My Daughter the Pool Snob

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GearHead36

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Jun 18, 2015
85
Madison, AL
Actually, it's "My Family the Pool Snobs", but it was an incident with my daughter that brought this to my attention.

This weekend, she was invited to a pool party with the youth group at church. The party was at a pool in a subdivision. We pick her up from the party, and she doesn't mention anything about the pool. Last night, we all went in our pool for the evening, and it was then that she made some of these comments:
"The pool at that party didn't look quite right. It looked green. My hand looked green in the pool. And I could hardly see my foot in the water. It was cloudy, and I was thinking, is that algae?" She mentioned to her friends that our pool is much clearer, and how we maintain it with bleach. Ignorant friends pipe in about how you can't do it that way. She defends our use of bleach. She also mentioned to us that one of her friends complained about her eyes burning, and my daughter told her, "The chemical levels are probably off." Then the thought hit her (my daughter), OH NO!! I SOUND JUST LIKE MY DAD!!!!! :D:grin::grin::grin:

After discussing this a bit, and noticing how neat the moonlight looked on the bottom of our pool (something I've never noticed in a public pool), we concluded that it's possible that none of us will ever be satisfied again with a public pool. We'll probably have to take our test kit with us on our next vacation. Please tell me that we're not the only ones to do this.
 
You're not alone... my 6 year old said the same sort of things after coming home from a birthday party that was at a pool at a local hotel. Eyes were puffy red and said "Dad, I don't want to have my birthday at that pool. Let's do my birthday in July at our nice pool." His birthday is in March... He always want to watch me "do the chemicals" in the evening at home.

The clinical term is sparklypoolitis. Combochlorophobia and poolstoriaphobia are also very common.
 
lol, I do the same thing. I went to my buddys house for a party. his pool is actually pretty clear but does have a green hue to it, probably from copper. I went around the side of his house to check out his equipment. he has a saltwater setup as well, but it had an inline chlorinator plumbed in as well and its running. I just shook my head. I don't say anything though, people tend to want to stick to what they know and aren't open to change a lot.
 
Yup...I Googled "Fecal Coliform Bacteria" once and thought to myself, "I will never swim in a public pool again...."
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Yup...I Googled "Fecal Coliform Bacteria" once and thought to myself, "I will never swim in a public pool again...."
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probably not an issue being that public pools typically are over chlorinated and have zero CYA. bacteria are killed pretty quick in pool water. virus can take longer but bacteria is pretty quick (i.e. 1 minute for e coli). see link from CDC based on a pool with 1ppm chlorine: CDC - Chlorine Disinfection Timetable - Pools Recreational Water - Healthy Water

as you can see, the bigger issue is parasites.
 
I'm seeing myself in these posts too. I never say anything, but I'm awfully judgey when it comes to other pools, especially public ones.
And forget about mentioning bleach. There's a company that makes 12% bleach for pools, but somehow my 8.25% is going to ruin mine? Sure it is. Sheesh
6 Yr old granddaughter helps me test. Hands me the right chemicals, starts the speed stir, puts the dippers in for Chlorine test etc. Not a word needs to be spoken. Kids are way smarter than some adults!

So what if we are snobs, at least I can see a spec of dirt at the bottom of my pool. Even without my glasses! :p
 

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JVTrain said:
Most times when I go to my neighbors pool, my kit comes with. More because I'm their unofficial pool consultant who officially gets paid in beer.
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OK, THAT would be a cool arrangement. Hey, pick me! pick me! I'll do pool tests for beer! :-D

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Newpoolcrazy said:
So what if we are snobs, at least I can see a spec of dirt at the bottom of my pool. Even without my glasses! :p
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That's IS a drawback. When we first looked at the pool, I didn't think much about the liner. Now that we have it crystal clear, ALL the defects just pop right out.
 
GearHead36 said:
OK, THAT would be a cool arrangement. Hey, pick me! pick me! I'll do pool tests for beer! :-D

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That's IS a drawback. When we first looked at the pool, I didn't think much about the liner. Now that we have it crystal clear, ALL the defects just pop right out.
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Agreed, beer for testing is very fair compensation.

And yes, TFP feeds my OCD!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Newpoolcrazy said:
There's a company that makes 12% bleach for pools, but somehow my 8.25% is going to ruin mine?
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majority of people are ignorant of basic chemistry unfortunately. its too much to actually read and understand that bleach and chlorine are the same thing. this country has a fear of science and chemistry it seems. need proof? just read your friends posts on facebook. so much misinformation and lack of basic understanding. its sad really
 
DaninFLA said:
majority of people are ignorant of basic chemistry unfortunately. its too much to actually read and understand that bleach and chlorine are the same thing. this country has a fear of science and chemistry it seems. need proof? just read your friends posts on facebook. so much misinformation and lack of basic understanding. its sad really
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Hey, I always considered myself a dullard when it came to chemistry and math, but even this stuff is obvious to me. As for Facebook, it sounds like we have similar newsfeeds. It would be hilarious if it weren't so scary.

And like zea3 says, I never say "bleach" in public. Like Chlorine is different than bleach....yeah that's the ticket. Ugh!
 
This is funny. My kids are the same. They get invited to people's pools and in a few cases they are like "Nah, thanks, I'm good." And then they tell me the pool is dirty, smells or they think the chemicals are out of whack. My youngest told me yesterday that his friends tell him they love swimming in our pool because it's always warm, sparkling clean and they don't smell when they get out!
 
We put our pool in three years ago. My two nieces and nephew were members of a small country club so they could swim. After their first visit to our house for swim day they called the next day and asked if they could swim every weekend. I told them of course they could and asked why. They said that our water was so clear that they never wanted to swim at the club again. They promptly quit the club. I tell a lot of people about this site and the TFP methods but it mostly seems to fall on deaf ears. Their loss, not mine.
 
We just started using the methods here this year and was telling a friend of our about how simple it was. Well the friend just happens to be one of the know it all types (dont judge we all have that one friend) and started in about how we need this and that and all these chemicals. Said know it all came over and saw a sparkling clean pool but just wouldnt admit they were wrong and started in with it must have just been filled and there is no way the chlorine level is right because there is no smell and blah blah blah. Then they went on to lecture me about how i need to bring a sample of water to the pool store every week and do exactly as they tell me or my pool will turn into a green swamp in a week. Is it sad that i cant wait for them to get a pool and have issues so i can fix it the cheap and easy way?
 
that story is why I don't even mention TFP to many people honestly. people don't want to actually learn anything about how things work. they want to buy chemicals for their pool from a pool store, and they want their chemicals to say "pool" on them and they want a pool store "expert" to do the testing and make recommendations. it might be confusing to people when they first come here, but after a week or two, most people will "get" it and realize just how simple this method is. its not brain surgery here...you use chlorine/bleach to kill algae and bacteria. its good enough for the County/City water plant people, but for some reason not good enough for pool people in general. of course they probably don't realize the water plant is putting bleach/chlorine into their drinking water either, lol.
 

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