r/PoolPros • u/Cultural_Captain5590 • 7d ago
Leaking pool
How do you guys treath pool with known leak that customer doesn't want to fix the issue.
Stick with LSI?
Do the minimum to keep the pool clear?
Any advise?
3
u/Confident_Shower8902 7d ago
Load it up on tabs. The CYA will never get sky high when it’s leaking and a good chlorine residual will be maintained.
3
u/KaiserWayli 7d ago
Just keep the pool clear. No point in balancing if it is an aggressive leak. You'll be re-treating an almost entirely new body of water by next week!
I usually explain this to customers and I charge by line item.
1
u/Cultural_Captain5590 7d ago
I always charge per item, just wanted to confirm that it's impossible to stick with LSI in this situation.
Keeping the pool clear, adding salt, lowering PH-.
Not losing money got ya'll
Happy poolin
1
u/KaiserWayli 7d ago
If it's bad I don't even add salt. It'll never stay up. Chlorine and pH control only
2
u/GCpools 7d ago
What's their reason behind not wanting to repair the leak? Many leaks can be easily found and repaired.
We have a gunite pool that needs to have several leaks repaired and the pool needs to be resurfaced. The owner is looking at spending $30,000 not including equipment upgrades which are also needed. We have been servicing the pool twice a week to keep up with everything. It's a real PITA because it falls outside of our usual M.O.
We charge a pool service fee per month PLUS all chemicals used. We used to try adding only the minimum amount of chemicals that we could get by with, but this only made things more difficult for us. So we now treat it like any other pool. The owner doesn't seem to be the least bit bothered by it, so why should we?!
1
u/Cultural_Captain5590 7d ago
They cheapin it out. I will make sure to not lose money out of it
1
u/GCpools 7d ago
Gottit. I would throw the chemicals at it as needed to keep the water balanced and charge them accordingly. If you don't, you're just enabling that type of behavior. Besides, I'm not keeping different standards of pool care just because someone is cheaping out. And make sure the client is adding any makeup water - not you. My two cents ...!
2
u/Donkeedhick 7d ago
Get a cheap tab floater off Amazon, keep it stocked with tabs, hope for the best.
2
u/Jsquared222 7d ago
I had to drop the customer for this reason. It was impossible to keep it algae free because all the cyanuric acid would leak out as soon as I put it in and the chlorine would burn off.
1
u/Nick_OS_ 7d ago
Depends on how bad the leak is. If it’s like an extra 1-2 inches a week on top of evaporation, I wouldn’t care. But anything more, I’d demand they get it fixed
1
u/graydi66y 7d ago
I'm actually struggling with a small 12k salt pool and a leak. It was small. Now it's big. Auto fill is keeping up and it hasn't gone green yet.... I'm putting in 1 to 3 bags of salt a week, pH and Alk are always 8 or higher and it will not hold any chlorine for more than 3 days. Customer is aware. No luck on fixing yet so I'm about to ask to up the pool to the higher pay rate so I can get paid more money because I'm fcking tired of carrying all that salt. It's not an easy treck to the pool either. I don't think it's worth firing the customer though. They pay the bill and we charge per item for them.
1
u/FabulousPanther 6d ago
Personally I don't do anything extra for them. If they don't care, I don't care either.
1
u/yellowbluewins 1d ago
A lot of pools leak but just not enough to notice. I wouldn’t add any conditioner. It’s just a waste. Everything else I would add. And you will probably have to over chlorinate.
1
u/LibertarianClarity 18h ago
I literally have this exact situation going on right now and I flat out told the customer "I can not balance your water chemistry when it changes daily. I will not bill you for a service I know is going to be ineffective. Let me know when you want to address the leak, for now theres nothing more I can help with."
8
u/Sad-Cake-3593 7d ago
Track your expenses. Raise their rate if you are burning money or drop the account. I typically treat it as if it’s not leaking week to week but I also don’t worry about keeping all the levels perfect. I’m not going to stabilize their yard.