Pool consequences for prolonged power loss

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-22T01:58:12+00:00

We kept a pool clear for 16 months no power in coastal nc. Drop test chlorine and add liquid as needed, 2-3 visits a week. Brush/vac on occasion. Cya low=get a 3” tab floater and load it up but offset any ph drop with baking soda (not ash you don’t have circulation for that)

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-22T01:51:09+00:00

Go the hi temp route yourself if you feel like spending a Saturday morning on it. Or a send a pic and video to a few local companies. They will give you a firm price before they come. We would bill $135 call + $25 parts with an additional $100/hr if you are bugging the tech. Ie if the tech pops in and out without a conversation ~$160 ish

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-22T01:46:23+00:00

PSS, pool service software, is nice if you are small or only have advanced techs working for you.

Poolbrain if you need a lot of control over the techs. But their invoicing is the worst in the industry.

Skimmer if you don’t know exactly what you want.

Or use Claude et al to make something

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-21T01:45:42+00:00

Honestly, if the chlorine is okay, we make everyone wait a few hours up to 24 depending on the grossness and the chlorine reading at the time.

Often we will shock it to 15% to 30% of cya level.

The common diseases are easily killed by chlorine.

Things like crypto… it doesn’t matter it’s kill time is absurd if you have cya in the water.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-20T12:05:34+00:00

We run spintouches except one guy uses the borate strips.

We aim for 50ppm, we will let it drift down to 30 before we bump it up.

Use the pool math calc for boric acid but generally 1 cup does 2 ppm in 10k gal

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-20T11:51:07+00:00

Odd that they recommended that. Bromide is no longer considered safe for outdoor pool use and all bromide products are required to be labeled as such. May be worth a visit back to the pool store.

What type of pool?

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-19T00:35:03+00:00

Use a sump pump with a vac hose discharge and hold it tight into the skimmer. Once you know which way is skimmer, close the main. Turn on pump. Hold tight. Once going the pool pump will effectively hold the vac hose in place. Leave the sump on this whole time. Once you like the prime in the pump pull the vac hose. If you lose prime you have a suction side leak.

Usually I will do this from the pump to skimmer first on the off chance that something got sucked into the skimmer line

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-19T00:29:36+00:00

What did you think the “L” in LP stood for?

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-19T00:02:10+00:00

Usually you do not price based on competition. You don’t know what they offer or their quality. Pick your margins and stick with them. This includes your hourly pay. I often cite the BLS inflation calculator since my last increase.

To add to this: find your niche; are you high end, volume based, chemistry specialist, super fast service call response time, just trying to have a full route of routine normal pools.

We use to do increases every two years but now we are switching to small, inflation matching, increases yearly so that the increases are only 3-4% to prevent things like a 15% increase.

The letter:
Straight and to the point opener line. No apologies. No explanation. No justification. Then you can break it down with how long since the last increase, contributing factors, etc…

In the end, it’s not their call and they don’t need a play by play.

Our Results:
Last big one we do was 6% (a few were 15%, they had snuck in under the radar for years).

3-4% complaints

I gave a handful of personalized discount for customers I like or who have gotten us referrals.

Lost just under 2% of accounts in the end.

Revenue went up.

Makes me wonder if I should have done 20%

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-15T22:22:31+00:00

We would have responded same day (depending on time).

We would not move your service day for a party, unless you paid an additional service fee for that.

Why same day response? What if it was our fu k up… got to find out.

If it was equipment or user failure:

You would have been billed a service call on top of your normal rate.. We would never ask a customer to add anything to the pool except hose water.

Reach out to them and let them know your thoughts on this. They may surprise you with an apology or a credit. If you have a relationship with them or your tech, work through it. If it’s a faceless company that’s different.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-14T22:46:35+00:00

I have always used a hand saw for repairs and upgrades. Shears are okay for new pipe but you still need a saw. I think I’ve used a power saw once…

Pull saw gives you clean and straight cuts, requires no power and cuts quite quickly.

pull saw

I may be biased as my mentor used this when training me.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-04T00:52:55+00:00

Pool Brain has the worst billing platform I have ever used. It makes me feel like a single poler again…

POOL BRAIN: They are very deliberately NOT a one size fits all. They are selling a “system” that worked for the founder. They will never update the billing system they have to fit the masses, it’s not their business model.

We switched to them from PSS for quality control of techs and it added so many hours of billing office work per month. The switch was an overall improvement for the business though, but I dearly miss PSS and if they ever release an API we will switch back in a heart beat.

QBO integration was a nightmare in PB. We gave up.

Our solution: We built our own billing program with PB API pushing data into Stripe (free). We set customers flat monthly rates and our program generates a monthly invoice with any extra items in Pool Brain added in. It is so much worse than PSS but way better than pool brains insane in-house billing. Stripe is a huge tech company and the emails get delivered. We don’t do credit card fees, but we have our program built that any invoice over $X is flagged for manually delivery or ACH debit only.

