Hello! Newbie here. We moved into this house 11 months ago and it came with a pool. It also came with the pool guy who has taken care of it for the past 8 years or so, as well as the neighbor's pool. He's been super nice, and the pool has stayed clear for the most part, until just a couple weeks ago. So, for $75/month, he comes in, checks the PH and Chlorine, then dumps in some liquid chlorine and some muriatic acid. That's it. It cost extra to have him clean the DE filter, extra for the CYA, and now this week he's supposed to be bringing some PhosFree (phoshpates are up around 2000), and some sort of pellet algae killer (we have black algae) at cost. He's also bringing me a brush for the pool. We have a Polaris sweeper that does a pretty good job, but no one ever told us we were supposed to sweep the pool or do anything more than scoop leaves and such out. The sides of the pool have a golden tinge to spots that do brush off with some elbow grease, but I was told not to scrub the plaster with a stainless steel brush (which I had just bought for the algae). My husband's friend has been telling us we're paying for nothing and that the pool needs to have more attention than once a week. In fact, the past two weeks, the pool guy said our chlorine was at zero so he's been adding extra chlorine. But if WE had been checking it more regularly, it would not have gotten to that point, which is also likely the reason we got areas of black algae? So, are we getting our money's worth? I just ordered the K-2006 test kit which should be here tomorrow. My husband and I are going to read through the Pool School materials and we're hoping that we can learn a lot and be able to handle this on our own. Thanks for any tips and thoughts!
Pool Service Guy - I don't think we're getting our money's worth
- Thread starter ButterflyPool
- Start date
Welcome!
One thing for sure: to maintain pool properly you need to test it more often than once a week and most likely adjust balance based on results. In my fully manual case (no chem automation) I test water every other day and add bleach or sometimes MA. I'd imagine my pool would be out of wack over 1 week period: it is losing 1.5 ppm to the Sun daily which is low on average so over 1 week it'd lose 10.5 ppm just from being out there under the Sun. Since my FC target is 5 ppm it would be having FC=0 for half a week, sure thing algae would grow there. Over chlorinating 'in advance' is also bad as it would make water harsh to swim in. So unless you have some automatic liquid chlorine dispenser or your pool guy supplements liquid chlorine with slow dissolving tablets I don't see how your water can be maintained properly with weekly visits. Visiting more often would stop making business sense I guess.
It's great you ordered test kit, so you could verify all of this yourself. Please don't use stainless steel brush on the plaster- there are not many things you can remove from it mechanically but you will damage the surface. I brush my pool weekly with normal pool brush and it's quite enough.
I'm pretty sure you'll find this forum very useful as it promotes the same ideas you came to realization yourself. Consider yourself lucky as most new owners find their pool water with very high CYA levels which leads to other problems. You might find yours to be too low but that's an easy fix
.
You do have one more thing to do.................FIRE the pool boy Your pool is only going to go down hill if you keep using him.
Here are some links for you. I set them up for new pool people which you fall under now that you are going to take care of your own pool. It is a lot of info. so take it slow and easy. It will all start to make sense as you start to use it:
Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Pool School - Recommended Levels
Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.
You just THOUGHT your pool looked good before! Wait until you see it the TFP way! :sun:
Your pool is only going to go down hill if you keep using him. Here are some links for you. I set them up for new pool people which you fall under now that you are going to take care of your own pool. It is a lot of info. so take it slow and easy. It will all start to make sense as you start to use it:
Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Pool School - Recommended Levels
Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.
You just THOUGHT your pool looked good before! Wait until you see it the TFP way! :sun:
My pool is much smaller than yours but by the end of summer I will have spent less than 50 bucks on bleach and muriatic acid. I suspect next year will be less without having to lower my TA.
Shekkie
0
I bought my house last fall which came with a lovely inground pool. After reading a ton through this site this past Summer has been a breeze. I spend an hour-ish a week testing/cleaning and have had zero issues maintain clear/healthy water. I am certainly no rocket scientist so I'm sure y'all will be fine.
There is no such thing as a "maintenance free" pool, but there is such a thing as a "Trouble Free Pool". Which you don't have - yet. The information here can allow you to have a pool that is so easy to take care of that it can be embarrassing when you are around other people who either hire pool maintenance or rely on the "experts" at the Pool $tore. I do check the chlorine and ph every morning - 5 minutes. I adjust the ph as necessary - every week or two - 2 minutes. I vacuum as needed - every week or two while enjoying a cup of coffee and the morning- 45 minutes. Otherwise I swim and kick up any dirt that has fallen in so the filter can get it out. Or you can pay $75 per month plus chemicals and have algae, cloudy water and all the other issues. Hmmmm.....a lot to think about.
- Jul 16, 2012
- 7,204
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Unless he's also bringing you drinks on trays with appetizers and great discounts on event tickets in addition to his pool work, then no, you are not getting your money's worth.
You can do it. Promise. Don't look back.
You can do it. Promise. Don't look back.
As said above, you will need to determine chemical levels in the pool and then proceed accordingly. For,example, if you have been using chlorine tablets for any legnth of time, you CYA is probably way too high so would need to partially drain water inorder to lower it and make any chlorine treatments effective. When you get your test kit, post the results and folks here will guide you in the proper direction of next steps.
It sounds like on the spectrum of pool services, you have a fairly good one, however it is nearly impossible to maintain a pool with weekly chemical additions. In order for a pool to maintain relatively stable chemical levels you really need to add chlorine on a daily, or every other day basis, and adjust other parameters as needed (ph drift for example varies considerably from pool to pool). For some pools this can be pushed out to every 3-4 days excluding when there are weather events, however few people are willing to pay for a pool service that comes by 2 or 3 times per week, particularly when their neighbors service costs less and only shows up once per week.
