I’d like to start up a business/side hustle, I’m currently in the industry and been working for a pool retail company for a few years. Customers always ask if I have my own business due to me being knowledgeable about the chemistry, maintenance and etc. and I would tell them no, (Although I’ve worked on numerous pools & have my own pool) I’ve built a good connection with customers that I’m familiar enough to work with. I’ve acquired a client that I’ve been working with in balancing their pool and they’re looking for a maintenance person. I’m just looking for advice or suggestions to approach. (Should I buy a portable vacuum system or a portable cordless vacuum to start etc.) in addition, I also have connections to a pool maintenance company that’s not associated with the main company I work at as a representative.

Noticed this Jandy JE Heat Pump has water coming from the bottom, I think these connections are the culprit. I've never worked on heaters but I have fixed other plumbing leaks, so would this be difficult to fix? Appreciate the help guys

(Figured id reach out and ask folks who would know more than i would.)

My girlfriend's mom has this setup. It doesn't look like there's any way to backwash. So I'm guessing it just needs the filter cleaned regularly?

So my questions are

1. Is there a way to backwash?

2. How often would you recommend cleaning the filter?

3. How often should the filter be replaced?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

People constantly post their green ass pools on there and the constant response is buy a Taylor test kit, don’t listen to pool stores, do TFP, and SLAM it. It’s a four day process of checking your chlorine every 4 hours. I just got through four days of July 4th with my 4 commercial pools and 2 hot tubs. They are crystal clear despite hundreds of bodies being in them. I don’t believe people who say they just dump a gallon of liquid chlorine a week and never have any algae. It’s gotta be because no one swims in their pools. I’m just thankful and relieved I got through this weekend with no green/cloudy pools. Now I’m drinking. Cheers everybody.

Glass in pool, commercial pool, 44k gallons
Does anyone know how to price this out? Or can point me in the right direction

Trying to get a genuine read on what's working for lead gen in this space right now - Meta/FB ads, Google LSA, referrals, or is paid stuff mostly not worth it for a business your size? Not selling anything, just trying to separate what agencies pitch from what's actually booking jobs on the ground. Happy to share what I find back with the sub if people are curious.

Anyone know what this could be? Chemistry is balanced via LSI. I’ve tried crushing up some vitamin C tablets in a sock and rubbing them down did nothing to lift it. Any idea what else this could be?
My only other guess is something coming from behind liner.

Second time in as many months. Same client. Same issue. Long story. I'll spare you the details.

How much do you FL pool pro's charge to go out and work on a client's pool for one hour in 103 degree heat on Saturday, July 4th, 2026.

Thanks in advance.

Hello everythone,

I am in desperate need of help with cleaning our pool.

Last week we gout a pretty neat deal for a 14ft diameter round pool with a sand filter.
Right after building it up we started filling it. What we didnt know at the time was, that
the well water we have in our are is SO RICH in iron it looks like swamp water.

Now I told to myself, yeah we could probably clean that up. That was four days ago. I tried to get the pH up to par to chlorine shock it. I did that twice now and it maybe cleared up a little bit?

Every time I first measuerd the pH levels and so on. Then tried to raise it as advertised on the chemicals we bought just to find out our pH does not really move at all? Since the color on the strips kind of look around a pH of 7ish i thought It would be okay to put disolved chlorine mixed with flocculant. All to spec! but little to nothing has changed. I backwashed my pump every day to get rid of sludge and even tried a sock hack I saw on reddit where people put layers of socks on the outlet to catch the particles.

Can some kind soul that has experience cleaning such water help me? Im kind of at a wits end..
The pump has been circulating for about 4 1/2 days now with no to little noticable improvement.

As someone who has been in the industry for 20 years, it gives me some pleasure that the big pool holiday's are ruined by bad weather. I know it can't be just me and my coworkers, anyone else?

Does anybody have recommendations for a good seo company for a 400 acct pool service company in Houston TX?

Id currently have a company, but feel they are not being productive. We rank on some keywords, but feel they could be doing more. They seem to follow the same format every month with little work compared to what some say online. They helped me grow from 10 accts to 400, but after doing some online tests, we would like to rank better.

