Swimming Pool Tips and Reviews

  The T-Bar Mount is designed for pool service professionals who wish to connect two service carts to their trucks at the same time. The T-Bar mount is a great way to take your service truck to the next level.   It’s easy to mount and will only take you mere minutes to set up.   The T-Bar mount can be ordered directly from Adnatange Manufacturing for $499.00 All you need is a standard Class III Receiver mounted to the bottom of your truck.   To order the T-Bar mount:  https://www.advantageman.com/product_p/t-bar-mount.htm   I would suggest the Hitch Tightener Anti Rattle Stabilizer found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JDD8L3H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1   This will help stabilize any service cart mount that you add to the T-Bar. I also have a piece of wood taped on between the T-Bar Mount and my truck bumper to eliminate all wobble. Wobble is bad for the carts as it will wear down the hitch over time. ...

 Emaux Volumetric Sand Filter is probably one of the most unique Sand filters on the market today. It uses a unique design allowing it to maintain a small footprint while delivering a larger filtration area.  ULTIMATE FILTER PERFORMANCE One-piece blow-molded tank combining the technology of structurally engineered high-density polyethylene material manufactured to maximize the strength of the filter. It is perfectly suited for all pools with different disinfection systems (Salt chlorinator, Ozone, UV, and chemical dosing). The Volumetric Filter is engineered for the best clarity of filtered water and an outstanding pressure standard among the market benchmarks. The filter incorporates a multiport valve manufactured from robust components to create the most efficient, reliable, and user-friendly filter with the best value-for-money positioning in the market.. Tank Material:HDPE Max operating pressure 58 psi / 4.0 bar Max temperature of 50°C (122°F) 6-way clamp style multiport v...

Working forever should not be your game plan. Yet almost 40% of self-employed individuals have no retirement plan. The question is, do you have a plan and if not when were you planning to start? The earlier the better. Real Estate is how we have been investing for the past 21 years. We don’t flip the houses but keep them and rent them out. I have been a landlord in Southern California since 2001 giving me over 20 years of experience. I have done everything from eviction and fighting with the city planning/code enforcement department to removing a dead body. Being a landlord takes some getting used to and you do need to have some people skills.  Real estate offers many key benefits and here are a few: 1) The tenants are paying off the mortgage for you. 2) You get a great tax write-off with rental real estate 3) Your asset will grow at the rate of inflation or above that rate. 4) It’s relatively safe and you have a tangible physical asset 5) After 30 years or sooner you wil...

We are lucky enough to keep our pools open and uncovered all Winter. Or unlucky enough I suppose. The cold weather adds another wrinkle to pool service and besides freezing out there in the mornings, pool care in the winter months is a whole other ballgame. I’ll start with the nice things about the winter months. No one is paying much attention to their pools so if you can keep them reasonably clean that is usually good enough. It gets dark early so people tend to forget about their backyard entirely. You also use less chlorine because with cold water these are the months you can recoup your chemical costs. Maybe 1 gallon of liquid chlorine per month and 1 3” tablet will get you by with most pools.  Now the bad news. It’s cold out there! Your truck heater is your new best friend. Wearing the proper gloves is essential. I like the Atlas 772 Nitrile Coated Gloves which as 25-inch-long and will protect your hands from the cold water while emptying the skimmer basket and cleaning the p...

If you use the industry standard quart bottles on your pool route transporting them to your stops on the Riptide SL Cart has gotten even easier. These quart bottles are popular with companies like United Chemical, Boi-Dex, Applied Bio Chemicals, and many more. Plus a lot of service techs like to carry a squirt bottle of dish soap mixed with water to spray the pool surface to cut down the surface glare.  You can add as many as 4 of the Quart Bottle Holders to the Riptide which is a great way to bring back the industry-standard Quart Bottles and Spray Bottles to your stops. You can also transport up to 5 Tri-Chlor Tablets back with you in one of the holders.  QUART BOTTLE/TAB HOLDER $30.00 each https://www.riptidevac.com/collections/accessories/products/quart-bottle-tab-holder One thing to note is that the bottles fit in tight. If you are testing out the Quart Bottle Holder when it is not mounted on the Riptide SL vacuum you may think it does not fit. But it will fit just fine o...

  With the crazy inflation and of course the crazy price hikes at businesses because of this, is there a ceiling we can reach in the pool service industry? Can we reach a point where weekly pool service is priced out of the market? The answer is not a simple yes or no but how your services are perceived. Are you an essential service that the homeowner is willing to pay for? I used the example of the $19.00 burger special from a new local burger place. That is almost twice the price of similar restaurants in my area. I am afraid to say that customers are not lining up for a cheeseburger, fries, and a medium drink for $19.00. That is more than the price of most fancy restaurants that have burgers on the menu. They are priced out of the market in my opinion and good luck to them as a $19.00 burger special does not fit the category of an “essential meal.” Most consumers will look for the price point in the middle. I do the same thing when I am calling around to establish a new serv...

 David Sargent, President of Riptide has numerous years of product design and development under his belt. He is well-versed in CAD and has an understanding of many different manufacturing processes. After spending some time with other pool cleaners he was determined to make a better product and poured his heart and soul into developing the Riptide Pool Vacuum System.  Dave goes over the finer details of the Riptide SL for you in this short video from the Western Pool & Spa Show. The Riptide Pool Vacuum System made its debut in late 2016. Since then, it has gone through several transformations. The Riptide Circa 2021 is the finest version yet and it is packed with so many updated features it should have been called the Riptide SL 2.0. Listen as David Sargent President goes over some of the features for you in person.  Here are some of the great updated features: High Torque Motor (uses rare earth magnets) High Torque Motor- Our new High Torque motor utilizes rare earth...

I’ve been out in the field since 1988 servicing pools. Over those years I have seen a lot of odd things happen out there. Some are just perplexing. Others are downright deadly.  Ever clean a D.E. filter and then arrive the next week to a major algae outbreak? Wait a minute. I thought cleaning the filter would prevent that. I asked chemistry expert Bob Lowry about this phenomenon a while back and he said that the Diatomaceous Earth itself was the issue. Huh? It seems that one component of D.E. is dead algae. So D.E. contains algae. That would explain why after cleaning a D.E. filter you may experience an algae outbreak.  What I have been doing after cleaning a D.E. filter and recharging it is to bring the chlorine level up to a higher level to prevent this. But sometimes even then algae will form in a newly cleaned D.E. filter. Switching to Perlite will of course prevent this and I don’t see this too often with other filter types.  I will cover the dangerous things that I ...