Good Pool Store Story

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I know all the horror stories of getting pool stored and I have not been a stranger to that.......went to one local pool store that sells Bioguard products and they tried to sell me 2-3 hundred dollars worth of products to fix my already clean, sparkly pool, needless to say I have never gone back there......and going into my local Leslies, I have watched as people who are completely clueless just without a blink of an eye, just buy and buy and buy and never seem to get that sparkly pool that most of us here on TFP have, but never question what the pool store is telling them..........even though this Leslies does that to the clueless people, from day one I have gone in there, they have never tried to sell me products, maybe telling them my water looks awesome and crystal clear kinda throws them for a loop.......hahaha anyways the manager of this store was helping me figure out the right gasket to get for my underwater light that somehow since we had the pool since last October was filled halfway with water, still managed to work and not trip the breaker.......but anyways the light burnt out finally and we took the light apart to go find the replacement bulb and a new gasket as it was falling apart as we took it off...........it must be an older light as he was having a hard time finding the correct gasket and we had no markings on the light just knew it was a Sta-Rite,....anyways he was looking online and thought he found the right gasket, said it would be $25 bux from him, then proceeded to tell me that in his searches, one came up on Amazon for $10 if I wanted to try that in case is was the wrong one.........I thought that was pretty stand up of him.........turns out it was the right gasket we bought on amazon, got it a day and a half after ordering online and now the light is sealed the correct way and working great............about a week later, my husband noticed we had some tiny holes in our new liner by the ladder.......the pressure of the ladder and everyone using the one in the deep end and it being a bit loose, rubbed against the liner and put some holes in it..........we have the vinyl patch kit and fixed the problem, but the patch is clear and the liner is a dark blue, so it sticks out like a sore thumb.......called the company we ordered the liner from to see if they may have any scrap liner pieces to closely match ours to patch over the patch so it blends in better........well they were no help so off we went to Leslies again..........he was so nice, he had some old sample pieces he saved and let us take the piece from the old samples for free and on top of that, he had some new samples for inground pools that he says they never really sell inground liners because most people do not know exact measurements, so he also let us have the one from those new samples for free also.

Just wanted to say there are some honest people out there working at some of these stores. And wanted to acknowledge what a stand up guy he was to me.

Just in my opinion, I think if you go in there with that clueless look, they know they have you from the beginning....if you go in there, knowing exactly what you need, they tend to leave you alone and not try and sell you the store.
 
It's nice being able to go into a Pool $tore and not be attacked. I have been very fortunate. My LPS is a family run affair with mom and dad, the daughters and the grandkids (and 17 year old doxies) in the store. They always to all of the free water testing with Taylor drops and have always come up with nearly the same values I do. They make mostly single product recommendations for adjustments (pool store brands, but good prices) and they ask if I have any at home that I wanted to use up first. They have the best price on DE anywhere, fair prices on everything else, but they don't stock liquid chlorinator. They also have a large supply of hard to find (often used) parts for all types of stuff. They also have a nice collection of PVC fittings and valves.
 
The one time I took a sample into the local hardware store he told me I had "perfect pool water". He seemed kind of amazed.... Almost a little taken aback.. Told me good job... Keep doing what I am doing... So wanted to tell him about tfp.... But afraid I might not get any more free samples run :-D I think I am going to take another one in tomorrow, just for kicks...also, we have had SO MUCH rain... I cannot get a cya level... Can always still see the dot...curious what their reading will be.... Cl is holding well, so not overly worried about it... Feel like I am getting a sixth sense for how my pool's behaving! :thequeen:
 
Well, I guess my LPS is not completely on-board with what I am doing. We were discussing pools in general and I casually mentioned about the only thing going in to my pool was bleach and it's never looked better. The daughter said "What? Bleach... like bleach", I said "Yes, just plain old bleach". The mom (owner for 30 years) looked incredulous and said "Have you ever had your "Total Dissolved Solids" checked?" I said "No" and repeated its never looked better. We dropped the subject at that point, I was done shopping and they didn't have what I wanted. I know they understand the importance of managing your CYA but I guess I don't how they do it.
 
techguy said:
Well, I guess my LPS is not completely on-board with what I am doing. We were discussing pools in general and I casually mentioned about the only thing going in to my pool was bleach and it's never looked better. The daughter said "What? Bleach... like bleach", I said "Yes, just plain old bleach". The mom (owner for 30 years) looked incredulous and said "Have you ever had your "Total Dissolved Solids" checked?" I said "No" and repeated its never looked better. We dropped the subject at that point, I was done shopping and they didn't have what I wanted. I know they understand the importance of managing your CYA but I guess I don't how they do it.
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It would kind of be funny if you invited them out to see your pool to see if they had any "advice" for you... :wink: or would that be considered cruel? I guess it might be consider disrespectful of their time, but I think some people have to see a BBB pool to believe it :goodjob:
 
6 months of 2 ppm FC per day using chlorinating liquid or bleach raises salt levels (which adds to TDS) by about 600 ppm. If you were to use Trichlor pucks/tabs, then the salt would only go up by 300 ppm, but the CYA would go up by 220 ppm which is far worse than having salt go up by 600 ppm. If you were to use Cal-Hypo, then the CH would go up by at least 250 ppm (and the salt by around 400-500 ppm). Next time someone complains about salt rising from chlorinating liquid or bleach, ask them which they would prefer -- 300 ppm extra salt (above Trichlor or Dichlor) or 220 ppm extra CYA or 250 ppm extra CH? Remind them that saltwater chlorine generator pools typically operate at 3000 ppm salt.
 
There are two Leslie's near me. The one closest to me is quite reputable. When a customer wants to purchase a bucket of granular chlorine (which contains dichlor), they advise them that regular use of that product will raise the CYA which will increase the amount of chlorine needed to sanitize and that if the CYA gets too high, chlorine levels will be impractical to manage thus requiring a partial drain & refill. They have given me good advice in other areas as well, in particular on caring for my Polaris 360.

At another Leslie's a couple of miles down the road, I made the mistake of asking for liquid chlorine. I got the "OMG, are you mad!!! Why would you want to do that?" talk. That was followed up with the TDS lecture.

Same chain, different management (makes a difference). Guess which store gets my business for parts and MA? I would get liquid chlorine there, but no pool store in DFW carries it.

TDS is totally meaningless by itself, as chem geek pointed out above in a bit more detail.
 

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I went to a hardware store that sells pool supplies and asked about cya prices. $13 for 5#. Not bad. Then he proceeds to tell me "you know it will sit on the bottom for a couple of days as it dissolves". I looked at him in horror and spouted off "NOT in MY pool!" Then I told him my cya level and how much more I needed in order to reach the level I wanted and that I put it in a sock hung in front of the return and squeezed it once in a while. He was amazed and told me that I knew more about it than he did!

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