The Pool Guy Podcast Show

Algae every week even though the test kit shows plenty of chlorine? That headache usually isn’t bad luck, it’s bad math. We dig into the most common rookie mistakes new pool service pros make and show the chemistry behind why a pool can read “sanitized” while algae still wins. The big unlock is understanding cyanuric acid (CYA) and how it binds most of the chlorine in the water, leaving only a small active portion available to kill algae. 

From there, we make the fix practical: stop guessing and start targeting free chlorine based on your stabilize...

Your pool can look fine on paper and still be losing the chlorine battle. We dig into the frustrating “problem pool” scenario where you’re pouring in gallons of chlorine and the free chlorine (FC) reading barely budges, then break down what’s really happening when chlorine gets consumed faster than you can add it. With Bob Larry’s help, we walk through how to think like a detective: look at the environment, the deck, landscaping, runoff, bather load, and even the odd stuff people don’t mention like rinsing tools or chemicals in the pool. 

From there, we get...

If you’ve ever stared at a “perfect” test strip while the pool still acts weird, you’re probably missing one of the quietest drivers in pool water chemistry: TDS. We dig into what Total Dissolved Solids actually means, why a simple digital meter belongs on every service truck, and how TDS can swing your saturation index enough to change your real-world results. Along the way, we unpack the old-school truth behind TDS, what the meter is really reading (conductivity), and why it is still a valuable approximation for everyday pool maintenance decisions.

We also get specific about wh...

Your pool water can look “chlorinated” on a test and still be unsafe or algae-prone. The missing piece is cyanuric acid (CYA), the pool stabilizer that quietly binds most of your chlorine and changes how much active sanitizer you actually have working for you. We sit down with Bob Lowry, inventor of liquid pool conditioner, to get brutally clear on why high CYA is a real problem and how to fix it without guessing. 

We dig into what cyanuric acid really does beyond UV protection, how the chlorine to CYA equilibrium works, and why the same free chlor...

Your pool pH isn’t “random” or “stubborn” and once you understand what’s actually driving the rise, you can finally stop the endless acid cycle. We dig into the real reason pH climbs week after week: CO2 off gassing. Total alkalinity controls how much carbon dioxide wants to escape, and when alkalinity is too high, the water is essentially overcarbonated. As CO2 leaves the water to reach equilibrium with the air, pH rises, and the problem repeats.

We also get honest about the pools that fight you the hardest: feature pools with negative edges, spillways, waterfalls, scuppers, ro...

Metal stains are one of the fastest ways a pool can look “dirty” even when the water is balanced and clear. The tricky part is that metals like copper and iron can hide in plain sight as dissolved ions, then suddenly oxidize and plate onto plaster, steps, and fittings. That’s why we wanted a straight, practical conversation on pool metal removal that goes beyond quick fixes and old myths. 

We’re joined by Joe Loreno, CEO and president of Puretic Products, the company behind Culator. Joe breaks down the chemistry in simple terms: why most pool filters c...

Summer doesn’t just make pools warmer. It makes them harder to manage, easier to mess up, and way more visible to the people paying the bill. We talk through what really changes once swim season arrives: heavier bather loads, more sunscreen and organics, faster chlorine loss, and a sharp rise in “can you come today?” customer calls before parties and weekends.

We also get practical about keeping water clear when conditions get extreme. You’ll hear our take on “chlorine enhancers” that help chlorine last longer by preventing algae and reducing what chlorine has to fight, including bo...

A drained pool looks harmless until you realize it can become a boat. We’re talking about pool pop-ups, the real-world risk behind the phrase “the pool can pop out of the ground,” and the simple physics that make it possible when groundwater rises under an empty shell.

We walk through what actually holds an inground plaster or concrete pool in place, including the massive weight of thousands of gallons of water, and what changes the moment you drain it for an acid wash or to lower high cyanuric acid. Then we get practical: how heavy rain, wet se...

If your pool skimmer feels “lazy” and the surface never quite looks clean, the problem usually isn’t the leaves, it’s the setup. I walk through the most common skimmer performance issues I see in the field and the practical fixes that get debris moving in the right direction again. We even touch on infinity edge pools, where skimmers sometimes get skipped for aesthetics, and why I still think a skimmer plays a vital role in everyday pool care.

We start with circulation basics you can actually control: return jet direction, surface flow patterns, and the dead spo...

Filter problems love to disguise themselves as “chemistry issues” and that’s exactly how pool owners waste weekends and pool pros lose hours. We walk through the real decision that matters: do you simply need new filter media, or is it time to replace the whole filter body because the tank, clamp, or lid is worn out and headed toward failure.

