I felt like I had to share my story from the last week as it demonstrated to me the lack of reliability you get from a tech at the typical “Pool Store.”
First, we’ve had our first ever pool for a total of 3 months so I’m still learning about pools and equipment in general and still learning how to perform and trust the results of my own water analysis with my Taylor 2006 kit. So, every other week or so I was running a water sample up to the well-known pool store under the idea that I’d get those more experienced folks to tell me how my numbers were also.
Here’s the story:
· June 9th the pool store tells me I have 2.4 ppm of free chlorine in the pool with a CYA of 30 and suggests I put 2 pounds of stabilizer in the pool which I do.
· June 17th the pool store tells me I have 0 ppm of free chlorine and a CYA of 100. Because once before - when I had accidently turned the chlorinator off - I was low on chlorine I was able to get the chlorine level back up fast using super chlorinate for 24 hours so I decided this time to jack up the chlorinator to get the chlorine back up.
· From June 17th through June 23rd I’m puzzled daily when despite the chlorinator being increased I’m making no progress on chlorine production and even asking the pool builder to check to make sure the salt cell it working correctly.
· June 23rd, after my chlorine level – per my testing - went from 1.4 on June 22nd to 0 on June 23rd I decide to take another water sample to the pool store who confirms I have 0 free chlorine and tells me I have 10 CYA to which I tell them that just 6 days ago you said I had 100 CYA. The owner comes out and says there is no way you went from 100 CYA on the 17th to 10 CYA in just six days, looks in the computer and verifies that was what they said, and proceeds to tell me one of his guys basically screwed up and is going to address the issue with the employee. Of course, I then get the recommendation to buy a bag of stabilizer and 3 bags of shock to get the pool back to where it would have been if I hadn’t been given a false CYA of 100.
While I’m glad things seem to make sense now as to why the chlorine was disappearing and the chlorinator could not keep up to produce enough chlorine, I also learned what a lot of people seem to say – the idea that the pool store folks work in a pool store doesn’t make them experienced or even accurate.
With time and experience I’ll begin to trust my own pool testing readings. But even with my limited experience I’m not going into the pool store anymore with the idea that they can tell me if my numbers are right – I’m going to go into the pool store as an occasional double check with the mindset that my numbers are right. Lessoned learned.
First, we’ve had our first ever pool for a total of 3 months so I’m still learning about pools and equipment in general and still learning how to perform and trust the results of my own water analysis with my Taylor 2006 kit. So, every other week or so I was running a water sample up to the well-known pool store under the idea that I’d get those more experienced folks to tell me how my numbers were also.
Here’s the story:
· June 9th the pool store tells me I have 2.4 ppm of free chlorine in the pool with a CYA of 30 and suggests I put 2 pounds of stabilizer in the pool which I do.
· June 17th the pool store tells me I have 0 ppm of free chlorine and a CYA of 100. Because once before - when I had accidently turned the chlorinator off - I was low on chlorine I was able to get the chlorine level back up fast using super chlorinate for 24 hours so I decided this time to jack up the chlorinator to get the chlorine back up.
· From June 17th through June 23rd I’m puzzled daily when despite the chlorinator being increased I’m making no progress on chlorine production and even asking the pool builder to check to make sure the salt cell it working correctly.
· June 23rd, after my chlorine level – per my testing - went from 1.4 on June 22nd to 0 on June 23rd I decide to take another water sample to the pool store who confirms I have 0 free chlorine and tells me I have 10 CYA to which I tell them that just 6 days ago you said I had 100 CYA. The owner comes out and says there is no way you went from 100 CYA on the 17th to 10 CYA in just six days, looks in the computer and verifies that was what they said, and proceeds to tell me one of his guys basically screwed up and is going to address the issue with the employee. Of course, I then get the recommendation to buy a bag of stabilizer and 3 bags of shock to get the pool back to where it would have been if I hadn’t been given a false CYA of 100.
While I’m glad things seem to make sense now as to why the chlorine was disappearing and the chlorinator could not keep up to produce enough chlorine, I also learned what a lot of people seem to say – the idea that the pool store folks work in a pool store doesn’t make them experienced or even accurate.
With time and experience I’ll begin to trust my own pool testing readings. But even with my limited experience I’m not going into the pool store anymore with the idea that they can tell me if my numbers are right – I’m going to go into the pool store as an occasional double check with the mindset that my numbers are right. Lessoned learned.
