Swimming Pool Tips and Reviews

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

Many pool service calls go sideways for the same simple reason: the equipment sits below the waterline and gravity takes over. When the pump shuts off and you open the lid, water floods the pad as the pool drains through the open system. The fix begins with awareness. If you walk down stairs to reach the pad, or the ground has even a small grade, assume the equipment is “below sea level.” Before removing any lids, close both suction and return lines together. Cutting only suction isn’t enough because water backflows from the returns. If the pad has no working valves, improvise: plug the skimmer with a tennis ball and stuff an absorbent synthetic chamois in the return stubs to slow the surge long enough to reseal. Carrying a couple of those expanding car-wash chamois cloths is a cheap, reliable failsafe for emergencies. Dual skimmer pools create their own challenges when you need to vacuum or attach a cleaner to one port. Builders often skip individual valves, leaving both skimmers draw...

Many new pool pros learn the hard way that filtration time is not the same as filtration success. Running a pump for four hours on a 15,000-gallon pool often fails to deliver even a single turnover, which leaves the water cloudy and undermines sanitizer performance. The key concept is turnover: one full pool volume through the filter. From a filtration standpoint, one turnover captures roughly 65 percent of suspended particles, two turnovers about 85 percent, and three turnovers around 92 to 95 percent. The jump from three to four turnovers is small, so three is the sweet spot. To plan it properly, you need the actual flow rate, not a guess. Install a flow meter after the pump and before return to get gallons per minute, then divide pool volume by that number to find minutes per turnover and schedule accordingly. Circulation does more than move water through the filter; it also keeps sanitizer moving to where it is needed. When a pump is off twenty hours a day, any developing biofilm o...

Pool pros and owners often trust the two-to-four ppm chlorine guideline, then wonder why algae returns week after week. The hard truth is that cyanuric acid (CYA) drastically changes how much active sanitizer you actually have in the water. Most of the free chlorine binds to CYA, leaving only a small fraction available as hypochlorous acid (HOCl), the form that kills algae and pathogens. At typical pH values, and even at modest CYA like 30 ppm, roughly 97 percent of chlorine is tied up. That doesn’t mean it’s useless, but it does mean only about three percent is ready to work at any moment, and pH further shifts the HOCl to less potent OCl−. This is why “I have six ppm free chlorine” can still coexist with green walls. The fix is a practical rule that reverses the math: set free chlorine as a percentage of CYA. Rather than chasing a static two-to-four ppm, target seven and a half percent of CYA as your free chlorine level to reliably prevent algae. If CYA is 100 ppm, aim for 7.5 ppm FC...

Winter changes the rules for pool care, and the smartest pros shift with it. As water temperatures fall below 60 degrees, biological activity slows and the familiar algae pressure that dominates summer nearly disappears around 55 degrees. That lull tempts many owners to ignore the water, but chemistry never sleeps. Lower temperature pushes the Langelier Saturation Index downward, nudging water from balanced toward corrosive. When LSI slips, surfaces become the source, and plaster, grout, and heaters can pay the price. The goal in winter is not more chemicals; it is smarter balance with fewer inputs. Less demand does not mean zero demand. It means adjusting set points so the water stays gentle on the vessel while remaining sanitary and clear. The first lever is understanding how temperature affects LSI. A rough field rule is that every 15-degree drop pulls the index by about 0.1. Fall from 90 to 60 and you lose roughly 0.2, enough to turn a barely balanced pool into a surface eater. You...

Most pool owners love the convenience of chlorine tablets, but few see the chemistry bill that arrives later. When trichlor is the sole sanitizer, cyanuric acid accumulates every week, making chlorine slower at killing pathogens and easier on algae than you’d ever intend. The rule of thumb is simple: maintain free chlorine at about 5% of your cyanuric acid. That means 2.5 ppm FC at 50 ppm CYA, 5 ppm FC at 100 ppm CYA, and more still if CYA climbs. The trap is that trichlor adds roughly 6 ppm CYA for every 10 ppm of chlorine it contributes, so a normal pool consuming about 10 ppm FC per week can gain around 25 ppm CYA per month. As CYA rises, you chase higher chlorine just to stay even, which further raises CYA. It’s a treadmill disguised as convenience. The chemistry spiral doesn’t stop at sanitizer performance. Trichlor is acidic, with a pH around 2.8 to 3, so it pushes pH and total alkalinity down while raising CYA. High CYA complicates balance math by depressing the alkalinity readi...

