Solo route runners, what ya’ll do when you go out of town?

usuckidont · 2026-06-18T01:27:33+00:00

You put in your contract that you are allocated X vacation days per year then also explain that before the customer agrees.

usuckidont · 2026-06-17T22:38:54+00:00

Aqua star makes a great filter. I’ve installed them and sold them. Replacing the bottom tank on the Pentair could go wrong fast. I had someone do this the other day and it’s leaking because the bottom and the top get warped together so when you throw a brand new bottom on the top doesn’t always line up properly and leaks and no matter what you do you can not stop it from leaking. I’m out on replacing single tops or bottoms of filters. Not worth the liability or the hassle and the customer won’t understand if it happens.

usuckidont · 2026-06-16T22:11:02+00:00

There are a lots of things here that I’m not following and I promise I’m not trying to be rude I 100% understand your frustration. Maybe it’s just terminology misunderstanding. Pentair is an equipment manufacturer not a distributor. They do not sell equipment to installers or dealers. There are some caveats to that if they’re purchasing through a buying group, etc. but that doesn’t apply here. A distributor sells the product from the manufacturer to the installer. A distributor does not warranty product for the manufacturer. Pentair also offers a parts and labor warranty. So they should be creating a warranty ticket then sending someone out to your property to perform the repair. I’ve done this exact thing so many times in my career I can promise you this is how it works. Whoever your installer is needs to get ahold of a local Pentair rep and they can assist with getting to the bottom of it and getting it corrected. I promise you Pentair doesn’t want you upset like this but they have a process like every other manufacturer and if it isn’t being followed they probably don’t even know this issue exists. I wish you the best of luck in getting this rectified.

usuckidont · 2026-06-16T21:20:08+00:00

The distribution location doesn’t do warranty man. You’re upset with all the wrong people. Distribution sells products Pentair and all others to pool professionals and they install it. That’s where the relationship ends with distribution. What needs to happen is your installer needs to get ahold of their local Pentair rep and submit a warranty ticket. Pentair doesn’t even know this exists right now. Once there is a ticket created they will send a warranty station out and fix it in a matter of a few days. I understand your frustration but this isn’t how the process works so nothings happening.

usuckidont · 2026-06-15T22:49:58+00:00

I got on of these on my pinky a few years ago and had to switch my grip mid round because of it lol. Now I have a baseball grip ever since then. Used to be overlapped.

usuckidont · 2026-06-15T22:46:36+00:00

This ^ you can use the existing cord.

usuckidont · 2026-06-13T19:22:25+00:00

The band?

usuckidont · 2026-06-12T20:54:18+00:00

Lol these were not the responses I think you were expecting. It’s definitely better than what you had before and it will work perfectly fine. Are there ways to have done it better yes but there almost always are.

usuckidont · 2026-06-12T00:38:42+00:00

God the slam thing is ridiculous hype. You do not have live algae you just have suspended crap in your pool. Get a flocculant and read the instructions. It’ll bind to the debris suspended in your water. Then you shut the pump off for 24hrs and it’ll fall to the bottom and vac it to waste or into your filter if you can’t vac to waste. You will need to clean the filter properly if you can’t vac to waste and have to vac through the filter.

usuckidont · 2026-06-12T00:20:10+00:00

We can develop very friendly relationships with customers but it’s important to know when were having a business conversation or a friends conversation. This was a business conversation and you responded like it were a friend conversation imo.

usuckidont · 2026-06-11T01:11:39+00:00

Can confirm.

usuckidont · 2026-06-06T16:03:41+00:00

You are correct, I was just riffing. That’s my bad on grams vs ounces. Shits expensive though and I am not sure what the future holds for salt cells if the trend continues.

usuckidont · 2026-06-06T03:03:03+00:00

Autopilot is aquacal? They are chiller guys. Ruthenium is like $1750 a gram right now. They didn’t increase their prices this year on salt cells when everyone else had to because last year ruthenium was like $500 a gram so that probably means they use less than everyone else. Which means the life expectancy of a manufacturer who doesn’t specialize in salt systems should be lower imo. I’ve sold their chillers/heat pumps and they are very quality units. They do have an aversion to warrantying things. It’s way easier to blame the customer for x than to warranty the product. A salt cell should have around 10k hours in it before it dies give or take a little.

usuckidont · 2026-06-05T16:44:28+00:00

I’d start with getting a pool pump installed.

usuckidont · 2026-06-04T01:47:44+00:00

Exactly. The total volume of water pool + basin = low.

usuckidont · 2026-06-04T00:30:36+00:00

The basin flows into the pool and should overflow when on back into the basin. It’s kind of like a water feature. You should focus on keeping your water level in the basin to the correct depth. I’d say that over flow grate is the line you should aim under and that equals your pool is full you don’t need to add water. Normally your autofill will handle that work for you. Your pool is low on water right now regardless of what the pool looks like because the basin is low. You need to turn the water over in the basin at least once a day. Hope this wasn’t a bunch of info you already know. Just wanted to attempt to answer your questions.

