How and why did you find TFP?

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S

Sunnydaze

Silver Supporter
Mar 8, 2021
500
AZ
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
I thought it'd be fun to share what initially brought you to TFP and how you found it.

I'll share. i bought a house with my first pool. I previously had an above ground pool but had no idea how to properly care for it. The prior owner left an old TF100 test kit that had expired many years prior and i didn't pay much attention to it. I did what i knew....went and bought some test strips and trichlor tablets and a floater. Not just any test strips... probably the worst ones: Clorox brand. The strips told me my "hardness" was high and to add a bottle of their scale remover. So i did. I tested again and hardness was still super high so i added another bottle as recommended by their app. Little did i know, that little strip was never going to change and it would always recommend a new bottle. I quickly realized it was a complete joke and remembered the TF100 kit which had the website on the front. I bought a refill of the reagents, joined the forum, asked some questions and have had a completely trouble free pool from the beginning. I'm quite thankful the prior owner left the old TF100 kit. Otherwise, i may not have found TFP for many months, if ever and probably would still be doing the pool store dance.
 
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We started thinking about building a pool in mid 2019. I found TFP and lurked, reading the construction threads and articles, then started getting advice throughout the design and bid process, and through contract and build. Once there was water in my pool and I was in charge, I've followed TFP methods, and we truly have a trouble free pool!
 
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I stumbled upon a thread while searching the web for the automation that my PB had proposed. Researched that a little bit, and went on with my build. Nearing the end of the build, I got on the website and started reading, when I realized I actually knew nothing about taking care of a pool My buddy at work had convinced me that all I needed to do was take a water sample to Leslie's once a month, and they would tell me what I needed to put in. So I hadn't bothered looking into it. Once I started reading I quickly realized that if I wanted the pool to have the same amount of care that I want the rest of my household to have, I needed to be more invested and do the testing myself. It made perfect sense to me that I can't know what is going on with the water if I'm not testing it, and that it needed more than a monthly check to understand what was happening. I'm dropping serious coin on a pool and I'm gonna complain about $150 test kit??? Nope. It's required.

3rd summer on TFP methods and I (knock on wood) have yet to have anything other than a crystal clear pool. Except for that one night immediately following a lacrosse team party, but it was clear within 24 hours! I think it was mostly micro bubbles from the boys being so active in it. But even if not, I wasn't worried about it, because I had TFP in my arsenal.

--Jeff
 
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Had my first pool problem when the SWG reached end of life. I quickly found here that I could replace the flow switch for a last ditch effort but they were only OEM at the time and it was $140 (?). That was alot of new money to throw at an old $770 device so I replaced it. I stuck around figuring I'd need the lifespan of unit #2 to learn the chemistry because I had ZERO clue what to do when it went green. I think I'm getting it, and then we moved so I have a new, new unit, so that buys me a couple more years to figure it out. Phew.

Did I ever mention I am fond of SWGs ? There is a reason for it.
 
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If I recall correctly, I had just installed a new above ground pool but did not have power to the pump yet (waiting on a trencher). I got advise on how to keep my pool from turning green while waiting on power. It was nice to have found this site before I as fully up and running and set in my ways. I'm in my second home and second pool. Have had crystal clear water almost the whole time (slight lapse while working on my thesis defense in school) all thanks to the wonderful people in this community.
 
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Cost of pool maintenance around here is crazy. Cost of a new plaster job is also crazy so if I was going to manage pool myself, I had to learn how to do it right. First sensible and well sourced web resource I could find was Orenda, so I took their course and got Orenda certified. Went looking for more in-depth info and this was the only other site I could find where many of the folks could back their raps with scientific facts and papers. It has scientific basis, makes sense to me in terms of understanding why things are done or not done, and it works in real life. (y)
 
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Here is MY story:

One day a couple bought a foreclosed house with an above ground pool. It had sat for 6 months with nothing done to it. LOTS of leaves and stuff in the water. This couple did NOT want a pool so let it sit for another 3 months while they rehabbed the house.

Well, the inside of the house got cleaned, repainted, ect. They then moved into the house. They thought since there was this big pool with a deck around it might as well see what they could do with it. Went to the pool store and told them "we know nothing about taking care of a pool". Spent LOTS of $$ that did nothing The female of the couple got tired of spending the $$ so she drained most of the water out and scooped and scooped and scooped (well you get the picture). Once all of the stuff was scooped up she added water to the pool and took the pretty, clear water to the pool store where she bought LOTS more stuff to keep the water pretty and clear.

