Your Customer's Pool Isn’t Broken—You’re Just Wrong

Andrea is back. Alone. Unsupervised. And apparently powered by battery backups and unresolved rage toward misinformation.

In this episode of Andrea Unfiltered, she dives headfirst into pool chemistry fundamentals—except instead of reading you a boring textbook, she drags bad pool advice into the street and fights it like it owes her money.

This is Part One of her “Cool Chemicals” series (yes, she named it herself, and yes, she’s proud of it). Expect a crash course in sanitizers, water balance, and why your pool isn’t broken—you just don’t understand it.

Also… somehow Jimmy Dean sausage complaints make an appearance. Because of course they do.

🔥 What You’ll Learn (Whether You’re Ready or Not)

💀 Salt Systems: Stop Lying to Yourself

🧠 The Human Body Analogy You Didn’t Ask For (But Now Can’t Unhear)

🧼 Disinfection vs Sanitization (AKA Killing Germs vs Making Them Regret Existing)

⚖️ Water Balance: Your Pool is Either Dissolving Itself or Turning into a Cave

🧪 Chemical Chaos & “Oops, It’s Snowing in the Pool” Moments

🧬 Chlorine vs Bromine: The Family Feud Nobody Asked For

⚡ Advanced Systems (AOP, UV, Ozone, PHMB… aka The Avengers of Overcomplication)

📉 pH, Alkalinity, and Why Your Weekly Acid Dump is Ruining Lives

🧾 Test Kit Truth Bombs

Example of Price increase letter:

Dear Mr. Pool Owner,

The cost of maintaining a swimming pool has increased across the board. Chemicals, equipment, fuel, insurance, and labor have all risen significantly over the past few years, while the level of service required to properly care for your pool continues to grow.

We have absorbed these increases for as long as possible to avoid impacting you. However, continuing to do so would compromise the quality and reliability of the service you expect.

For that reason, we will be implementing a rate adjustment effective [insert date].

This change allows us to maintain consistent service, use high-quality products, retain skilled technicians, and address issues before they become costly problems. Our goal is not to cut corners—but to continue doing the job the right way.

We understand that increases are never ideal, but maintaining your pool properly requires it. Our commitment to you remains the same.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

Thank you for your continued trust.

Sincerely,
[Your Name / Company Name]

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:53

I've heard people say the reason salt systems have high pH is because sodium hypochlorite has a pH of 13 or 14. And that's just not it. The salt cell is generating chlorine gas C L underscript 2, not NA. The pH in a salt system rises because of the electrolysis process in which turbulence does the does the pH rising.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Honoring those who don't just have the answers, but teach others how to find them. If someone helped shape your path in this industry, now is the time to return the favor. Visit cpoclass.com. Click on the Talking Pools Podcast Mentor Award tab, and submit your mentor's name up until May 15th, 2026, because behind every Great Pool professional, there's someone who showed them how to think.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

