How do you get your spouse away from the pool store?

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cryssie

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Jun 25, 2010
1
First off, thank you for all your advice. I have learned so much. I have a Chem background so all this makes sense to me and I so understand it. However, my hubster thinks that the pool store is god. He left the pool stuff to me after he got frustrated and his workload increased. I found and read your site and was in the midst of shocking our pool at the levels you were talking about and all I needed was to get my PH back up. We were on the way to a glorious blue pool.

He freaked out and ran off to the pool store which gave him the whole speal that the bleach is evil and raises phosphates in the pool and we needed to keep using stuff that of course all has stabilizer in it . I was dealing already with a high CYA for having SWG and not wanting it to go higher then that. I was happily shocking it at a 15... which of course the pool store some reason FREAKED out that the chlorine levels were to high.

They gave him some stuff for the filter and he HAD to buy the expensive PH UP stuff because he believed them all song and dance. Doing it the "homemade" way will add more phosphates to our "dangerously high" levels and that is what was causing the issue or so told the pool store.

Baloney, it was our low PH, High CYA, and not shocked enough at a high level for our CYA numbers to kill all the alague. He now thinks the pool store saved the day and I know it was going to turn blue (it was already turning) by the shock treatment I did.

HELP! How do I keep him away?
 
Welcome to TFP!

Bleach contain phosphates???? What will they come up with next. Bleach is water, salt, HOCl, and trace amounts of lye. There aren't any phosphates in any of those things (not that it would matter if there were). Of course, that won't necessarily convince someone who doesn't know any chemistry.
 
I feel for you, but unfortunately I have no advice. You could tell to read here some but if he's dead set on the pool store he probably won't listen anyway. You could start by telling him to find anywhere except the pool store that says bleach (not detergent) has phosphates.
 
I think I would ask him to next time let you handle it and just see what happens. If he must go to the pool store he is only allowed to buy liquid chlorine and then you can show him that the ingredients on that bottle and your chlorox bottle are the same, and why would they sell that if it wasn't safe?

If he won't go for that.. ask him to do some reading here. Show him pool school and some of the pools that were turned from swamps to sparkly.

If he doesn't have the time to devote to it right now at least you will be doing most of the maintenance and hopefully he won't keep adding too many things that make you chase your tail.
 
Ask him to simply give you 2 weeks of doing it the BBB way. When your time is up he can see how the water looks and even take a sample to the pool store for testing if he'd like. I guarantee you he will be pleased with the results.
 
Maybe I'm just meaner than most people...

I'd tell him, do the pool or let me do the pool. Too many cooks spoil the soup and all that. Let it turn into a green slimey money pit. Then say, "Okay, genius, now that you've &%$#ed it all up, are you going to keep your nose out of it?" You may never get to use the pool all summer, but sometimes you have to stand your ground.
 

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twoolley said:
Marketing is so important, and packaging is everything!
Click to expand...

That is so true!

Pay him! Find out how much he spends in the pool store a month and pay him 50% of that to stay out of the pool store. Money talks!
For me it wouldnt even be about BBB at this point. It would be about spending the wasted pool store money on better things. Fishing gear, video games, gadgets or what ever he's into.
You could also break out the bank statements and show him how much the pool store method is costing. I know with our online banking we can pin point the merchant and see how much we've spent there all the way up to a couple years back.
 
I agree with Samantha. When I first told my wife about the BBB method she was skeptical. I told her give me two weeks. Let's price compare what it costs this way vs buying a bucket of pucks. 3 years later, I sometimes have to do a double take looking at my water because it is so clear it almost looks like the pool is empty :lol:

Needless to say about once a year I get a small bit of algae growth due to not keeping up with my chlorine levels. I use the pool calc to add enough bleach to raise the chlorine to shock levels accordingly to my CYA and in a few hours life is grand. $5 worth of bleach compared to several bags of shock, algae remover, and who knows what else the pool store would sell me. :roll:
 
I agree with Richard. Your husband must assume that the pool store employees people that are knowledgeable in pool care. In our pool store they are just High School students texting on their "crackberrys". While the owner maybe knowledgeable he is biased in that the more chemicals he sells you the more money he makes. He probably is just giving your the same sales pitch he was told by his suppliers.
 