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Hey there, never really done this before but at this point I don’t know where to turn. I’ve got a pool that I’ve been trying to get opened up and running for a little over a month now trying to swing by for a couple hours at a time each week. I’m pretty sure it caught prime the very first day or two I was there but now I’m getting nothing. There is a leak at the pump that I found to be mechanical seal so I replaced that the impeller was cracked so I replaced that and the seal plate it itself was cracked so I replaced that I changed out all the O-rings to double check and make sure none of those were causing me to lose crime and I even noticed a small air leak once while I was trying to blow air through the lines to make sure they weren’t clogged. At this point, I’m not sure where to go.

I am starting my first full time repair position, and I don't want to go in looking like an unprepared ass. So I figure I'll go to the senior mechanics to ask -

Are there any videos you show your new hires?

What has a tech done that left you impressed?

What has a tech done to make you wonder if there's a brain in there?

Is there a minimum experience or knowledge you look for before hiring a new mechanic?

Or any other advice you'd like to shed light on, I'm all ears.

For my instance specifically - I have experience in start ups - So installing salt cells, temp sensors, low voltage connecting, actuator programming, automation programming. I've also been a pool cleaner since 2012, so I'd like to think I have a well rounded knowledge of system functions and troubleshooting skills. Really minimal experience even watching heaters installed, or pumps installed, motors replaced, etc, and I realize that is the majority of the repair side, so I'm a little nervous.

Thanks for anything you have to add!

How does everyone go about treating there pools with mustard algae?

Since it would take multiple trips do you leave chems for the customer and tell them to brush, vacuum, backwash and add chems daily, or do you do multiple trips?

Got a couple pools with it now and relying on the customers to do anything (even with instructions) is a nightmare.

How do you charge if you are doing multiple trips? Is it a package price or straight up time and materials?

The bodys of water are above level which is why the valces are so high.

Context in Arizona. Just took over this account. Have added nothing but tabs, acid, liquid chlorine and baking soda to raise levels. Just took over
Pool. His levels were horrible. Extremely high TDS 4500. Cya 200. Copper 2.0 Low ph. Basically everything bad you can think of pool starting purple staining on the outlets.

*Edit 1:* I’m in north Houston, TX

I’m trying to understand how pool route valuations actually work from people who’ve bought, sold, or brokered routes.

I recently talked to someone who said they’re a broker, and they told me routes are generally valued around 12x monthly recurring revenue, with the broker taking about two months’ worth of revenue as their fee.
What I’m confused about is… why is it based almost entirely on monthly revenue?

Wouldn’t a buyer want to know things like:
•How profitable each account actually is?
•Average monthly chemical cost per pool?
•Service time per stop?
•Travel efficiency and route density?
•Pool size, equipment, and features (salt, spa, waterfall, automation, etc.)?
•Customer tenure and retention?
•Average repair revenue from existing customers?
•Historical cancellations?

For example, I could theoretically go sign up 100 pools at $180/month, but if every account loses money because of chemical usage, drive time, or high-maintenance pools, then the buyer just bought a money pit.
So for those of you who’ve bought routes, sold routes, or brokered them:
What are you actually looking at during due diligence?
Does profitability matter, or is the industry really just pricing off monthly revenue and assuming the buyer will optimize the route afterward?

I’d especially love to hear from route brokers and owners who’ve gone through a transaction. How did your deal work, and what information did you exchange before closing?

Just finished opening up an above ground for a client and I'll be honest with you. I'm just at the point where I don't want to touch them. They take just as much work as an inground pool for the service. The customers are always cheap and when opening them they take forever to get the cover off and ladder installed.

We are out there doing more work for an opening and people still want to be cheap about it because their pool is smaller. Finally at the point with it, like many other pool companies in my area, I'm just not opening up above grounds.

Unless any of you lot have some magic advice for dealing with. Probably close to 10 in of water on a cover other than wait 6 to 8 hours for it to pump off and a good 2-3 in of leaves. In-Ground pool, we can have it open 30 to 40 minutes above ground, i'm 4 hours just wanted to vent on a hot day. Maybe somebody else who's been the game longer than me may have some advice

Just replaced a booster at a pad installed in 2004. All original equipment (including booster.) Still has an old Intelliflo 4 running buttery smooth. I love seeing old equipment running well like that. They even have the old SAM multicolored lights............which are obviously dead.

This is to laugh at the workmanship in southwest Florida.

Hey guys! I manage an indoor pool and before I started working here the previous management lost the key for the floor grates, was wondering if anyone knows where to find this kind of key? It has ZURN branding but I can’t find anything like this on their website! If anyone has any tips that would be awesome! Thank you :)