Swimming Pool Tips and Reviews

Pool service pros feel the squeeze when chemical costs jump, but the fastest way to protect margin is not “working harder”, it is selling smarter. In this conversation we lay out a clear strategy for positioning PoolRx as a once-a-year pool maintenance upgrade that supports cleaner water, fewer algae outbreaks, and lower chlorine demand. For many routes, the mistake is absorbing product cost even when the customer is the one receiving the benefit. If you already include chemicals in your weekly pool service pricing, adding a simple annual line item can stabilize your cash flow while giving homeowners a concrete, easy-to-understand reason your service delivers clearer water and fewer emergency visits. A practical framework we share is the Good Better Best approach for selling PoolRx minerals. “Good” is buying during spring promotions and simply using the product to reduce your backend chemical spend. “Better” is passing the cost straight through as a one-time annual fee, framed as an al...

Pool algae problems often get blamed on the newest product added to the water, but the root cause is usually basic pool water chemistry and setup. In our conversation with Fred Square from PoolRx, we dig into why a mineral-based chlorine enhancer can underperform when it is undersized, installed poorly, or paired with a dirty filter. The big takeaway for pool owners and pool service pros is simple: start with the fundamentals. Confirm gallons so the PoolRx size matches the pool, keep a free chlorine residual, and make sure filtration is working. If a pool is already struggling, adding minerals without addressing circulation, cleaning, and balanced ranges sets you up for disappointment.   Installation details matter more than most people expect, especially when different filter types change how fast minerals dissolve. With DE filters, Fred recommends breaking down and recharging grids correctly, and placing the unit in the skimmer farthest from the pump to improve dissolution, ...

Black stains after adding calcium hypochlorite (cal-hypo) can feel like a disaster, especially if you’re a pool service tech worried about a drain and acid wash. The key idea: the stain often existed before the shock went in, but it was invisible. Copper sulfate can sit on the floor or walls with a faint blue-green tint that blends into blue water, especially at depth. When strong chlorine hits that copper compound, it changes the chemistry by oxidizing it, converting copper sulfate into copper oxide. Copper oxide is black, so the “new” stain is frequently a hidden metal deposit revealed by oxidation, not a brand-new surface failure. Understanding pool staining chemistry helps you respond calmly and fix the actual cause.   Many pros reach for ascorbic acid for stain removal, and it can work well to lift metal stains quickly. The catch is that ascorbic acid does not remove copper from the pool water. It can reduce and loosen the stain, but the metal remains in circulation, wait...

Borates have a long history in professional pool care, but they’re still widely misunderstood. Pool pros often hear that adding borates is a “set it and forget it” upgrade, yet the chemistry doesn’t work that way. Borates can improve swimming pool water chemistry by helping slow pH rise and supporting algae prevention, but they do not replace proper sanitation or balanced water. If your free chlorine is low, your cyanuric acid (CYA) is off target, or your LSI is out of range, borates will not rescue the pool. The real value is stability and predictability, not a magic fix. A key takeaway is that chlorine and CYA rules still apply even with borates in the water. The conversation stresses keeping free chlorine at roughly 5% of CYA, with a hard minimum of about 2 ppm, instead of trying to “cheat” with very low CYA and tiny chlorine targets. Low CYA can also expose the limits of testing accuracy and leave chlorine unprotected in sunlight. For many outdoor pools, 20 to 30 ppm CYA is a pract...

Trichlor chlorine tablets are popular in pool maintenance because they are convenient, slow-dissolving, and easy to use in a floater or inline chlorinator. The problem is not that trichlor “doesn’t work” as a sanitizer, but that it changes water chemistry in ways that compound over time. As trichlor becomes the primary or only sanitizer, cyanuric acid (CYA) steadily rises, pH steadily falls, and the pool becomes harder to keep stable from week to week. For pool service pros and homeowners alike, the hidden cost is chasing readings and fighting algae even when test results seem normal. The core chemistry issue is cyanuric acid buildup. Trichlor adds stabilizer every time it adds chlorine, so the more you rely on tablets to meet a pool’s daily chlorine demand, the more CYA accumulates. As CYA climbs, it slows chlorine’s killing power, which means the same free chlorine reading becomes less effective at preventing algae and keeping water safe. A practical way to think about this is the ch...

Pool chemistry myths spread fast because the labels look simple and the numbers feel definitive. One of the most common claims in pool maintenance is that trichlor tablets are “the strongest chlorine” because the bucket says 99% trichlor and often lists 90% or so available chlorine. The key detail most pool service pros and homeowners miss is that the big percentage is typically about product purity, not the percent of elemental chlorine that ends up doing sanitizing work. When we treat pool water balance like a shortcut, we end up overdosing, underdosing, or ignoring side effects like stabilizer buildup, rising TDS, and long-term water quality issues. The episode breaks down why “available chlorine” exists as a comparison tool, not a straightforward statement of how much chlorine is inside the product. Historically, chlorine gas became the reference point and got treated as 100% even though, in water, one part forms hypochlorous acid (HOCl) and the other forms hydrochloric acid (HCl)....