We start with the basics in plain language: what “filter media” means for cartridge, DE, and sand systems, and why each has a different lifespan. Then we get practical with sand filters, including the signs that sand is no...

Everyone loves the freedom of owning a pool service business until the scary questions show up: “What if I fail?” “What if I get sick?” “What about health insurance and retirement?” I walk through the most common negatives people bring up about the pool industry and give you the unfiltered reality, including the parts I can’t sugarcoat.

We start with the small business failure myth and why it’s often less about the industry and more about basics like experience, customer service, and having an actual plan. From there, I challenge the idea that a W-2 job automaticall...

Commercial pool service can look like the fast lane to bigger revenue, until you realize how many forces you do not control. We walk through the real differences between residential pool care and commercial pool maintenance, starting with what “commercial” actually means: community-used pools like apartments, HOAs, hotels, the YMCA, and public facilities that live under health department oversight. That oversight changes your day, your paperwork, and your stress level in ways most new techs do not see coming. 

We get specific about the operational realities: inspections, daily logs, and shutdown triggers tied to chlorine and pH range...

A single line on a label can shake an entire trade, especially when that trade has been using the product for 30 plus years. We pick back up with Scott Hamilton, the CEO of United Chemical, to sort out what the EPA’s “not for use in outdoor pools” language is really responding to, and whether the bromate concern is being evaluated in a way that matches real pool conditions.

We get into the chemistry behind bromate exposure, including why some researchers argue it should not be assessed with a strictly linear model. Scott explains the case for lookin...

The EPA’s sodium bromide relabeling decision didn’t just tweak a bottle panel, it pulled a familiar algae treatment tool out of the outdoor pool conversation overnight. We’re joined by Scott Hamilton, the CEO of United Chemical to explain what the EPA’s interim decision actually says, why “not for use in outdoor pools” now shows up on sodium bromide-based algaecides, and how that single change ripples through distribution when big suppliers decide they won’t stock the category at all. 

From there, we get practical and technical. Scott walks us through worst-case outdoor testing designed to str...

Your pool doesn’t care what RPM your pump runs at. It cares about flow. And most of the headaches we see as pool owners and pool service pros start when circulation quietly drifts away from what the pool actually needs. I sit down with Sean McDermott, Executive Vice President at H2 Flow Controls, to unpack the Nautilus VSF variable speed pool pump and the idea behind it: stop guessing speeds and start controlling real, measured gallons per minute.

We dig into adaptive flow, including constant flow mode and turnover mode, and why “set it and forget it”...

A lot of residential pool techs learn water chemistry the hard way: a few rules of thumb, a few opinions from the internet, and a lot of costly guessing when something won’t clear up. We wanted to change that conversation, so we brought Terry Arko back on to share real news about a new training rollout that preserves Bob Lowry’s legacy while making it easier for today’s pool service pros to actually use.

We dig into why Bob Lowry’s Pool Chemistry Training Institute (PCTI) mattered so much for the backyard pool professional, especially in a wor...

Summer doesn’t “start” on a date for pool pros, it starts the moment the water warms and your easy week turns into a sprint. Terry Arco from HASA joins me to unpack what really changes when pools transition from spring to summer, and why the industry can feel like feast or famine depending on weather, bather load, and how prepared you are before the rush hits.

We get specific about summer pool care: how rising water temperature shifts LSI, why calcium becomes more likely to precipitate and form scale, and why algae goes from dormant spores to rap...

Filter cleaning is where “simple maintenance” turns into stuck lids, mangled threads, mystery leaks, and the one moment on a job that can actually hurt you. We walk through the common pool filter problems that almost never get talked about, especially on D.E. filters and quad cartridge filters with metal clamps and spring barrel nuts, and we share the exact fixes we use when a filter top refuses to seat back onto the tank.

We get specific about the real culprit behind most hard-to-close lids: a worn or wrong O-ring, even when it looks perfectly fine. You’...

A cancellation can feel personal, but the real damage is mathematical: lost monthly recurring revenue, a broken pool route, and extra drive time that quietly drains profit. We dig into what actually makes pool service customers pull the plug, and it’s not the knee-jerk “they found someone cheaper” story most of us tell ourselves. Homeowners often tolerate bad pool maintenance longer than you’d expect, which means you usually have a window to recover service issues before they start shopping.

We also get into a sneaky, non-service reason you can lose a great account overnight: the house ge...

A pool doesn’t turn cloudy for no reason, and it rarely gets fixed by “just add more chlorine.” When water looks dull, hazy, or starts showing algae, we use a simple three-step reset that gets results fast because it treats the whole pool system: filtration, sanitation, and circulation.

