So, I'm at the counter, 2nd in line waiting to pick up some liquid Cl at Leslie's...

Guy in front of me is getting his water tested - and standing there with a 10lb pail of Stabilizer.

Clerk finishes the test, and sells him an additional 5 lbs and says, "Protects your pool from UV rays, you should get another 5 lbs... And add it every year."

Guy says, "do I need any acid?" - Pool Clerk, "No."

Guy pays and leaves - and leaves his test results behind on the counter. When the Clerk went to the back to get my Cl, I looked at the guys results:

CYA - did not measure.
pH - 8.0
dKh - (IIRC) ~300.

It took every thing I had in me not to say anything to the clerk (or go run out to the parking lot to grab the guy that's going to have pool problems for the next 5 months, and again next year).



- Jeff

Been there. Its amazing to watch the carts of stuff rolling out of the door. With a price tag to match. I walked out with a pack of skimmer socks. That felt good.

We should all carry around little trouble free pool business cards. Then, discreetly slip them into the naive customer's bags as they leave the pool store

The last time I went to the pool store, Great Escape, I was in line while another guy was in line I spent $21 something on 8 gallons of 12%Cl and an end to fix the part of my vacuum that connects to the pole. He spent $75 on a bunch of bags of powdered shock and who knows what else.

I would like some business card type things. Also, the side of the building would make a nice place for a graffiti mural. We should hire some thugs and buy them some spray paint.

I wanted to get a troublefreepool tshirt from the store pages/store/ but none of them even say troublefreepool.COM which seems pointless to me. I tried getting them to change it with no luck. maybe if some more people complain about not being able to advertise this site for free...

We were at the pool store today getting our water tested for the first time and I wondered if all the people in there were being swindled outta their money.

We got a free set of chemicals today. Now, it was free. But I was still looking at the box of stuff sideways wondering if I wanted to actually put that in my pool!

what was it?

I work at a store now after 17 yrs building, remodeling and servicing pools. I had my own pool company in South Carolina and had to close it and move elsewhere for work. When I started here, there was an old lady working the counter and doing the water tests. After a week of watching her do these things, I couldn't believe the **** she was doing to these pools. I pretty much had to bite my own tongue! She was bioguard smart. That was it. Sell Jacks purple and blue and then the next week sell them sodium bromide to kill the algae no matter the chlorine residule/cya. Now that she has been gone for 6 months, super happy customers, no longer stocking blue and purple (only magenta), and a huge decrease in algae pools. We also have had a big increase in new customers. There is about 7 pool stores in a 10 mile radius around mine, Leslie's, pinch-a-penny to name a few. People have been saying, I would leave pinch-a-penny everyweek spending close to 100.00 bucks! I also would like to mention, we do not use a computerized water testing lab, just trusty ole taylor kit(s). The print outs are logged with LaMotte Waterlink system. When I started I did a comparison between the two, and the taylor was way more accurate.

Thank you for giving your customers good service and helping them to maintain trouble free pools. Even if pool owners wanted to use Trichlor pucks for the convenience, at least with your help they will know that this is a cost/convenience tradeoff with extra algaecide required (such as PolyQuat 60) and that the CYA levels need to be watched with appropriate dilution. For those who are willing to add chlorine more frequently, you can offer chlorinating liquid at a decent price and even reuse the bottles. That's why I get 12.5% chlorinating liquid from my local pool store. Prices have recently gone up and it's around $4 per gallon whereas it used to be $3.50 a few years ago, but it's still very economical at around $17 per month for my 16,000 gallon pool including the small amount of acid I also use about once a month or so.

Pinch-A-Penny uses a Taylor test kit with titration. The computer program's values can be changed to custom levels, although most stores don't which is why most people spend so much money.

I went into a Pinch A Penny here locally and asked if they carried the Taylor R-0870 DPD powder as I needed a new container of it. He just looked at me with a confused look. He had no idea what it was and said he has never heard of a test that uses powder for FC testing. This was the store owner as they are all independently owned. I was going to ask him how they tested for FC, but I didn't. I bought my liquid chlorine and left.

the computer has its recommended levels...i changed them. i guess thats why nobody that brings me water has problems and the store dont sell to much on the chemical side. it is a breath of fresh air when they come here opposed to the penny and other stores. what i also do to help these fantastic customers of mine is give them inside ideas on how to cut thier electric bill in half by setting up their filtration to run less time with "custom" directional flows i make myself or a thing called the circulator. ill fill you guys in on the eyeballs:
get a 3/8" eyeball, a drill with a small bit(nothing more than 1/4") , set the direction of the main hole to point towrds the wall and drill the holes on the other side wherever you want to push water down to the floor. if any one has a blue haven pool you know what im talking about. you can practicly keep ypur pool swept with these. the circulator is a great item too. it is like a pop up in floor cleaning head for the return. they are a little spendy, but, they work great. (thecirculator.com)

I like the idea of improved circulation, but if these things actually work like they do in the video, it seems to me that they would create some serious aeration issues. If they were'nt so expensive they would be great for aerating to lower TA!.

I work at a local Leslies and I only wished that they would only hire CPO's (like myself) instead of kids with retail experience. I dunno I just feel that the customers would rather go to a store with educated experienced people rather than salespeople that try to rip them off. I know I'm not the best salesperson that has worked there, but I like to think that a customer that leaves satisfied and not ripped off would come back and maybe even recommend others to us. Now I only need to figure out how I can convince my district manager to let us stock borax

Welcome to TFP!

Thank you for keeping yourself educated and wanting to help your customers with knowledgeable advice. One pool store at a time...