Pool Guy Quotes

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nlindelldc

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LifeTime Supporter
Mar 21, 2015
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Corpus Christi, Texas
I employed a "Pool Guy" yesterday to install my Hayward SWG. And although he did an okay job, most of the stuff that was coming out of his mouth was pure gibberish. I consider myself a TFP expert so I let it go in one ear and out of the other, but I still can't believe that someone who does this for a living still spouts some of this nonsense.

In retropsect, this could be a somewhat humorous thread.

Anyway, here are a few of the things he said yesterday while he worked I picked his brain.

1. "Yours is an unusual situation. Usually I am removing an SWG and replacing it with an inline chlorinator"

2. "You will probably want to switch back someday also, so I'd recommend you save your chlorinator"

3. "You need a sand filter"

4. "Full automation is great. I can tweak customers' pools with my phone" (In direct contrast to #1 and #2)

5. "SWG cells don't usually last more than a year"


Those are the ones off the top of my head anyway. Had me shaking mine
 
ohhh my, blast from the past :)

when he is leaving you say "have a nice day, please forget my name and address" :)
 
In fairness, he has probably seen 1,2, and 5 come true often. People have no idea how to balance their water, are constantly hitting the boost button on the chlorinator, get scaling on the plates and ruin them a year in, etc. I could easily see those things being true to the average person who doesn't even realize they still have a chlorine pool.

Luckily, you have TFP and will likely get many many years of use out of your cell.

From my HTC One via Tapatalk
 
I have a few from the short time before I found TFP...

Pool guy shows me his K2005c, "Now this is way too expensive and complicated for you. You need to be using test strips."

Sees my FC at 4 (does not check CYA) "wow this isn't safe at all, you are going to ruin your equipmeny and get rashes"

"pH doesn't make a difference, it's the TA that matters"
 
I actually had a pool "expert" tell me that here in Arizona you HAVE to use cal-hypo for chlorination as it is the best option. When I responded with the question - "But cal-hypo has calcium in it, wouldn't that raise the water calcium hardness too fast?" He replied that the calcium in the cal-hypo doesn't get dissolved in the water and so there's no impact on the CH. His reasoning for this was that the cloudiness induced by adding cal-hypo is proof that the water can't hold the calcium and that it simply gets filtered out. So you get all the chlorine but no calcium.

I just stared blankly at him, blinking my eye and nodding my head and let him go on his merry way....
 
A couple of things I heard in store.....
Salesman to customer ".....I am sorry you are still having a green pool with the brand new sand filter we sold you. You must have gotten an old batch of sand. But because you are a great customer I will give you a $20 discount on the labour to replace your sand. You cant do it yourself its a very technical job. We only need to do it once a year........"

- - - Updated - - -

Customer to saleslady "We just got a pool, what chemicals do we need?"
Saleslady "Umm, not sure. On the safe side maybe you should buy 1 of each. You will use them all eventually and they dont go off"
 
I guess the one that I remember the most is, when I mentioned using Bleach to dose FC;

"Bleach? Never use that, especially in Texas with the amount of sun on the pool. The Bleach will boil on the surface of the water."

Well, since switching to TFP methods a couple of years ago, I have yet to see this boiling phenomenon occur :D .

I've added Bleach in the middle of the day and haven't seen any issues with it although I switched to dosing in late afternoon, after the sun no longer directly shines on my pool water.
 
This thread is pretty amusing already. I have to say that I am loving my SWG already. Even with the heat wave we're having my FC is staying rock solid. I feel like I'm cheating the system and being lazy not having to add bleach every day. I just keep testing and everything is holding nicely.
 

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I remember reading about using bleach, and was like, why not??? so i asked the pool people the beginning of last year, and they said... it doesn't have all the stabilizers and burns off to quickly to be worth it...

I listened.... of course... now I know better...
 
Puppiesonacid said:
it doesn't have all the stabilizers and burns off to quickly ...
Click to expand...

To be fair, this ^^^ statement in and of itself is 100% true. He just left out an important preface to that sentence. The more detailed (and proper response) would have been:

Bleach is perfectly fine to use as long as you are maintaining proper CYA levels as bleach alone doesn't have all the stabilizers and burns off to quickly.

Instead of selling a bucket of pucks, he can sell you some stabilizer while actually working with you and not against.
 