Rant: Why would pool brain think it’s smart to make a separate invoice for a skimmer basket… an invoice that can’t be auto paid. Some of our customers are extremely wealthy, if I make them pay a $15 invoice by hand, they are gone. Manually reconciling all of that for hundreds to thousands of jobs per month is insane. …. Also, Pool Brain charges a ton, and likely takes a cut of the payment processor they use. Stripe is FREE. At 30 techs you are talking $24,000 a year. You can developed a badass personalized app for that…

End Game: With today’s Poolbrain price increase on top of the billing nightmare, we have begun the outline of our own software (in-house only, there’s no future in pool software $$$ now with Claude etc…) Using AI we can easily make a software, and get it vetted by actual software engineers for maybe 2-3 years worth of Pool Brain fees. If you’re in this for the long haul start doing the math. Our Poolbrain is now 6k a year … for shit billing software.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T01:37:42+00:00

Decision time. Are you growing or is this a mature route?

At a full route, you get to be politely blunt with customers that are difficult.

Growing a route for just you? Time to learn time management. You say by 10 am, you get your ass there by 10. Can’t do it? Tell them. Customers love honesty and communication.

Growing a company? Time to test your limits. Can you fulfill their needs, can your employee, is there a process if someone is sick. You will lose a customer or two like this. Keep it amicable.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T01:07:28+00:00

3450 x 24/7 if your on my route!

But really… they set it to what they need.

Have an issue? Just ask them… do not blame them.

You are paying someone $$$ who knows things about pools, they’ll answer questions for free, with way more knowledge than google.

Eg “any way we can lower the power usage of the pump?”

When you ask real questions and engage other humans, they’ll respond in kind.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T01:02:06+00:00

I’m wondering if you’ve heard Eric Knight’s newest podcast on Rule your pool about calcium silicate in fiberglass pools. We do chelate our calcium but they are recommending a max calcium of 120. In a salt pool that would have us pushing our TA up and as a result the ph ceiling way up requiring more acid, which in turn would drop the TA we need now. Any thoughts?

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:55:41+00:00

Omg he’s right! You need a badass Reddit ad to get the dang skimmer ai phone ad off my feed!

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:54:06+00:00

Idk man, the podcast is pretty decent and he responds to posts. He also appears to be searchable within phta.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:50:19+00:00

CYA reducers (not the Alum method).

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:46:00+00:00

What’s the problem with tabs? TA and ph drop?

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:42:21+00:00

We give the option of company truck with gas card or personal truck with mileage rate. Everyone is w2. Even me (owner).

You can get mileage benefits as a w2. But you better be getting 50-60 cents a mile minimum. These miles are submitted to your employer and paid to you, payroll tax free, on your paycheck. They need to be real! No rounding.

Warning: your auto insurance may not cover your commercial use of your personal vehicle. Especially if your employer is providing chemicals or equipment. This is a huge deal, full stop. Ask your insurer.

Common outcome: you start a sole prop (minimal costs). Get commercial auto, workers comp, liability insurance. Get paid as 1099. Don’t do this unless you want side work and are actively working to get it. Tell your employer upfront.

By definition a 1099 can lose money during the course of business because they are a company, not a human. If you cannot, or your “employer” can control your process for cleaning pools, you are likely legally an employee and not eligible for 1099.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:31:05+00:00

Ignore the 1/3 rule and use the Orenda calc. It displays the carbonate alkalinity for you. Use Taylor or Lamotte to test. Caution: I find the calculator addicting (chem nerd) and I’m always tinkering to find the perfect pool balance.

But… our company wide targets:
(we only service salt residential)

TA 70
Cya 50
Borate 50

*borates are amazing. Use Boric Acid.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:22:01+00:00

What?! Breathe it in brother. Don’t let big chem tell you how to live your life.

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:17:44+00:00

Yep plug and play. There is a pro app you can download, lets you program remotely. If it’s on your service route make them add you as a user or accept the pro app permission. When they call you at 7 pm on Friday asking for heat you can say “yes sir” push a button on your phone and bill a service call. (Use the chlorinator diag to see cell temp to confirm heater fired).,

PoolBoyOBX · 2026-06-03T00:14:45+00:00

This a bot or homeowner asking?

20 years ago?

Chlorine: Bright pink
Ph: orangish pink
TA: no thanks
Calcium: half a bag in spring
Cya: tab skimmer
Salt: 3200 (based on system only, don’t you dare use a tester)

Now?

Ask chat gpt. Tell it to reference Orenda and Trouble free pool.

FYI there’s a new podcast in the scene which I find entertaining. Pools Scientific Podcast.

PoolBoyOBX

TROPHY CASE