I just left Leslie Pool Supply after a 30 minute debate with a clueless employee.
I mainly only buy acid and toys when they go on sale as they are down the street from my house. A guy came into the store with a picture of a pool that was slimy green, that he was reopening. So I overhear the girl (employee) tell him that he needs to increase his CYA with more stabilizer, Raise his PH with PHup, purchase 5 bags of yellow out, also purchase an algaecide and a bunch of bottles of phosfree. Wow, this is going to go well.
As he went to get an algaecide, I made my way to the back aisle with him and mentioned if he had heard of shocking the pool and maintaining the shock level until his pool was clean. He clearly didn't understand what I meant so I first referred him to this site (Chow - I hope you make it here). Off the top of my head his test sample showed CYA = 70 (not sure I trust any results ran by that lady), PH = 8, CH = 370, Phospates ~ 200, TA ~ 170, FC and TC = 10. I asked him how long did he add any type of sanitizer (bleach, dichlor, triclor, cal-hypo) and he hadn't. I then asked him what did he use in the past and he didn't know (might have been his mom's pool). I then told him that there were too many variables including their testing BUT he obviously needed to add a bunch of bleach. Top of my head for him to shock (17,000 gallon pool which is half the size of mine) CYA of 70 (which I don't believe) would be 28ppm or about 9 - 10 jugs of Walmart bleach across the street. I then told him that he's going to need to maintain this level until the pool is blue. Plus keep cleaning the filter every few hours and vacuum any waste.
The employee heard me mentioning bleach and she says out loud, "you should never put bleach into a pool". I was like, "excuse me"? She then went on a long diatribe, all of which was very wrong as she kept reading off the analysis report all that he needed to purchase. I then asked her several questions that made her own analysis look stupid. I then politely mentioned that I was an engineer that maintained water chemistry in a nuclear plant but we all have our own opinions. I told him to save his money to buy a bunch of bleach which she was obviously upset that he put back the $300+ of stuff she was touting. Hopefully, he makes his way to these forums and educate himself.
I really feel for anyone that goes into pool stores without basic knowledge.
I mainly only buy acid and toys when they go on sale as they are down the street from my house. A guy came into the store with a picture of a pool that was slimy green, that he was reopening. So I overhear the girl (employee) tell him that he needs to increase his CYA with more stabilizer, Raise his PH with PHup, purchase 5 bags of yellow out, also purchase an algaecide and a bunch of bottles of phosfree. Wow, this is going to go well.
As he went to get an algaecide, I made my way to the back aisle with him and mentioned if he had heard of shocking the pool and maintaining the shock level until his pool was clean. He clearly didn't understand what I meant so I first referred him to this site (Chow - I hope you make it here). Off the top of my head his test sample showed CYA = 70 (not sure I trust any results ran by that lady), PH = 8, CH = 370, Phospates ~ 200, TA ~ 170, FC and TC = 10. I asked him how long did he add any type of sanitizer (bleach, dichlor, triclor, cal-hypo) and he hadn't. I then asked him what did he use in the past and he didn't know (might have been his mom's pool). I then told him that there were too many variables including their testing BUT he obviously needed to add a bunch of bleach. Top of my head for him to shock (17,000 gallon pool which is half the size of mine) CYA of 70 (which I don't believe) would be 28ppm or about 9 - 10 jugs of Walmart bleach across the street. I then told him that he's going to need to maintain this level until the pool is blue. Plus keep cleaning the filter every few hours and vacuum any waste.
The employee heard me mentioning bleach and she says out loud, "you should never put bleach into a pool". I was like, "excuse me"? She then went on a long diatribe, all of which was very wrong as she kept reading off the analysis report all that he needed to purchase. I then asked her several questions that made her own analysis look stupid. I then politely mentioned that I was an engineer that maintained water chemistry in a nuclear plant but we all have our own opinions. I told him to save his money to buy a bunch of bleach which she was obviously upset that he put back the $300+ of stuff she was touting. Hopefully, he makes his way to these forums and educate himself.
I really feel for anyone that goes into pool stores without basic knowledge.