You know what I've had stuck in my head for weeks, and this is my own fault, is the Jimmy Bean sausage complaint. Customer complaint. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google that and go listen to it, and then we can talk about it later. So anyway, hi, I'm Andrea, and this is the Talking Pools podcast. It's Tuesday, me by myself calling this Andrea Unfiltered because I needed a name for it. Because there's a lot of Talking Pools shows. If you didn't know, there's one for every single day now that I'm back. Anyway, so how's everybody been doing? I hope that all your pools have been clear and algae free. Like mine. So just kidding. But anyway, I wanted to get into the next part of my series. So if you are brand new, listen up. This is for you. Okay. Pool chemicals. So this is my version of like everything you need to know. As I said, this is the next installment. Welcome. Pure flow. Definitely came up with that myself. So in the first part last week and the week before, well, not the week before, but the episode before, I had a two-part episode on filtration. So if you haven't heard those two episodes, go and listen to them now. I'll wait. Just kidding. I compared the filter to the kidneys because it's a little bit of a thing that bothers me when people say that the filter is like the heart of the system. It's actually not, according to me, because the filter doesn't pump anything, right? A heart pumps blood and filters don't pump. So that doesn't make sense to me. So the filter is the kidneys, and the chemistry is like the liver. I lost my place where I was reading from my bed. The pool chemical system, any chemical automation system, we're going to call adding chemical shocking breakpoint chlorination. You know how I feel about the term shocking. We're going to compare all that to the liver because the liver detoxifies, removes contaminants. You see, you see where I'm going with that. Okay. The this is going to apply to all pool surface types. So I'm not going to sit and say stuff like, oh, for plaster pools or for unless it like directly specifically applies. So just in general, this is for this is for any type of pool that you could possibly have. Those container pools, if they're made of metal, you know, a vinyl pool, an above-ground pool, bathtub, if you wanted to, whatever. I don't know. So also, so all pool surface types in general, but also I'm not gonna sit and say pool or spa every five minutes, anything I'm talking about. So I'm just gonna say pool, and then same thing if it's specifically, you know, related to being a spa and not both. I will tell you. I will say this is for spas only. But in general, my power is just fluctuating. I am so glad that I plugged my Wi-Fi router thingy into this battery backup that I have. Super awesome idea that I had. Thanks, Andrea. Anyway. Yeah, so all surface types and both pools and spas unless specifically stated. Got it? Okay. Are you ready? Also, I just want to make like a little bit of a point here. I hope nobody minds. Well, I just want to make a little bit of a point. I feel like these subjects that we talk about on the podcast, continuing education, right? It's it's stuff that we need to continue to recall on site, have in our heads floating around when we get customer calls or Facebook comments, things like that. So I hope none of this feels repetitive, but I feel like it's necessary for it to be repetitive. All right, so what is disinfection and what is sanitization? You may have heard them used interchangeably or used together or whatever. So disinfection actually refers to the elimination of microorganisms that are capable of causing diseases in humans. Disinfectants remove most pathogens. That's why we use chlorine because chlorine sanitizes and disinfects it, leaves a residual. So the primary disinfectants that we use in swimming pools are chlorine and bromine, and these both function as oxidizers. So chlorine and bromine react with and eliminate microorganisms as well as oxidize various contaminants to maintain water quality. So chlorine and bromine leave a residual, as I said. They're oxidizers, sanitizers, and disinfectants. They are all that. So a disinfectant should not only be able to eliminate pathogens and oxidize contaminants, but also remain at an effective concentration in the water for a long time, known as the residual, which is what I literally just said. I sometimes I get ahead of myself. I'm sorry. I forget that I'm the one that wrote this. So like I am like, oh, I know the answer. Now the disinfectant residual functions to inactivate or eliminate microorganisms and oxidize contaminants upon their entry into the water. This is what keeps people safe from diseases and guk schmutz, as Rudy puts it. I don't know if you're if I'm allowed to say that. So it safeguards users from pathogens introduced by individuals because people are gross, or environmental sources because ducks and birds are also gross when they're swimming in your swimming pool. It's cute, but it's gross. Now, disinfectants that fail to maintain residual residual free chlorine concentrations or do not act rapidly against pathogens should not be regarded solely as supplements and must always be used in conjunction with an effective disinfectant. So this applies to salt, UV ozone, things like that. Yes, you can keep a low chlorine level, but it will never eliminate the use of chlorine all the way