A year goes by and the pretty pool (who the couple's male person fell in love with having) is getting harder and harder to keep clean and clear. Green stuff started growing on the sides. Back down to the pool store for more $tuff. 6 more moths and things went from bad to worst

One day the female is brushing the pool AGAIN (she HATED that pool) when she saw a crack in the bottom of the liner and ran her foot over it....... that caused the WHOLE bottom to tear apart and ALL of the water went rushing out almost taking her with it!!!

The couple took down and sold the rest of the pool. After a while the male said he wanted a new pool. She said sure IF he could find a way to take care of with OUT using the pool store. Well he found TFP! She bought a test kit BEFORE she let him order the pool to make sure she could do the tests. Turned out they were easy and fun to do.

Now look at the female! She is a MOD on TFP! Funny how things work out!
 
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DrewLG said:
For me, it was just that every time I did a Google search for a pool-related question, the best answers came from troublefreepool.com.
Click to expand...
This ☝️
For many years I just googled questions & put trouble free pool behind them - then i got wise & just started using the integrated search bar on this site.
 
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All my swimming growing up was in a nearby clear cold creek nothing better. My wife begins to ask after we had 2 baby girls let's get a pool. My answer was if we want to swim, we`ll go to the creek. She kept asking every summer and I kept telling her every pool I`ve ever been in stunk of chlorine, burned my eyes, and made my skin feel dry and scaly.
So, 2010 I cave in buy a pool with the promise they would all help lol....... After 3 years of using the ionizer, we got with our pool which turned Green before the end of swim season. I was ready to tear the pool down and regain the yard space.
My wife talked me out of it. We had wedding cake steps that came with our pool which came with sandbags to hold steps down which leaked sand all the time. I did a google search how to hold down wedding cake steps which brought me to a TFP thread. In this thread a TFP`er used 3" PVC with concrete and glued capped ends roughly 24" to hold steps in place.
Now I had a fix for the steps, and I begin reading the whole winter of 2012 pool school, pool chemistry, and new threads old threads everything I could to educate myself about TFP care of a pool.
I bought TFT 100 Test Kit and as of 2013 swim season till now we have had a crystal clear, and property sanitized pool. I1ve never had to SLAM our pool I completely know how to if ever need be. I truly appreciate this forum, the TFP way of pool care, the members are awesome people. I have several friends that embraced TFP philosophy and teaching I pounded in their head and are very happy TFP`er.
 
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About 10yrs ago I was trying to figure out how to not have to dump my tiny puddle every week. The internet kept pointing me here - the info made the most sense & was backed up by many on the pool & spa forum (or whichever one it is). I did my first slam with diluted oto results from a 6way hth kit - my husband thought I was nuts. “Every one else just uses tablets why do u believe strangers on the internet?” It was still a while before I got a real kit because they costed more than I paid for my little discount pool so it was hard to justify. Over the years I upgraded pool sizes gradually & when i got a 5000 gal pool I ordered the tf100 like a big girl. It was refreshing for me to see that here EVERY pool mattered. Big or small - every one gets help, even people like me, on a shoestring budget with hand me down equipment & no clue - not just people with grottos & a pool service.
As far as the pool stores around me were concerned, I didn’t even have a pool worth worrying about. This forum is an extremely valuable resource for temporary pool owners to be able to repair, maintain, & modify their pools practically & on a budget.
 
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One of the 2 builders we were considering installed the Frog system and I wanted to do research on it. While researching I kept coming across posts from here and started reading.....all of them. From there it went into everything, just kept reading and reading. Really glad I found this site otherwise I'd probably be on the struggle bus being driven by that stupid amphibian.
 
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For me, I bought a house that came with a pool. I knew nothing about pools other than they take work to maintain. So I thought I should learn before I ended up with a green mess or toxic chemical dump from my own ignorance. I fumbled along for a few months reading what I could find online, asking questions at various pool stores and generally annoying the heck out of anyone I ran across that had a pool. TFP just plain made sense to me when not much else did. The best part about that is that sense came from average homeowners. Didn't matter if it was a fairly new pool owner or a seasoned veteran, the advise was the same. Do this and it works with very little effort. The science is there and it's backed with real world experience. Beats all the "well yeah but um" stuff at the pool store. Thankfully, I didn't get "pool stored" and I very gratefully got TFP'd.
 
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