I once had a good experience at the pool store. It was a Leslie's and there was and older gentlemen that worked there, knew what he was talking about and offered good advice. After buying our house and the pool that came with it in spring, a couple of weeks before my twins were born (yes, we moved when my wife was 9 mos. pregnant with twins...) I think once we went into escrow the previous owner turned off the pump to save $$$. :thumbdown: In late spring I was on paternity leave and decided to tackle the pool. took a water sample to the store and told him what the pool looked like: green, full of leaves. He tested the water, asked how old it was (I'm sure assuming a steady diet of pucks for 5 years) and told me I would be better off draining and filling. I'd spend more on chems and labor and still struggle to keep it balanced. I got the re-fill done with non summer rates. (no water restrictions in So-Cal at the time). There's actually another pool store owner (one man shop) here in town that is honest and helpful but he is just too expensive.

Now, on to my pool guy experience. Son comes to the house and evaluates the green pool, says "This is no big deal, we'll have this cleared up in a couple of weeks". Adds some chems. I told him CYA is high, filter plugs up easy when it's green. Didn't seem to care.

Back one week later, adds chems and brushes. Never saw the bottom again until I drained. During that time he left me an invoice with a note that said, "Everything looks good." It was green, green, green. My wife calls, he says, "... as long as it's not dark green" She says, "It is dark green!". He says, "The chemicals need time to work."

Never does anything with the filter, which is barely moving water. I fire the pool guy. Dad (owner) emails and asks why. I say the pool looks worse then if ever has. You have no plan and arne't telling me anything. He replies. Tells me they gave it their best shot. The were doing the right things (added 10lbs of powder at one point). My pool is way over conditioned and pools in my condition can be hard to get back. I'm going to need to drain at least 3/4 of the water...

Really??? Your son told me 'No big deal' 'Couple of weeks'. I told him about the high CYA. If I was going to need to drain why did we waste 5 weeks at $95 a month screwing around and adding chems that were just increasing the 'over conditioned' problem.

Never looking back... Thanks TFP!
 
mikemass said:
To be fair, this ^^^ statement in and of itself is 100% true. He just left out an important preface to that sentence. The more detailed (and proper response) would have been:

Bleach is perfectly fine to use as long as you are maintaining proper CYA levels as bleach alone doesn't have all the stabilizers and burns off to quickly.

Instead of selling a bucket of pucks, he can sell you some stabilizer while actually working with you and not against.
Click to expand...

But the buckets of pucks have very very high profit margin.... Hence the pool store mentality that your pool will be a swamp without pucks.

Somewhat in their defense, many pool owners don't have the motivation or the time to care for their pool properly. They also don't have the money to pay for a weekly service. Therefore, when the pool is cloudy on the weekend, they end up in the pool store and get "sold" everything under the sun.
 
I hear you and agree. I have no knowledge or opinion as to which products in a pool store have a greater profit margin. If you say it's Stabilized CL pucks, I believe you.

But from my point of view as a consumer, my point was that I would be a happier customer (and most likely a returning one) if he worked with me and my beliefs. I would gladly buy his $20 stabilizer vs the exact same product at WalMart's for $15 for a little "expert" knowledge and discussion. He would deserve the business in that scenario. Maybe the stabilizer doesn't have the margins that pucks do. But in the case of this one customer it would be a matter of making something off me rather than zero.
 
The family owned/run pool store I used to go to oddly enough would recommend partial drains / refills if cya was over 100.

They had reasonable prices on chemicals and reagents but their service guy was the biggest flake.

Did some pvc repairs and had to come back twice to fix his work (pump would lose prime over night) and when
I had him check for the leak at the multiport valve junction he told me I needed an entirely new valve
then never returned any of my calls.

This other place came in to fix the leak...there was zero glue/dope on the pipe going into the valve! new pool story repair guy had it fixed quickly.

and last another co that did the home purchase pool inspection, guy told me the 3/4 hp (1.25 SF) motor was insufficient for
the existing solar heating....thankfully Mark (mas985) informed me it would work just fine and it did.
 
Puppiesonacid said:
I remember reading about using bleach, and was like, why not??? so i asked the pool people the beginning of last year, and they said... it doesn't have all the stabilizers...
Click to expand...
Yes, that's the point!

Apparently the method is popular around here- later in the summer store brand bleach is scarce. Sometimes I have to buy the name brand, but at least it's cheaper than an envelope of shock every couple of weeks.
 
Before doing TFP, I did have the pool store tell me that there was too much CYA in the pool, and even told me that it was because all the pucks have CYA in them. When I asked if I could buy chlorine that didn't add CYA, he told me that such a product didn't exist for residential owners, just for commercial applications.

I've heard other folks in the store asking them about bleach and the stock answer is "It's not recommended". No explanation of why, or even who is not doing the recommending.
 
"I'm from the pool store and I'm here to help."

In all fairness, the PS where I get my MA & 12.5% CL has never attempted to talk me into buying any magic potions. One employee even told me using liquid chlorine would work the best as long as I tested more frequently than once a week. Now he knows I have a "fancy" testkit and check levels every day or two.
 

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