completely. Now we get to water balance. So that's clean water. That's clean, healthy water that is not yucky and germy and filled with dooky. So now we have water balance, which more refers to corrosiveness or scale-producing water. So water that has no dissolved substances is highly aggressive and will naturally try to balance itself by dissolving materials from any surfaces that it touches. So watch out for your skin and hair. But seriously, when water reaches proper mineral balance, it ceases to be aggressive. Iron or copper that dissolves from the system during this process may contribute to potential future staining. So if you have super aggressive water, it's going to dissolve everything, it's going to dissolve everything, and then that stuff will be in the water available to cause staining. Water with an excess of dissolved minerals achieves balance by precipitating calcium carbonate from solution. This deposit forms a hard, rough surface substance known as calcium carbonate or scale, as y'all like to call it. I don't know if you've ever like actually felt this the scale on the surface. I happened to walk through one of my pools one time and I was like, oh whoa, what is that? It actually like hurt. It was bad. And so I just dumped in a whole bunch of acid and kept the pH low for a long time and I fixed it. So the saturation index, for some of you may have actually affectionately know her as L Sai, right? The L stands for Lang Lang Langleer. It's not Langaleer. That's why I was stuttering. It's Langleer. Everybody mispronounces it. Wait, let's look it up. Let's look it up in real time. Have my handy dandy CPO book. Yeah, like I've had this. Here she is. I love CI. I've had these little tabs on this book since 2016. I was right the first time. Langalier. Again, if you're nasty. Alright, we are. Now I'm just gonna say saturation index instead of LSI because I want to. So the saturation index indicates if water will form calcium carbonate deposits or maintain it in a dissolved state. Carbonate alkalinity, pH, calcium hardness, temperature, and total dissolved solids are the five factors that determine the saturation index value, not total alkalinity. If you are using total alkalinity to calculate the LSI, you should stop and you should use carbonate alkalinity instead because that's the correct way to do it. If water balance is not achieved, corrective measures should be implemented to restore proper balance. Imagine that. Shocker, everybody gasp. I know it's crazy, but don't worry about it. It was fine. Seriously, though, there are some times where it's okay and actually beneficial and more correct to adjust the pH first and then adjust the alkalinity second. Just because of the way that the chemicals, the chemical dosing works, sometimes if you get the pH correct, you can then make a small adjustment or use a smaller, a smaller chemical dose to adjust the alkalinity to get it back in range instead of trying to dose with acid and lower it that way, which can be a little bit different. All right. Important note since we are talking to the beginners here, gathering close. If you are a beginner, please note that sodium bicarb or sodium carbonate and calcium chloride when added together or too close or too soon can cause a super cloudy white reaction. It's raining outside in the pool. Uh, and then you just kind of have to let it work itself out. There isn't really much that you can do. Interestingly, um, and I have this noted later on, but I'm just gonna say it now. I'll probably say it later too, so you get it twice. Some calcium removal chemicals are just huge doses of soda ash, and this causes the calcium to precipitate out of solution, and then you can vacuum it up or get it caught in the filter or whatever. So that's removing the calcium chemically. Actually, that was my next bullet point. Look at that. I must have read this a bunch of times before I started saying it. Okay, so now we get to the actual pool chemicals that we use. This is a review if you are a veteran, and if you are new to the industry, you know, use this as your like use this as like a field guide.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time it is where you are, welcome back. This is your pool industry news roundup, where we take everything happening across the trade. The headlines, the trends, the stuff buried three paragraphs deep, and translate what it actually means for the people out there cleaning pools, running routes, and trying to make a living in this industry. And as always, don't just take my word for it. I'm going to tell you where to go, read every one of these stories in full. Let's start with service industry news, because they're coming in hot this week with something that should make every builder and service company stop and think. There is now a ban on new residential pool construction in West Maui through 2030. Yeah. Let that sink in. This isn't a drought suggestion. This is policy. And what that tells you, whether you're in Florida, Texas, Arizona, or anywhere else, is that water is no longer just a chemistry conversation. It's becoming a regulatory conversation. And when regulation shows up, it doesn't knock politely. It kicks the door in. If you want to read that one in full, and you should, head over to Service Industry News. That same publication is also highlighting something a lot of you already know, but maybe haven't capitalized on yet. Leak