How and why did you find TFP?

[red-beard]

I put the pool in and followed pool store advice, used test strips, etc. for over 10 years. First couple of years I followed the advice of the pool stores and work friends. Gotta keep your phosphorus down. No food, no algae...Lots of pool store chemicals and magic potions. It worked OK for a few years.

Then the Mustard Algae started. What is that brownish stuff in the shadows. Oh Crud. Constant battle. But my numbers are all OK! I had my FC at 1-3 and my ozone generator was working. And I put in a new mineral cartridge every year in the "Pool Frog".

I came across the site around 2018. I read the site and got the "gist". In 2019, I decided to make a go of it and do TFP after suffering with mustard algae for years. I had a bucket of the Devil's pool candy. I needed to get my CYA up, what could it hurt? I drained/refilled my pool and kept using the 3" tablets. I WAY overshot my CYA number in a few months...I didn't want to drain again so I suffered another year.

In 2020, I drained the pool, but this time, I added dry CYA and used LC and Cal-Hypo (to get my CH up) and learned my pool religiously with daily testing. Crystal clear pool. After 4 months, I swapped in a SWG system. Bought a pool robot. And now I'm Trouble-Free and OCD!

 

[PoolStored]

Awww, Laawd...the trauma...you really want to make me relive it?

Bought a house with a pool. Pool was an afterthought. Previous owner had local pool store maintain, so I just hired them to fire it up in spring (bought house in December), and maintain it. Nice guy came out, pool was surprising clear, replace the sand with Zeolite, and he had "reserved" a 25lb pail of pucks (this was in covid, so this was his way of saying "I got you."). Loaded up the chlorinator with pucks and left.

Pool had UV system, but UV had a hole in the Stainless. No fix possible. Told me UV system was necessary, so I paid him $1000 for new UV replacement, which he installed at spring startup.

30 minute drive (round trip) weekly to pool store. Test. Add this, $100. Great. Went on for about 4 weeks, pool was great, then BAM!!! GREEN!

That turned into 30 minute drive daily. Test. Add this, $100. After about a week and a half, with the same chemical result numbers and different chemical recommendations, I thought to myself, "I got an "A" in chemistry, I gotta be able to figure this out."

Floundered around for a couple days googling, resulting in conflicting information. TFP was the ONLY site that had the foundational chemistry. While my chemistry skills were a bit rusty, TFP actually made sense and were transparent (listed the chemical equations!!). I read everything, put my plan together and put my plan out to the TFP universe. I actually asked decent questions in retrospect (LOL). @mknauss was super kind and encouraging. 60% water exchange, 8 day SLAM, 45 gallons of chlorine, and it was all downhill from there.

I think the most positive experience I had was @Newdude haranguing me into buying an SWCG. The SWCG is the best haranguing decision I ever made, followed by the smart stir, robot, and hairnets (added after seeing @Flying Tivo's response).

 

[Flying Tivo]

The Speedstir and hairnets are the holy grail of TFP, followed shortly by the chemistry!

 

[Lake Placid]

Whelp I was lucky. 20ish years ago I reached a point in my professional life where I was responsible to ensure the safe management of commercial bodies of water ranging in size from a quarter million gallons up to 3/4 million gallons of water.

My mentor (in pool management) taught me there were 6 things I needed to manage pool water: Chlorine, Sodium Bicarb, Calcium Chloride, Muriatic Acid, CYA, and a reliable test kit. I had no idea what TFP methods were at the time.

Fast forward many years and after a move for a job, I bought a house with a pool. The google machine brought me here when I was researching odds and ends for the pool. My jaw hit the floor when the methods I had been taught and learned were essentially the same as used here. So I continued to lurk and read because why not, it was like minded peeps that were already “in the know”. It was an acronym that was new to me but a methodology that was as comfortable as a familiar sweatshirt.

 

[Casey]

I've been here since April of 2007. Dang.... it's been like my right arm to oppress algae.

 

[SJPoe]

We bought a house with a pool in August, and a Hot Tub in December, and I was trying to find a decent tracking application for a 'pool diary'. I used to keep one when I kept Saltwater Fish Tanks, and I figured that a pool was just a bigger version of that.

Stumbled across Pool Math - which seemed to be the only app out there that actually worked, and then from there ended up on TFP. The simple, measurement based approach to maintenance, rather than magic potions and snake oil, appealed to the old aquarium keeper in me, and I was sold.

Of course, it's so simple, I really don't even keep a diary now...

 

[DwainK]

We built our pool 2000 and I wanted to learn the best way to care for it without falling for pool industry marketing scams. My research led me to Ben Powel’s website Poolsolutions.com. I still have a folder of printed topics by the Pool Doc. I believe this website is a byproduct of Ben’s philosophy of using store bought chemicals, keeping it simple approach to maintaining your pool.

 

[cledee]

What brought me here is a term called "poolstored" I bought my first house in fall 2018, and got to use the pool for about 5 days in 2019.

 

[PoolStored]

What brought me here is a term called "poolstored"

Somebody called me...? Glad we could help!

 

[Sunnydaze]

Lots of success stories here. Thanks for sharing, everyone!

 

[arff]

Although not my profession for the last 25 years, my original degree was in chemical engineering - which means I know just enough to be opinionated and dangerous! We bought a house with a pool 15 years ago and I have been muddling along by myself and my own filtering of pool store advice. The last two years have been more difficult with heat and algae, and I was increasingly unhappy with the "put more Crud in it" advice I was getting from the "experts" at the various stores, let alone the cost.

I finally got off my behind and did a web search, thereby finding TFP. Very happy to be here.
Basic chemistry is not difficult, but one needs good advice when one does not know, and mostly confidence and validation of those who have been there prior.

