self-maintenance vs. pool guy

[ThirstyFish]

I've been maintaining a crystal clear pool for one year now thanks to TFP! I add liquid chlorine to my pool every 1-2 days and muriatic acid every 2-3 days. Chlorine tabs only when I'm out of town for more than 3 days. My question is: How is a pool guy's WEEKLY care different from my DAILY care? Is he adding more chemicals that allow the pool to sustain itself for 7days? The time I spend tending to my pool is not much, but it is frequent. I'm happy to be saving money by not having to hire out maintenance but I'm wondering what they do differently. Thank you!

 

[Newdude]

He is performing 'dump and pray' once a week. If he adds enough FC, there may be some left next time. You are adding a percision dose, as needed, in little bits at a time.

 

[mknauss]

A good read -- Phasing out the Pool Guy - Further Reading

 

[Holydoc]

We had free pool service for 3 months as part of our pool build. Though I hated it (i like to be in control), I went with it cringing every time he added chemicals. Luckily that free service is over and now I can maintain the pool the TFP way. BTW... if we wanted to continue service the cost was $250/month and it included all the chemicals. I maintain my pool the TFP way and it costs $10/month for the muriatic acid and the labor is me!

Any way to answer your question, the pool guy would come in. He would test the water (ours had a Taylor test kit so that was something). He would clean out the skimmer and remove any leaves that were floating on the surface of the pool. He would then pour in an entire gallon of Muriatic acid to lower the pH (pH was always high due to the new plaster curing). He would then leave. Granted we have a SWG so no Chlorine was needed. Before we could turn on our SWG, the pool guy would add chlorine pucks to the skimmer basket. Anyway, the longest he stayed was 10 minutes. His record was in-and-out in 7 minutes.

The results from all of that was that the pH of our pool when he left was way under 7.0. By the time he returned a week later it was way above 8.0. I can't imagine if we did not have a SWG. He would of probably poured a gallon of chlorine in each time.

Now that we are done with the service, my pool stays between a pH of 7.2 and 7.8. I add Muriatic acid maybe twice a week (~2 cups at a time, NOT an entire gallon) to go from 7.8 to 7,2. I put my robot in twice a week to clean the bottom of the pool for me. I clean the skimmer myself.

Bottom line: You care about your stuff and your pool. A pool Service cares about making a buck and getting in and out as fast as they can. NOT WORTH IT!

 

[ThirstyFish]

Thanks for this insight. I don't like the idea of my kids swimming in a pool loaded with more chemicals than it needs, but I started wondering if I could "cut corners" during the times when no one is using the pool. If I understand the comments correctly, adding chemicals precisely as needed is better than occasionally dumping, mostly to protect the pool equipment?
SWG is on my Christmas wishlist, Santa!

 

[mknauss]

You need to keep the FC and pH in range all the time.

Letting the FC fall risks algae which takes a lot of work to eliminate.

Letting the pH rise can cause scale, which takes a lot of effort to remove.

 

[Toxophilite]

When I declined the "pool guy's" offer to continue his services for $275/month after the week of start up and balancing and I was handed the keys, he told me "don't add any stabilizer". Come to find out, I had none, as well as almost no CH. I quickly surmised, as I had been reading much here in the interim, that he left that way to allow him room to maintain on pucks and powder shock for awhile when he assumed I would not be taking over.

 

[RickRude]

My pool service used a Taylor kit to measure pH, chlorine via OTO, and TA. He'd add acid or bicarb as needed. Would also clean the skimmer basket, pump basket, and Polaris, vacuum, and backwash if he judged it was necessary. Would usually be here 30-40 minutes. Compared to what I've read from others on this forum, his level of care was a lot better. But he'd still just add a few trichlor tablets in the floater, and sometimes shock with cal hypo. The pool got cloudy and/or green twice in a month - it's simply impossible to maintain a pool with once per week attention when the leaves and pollen are going crazy. So despite our guys good intentions, it was not successful.

 

[desertOasis]

Just joined the forum here and recently fired our 4th pool guy/pool service. The pool couldn't be kept clean with 2x/wk vacuuming (which they didn't always do) and non-testing of water chemistry. I started testing the water a week or two before stopping the service. The salt was low, pH high, Cl too high. Would we have died if we kept the service and remained blissfully unaware? No, but considering the bad effects of off-chemistry and my OCD tendency, I'd rather take care of it myself.

I used Leslie's for a beginning analysis and how to balance things. Still learning but I'm getting a handle on it. Here in the desert in summer the heat and abundant sunshine keeps you hopping trying to maintain chemical levels. For vacuuming I'm glad we bought a robot (Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme) that keeps things very tidy, plus a Water Tech Pool Blaster Max cordless vac that fits to the end of our pool pole for doing the pool steps and the spa. If I'm doing the work I want to make it as easy as possible.

Ron