detection as a revenue stream. And here's the reality. The companies that survive the next five to ten years are not the ones doing the same$1.150 a month cleanings they've been doing since 2008. They're the ones stacking services, leak detection, repairs, diagnostics. Because the days of just clean the pool are fading. Again, full breakdown is in Service Industry News. Go read it. Now let's shift over to Pool and Spa News, where the tone is a little different, but just as important. They're talking about Penter's Premier Pool Pro Honorees. And on the surface, that's an award story. But underneath it, it's about branding, reputation, and the fact that this industry is starting to recognize top-tier operators the same way other industries always have. If you're still out there thinking your work speaks for itself, you're already behind. Your work matters, but your visibility matters more. You can read that story over at Pool and Spa News. They're also covering the launch of a new insurance program through the PHTA. Now this one matters because what it tells you is simple. The industry is growing up. Insurance programs don't appear in casual industries. They appear in industries where liability, structure, and professionalism are becoming unavoidable. Translation? You're not just a guy with a net anymore, you're a business. And businesses carry risk. Full details, pool and spa news. They're also continuing to track industry consolidation, including expansion moves by companies like Easton Select. And if you think that doesn't affect you because you're a one pole operator, you're wrong, because consolidation doesn't just change ownership, it changes pricing expectations, customer expectations, and labor competition. That story is also over at Pool and Spa News. Now let's talk about Aqua Magazine because this is where things get a little more analytical. The big headline right now is the twenty twenty six State of Pool Service report from Skimmer. And the takeaway? The industry isn't slowing down, it's tightening up. Margins matter more, efficiency matters more, systems matter more, and the gap between the top operators and everyone else is getting wider. You can read the full report breakdown over Aqua Magazine. They're also running pieces on marketing strategy heading into twenty twenty six. And the message there is simple. Stop chasing everything. Start doing a few things well. Because right now attention is fragmented, and the companies that win are the ones that stay focused. Again, Aqua Magazine. And I would be completely out of line. Completely if I didn't point you toward the latest column from Rudy Stankowitz Aqua Magazine. Because Rudy doesn't just write about what's happening, he writes about what it means. His latest piece continues to push this industry toward deeper thinking, whether that's chemistry, operations, or the way we approach problems in the field. If you haven't read it yet, go to Aqua Magazine, find Rudy's column, and read it in full. Not the headline, the whole thing. Because that's where the value is. Now over to Pool Magazine, which is echoing a theme we're seeing everywhere. Their latest coverage of the State of Pool service in twenty twenty six basically confirms what you're probably already feeling in your day-to-day work. This industry is no longer about hustle. It's about discipline, processes, systems, consistency. The guys winging it, they're getting exposed. The ones running tight operations, they're pulling ahead. Read that entire piece over at Pool Magazine. They're also tracking continued expansion from companies like Pool Works, reinforcing that demand is still there. The work is there. The question is, are you structured enough to handle it? Again, Pool Magazine. Now let's talk about Pool Pro Magazine, where the conversation shifts slightly toward community and infrastructure. They're covering major industry support for Step Into Swim, including contributions from companies like Penter, Hayward, and Fluidra. And yeah, this is about safety. But it's also about optics, because industries that invest in safety build trust. And trust builds longevity. Full story, Pool Pro magazine. They're also reporting on the Pool Corp Retail Summit, where the focus is on product, training, and what's coming next. And if you're paying attention, that tells you something critical. The manufacturers and distributors are not slowing down. They're preparing. So if you're not preparing, you're falling behind. That coverage is in Pool Pro magazine. Over in the international space, Splash Magazine continues to reflect what's happening in Australia and New Zealand. Trade shows, compliance updates, regional shifts. And if you think that doesn't apply to you in the US, you're missing the point. Because trends don't stay local anymore. They travel fast. You can follow that through splash coverage, and trade reporting tied back through pool and spa news and related outlets. Across every publication this week, the message is the same. This industry is not slowing down, but it is changing. It's becoming more structured, more competitive, more professional. And the gap between those who adapt and those who don't is getting wider by the day. If you want the full stories, go read them. Service Industry News, Pool and Spa News, Acquay Magazine, Pool Magazine, Pool Pro Magazine. Don't skim them. Study them. Because buried in those articles is your next move.