The second post I saw on TFP was on the insistence of getting a good testing kit and doing the tests yourself.... that is when I knew I was in the right place for sure.

 

[dfwnoob]

We had just closed on our house when I found TFP. I did NOT want a pool; I was vehemently opposed to a pool. I did not want to deal with taking care of it, or any of the costs involved. Unfortunately for me, the pool came attached to our otherwise dream house, so I was becoming a pool owner whether I liked it or not. I decided well, "if I'm stuck with this hole in the ground that I pour money into, I may as well learn how to take care of it." When I much younger, we had a pool at our house, so I do remember my dad testing the water and occasionally putting chemicals in, and I obviously knew chlorine was a thing. I first found a bunch of supposed "experts" on YouTube talking about pool care and all the levels you need, but all of these people had the personality of a pimple on your backside: extraordinarily annoying. Not only annoying, but not providing any empirical data or even an explanation on why things are done a certain way. In the mean time, it was winter and it was frigid, so the pool just sort of took care of itself. The previous owner loaded the inline with a bunch of pucks and they were doing their job for now.

The day we closed on the house, we met with the owners and I was instructed to take my water to Leslies for weekly testing, and he gave me a bottle of test strips. Okay, fine.. whatever. Well, fortunately, a bad connection in my Aqualink panel led a very loud pop and no pump, which led me to Google, which led me to TFP. I wasn't even trying to find anything about water chemistry. I made a post about the problem I had and kept browsing around and I realized "hey, these are my people! Data! Facts! Logical reasons for doing things!" I ordered my TF-Pro that same night and was on the TFP method from the very beginning. I unloaded the inline and bought some liquid chlorine and the rest is history.

 

[Newdude]

I did NOT want a pool; I was vehemently opposed to a pool. I did not want to deal with taking care of it, or any of the costs involved

Same. Had dozens of friends that went green or cloudy every time it rained. I heard so many stories I could talk 'pool store' never having owned one.

My wife wanted an above ground oval and I was against a pool. So we compromised with a 20X40 inground. I'm pretty sure I got hoodwinked.

 

[FS2019]

At my previous house I had been relying on pool service companies and Leslie's to maintain my pool until 2-3 years ago when the pool turned greenish and didn't respond to the chlorine shock that I threw in. I called the pool service company and they told me the pool was likely "overstablized" and the only way to fix it was to replace the water. That was the first time I heard the term. Tired of blindly following the pool companies or Leslie's, I decided to research on the issue, and boom, I found TFP. I studied chemistry in college, so when I read through Pool School, everything made so much sense and I was instantly converted. Since then I did a partial water exchange to bring CYA down and started using liquid chlorine and muriatic acid as only chemicals for maintenance. Oh, did I mention that I never went back to pool companies nor Leslie's. About a year ago the underground electric conduit for pool pump gave up. With the great help from this forum, I was able to diagnose the problem and put in a new conduit, which was my first ever electric work. Really appreciate the knowledge and willingness to help from everyone here. Now I feel very comfortable maintaining my pool since I know where to get help in case I need any.

 

[kul]

My pool guy was getting sassy (and pricey) and I was afraid I’d somehow break my pool if I did anything myself. I googled around, posted on this forum and suddenly had people wanting to help me even though I was certain I was a lost cause. Slowly and sometimes begrudgingly, I followed the guidance and have been happy to find a place where I can ask and there’s people with way more pool smarts than me who are kind enough to answer.

 

[IceShadow]

Had just bought a house, did research to figure out the best maintenance method (since the house was at the top of our price range and I certainly wasn't going to be able to afford a service). Found TFP and really liked the idea of accurate testing driving known additions to the pool. The daily maintenance didn't bother me much either. My thread is here:

New Member / Owner

Hi everyone! Just bought a new house in April. I live in Wisconsin, so I didn’t open the pool until about three weeks ago. Thought I would share my experiences as a new pool owner, and if anyone is bored enough or entertained enough by my ramblings to get through the read, they could give advice...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[RickRude]

Like so many, I bought a house and it had a pool, and I knew nothing about pool maintenance.
My pool service failed me.
A little bit of knowledge from TFP saved me at the pool store and enabled me to fix my pool.
I've been a Boglehead for years, and when I saw the people there endorsed TFP and equated to the Bogleheads of Pool Care, I was 100% all in.

 

[Deb04]

We put in a pool in 2008. I'm an actuary, so I'm all about data, facts, testing. The motto of the Society of Actuaries is John Ruskin's "The work of science is to substitute facts for appearence and demonstrations for impressions." So, when we got the pool, I wanted to understand what was happening, not just blindly follow rules.

I started googling as water was being put in. I read and read lots of website. This was the only one that made sense to me, not just do x. Going TFP wasn't the easiest thing I ever did, but it certainly wasn't the hardest either. I had a learning curve, but people here got me through it. My pool is beautiful and I credit TFP for allowing my SWG and liner to significantly outlive their life expectancy.

 

[mgtfp]

The Speedstir and hairnets are the holy grail of TFP, followed shortly by the chemistry!

I agree on Speedstir and chemistry. But when it gets to skimming, I'd give holy grail status to @Texas Splash 's paint strainer bags.

 

[Nikilyn]

We built a pool o/b style back in 2006. I was a part of a swimming pool forum on GardenWeb. Two moves later, in 2018, we were ready to build a pool again. Since GardenWeb was no more I searched to find a new forum and found this one. We ended up not being able to build it then but were finally able to start in 2020 with so many other people. I came back here to get my head back in the o/b mode and here I’ve stayed.