It amazes me how too many of the pool store employees are teenagers. Inexpensive help, but not adequately trained. I'm surprised pool stores don't sued often for someone getting hurt due to the wrong advice w/chemical use. I would be fearful of that if I was a store owner that didn't take better control of testing and suggestions for customers than most pool stores provide.
 
Suziqzer said:
It amazes me how too many of the pool store employees are teenagers. Inexpensive help, but not adequately trained. I'm surprised pool stores don't sued often for someone getting hurt due to the wrong advice w/chemical use. I would be fearful of that if I was a store owner that didn't take better control of testing and suggestions for customers than most pool stores provide.
Click to expand...

Way too many "variables" to render any form of litigation.
 
thepiratemorgan.. you're probably right. I guess I just have a different concience and would be wary of giving inadequate results and information to people. It would be my luck that someone would find a way to prove pool owner negligence or something like that... even with the best of intentions.
 
cryssie said:
First off, thank you for all your advice. I have learned so much. I have a Chem background so all this makes sense to me and I so understand it. However, my hubster thinks that the pool store is god. He left the pool stuff to me after he got frustrated and his workload increased. I found and read your site and was in the midst of shocking our pool at the levels you were talking about and all I needed was to get my PH back up. We were on the way to a glorious blue pool.

He freaked out and ran off to the pool store which gave him the whole speal that the bleach is evil and raises phosphates in the pool and we needed to keep using stuff that of course all has stabilizer in it . I was dealing already with a high CYA for having SWG and not wanting it to go higher then that. I was happily shocking it at a 15... which of course the pool store some reason FREAKED out that the chlorine levels were to high.

They gave him some stuff for the filter and he HAD to buy the expensive PH UP stuff because he believed them all song and dance. Doing it the "homemade" way will add more phosphates to our "dangerously high" levels and that is what was causing the issue or so told the pool store.

Baloney, it was our low PH, High CYA, and not shocked enough at a high level for our CYA numbers to kill all the alague. He now thinks the pool store saved the day and I know it was going to turn blue (it was already turning) by the shock treatment I did.

HELP! How do I keep him away?
Click to expand...

Cryssie,

What kind of test kit do you use?

I am worried that you don't have either the TF-100 or the Taylor K2006 and that you are having your water tested at the pool store? I hope I'm wrong, but I sense that if you had your own kicking test kit you'd have evidence right there at home with which to convince DH.

As for DHs and pool stores, mine can't be happy with only BBB. There has to be cellulose and whatever that other stuff is that's made out of the little sea creatures (not DE, the other stuff...), plus whatever other "extra" stuff he can put in the water "to make him happy". :roll:

There's no saving money in our house.

Lana
 
If you haven't seen it already, you might take a look at this post that gives references that show the chemical content of various grocery/hardware store products. Note the links from Clorox on the use of Clorox bleach for swimming pools. You might also take a look at this post and its references for scientific support for some of what is taught on this forum. This latter more technical info might not be useful to show your husband, but will give you information for you to feel confident in your position.
 
I feel your pain. I went out of town for almost a 2 week trek right around the time the pool was greying out and starting to clear. I called my wife and asked how it looked (left instructions) and was told it looked pretty good. Nice healthy green. I about **** myself.

I told her to come here and post for advice. She posted and then quickly abandoned the post because of all the nonsense the pool store guys told her. What's ironic about that is the same dummy is the guy who helped me waste more than 2 weeks until I found this site and actually figured out what is going on.

When I came home she basically told me, "I don't see why you have to do something different than everyone else we know. There's two schools of thought on this, you know."

I was kind of irritated and I said, "Yeah, a site with dozens of professional contributors and a plan of attack that is chemically viable, and all your little friends who couldn't give you the chemical formula for salt, exacerbated by an idiot pool guy."

As you can imagine this was an abrubt end to that conversation but she got the point and my pool is now beautiful, very stable, and I am at a place where I can bring the borates up without worrying about Cl or pH getting out of hand.

I am sure someone else said this but if you don't have one, get a TF test kit. Compare what you get to what the pool store gets. You will find variance and I am of the personal position that given variance in any test like that, I would rather live with my own than someone else's because if I get a test that is out of whack I can retest.

Lastly, what I did was forward BBB for beginners to my wife for her to read. She emailed back, OK I get it.

We haven't had a conversation about it since.
 

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