SPEAKER_07 21:55

All right. Listen up. If you're serious about getting smarter, stronger, and actually winning in life, you need to be around the right people. And that's exactly why I built this. On my website, you're going to get the tools, the strategies, and the mindset shifts most people will never tell you about. And if you're ready to take it to the next level, the CPO program is where the real transformation happens. That's where the committed people go. So here's what I want you to do go to the website right now. It's www.cpo class.com. Look around. And if you're serious about leveling up, I want you to register for a CPO class. Stop watching from the sidelines. Step into the arena. I'll see you inside.

SPEAKER_05 22:45

Okay, so we all know we use chlorine in pools. As I said, this is a practice. Primary sanitizer, disinfector, disinfection agent, disinfectorator. No, just kidding. Chlorine sanitizes, disinfects, and oxidizes, as I mentioned. It leaves behind a residual. In swimming pools, when chlorine is used, we measure the free chlorine, total chlorine, and combined chlorine. Free chlorine is the disinfectant in the water that is actively available for use. So when you are testing, if you use, for example, a Taylor test kit and you only use reagents one and two, you are testing the free chlorine. If you are using test strips and you have two different colored pads, one is total chlorine and one is free chlorine. You subtract the free from the total to get the combined chlorine level. So if you have a strip, you look at your green and your purple pads, you gotta guess because you you test strips are arranged, so you just kind of have to be like, oh, yep, they're even or they're not even or they're equal. I guess they're the same number or they're not the same number. If they're not the same number, that means you have combined chlorine. If you have, if you're using a Taylor kit, I'm just using Taylor as the example because that's what I use and that's what I've been using for years and years and years. There are other other kits. I kind of talked about it in another episode. You can go back if you want to. Anyway, Taylor kits use a third reagent to test for combined chlorine. Well, whatever. They test for you have to subtract, okay, that's how you do it with the with the drops. You need reagent number three. As I said, total chlorine is the sum of free chlorine and combined chlorine. If you have a salt pool, you want to be checking for combined chlorine often regularly, especially if these the pool is used a lot. And so if you have a lot of use, a lot of rain, a lot of leaves, a lot of birds or whatever dogs, you should be checking combined chlorine and salt pools just as regular regularly as you check for free chlorine. Because we all know the combined chlorine is what makes the smell, it's what burns the eyes, it's what does all the things that are bad that people complain and then they don't understand why you have to add more chlorine if the combined chlorine is high because they don't know the difference, and then it's just it's just a whole thing. So just take care of it before it becomes a problem. All right. Now, bromine is also used as a primary sanitizer in spas and also some indoor pools. It's been banned for use in outdoor pools because of bromates, which are very bad for humans. Bromine is in the same chemical family as chlorine. They are both halogens. Sorry, bromine is both a disinfectant and an oxidizer. It is also a very good algebra since it does not bond with cyanuric acid the way that chlorine does, and so it's not inhibited by the stabilizer. Going back to why it's banned, it should not be used in UV systems or outdoor pools because of bromates, because it reacts with the UV and it creates the toxic, just call it a toxic byproduct. I don't Rudy knows more about it. So bromine actually converts chlorine to bromine. So when you are using sodium bromide, for example, this is why people say it eats the chlorine and you have to add more. It's because it's actually converting the chlorine into bromine. And then since there is no stabilizer for bromine, the sunlight eats it away, degrades it. So there's no stabilizer for bromine, or there's no known stabilizer. So cyaneric acid is not gonna work. Also, there's this whole bromine bank thing. So when you add bromine to the pool, you need to activate it with sodium hypochlorite. You need that hypochlorous acid to activate it. That's the other reason why you have to add chlorine when you use sodium bromide, and then that burns off the bromine and the an adult, it's just a whole cycle. You can Google the infographic. Sodium chloride is converted to free chlorine via the process of electrolysis. Whatever. One of the things that drives me nuts when I hear people talk about salt cells, they are not generating sodium hypochlorite. They are generating chlorine gas. The chlorine gas then mixes with the water and then hypochlorous acid are generated. However, the salt cell does not produce sodium hypochlorite. I've heard people say the reason salt systems have high pH is because sodium hypochlorite has a pH of 13 or 14. And that's just not it. The salt cell is generating chlorine gas, Cl2 underscript 2, not NA. The pH in a salt system rises because of the electrolysis process in which the turbulence does the does the pH rising. So next is ozone and UV. These still, as I said, require chlorine to maintain a residual. However, these are more effective at killing and inactivating pathogens than just chlorine. You still need to have the chlorine residual because the water, only the water that is in contact with the UV or the ozone is being sanitized, disinfected, if you will. It is then returned back into the dirty yucky pool where it mixes and becomes unclean. So this is why you need the residual. We also have the chlorine dioxide. We also have PHMB, which is gonna say it, polyhexamethylene biguanide. Big Wanide. Big Biguanide. I don't know if you've ever seen Inspenter, you'd caught that reference. Sorry. Advanced oxidation process, also known as AOP process, P not AOC, it's a different show. You have chlorine dioxide, which is not available in the US, at least not for swimming pools, but they do use it in Australia. So shout out to the uh Australian friends listening. Tell me about it, all right? Because I'm curious. I I was talking with Lee a little bit, our our Monday, one of our Monday hosts, and it's fairly interesting to me. Let me know what you think about it, and if you use it, that would be really cool. Maybe we can talk about it. Anyway, uh, then you have the biguanide, bigwanide. Hold on. Polyhexamethylene. I like saying big words. Biguanide, PHMB. I've never really had much experience with that at all. Same thing with the AOP advanced oxidation process. I've talked about it on the show with Rudy when we were doing the show together. And actually, Rudy did most of the talking about it. I did a lot of listening. Obviously, it didn't stick. I know what it is, I know what it does, but you know what? It's one of those things where it's like I don't know enough to talk about it and explain it to you on the podcast. So again, if anybody wants to come on here and talk about it with me, that would be great. I would appreciate it.

