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No Chlorine From Your Salt System? Here’s Why

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Saltwater pools promise steady chlorine with less hassle, yet many owners wake up to zero readings and a confused control panel. The real problem rarely comes from a single fault; it’s a system of limits tied to water chemistry, temperature, flow, and equipment age. Start at the cell: scale on the plates acts like insulation that blocks current and slashes production. Even when your controller doesn’t flash a “clean cell” alert, thin calcium film can cripple output. A gentle acid bath using the ratio in your owner’s manual removes scale without stripping plate material. Over‑acid washing shortens cell life, so avoid strong mixes and long soaks. Make a habit of visual checks, especially with clear‑lid models, and plan light cleanings before peak season. Next, verify the salt level with a trusted tool rather than the panel alone. Controllers can drift or lie when a cell ages, showing false low or high readings that lock out generation. A handheld digital salinity meter pays for itself by...
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Algae Eating Your Profits? Fix It Fast

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Algae is not just a cosmetic problem for pool pros; it is a profit leak that drains time, trust, and chemical budgets. When a route hits peak season, even two algae-hit pools can add 20 to 30 minutes to a day, pushing back schedules and increasing frustration. That time compounds across a week, turning into real revenue loss, and it often cannot be billed if the cause is unclear to the homeowner. Worse, recurring algae erodes customer confidence. People pay for blue, swim-ready water, and when they see mustard streaks on steps or stubborn patches in corners, they question the service, not the many variables behind the scenes. Keeping that trust demands a plan that reduces blooms before they start. A key pillar is understanding why algae appears even when free chlorine tests “good.” The relationship between cyanuric acid and free chlorine sets the actual floor for sanitizer strength. Using Bob Lowry’s guideline, maintain free chlorine at a minimum of 7.5% of CYA. At 80 ppm CYA, that mea...
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Cal Hypo Explained: The Good, The Bad & The Calcium

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Calcium hypochlorite, known as cal hypo, is a staple sanitizer for many pool professionals because it delivers strong oxidation in a compact, shelf-stable form. Its percentage strength varies by source: pros often buy 73 to 78 percent, while big-box stores carry around 65 percent. Strength by weight matters when you compare products. A practical field rule equates roughly one pound of 73 percent cal hypo to one gallon of 12.5 percent liquid chlorine, even though the true math says about 22 ounces is closer. That near-parity makes cal hypo useful for routine shocking and midweek boosts, especially when you want portability and fewer heavy jugs. Still, it’s not just about free chlorine output; you need to think through side effects, regional water conditions, and safety. Safety sits at the center of using cal hypo well. Never mix it with trichlor or dichlor, which contain cyanuric acid; the reaction can be violently exothermic and explosive in feeders, skimmers, or buckets. Avoid putting...
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Bob Lowry: Party-Ready Pools and Alkalinity Control

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Crowded pool days can turn clear water cloudy fast, but a few smart steps before guests arrive protect clarity, comfort, and budget. Bob Lowry lays out a simple plan: raise free chlorine a few ppm, add a measured dose of non-chlorine oxidizer, and keep the circulation system running throughout the event. The surprise hero is the shower. A quick rinse removes sunscreen, deodorant, lotions, and oils that devour sanitizer in the first minutes after swimmers enter. Studies show pre-swim rinsing can cut chemical demand dramatically, which means fewer chloramines, better smell, and happier eyes. Pair that with a steady filter and you trap organics early, letting chlorine focus on disinfection instead of cleanup. Many service techs run into a different headache: sky-high cyanuric acid from heavy trichlor use. For every 10 ppm of chlorine dosed via trichlor, about 6 ppm of cyanuric acid remains. Over weeks, that creeps upward, forcing the required free chlorine residual to rise to maintain the...
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Bob Lowry Explains Trichlor Tablets and Pool Acid Cautions

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Pool chemistry rewards careful thinking and punishes assumptions. One of the stickiest myths is that cyanuric acid declines when water evaporates, so trichlor tablets can be used freely in hot, dry climates. Distillation physics says otherwise: evaporation removes pure water only, leaving behind calcium, salts, cyanuric acid, and everything else dissolved. When trichlor adds 10 ppm of free chlorine, it also contributes about 6 ppm of cyanuric acid. At a typical 10 ppm chlorine demand per week, CYA can rise roughly 25 ppm per month and 100 to 150 ppm over a season. That buildup weakens chlorine’s effectiveness and forces partial drains or backwashing to reset levels, because splash-out and leaks are the only real exits for CYA, not evaporation. Every chlorine choice carries a byproduct tradeoff. Trichlor and dichlor add cyanuric acid, liquid chlorine adds salt that becomes part of total dissolved solids, and calcium hypochlorite adds calcium hardness. The question isn’t whether byproduc...
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Cal-Hypo and Black Pool Stains: Bob Lowry Explains

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Clear blue water hides a lot of chemistry. In this conversation with industry legend Bob Lowry, we trace two common pain points that can rattle even seasoned pool techs: sudden black stains after dosing with calcium hypochlorite and the real health stakes when a pool slips to zero chlorine. The black stain scare can feel like a catastrophe, but it’s usually copper revealing itself, not a new problem. Copper sulfate can sit quietly on plaster, masked by the blue of the water. The instant cal hypo lands on it, oxidation shifts the compound to copper oxide, which is black and obvious. What changed isn’t the metal load, only its form—and that insight reshapes how we fix it. Once you confirm a metal stain, you have options. Ascorbic acid can lift the stain from surfaces, but it doesn’t remove copper from the system. Without metal removal, the stain returns as soon as chlorine wipes out the reducer. That’s where sequestrants and chelants come in: they surround dissolved metal and keep it fro...
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How the Pool Industry Can Lead in Water Conservation – Terry Arko

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Water scarcity no longer sits on a far horizon for pool owners and service pros; it is here and shaping how we build, filter, and maintain pools. The old habits—hosing decks, routine backwashing, and full drains every few years—made sense when water felt endless. Today, drought cycles, stressed aquifers, and stricter municipal policies put pools under a spotlight. The good news is that pools can be part of the solution. With smart filtration choices, measured chemistry, and a mindset shift from water as commodity to water as asset, we can protect clarity, protect budgets, and protect a resource that keeps getting tighter. This episode traces the evolution from 1970s practices to present-day stewardship, and it offers a practical roadmap any operator can follow. History explains how we got here. During earlier droughts, restrictions focused on lawns and outdoor watering schedules, not pools. That changed after California’s severe 2012–2016 drought, when policymakers questioned new pool ...
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