Many pool service owners work hard in the field but lose business in the quiet moments between calls, texts, and bids. The truth is simple: habits that win in other trades will win here. Plumbers, HVAC techs, and landscapers compete in crowded markets where speed, presentation, and clarity separate leaders from the rest. Borrow their playbook. Answer the phone on the first ring or return the message within minutes. Use short text replies to acknowledge you’re on it. Make it easy for a prospect to feel seen. When someone is shopping for a new service, they rarely wait; they call until a real person answers. If your competitor picks up and you do not, they get the bid, and usually the account. Responsiveness scales beyond calls. Set up a simple system: during business hours, a spouse, partner, or virtual assistant answers and triages. A quick “out in the field, will call you at 2 pm” keeps the lead warm and prevents the dreaded Yelp-style “never called back” review that poisons trust. Ad...

The VacDaddy has always been a bit of a misfit in the best way, landing between compact battery vacs and full vacuum systems. Its 55 GPM power and bag-based capture make it feel like manual vacuuming plugged into a skimmer, but without tying up the customer’s filtration. The catch, until now, has been the cord and the need for a nearby outlet. That’s where the new battery steps in, solving the most common on-site friction: hunting for plugs, hauling heavier transformers, and threading extension cords across decks. By restoring mobility without losing suction, the VacDaddy starts to look like a portable system while keeping its unique benefits, from bag filtration to quick setup. What makes the battery compelling are the details. It weighs about 15 pounds, charges in roughly three hours, and delivers about two hours of runtime at full power. The ternary lithium chemistry adds safety and longevity, two traits pros care about when gear lives in hot trucks and works long days. In practice,...

Winter changes the rules for saltwater pools, and knowing why helps you decide what to do, not just what to buy. As water temperature drops, conductivity falls and electrolysis becomes inefficient, so most salt cells either throttle output or shut down around 50 to 60 degrees. That isn’t a failure; it is a safeguard for the system. The upside is that algae and bacteria slow down in cold water, lowering chlorine demand. But a lower demand is not zero, so waiting for spring can let problems simmer. The smarter move is to plan a winter sanitizer strategy, protect the equipment from freeze damage, and set up your stabilizer level so the pool wakes up ready for longer, sunnier days. Freeze protection comes first. If your area can hit sustained freezing temps or risk power outages, remove the salt cell and install a dummy cell. Water trapped in the cell expands as it freezes and can split the plastic housing, a loss that is costly and avoidable. Pools that fully close should have the cell re...

Customer retention in pool service is not a mystery; it’s a system. When clients cancel, it’s rarely about whether you’re a solo operator or a larger company. It’s almost always about the experience they feel at home: clear communication, predictable visits, clean water, and transparent billing. The good news is that each of these can be built into repeatable routines. By treating retention like a deliberate process—not a lucky outcome—you anchor loyalty, reduce churn, and keep routes stable through summer surges and winter slowdowns alike. Start with communication, because this is where most loyalty is won or lost. Clients forgive honest mistakes, but they do not forgive silence. When a filter o‑ring drips, a heater is down, or a windy week litters the pool, customers want a quick reply and a clear plan. Routing apps such as Skimmer make this effortless: timestamped service logs, before‑and‑after photos, and quick notes that confirm what was done and what’s next. If you don’t use soft...

Choosing the right pool vacuum system can change your entire workday. The decision often starts with one fork in the road: cart or no cart. Cart systems like Riptide and Hammerhead let you roll a powerful head, battery, and chemicals to the water’s edge. You gain speed and organization on most accounts, but stairs, narrow side yards, and HOA mazes can block access. Mounting the transport rack affects tailgate access and rear visibility, and you need to secure it well to avoid mishaps. Visual presence matters too; a clean, well-mounted cart signals professionalism to clients and often wins trust before you turn on the pump. Mount options can make or break the cart experience. A class III receiver with a T-bar mount gives you a stable, modular backbone for both a vacuum rack and a service cart. Anti-wobble plates keep everything tight, and swing-away mounts help you open the tailgate without removing hardware. Custom welding from a muffler shop was the old standard, but bolt-on receivers...

Choosing the right portable pool vacuum can change how fast you work, how often you replace gear, and how well you serve different pool types. This episode digs into a practical comparison between the long-proven Bottom Feeder and the new Shrimp kit. Both are cordless, both use real, service-grade parts, and both target pros who need speed without a cart. The key difference is scale: footprint, throat size, handling, and where each tool fits along a route that ranges from leaf-heavy backyards to delicate water features. If you’ve been tempted by cheap plastic compact vacuums, you’ll want to hear why their true cost rises over a season of breakage and part shortages. The Bottom Feeder has been the portable benchmark for years, with incremental upgrades that kept it reliable and balanced. Its 18-by-11-inch body covers ground fast, runs on a LiFePO4 battery, and handles most debris you’ll find after standard wind events. The Shrimp trims that platform down to 12 by 8 by 9 with a five-inch...