SPEAKER_08 30:41

If you have yet to listen to yesterday's episode of Mondays Down Under, make sure you check it out. Lee, Shane, and Nick discuss how the United States, Israel, and Iran's war is affecting pool service companies globally.

SPEAKER_04 31:01

One air travel, we can't fly through Dubai and Doha like we used to. Everything will go through Singapore. Flights are gonna get more expensive.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

So because of the mid early, I'm gonna have to put my splash ticket very very vast.

SPEAKER_04 31:15

Yes, do that. So I'd love to book mine, but I don't know when my training deliveries are. But um it's it it's something that's going to affect lots of things. So but people might actually be staying at home more and holidaying in their own backyard more. Yeah, they might not have well some people during COVID had a extra money probably because of the COVID handouts. But Yeah, it they're gonna be holidaying at home. They won't be spending that money overseas, they won't be flying, they won't be driving their caravan around the countryside. So maybe more backyard pools are actually going to be used. So it's just gonna look different, maybe.

SPEAKER_06 31:56

It definitely has that feeling, you know, walking around the shops and everything like that, that yeah, things are things are um whispers of COVID era again, it definitely has a feeling like that.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 32:08

But COVID was okay. Like we had a lot of people that didn't mind investing money into their house, into their pool during that time. So we can hope for similar times ahead.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

I was actually quite surprised that um when I just searched online because I thought Australia had a lot of well, they have a lot of natural resources, but they still import 85 to 90% of their fuel, which I've I did not realize that. I thought you guys had a lot of fuel over there.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

They actually said after the after the war started that Australia only had 35 days of fuel resources in the country. And I think that actually includes what was in ships almost here.

SPEAKER_06 32:54

Yes, it does.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

And so this leads on to Nick, you did a bit of research last night. Do you want to share that with our listeners?