We start where most people don’t: the filter. A dirty sand filter, DE filter, or cartridge filter can choke off flow, kill circulation, and trap the very debris you’re trying to remove. We talk about knowing your clean starting PSI, what high pressure is really telling you, and t...

A pool cleaner purchase is rarely just a purchase. It’s a long-term decision about repairs, downtime, and whether the “convenient” option becomes the most expensive option three seasons later.

We walk through the real-world tradeoffs between suction side cleaners, pressure side cleaners, corded robotic pool cleaners, and the ever-popular cordless robotic pool cleaner. I break down why suction cleaners remain the most economical and most repairable choice for many pool service routes, and why cordless robots can feel amazing right up until you have to deal with warranty claims, shipping a unit back, or paying for a batt...

Eyeballing pool chemicals feels fast, but it can quietly wreck your results and your margins. I walk through the most common pool water chemistry mistakes I see on pool routes, starting with the habit of default dosing: “a quart of acid,” “half a gallon of chlorine,” and other shortcuts that ignore what the water is actually doing. With today’s chemical prices, accuracy matters, and the good news is it does not have to mean slow, complicated math. A simple dosing app like poolcalculator.com can get you to the right number in about a minute.

From there, we...

The fastest way to get hurt on a pool route is to treat “routine” like it means “safe.” We’re talking about the real hazards that show up behind the gate, the ones that don’t always look dangerous until the moment they are: the quiet dog watching you work, the safety net that has to be re-tensioned just right, the open gate you swear you’ll close “in a second.” I share the practical rules I use to reduce risk for myself and for any employee I’m training, because a single injury can take you off the schedule and a singl...

One rushed hire can undo years of hard-earned trust on your pool route. We break down how we train and onboard a new pool service employee so customers still get the same clean water, the same reliable routine, and the same professional experience they expect from us.

We start with a realistic training timeline (and why three to four weeks of ride-alongs is often the sweet spot), plus the mindset shift that saves your sanity: a new pool technician will have questions, forget steps, and need reminders, even if they seem sharp on day one. From there...

Algae that won’t quit is usually trying to tell you something, and a lot of the time that “something” is phosphates. We dig into the real role phosphates play in pool water chemistry, why they’re measured in parts per billion, and why they don’t simply disappear through evaporation or time. If you’ve ever had a pool that looks balanced but still blooms, or you watch chlorine vanish day after day, this conversation gives you a clean, practical way to diagnose what’s happening.

We break down the most common ways phosphates enter the water: fertili...

Your pool service route isn’t just a weekly schedule, it’s an asset that can be worth real money if you can prove it. We sit down with Niki Acosta and Hal Denbar from Skimmer to get specific about what actually increases a pool service business valuation, and what quietly destroys it when a buyer starts digging. If you’ve ever wondered whether you can build something you can sell, this conversation lays out the practical path.

We get into what “due diligence” looks like when someone wants to acquire a pool service company: the buyer is really...

The fastest way to lose a new pool service customer is painfully simple: let the call go to voicemail while you’re out on route. I sit down with Nikki Acosta and Hal Denbar from Skimmer to talk about a practical use of AI that actually earns its keep, an AI phone receptionist built specifically for pool businesses. We get into what AI should do for operators, save time, reduce interruptions, and stop real revenue leaks, instead of adding another shiny tool to the pile.

Nikki breaks down how Skimmer’s AI Phone works day to day: answ...

Some pools look like they should be easy wins until you’re standing there with a tile brush, extra chlorine, and a customer who expects miracles. We get real about the “lost causes” every pool service pro eventually faces and how to handle them without wrecking your schedule or your reputation.

We start with calcium buildup on pool tile, where the honest answer sometimes is: you’re not brushing that off. I break down what can improve with topical cleaners, pumice stone, and elbow grease, and what’s so thick that glass bead blasting is the only practical...

One cheap tool upgrade can save you the most expensive thing on your route: time. We get practical about the small pool service choices that prevent “can you come back today?” calls, starting with something many homeowners overlook a usable telescopic pole and a real leaf rake. When customers can skim the surface, pull debris off the bottom, and clean up before a party, your weekly service holds better and your schedule stays intact. 

From there, we dig into one of the most common pieces of pool equipment in the field: the Intermatic mechanical timer. We talk throu...

A customer tells you “no” on a repair you know matters. Now what? We dig into the uncomfortable but real part of running a pool service business: handling resistant customers who don’t want to fix equipment, don’t want to spend money, or don’t understand the risk you’re trying to prevent. I walk through how I think about customer service in a safety-driven trade, and why the phrase “the customer is always right” can be dangerously incomplete when you’re dealing with pressurized systems, electricity, and chemicals.

We start with a scenario that every pool pro eventuall...