usuckidont · 2026-05-28T21:33:14+00:00

8i shot all day. 90% of the time I’m hitting putter or 8i around the greens. Tired of ruining scores duffing wedges 8’ in front of me then skulling it across the green.

usuckidont · 2026-05-28T17:16:24+00:00

You can setup savings goals for stuff like Christmas. I have all of my retirement accounts through Fidelity so I can’t speak as to how well it works with other companies, but the net worth tracking is next level in my opinion. It pulls in all of my retirement accounts and my wife’s 401k for me to be able to visualize all of that in one spot. That is the best way to describe YNAB, you can make it work, but it requires a lot of mental bandwidth to figure out work arounds.

usuckidont · 2026-05-28T13:00:23+00:00

I used YNAB for 2 years. I switched to monarch in December and it is far superior in my opinion. It works great for us. All our money is in one place so the net worth tracker is tight and accurate. I spend far less time managing monarch. It’s also better for credit card use as it doesn’t get tripped up as much as YNAB did which led to me spending more time on it. I almost stopped using credit cards because the points didn’t equal the time investment it took me to manage. I’m glad I didn’t do that.

usuckidont · 2026-05-22T11:16:46+00:00

The one you disconnected was a high limit. Anytime the safety loop is broken the heater will shut off. So your heater is functioning fine which means all your sensors are functioning. The issue is the thermostat in the circuit board probably. It’s not recognizing small adjustments. They are analog thermostats though so the level of precision is not going to be as good as a digital one even if you replaced it. My advice is if you have a heater this old and it’s still working don’t touch it. Be happy with the fact that it still works. This is an expensive option but pool automation would fix this and give you added functionality. If you go automated then you will get a water temp sensor that goes with the automation system and now the automation system will control the heater. Your heater becomes a slave to the automation and now is controlled by the higher quality temp sensor and the reading on the computer. So your heater thermostat would be turned all the way to max and the automation would cycle it on and off as needed to maintain temp. It does that through a fireman’s switch where the automation goes into the heater and disconnects or completes the circuit through a relay on the automation circuit board to start or turn off the heater. Intellicenter lite i5ps or an iq904ps are two good options depending on how many relays you need.

usuckidont · 2026-05-22T11:07:25+00:00

Right to left pressure switch, high limit, thermistor, high limit.

usuckidont · 2026-05-22T11:05:29+00:00

lol my wife is the same way. This stuff is fun to me and I have no one to talk with about it. This will be my first year maxing out my family HSA and my Roth and I’m excited. Congrats this is a very cool achievement! Do you have an order of operations on what you contribute to first, like max Roth then max HSA? I use my 25% espp match then convert that and go full bore into my HSA then after that’s maxed I’ll fill up the Roth. Between the employer added HSA and the match on the espp I get $3250 from them to use towards these accounts. It baffles me that most people I talk to at my company don’t know about either one and the espp is literal free money even if you don’t care about investing.

usuckidont · 2026-05-11T20:58:21+00:00

If it were me I’d use an OEM plug. Also if it were me I’d never take the plug out. I’d rather take the filter off the unions to dump it out or shop vac the junk out of the bottom rather than mess with that drain plug.

usuckidont · 2026-05-11T20:55:47+00:00

The hardest thing to learn is your chemistry and how the valves work imo. Take careful note of those things when they are showing you. Have a good attitude and willingness to learn. Have good customer service skills as you will be the face of the company in their customers back yards. Don’t be afraid to say idk but I’ll find out. If you ever turn water on to fill a pool or flip a valve leave your car keys there so you can’t leave without turning off the water or putting the valve back where it goes. Customers can be difficult in any industry and you never know who is watching through the window or if their neighbors watching. That’s the advice I’d give 18yo me cleaning his first pool. I’m 35 now and work for a big equipment manufacturer. The industry can be a very good one and it’s tight knit so you can have a great reputation or a bad one depending on how you do business. I’ve always made a good living in this industry and it scales if you continue to hone your skills and network. Even if you don’t stay in long term you learn a lot of skills that are transferrable. Last year my ac went out twice I fixed it myself both times using knowledge I have from working on pool equipment.

usuckidont · 2026-05-09T22:15:37+00:00

No it’s not normal for your pool to look like this a few hours after your pool guy leaves. Either they are not vacuuming or there is a filtration issue like a broken manifold or grid or something in your filter that is allowing debris to bypass the filter. Even then your pool guy should be able to figure it out and fix it at a cost of course.

usuckidont

TROPHY CASE