SPEAKER_06 33:01

Yeah, so I did a bit of research into the national response plan, a federal response plan for fuel, and what their plan would be to implement and the if there was a shortage was to occur. So the first thing would be is they would just let the market dictate the price and and hopefully that would reduce consumption. So, you know, who knows how far that runs away, too, but that will stop those people that want to go to the holidays this week or go driving or take that holiday. So that would reduce demand slightly. Then from there they would look at different restrictions in place for emergency services and then rationing.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

All right, let's move on. pH. This is the measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the water. pH stands for potens hydrogen. I'll say it without the emo accent, potens hydrogen, which is Latin for the power of hydrogen. The effectiveness of free chlorine is directly linked to pH, which greatly affects water balance and user comfort. So an acceptable range extends from 7.2 to 7.8. And please have people that I hear saying the seven the pH was 7.8, why don't you lower it? Because it was 7.8, and that was that's acceptable. And it stays at 7.8, it's a whole thing. 7.8 is acceptable. I'm not saying you shouldn't lower it. I'm just saying you don't have to if it's 7.8. If it's 8, sure, lower it. I won't get into it. We lower the pH by adding acid. There are several different types available. You have muriatic sulfuric, you have dry acid, sodium bisulfate. Sulfuric acid should not be used in salt pools. It's bad for the cell. I know some people recommend it. I'm gonna say I don't recommend it. I don't want to say we do that because it's kind of generally not recommended to raise pH by adding bicarb, but adding bicarb does raise pH. Adding soda ash raises pH. Those things also raise total alkalinity. Uh aeration raises pH without raising total alkalinity. So prior to making any pH adjustments, please, for me, test the total alkalinity first and take care of that first if you need to. I've had I've run into a lot of problems where people just add acid and they add acid every week and they just they don't test the alkalinity often enough. Low pH problems. Low pH also causes wrinkles and vinyl specifically. See, I said I was gonna specifically mention it. And also skin and eye irritation. So it's gonna cause. I found that like I used to go in swimming pools a lot when I was a little kid, and I would always, well, not always, but I the thing I hated the most was like when your skin feels like waxy. You know what I mean? Like not dry, but like somebody said waxy, and I was like, because I could never describe how it felt. And one of my customers said that. And I was like, wow, that's that's accurate. So anyway, that comes from when the alkalinity is too low. Okay, high pH problems. You have scaling and cloudy water, you have chlorine inefficiency because pH is too high. There's a there's a direct chart thingy that you can look up that tell that tells effectiveness of chlorine at each pH level. Google that please. You have skin and eye irritation with high pH as well. Now, when you have the scaling and cloudy water problem, what happens is it's not necessarily from a high pH. I mean, it is from a high pH, but it could also be from a pH spike. So what'll happen is so, say for example, you have a pool that, whatever, you just show up, it's not your pool, it's you just showed up and it's you're there to fix a problem. You test the water, and the pH and total alkalinity are super low. So your first instinct is, oh, I'm gonna raise these, or I'm gonna raise the the alkalinity and then the pH. So what happens is when you do that, and if you spike it too fast or too too high too fast, anything that was dissolved in the water is now going to just kind of like out. That was a technical term, by the way. It's an industry term, okay? It's gonna precipitate, it's gonna blast out of there, and then it's just gonna sit and deposit onto the surface. That's what causes or contributes to the staining. Or if you have calcium carbonate floating around, it's just gonna be turbid. Um, and that's the explanation of that. Let me move on to total alkalinity, total and carbonate alkalinity, okay, because we cannot talk about one without the other. So total alkalinity refers to the capacity of water to buffer against fluctuations in pH. As a buffer, it consists of ionic compounds that help maintain stable pH levels in aquatic environments. The total alkalinity measures bicarbonates, carbonates, cyanuric acid, sulfates, nitrates, hydroxides. So this is why we need to correct for the cyanuric acid interference. If you want to know what the carbonate alkalinity is versus the total alkalinity, you subtract one-third of the cyanuric acid level from the total alkalinity. So if your stabilizer is 60 and your total alkalinity is 80, that means your carbonate alkalinity is 60. 60 divided by three is 20. 20 minus, I mean 80 minus 20 is 60. Get it? Okay, that's how you do it. Don't come at me with that other company's stuff where they it's a whole like dependent on pH and stuff. That's fine, but this is just easier for me for now. Got okay, thanks. Low total alkalinity results in pH bounce, corrosion and etching. So pitting and etching. If there are metals present, this could be from mostly from copper. What is pH bounce? This is important. So without proper buffering, the pH, and this is a quote from the CPA book, CPO book, not CPA, that's different. Without proper buffering, the pH may swing dramatically from highs to lows, meaning that a rapid change in pH will occur with the smallest quantity of chemicals or even like someone's toe. You know what I mean? So if you have super low alkalinity, the pH is just gonna be all over the place. You could go at two different visits and get two wildly different readings. So you could go and have a higher pH reading and add acid, you know, and lower the alkalinity further because you didn't check it, and so it's just a whole mess if you are not careful.