Most people judge a service business by the top-line revenue, but what matters is the cash that stays after expenses and taxes. We walk through a practical model for a pool service route built around 45 residential accounts at a monthly rate of $185. That yields roughly $100,000 in gross revenue, which is attainable in many urban markets for a four-day workweek. The power of this model is not just the revenue; it is the combination of lean operations, predictable recurring billing, and deductions that reduce taxable income. With disciplined tracking and sensible pricing, a route this size can generate solid take-home pay while keeping workdays short and focused. To make the math real, we step through the core expense categories that shape profitability. Vehicle costs come first for any mobile service. You may choose the standard mileage deduction or actual vehicle expenses, but you must pick a lane and stick with it. At a hypothetical 18,000 business miles, the mileage method can deliv...

Time is the silent profit killer on a busy pool route, and the most reliable way to reclaim it is by building an inventory that solves problems before they appear. The strategy begins with a mindset shift: treat your truck and garage like a mobile supply house designed to eliminate emergency supplier runs. Start with emergency chlorine. A 50-pound bucket of dichlor is shelf-stable, pH neutral relative to alternatives, and safe for most surfaces when pre-dissolved. It rescues the day when liquid stock runs low with six stops left, sparing you from detours and cheap, weak retail chlorine. Pair it with spare mechanical essentials: an extra pole and a leaf rake. Tools break, get lost, or get left behind during a rushed phone call. Having backups lets you finish the route without doubling back or improvising with inferior gear that slows you down and frustrates clients. Power reliability is the next frontier. Battery backups for portable vac systems like Riptide and Bottom Feeder turn windy...

Year-round pool owners often assume that winter brings a break from maintenance, but cold weather simply changes the rules rather than suspends them. In regions like Southern California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and much of Texas, we don’t winterize; we keep water moving, chemistry balanced, and surfaces protected. The goal is not to match summer habits but to adapt them to cold water behavior. That means understanding why algae slows yet survives, how circulation still supports clarity, and where pH targets shift as temperatures drop. It also means accepting that winter is leaf season, not a maintenance holiday, and that your attached spa remains an active, shared hot zone that demands sanitizer. Let’s start with the myth that cold water kills algae. It doesn’t. It slows metabolic activity and reduces bloom frequency, but spores persist and can flare when temperatures rise. If a cover leaks or closing chemicals weren’t added in colder climates, pools still open green. In mild regions...

Many pool owners and even seasoned techs still cling to habits that feel safe but drain profits and create unstable water. The most common is the weekly “shock and pray” routine. A pool doesn’t need shock because the calendar says so; it needs it when free chlorine falls below the level required by cyanuric acid. Using Bob Lowry’s guideline, free chlorine should hover around 7.5% of CYA. That means a pool at 100 ppm CYA must hold roughly 7.5 ppm free chlorine to stay sanitary. When the reading dips, shock can help, but the target isn’t arbitrary. Breakpoint chlorination, combined chlorine removal, and bather load call for different levels. Mindless dosing wastes product and masks bigger issues like poor filtration or inadequate circulation. Balance first, then calculate the right rise in chlorine to hit the goal without overshooting. The idea that “all chlorine is the same” causes more headaches than green walls. Trichlor, cal hypo, and liquid chlorine sanitize, but their byproducts an...

A pool pump that won’t prime almost always points to the same culprit: air sneaking into a system that must be sealed to work. When the wet end can’t stay full, the impeller just whips foam, not water, and your filter pressure tanks. The most common entry point is simple and maddening—the pump lid O‑ring. Age flattens or stretches it, a dry seat stops it from sealing, or it falls off when someone cleans the basket. A quick inspection often reveals a dry, cracked, or missing gasket. Carry the common sizes for Pentair WhisperFlo and SuperFlo, Hayward Super Pump and Super II, and lube them with a quality silicone-based product. A fresh, greased O‑ring can restore a vacuum seal in seconds and is the fastest win you can deliver on route. Heat compounds everything. When water runs low and the pump pulls air, the housing cooks. You’ll find lids too hot to handle, baskets warped like shrunken fruit, and threaded fittings softened just enough to leak under suction. Those micro-gaps are hard to ...

Competency is the quiet engine of a profitable pool route. Customers do not always understand chemistry, hydraulics, or equipment names, but they recognize care, consistency, and results. The fastest way to signal competence is a short, disciplined assessment every time you arrive. In 30 to 40 seconds, scan the pad for leaks, listen for air or cavitation, check filter pressure, confirm salt cell status lights, and open the pump basket if needed. These obvious signs are exactly what a homeowner notices on a walk-by. Missing a puddle by the heater or leaving debris in the strainer tells a client you’re not looking. Catching those issues before they do builds trust, prevents callbacks, and makes you the pro they recommend. Another hallmark of professionalism is doing the hard, unscheduled work when the pool needs it. Everyone has felt the urge to push a filter clean to next week after a long, hot day, using a quick backwash and a little DE to limp along. That shortcut often blooms into al...