
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The 2026 Pool Season: What You Need to Know

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The pool service market heads into 2026 with calm waters and steady currents. Growth has cooled to a stable 2–3% annually after the COVID surge, and new pool construction no longer fuels a rush of fresh accounts. Yet service remains resilient because convenience, safety, and equipment complexity keep homeowners outsourcing. The bigger shift arrives from outside the waterline: AI compresses white-collar job openings and nudges more workers toward trades, raising competition for routes without expanding the residential pool base. The result is a market that rewards operators who run tight pricing, sharpen operations, and pivot to where demand is growing. Commercial opportunities stand out, especially in regions like Southern California where lot sizes shrink and townhomes and large apartment communities add shared pools and spas. Builders face high costs, limiting backyard pool growth, but multi-family projects still move forward with aquatic amenities tenants expect. For service compani...
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Insurance Horror Stories: Scared Straight! With Sean Reardon UPA

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The world of pool service looks simple from the sidewalk, but the work lives at the intersection of chemistry, plumbing, electricity, and customer trust. That mix can create rare but costly failures. Our conversation centers on why the usual, off-the-shelf insurance policy often leaves pool technicians exposed and how a trade group like the United Pool Association evolved to plug those gaps. We move from the UPA’s roots as a vacation-coverage network to the creation of group insurance designed around real field risks. Along the way, we use claim stories to explain exclusions, legal duties, and the practical habits that keep incidents from becoming disasters. UPA’s history matters because it shaped a coverage model built for how techs actually work. In the 1960s, single-polers formed local chapters to cover each other’s routes for vacations and sick days. By the 1970s, leaders pushed for economies of scale to negotiate a policy that reflected pool service realities: water chemistry over...
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Bonded or Busted: Pool Motor Electrical Safety

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Pool pumps feel routine until they aren’t. The safest equipment pad still carries risk when electricity, water, and heat mix. The core of smart prevention is twofold: proper bonding that ties every metal component into one potential, and a functioning GFCI that trips in milliseconds when something goes wrong. Together they control stray voltage, prevent painful shocks at the pad or rail, and reduce the chances that a small failure becomes a fire. Many service pros inherit systems where a motor was swapped but the bonding wire was never reconnected. That single missed lug can turn a wet pad into a hazard. The fix is visual, simple, and vital: confirm the bonding wire lands on the pump, continues to the heater, and disappears to the grid at the pool. Stray voltage shows up as tingling in water or a buzz when you touch metal. It’s not common, but when bonding fails, it can be dramatic. A wet pad amplifies risk; standing water plus an unbonded motor can deliver a jolt strong enough to knoc...
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When a Handshake Becomes a Headache

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Clear agreements turn a pool route into a stable business. When expectations live in your head or on a handshake, every storm, schedule slip, or billing snag becomes personal. We explore how a simple one-page service agreement sets boundaries both sides understand. It explains scope, timelines, and the customer’s role. It also helps you present as a professional vendor, like pest control or plumbing, where paperwork is standard. The goal is not to intimidate clients; it is to protect trust by defining work, payments, and what happens when the unexpected hits. Adopting an agreement with existing clients can feel awkward, especially if you already service dozens of pools. The key is framing: you are not changing prices or trapping anyone. You are clarifying what you do, what they do, and how to handle edge cases. A calm script helps: explain that a recent issue highlighted the need for written policies, reassure them it is not about them, and underscore the benefits to both parties. Most...
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The Danger Zone: Why Filter Cleaning Requires Real Safety

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Pool filter safety sounds simple until you see what pressure can do. A filter tank behaves a lot like a kitchen pressure cooker: contained force, steam or air trapped inside, and a critical need for controlled release. Most days, things work fine. Problems begin when clamps are loose, air has nowhere to escape, or the pump comes on at the wrong moment. That’s why the two danger points are so important: when you remove the lid and when you put it back on. Treat the system as hazardous during these steps and make caution your default. If you take your time, follow a checklist, and keep your distance during startup, you reduce risk to near zero while protecting yourself, your team, and your clients’ equipment. Different filter types carry different risk profiles. Sand filters are generally safer because they are one-piece vessels that you rarely open. Cartridge and DE filters, by design, come apart for cleaning and rely on clamps or locking rings to hold pressure. That’s where mistakes ha...
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Is Copper a Friend or Foe in Your Pool? – Bob Lowry Explains

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Copper shows up everywhere in pool care under new names like mineral systems or ionizers, and brands promise clearer water with less work. The appeal is real: copper inhibits algae growth and, at higher levels, can suppress some bacteria. But chemistry does not care about marketing, and copper’s effective range sits near its staining threshold. That means a narrow margin for error, constant attention to sequestrants, and a plan for oxidation, which copper simply does not provide. When lotions, sweat, and sunscreen enter the water, an oxidizer must break them down. Non-chlorine oxidizers often lack the power to crack complex sunscreen molecules, so you still rely on chlorine to do the heavy lifting while copper only tackles part of the biological load. Disinfection speed is the next trap. Pool safety hinges on preventing bather-to-bather disease transmission, where fresh contaminants move from one swimmer to another in minutes. Copper is too slow to interrupt that path. Even regulators ...
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