Ike
Ike
Thank you for all the warm welcomes and the support. We have never used chlorine tablets... the pool guy says they're bad news. He had to increase our CYA at the beginning of the season, and he mentioned he might need to add some more, so I don't think it's high. Could be partly why the chlorine isn't sticking around. Oh, and we keep it covered with a solar blanket except when we're swimming in order to keep the water warm enough to swim. The only reason I got a stainless steel brush was because it was in the instructions here on TFP for the black algae treatment. I will check back when I have more to share. Thanks again!
Cover is important detail: besides keeping water warm by preventing evaporation it should also reduce FC loss during daytime so I expect your pool to require less than 1 ppm FC daily. All you need is to clean it up and balance the water, it should be easy from that point on. Please hold off scrubbing for now until you get FC to the correct level so it would be easier to do. When you receive your test kit run the tests and post results here if you'd need recommendations:
FC=
CC=
CYA=
pH=
TA=
CH=
We finally took some time today to read, and re-read the clear as mud directions on how to test the water. From observation of the pool guy, I thought it was super easy, just drop some chemicals in a water sample and bam, you're done. It's a bit more complicated than that, but I think after some videos and practice, we got it.
FC= 6.0 ppm
CC= .5 ppm
CYA=35
pH= 7.2
TA=70 ppm
CH= 700
The water balance circular thing that came with the test says our water balance is .05, which is corrosive to concrete/plaster.
Next step? The pool guy is paid up through the month. Not sure if we're comfortable yet letting him go. It was a very confusing day just to get this figured out! We don't want to counter anything he's doing, and we have no supplies at the moment.
FC= 6.0 ppm
CC= .5 ppm
CYA=35
pH= 7.2
TA=70 ppm
CH= 700
The water balance circular thing that came with the test says our water balance is .05, which is corrosive to concrete/plaster.
Next step? The pool guy is paid up through the month. Not sure if we're comfortable yet letting him go. It was a very confusing day just to get this figured out! We don't want to counter anything he's doing, and we have no supplies at the moment.
Except for the CH, those numbers are pretty good!
If the CYA test was half way between 30 and 40, count it as 40. The scale is logarithmic, not linear, as you can see from the gradations on the vial.
Did you get a chance to study Kimkats links? PoolMath, Pool School - PoolMath , will be especially comforting.
If the CYA test was half way between 30 and 40, count it as 40. The scale is logarithmic, not linear, as you can see from the gradations on the vial.
Did you get a chance to study Kimkats links? PoolMath, Pool School - PoolMath , will be especially comforting.
Do not read any of the paperwork in the test kit. LOL
Use the links I shared as THEY are what TFP bases pool care on. It is all science based as well as real world tested in thousand of pools over many years.
I would have the pool guy stop as the two do not mix very well and he could cause you to go back a step or two trying to mix what he does and what your daily tests say to do.
Here are a couple of my tricks for the tests:
-PH-I hold a white, plastic plate up behind the PH tube at about shoulder height. I pull the plate back and forth until I can see the color match. My arm holding the tube has a slight bend. I hold everything under the very bright light of my range hood.
-CYA-GLANCE in only. Do NOT stare as you WILL end up seeing the dot LOL. GLANCE only and call it good when you do not see the dot. You can pour the CYA test water back and forth as needed to find your level.
I hope this helps some.
Use the links I shared as THEY are what TFP bases pool care on. It is all science based as well as real world tested in thousand of pools over many years.
I would have the pool guy stop as the two do not mix very well and he could cause you to go back a step or two trying to mix what he does and what your daily tests say to do.
Here are a couple of my tricks for the tests:
-PH-I hold a white, plastic plate up behind the PH tube at about shoulder height. I pull the plate back and forth until I can see the color match. My arm holding the tube has a slight bend. I hold everything under the very bright light of my range hood.
-CYA-GLANCE in only. Do NOT stare as you WILL end up seeing the dot LOL. GLANCE only and call it good when you do not see the dot. You can pour the CYA test water back and forth as needed to find your level.
I hope this helps some.Thanks. And I think I'm getting it. I take my measurements, plug them into the Pool Math page, set my goals and then see if we're balanced. If not, it tells us what we need to do to get balanced. I will continue to read as much info as possible. I need to go shopping for some supplies to have on hand. We also measured the pool yesterday. 
29,300 gallons. (Don't ask me to round... hubby is an engineer and well, those types just love to crunch numbers. I know he's validating these numbers today at work.)
29,300 gallons. (Don't ask me to round... hubby is an engineer and well, those types just love to crunch numbers. I know he's validating these numbers today at work.)
That is awesome to hear!!!
If you have ANY questions make sure to ask. We love to help and answer questions.
If you have ANY questions make sure to ask. We love to help and answer questions.
Well on the bright side, your pool guy has only been using liquid chlorine and he doesn't like the tabs. He is miles ahead of most other pool guys in that respect.
Unfortunately, adding the proper amount of liquid chlorine each day is not something the pool guy can do. So he's been elevating the FC when he comes and it drifts down too low before he gets back to do it again. Thats why you got black algae, and from the sound of it, the green algae too, which you described as golden spots on the sides that brush off.....
anyways, you have a great test kit now and some knowledge on how to go forward. In no time, this is all be simple stuff to you.
Unfortunately, adding the proper amount of liquid chlorine each day is not something the pool guy can do. So he's been elevating the FC when he comes and it drifts down too low before he gets back to do it again. Thats why you got black algae, and from the sound of it, the green algae too, which you described as golden spots on the sides that brush off.....
anyways, you have a great test kit now and some knowledge on how to go forward. In no time, this is all be simple stuff to you.