Just thinking out loud.

What are the chances that there is a nationwide conspiracy that prevents pool store employees from learning the stuff we learn here? I understand the conflict of interest, with wanting to sell lots & lots of various products, but surely the pool stores have been seeing a decline in return customers, after they either came to this site (or sites like it) or hired a professional service to fix their pool.

I also find it odd, that pool supply manufacturers haven't devised a better tablet, or a better shock, or something that will really work. Or at least provide an easy method to "train" their distributors how to use the stuff right.

I'm no genius, but in the last week, just reading this site, and mostly the pool school, I think I've got the basics down. This is what my numbers should be. This is when you need to shock. This is how you shock.

Most of the issues I'm seeing on this board, and poolspaforum, and the poolforum are just those basics. Yeah, there have been some dozies as well, but the average pool store employee should be able to handle the basic issues... and say, "I don't know about that, you need to call a pro." or something to that affect.

I suppose that one cannot readily say that when one presents oneself as the pro. Where ya gonna go, to the pool store?
Truth be told, we are beginning to effect some of the stores. There are a few, where the folks are learning (from here and PF) and changing how they support their customers.

While I don't think that there is a true conspiracy, I do believe that there is little financial incentive for manufacturers to try to develop a means to make a product with no side effects. It would be far better for their shareholders to create another product to deal with the results of using the first product. It makes for a nice see-saw effect of stuffing dollars into their coffers.

And if pool stores are like most businesses, the folks operating them just do as their supplier/sales rep tells them. So, the pool stores (the independant ones anyway) are really none the wiser, and just continue recommending the stuff that the manufacturer tells them to sell.

I think that what the pools stores and their suppliers are trying to sell is minimal effort pool maintenance.

If you count all the trips to the pool store it probably takes more time, but “throw a few tabs in the floater, shock once a week and bring us a sample if anything seems off” sure sounds like a lot less work than all this testing and jug dumping. Of course, that will cost more and your water won’t be nearly as nice but it sounds pretty good otherwise.

There is some validity to that, too. LOTS of folks just use tabs, shock periodically, and replace some water every now and then. For a large part of the pool-owning population, this recipe works for a long time. When they eventually do have a water problem, they dump a load of cash into it, and start over. It is simple and low in effort over the short term. I have friends on the other side of the country from me who will most likely be using tabs until they die. They call me when they have a problem, and I can tell them what to do, but they invariably run back to the pool store and spend lots of money. They claim it works for them, because they accept that they will fight it hard for months each spring and fall to use it during the summer.

Here at TFP, we just look at these folks (and others like them) and shake our collective heads. Someday, perhaps... someday.

As for developing a better tablet/powder shock, I'm sure that somewhere work is being done. The problem is that you have to attach the chlorine to something to make it solid, since it's a gas in its pure form. Trichlor and dichlor have the chlorine attached to a CYA ring, cal-hypo has it attached to calcium, lithium hypo to lithium, etc. Sodium hypochlorite is technically a solid, but is extremely unstable, so it has to be dissolved in water to be safe enough to use, so no powder or tablets there. If a company could figure out how to make a solid form of chlorine that was inexpensive and didn't add calcium, CYA, or some other problem-causing substance, they would make a killing. I bet they're trying.

The biggest issue is that the pool sanitizing segment is such a small part of the overall chlorine production or even bleach production that there will never be a big push to invent a better way as long as the current way somewhat works. Now if we commanded a few percent of the market things would be different.