A pump that won’t prime, a lid that won’t budge, and a pad visit that’s suddenly running long, this is where small, practical know-how saves the day. We walk through the real-world pool pump fixes that most techs only learn after enough scraped knuckles and repeat trips, and we keep it focused on what actually works when you’re standing in front of the equipment.

We dig into stuck pump lids on common pumps, including why they tighten up, how a simple rubber mallet technique can help, and when it’s smarter to use a dedicate...

Your pool route can chew you up if you let it, and it usually starts with something you do every day without thinking: using your bare hands around chlorine and acid. I break down a hard lesson from early on when latex gloves made my hands worse by trapping chlorinated water against my skin, then share the simple switch that actually protects you long-term. We talk nitrile coated work gloves for handling trichlor tablets and muriatic acid, how to take them on and off between stops.

Then we get into a problem that feels harmless until it...

Your pool problems might not be a “bad product” or a “bad test kit” problem. Sometimes the real issue is simple: the homeowner is unknowingly sabotaging the pool between service visits. We walk through the patterns we see constantly in the field and how they snowball into cloudy water, stubborn algae, and chemistry that never seems to hold.

We start with pool filters, because filtration problems hide in plain sight. DE filters get opened with no diatomaceous earth at all, or they get overloaded with way too much DE. Cartridge filters go years without a replacement until the plea...

Your pool’s pressure gauge can save you hours of guesswork, or it can trick you into cleaning the wrong thing at the wrong time. We walk through what pool filter PSI (pounds per square inch) actually means, why higher pressure usually equals more restriction and less circulation, and how that loss of flow shows up in real life: cloudier water, weak returns, a spa spillway that barely spills, and cleaners that stop moving like they should.

We also get specific about filter types. DE filters and sand filters often follow the classic rule of thumb where ab...

“Shock the pool” is one of the most overused phrases in pool care, and it causes a lot of bad advice. We walk through what shocking really is: raising free chlorine to a level that actually matches the pool’s chlorine demand, then giving it time to work and verifying it with testing instead of wishful thinking. If you’ve ever added gallons of chlorine and still seen the test read zero, we explain why that happens and how to avoid the endless loop of underdosing and retreating. 
 
We share real, field-friendly targets for green pool cleanup and mustar...

A green pool can make a customer feel defeated, but for a skilled pool service pro it can become the moment they finally trust you for weekly service. I’m breaking down the “amazing moments” that turn chaos into clarity, starting with the two green pool cleanup strategies that matter most: floc with aluminum sulfate when you can vacuum to waste, and shock and awe when you need a fast kill and strong filtration. 

From there, I get practical about the hidden accelerator most techs overlook: the filter. If a cartridge filter is packed with old, crushed media...

Zero free chlorine is not a small problem, it’s the moment a pool can start compounding into cloudiness, chloramines, and an algae bloom. We break down what’s really happening when a pool “zeroes out,” why filtration can suddenly struggle, and how to bring sanitizer back fast without guessing and hoping for the best. 

We start with the must-have testing mindset: total chlorine, free chlorine, and combined chlorine (chloramines). Once you know your combined chlorine level, breakpoint chlorination stops being a mystery and becomes a repeatable process. We also explain why under-dosing shock can actually make a chloram...

Your saltwater pool can look perfect on the surface while the sanitizer quietly drops to zero, and when that happens most people blame the salt level. I go straight to the real weak link: the salt chlorine generator cell. After 35 years in the pool industry, I’ve seen the same failure patterns repeat, from undersized cells that can’t keep up in summer to perfectly sized systems that still lose the fight because the pump isn’t running long enough.

We unpack why salt cells are expensive (titanium plates coated with ruthenium or iridium), why “bigger cell = longer l...

High cyanuric acid can turn a perfectly maintained pool into a weekly battle where chlorine “won’t hold” and algae feels one step away. I walk through a practical option many pool pros consider when CYA gets out of control: switching from trichlor tablets to cal hypo tablets. The promise is simple, no more stabilizer added with every tablet, but the decision is not as clean as it sounds.

We dig into the real chemistry behind both products. Trichlor’s convenience comes with a built-in byproduct that keeps stacking, while cal hypo avoids CYA but adds calcium hardness...

Salt pools get marketed like a break from chlorine, but the truth is simpler: a salt system is still a chlorine factory, and many homeowners end up swimming in higher chlorine than they realize. We sit down with Todd Garino, founder of the Low-Chlo Sanitizer System, to talk about a different path, mineral-based pool sanitation designed to keep residential pools clear and safe while targeting low free chlorine levels around 0.5–1.5 ppm.

Todd explains where the technology came from, why it has been quietly used for years, and what changed to finally bring it to a wider market. We...