SPEAKER_09 40:16

Dear Mr. Poolone, pull up a chair. We need to have a talk, a serious kind of care. Not that your dog bit me or your gate's falling off. I mean the kind of talk where I politely don't cough.

SPEAKER_10 40:39

See, chlorine ain't cheap, and neither is gas. Then you pull these tablets like a drunk at a buffet with no class, the filters wheezing, the pumps on strike, and I'm out here doing chemistry that NASA might like. You tubes the bacon soda fixes it all. Meanwhile, I'm elbow deep in your swamping lagoon install. And I'll be setting up the chopper like yeah, this pool's fine. I'm smiled through green, I'm smiled through words, I smile vacuuming what can only be described as a curse, but somewhere between what's the smell and instead of frog. We cross the line from full service into full-on exorcism jobs. So before I start feeling for trauma and spiritual cleansing, before I bring all my water and emotional counseling sessions. Let's just call this what it is. We're raising your race. Not because we're greedy, but you're fooled gone sparrust on how it's called green, it's fuel, it's true, it's too. It's the cost of not letting your backyard become a biohazard experiment clean up balance, just water to fix what you asked. We used to do calls broken out and lightly through every bad cool store to meanwhile, cost declining like your neighbor's bad advice. Then I've held the line longer than I probably do that twice. Like a crack list nightmare. Even when you pull test like hey, not pay and fold the test all the time, control the sideways. Oh, before you pull text closed on a Saturday night. Before you stop things, closing the lights. Let's keep this simple. We take a story still exist. Let's move along, and I'll keep your backyard from becoming a cautionary song. Dear Mr. Fooner. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_05 44:47

Now when total alkalinity is high, this is when the pH tends to rise above. Above the ideal range. So this is when this is when you're showing up and your pH is darker than an 8.0. I can't say it's higher than that. Well, I'm talking about with the tailored kit. If you have like a photometer or an electronic test or whatever, then you'll get an exact number. But when you have pH that is higher than 8.0 on a tailored kit, it's just 8.0. It could be 9, it could be 12, it could be 100, probably not, but you know what I mean? You just won't know. It just is all gonna look like 8.0. I'll get to the interferences in a minute because you can have a pH test sample that turns completely purple. But when I say purple, I mean more similar to this color than what you would think is like a purple. And Rudy actually has a great visual representation of that. I was talking about the pH becomes hard to adjust because of total alkalinity being too high. We call this pH lock. This is different from chlorine lock, obviously, because we're not talking about chlorine. It's not the same thing. Cloudy water from suspended calcium carbonate, as I said earlier, rough sandpapery surfaces, clogged filter and heater elements, and reduced circulation, all caused from scale deposits. Scale will form on the filter elements, on the heater elements, on any element that is in the pool. Now we go to calcium hardness. So hard or soft water are terms that indicate the water's calcium content. Total hardness and calcium hardness are two different tests.

SPEAKER_07 46:44

Or you inhaled too much muriatic acid this week. Could be either. Next time we're getting into the stuff that actually causes arguments in parking lots, Facebook groups, and supply houses at 6 45 in the morning. So go test your pools and try not to create a chemical reaction. So tune in for part two of this three part interview next Tuesday, where we'll hear Andrea say Trippers, trippers.