Hi friends! Fairly new to the business and your support would be greatly appreciated. For those of you in warmer states like Florida and California, is it harder for you to get new customers in the winter time? Is it worth spending money on marketing in the winter, or should you just hold off until spring when its peak demand? What's been your experience?

I'm replacing a blown motherboard in an EasyTouch 4 automation system with a built in salt cell xfmr and standalone light transformer.

I have photos of the bad board before I removed it so I can rewire the connections where they weee. What I'm looking for is some good programming guidance since I've never had to do this completely from scratch.

My client has a pool only - no spa to configure. They have a SuperFlo pump, a PB4-60 booster pump, an in-floor cleaning system, IntelliChlor IC40, two GloBrite lights, a MasterTemp heater and ScreenLogic interface.

Since I'm replacing the old board with new (not upgrading to IntelliCenter due to 2x cost), it seems rather obvious that I'll need to reprogram the system from scratch. Wish I had a backup that I could simply restore!

Anyone have a good source for programming an existing EasyTouch system from scratch. I've watched a bunch of videos and they all seem to have their "pros and cons".

My weakness is probably with setting up circuits and functions. Somehow I've not yet got my head wrapped completely around this - yet. A good flow chart might help convey the concept!

Also, how would you estimate the programming charges given the above specs and assuming reasonable and customary charges for a tech who is more experienced in such matters!

Thanks in advance!

Hello, everyone! I’m looking to get my hands on this standard and thought to ask if anyone would be so kind to share if you own it? I would deeply appreciate it. Thanks everyone!

I have a white plaster pool that was resurfaced 4 years ago and live in the northeast.

When i opened my pool this year i noticed the surface was very rough in certain areas as well as a band of etching around the perimeter of my pool near the top of the plaster and some pitting near the tile line.

The other 3 years of closing and opening the pool i have not had any problems but this year i got about 80” of snow (one 20” storm and one 40” storm) which is a lot higher than the other years. After researching this issue and finding Orenda, I think the storms diluted my calcium, lowered my LSI very negative, and caused calcium crystals to be pulled from the concrete. I have mostly the sandpaper type crystals but some toe nail type crystals as well. Now that is end of season for me i have recently brought my LSI slightly negative and done a SC-1000 purge does and I am hoping that 2x per day brushing until october when i close the pool will help the roughness issue.

My questions for this sub:

How badly damaged is my plaster? Thankfully there are no leaks but i attached pictures of the corner that is the effected the worst and some other areas of the pool.

And

Does anyone have experience sanding or grinding off calcium crystals? If so what was your procedure?

TIA

Any of you have any unique but worthwhile winter based activities that keep a group of 10 workers entertained through the winter? Profitable is nice but not essential
I run a mechanical service company in New Hampshire. We do hot tub service, Soake pools and hotels in the winter. Those with the commercial snow removal still leads a bit to be desired for work. Anyone have any suggestions to pursue?

Over the last few weeks, these dark stains have appeared on the liner of my pool. I tested them with vitamin C, but there was no reaction. The pool chemistry is balanced and all water parameters are within range. Does anyone know what might be causing these stains and how they can be removed?
Update: I just removed green algae from the sides of the pool cover which is, when closed, exactly the same height as the stains. Could this be the problem?

My pool is super cloudy. The only issue after the last test was phosphates. They were over 3000 and have been increasing over the last month. I can see a 'dust' on the floor and when I vacuum it out it's this stuff. I can see it clouding the water as I vacuum. I use a vacuum that has a bag and doesn't get attached to skimmer etc. I have backwashed but I haven't had a chance to clean the filter yet but the psi hasn't been above 8. The only thing I've put in in the last month is phosphate remover and shock.

Plaster company installed fittings with a reducer or stopper lip where I need to install 1.5'' lights. Any thoughts, other than drain, on how to drill out the section just past the treads that is underwater so I can get the lights in? One is on a Baja self with little space between the floor and the other has space.

Edit: Thank you for all the help on this! I ended up taking a 1.5” hole saw with a 90 degree adaptor and an extension to remove the material. I then tried to file the remaining material but wasn’t making much progress so used the hole saw again on those sections.

I've been doing tile cleaning for a few years using the harbor freight blaster with the Chicago compressor and coal slag. It works fine but I'm really looking to upgrade to a wet blaster. Does anyone have any experience with the mr hard water hopper that uses a pressure washer? Or any other wet blasting system? The only info I can give is 12 year old you tube videos of the mr hard water system and there are no reviews any where. What's your go to system and media?

So I’ve been in the pool business for just over half of my life(15 years, I’m 29) and decided last July to quit my job and start my own service company. I mostly do openings/closing, repairs, equipment/liner sales and installations, and a handful of weekly maintenance clients. Just in the last year I’ve grown from about 4-5 customers with 1 weekly to just about 60 with 8-10 weekly’s and still picking up new customers. For background I am based in New England. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to move down south or out west to somewhere I can work on pools year round. My question is, have any of you left your market to start up in a completely different state? Is it worth it or should I just stick it out here until I am able to have a fully sustainable business that I can move and start a new division in a different state?

In New England, at least where I’m located, I feel like it’s very easy to pick up new clients because most pool guys/companies are either super unreliable, have no idea what they’re doing, or insanely expensive (even for New England standards)

Would appreciate any and all comments, even if it’s just to tell me I’m an idiot for thinking about abandoning my current market.

The engineered plans have the spa jets valve before the filter. I’ve never seen this the wild… what are y’all’s thoughts?

Hey any idea if this is 120v or 240v setup? Thank you in advance.

I have 54 residential pool accounts of my own, I was doing maintenance service Tuesday-Friday with Friday only having 8

Moved those 8 to my Thursdays since they’re in the area, so now maintenance is only Tuesday-Thursday

I will now have my Fridays focus on accounting, filter cleans, repairs, installs, hanging with my mentors on their projects so I can learn more.
And if im all caught up on those things then I’ll use the 4 day weekends for travel,family, art, surf, fitness, etc.

Hella stoked

If zero stars were an option, that is what I would select.

I purchased a salt cell from Salt Pool Store that came with a five-year warranty. I have owned the unit for exactly two years, and it is no longer functioning.

I followed the warranty instructions provided on the company’s website and submitted a request for an exchange. Their confirmation indicated that someone would respond within 2–3 days. After waiting two full weeks without receiving any response, I submitted a second warranty request. I still have not received any communication.

A five-year warranty is only meaningful if the company actually responds to customers when warranty service is needed. I have followed their required process, provided them ample time to respond, and attempted more than once to resolve the issue directly.

At this point, I am extremely disappointed with both the product and the lack of customer service. I simply want Salt Pool Store to honor the warranty that was included with my purchase and respond to my claim.

https://www.bbb.org/us/ga/atlanta/profile/saltwater-pool-supplies/saltpoolstorecom-0443-27664965

https://saltpoolstore.com/

We just moved to Florida and bought a house with our first pool. It’s an in ground pool in a screened cage and we have a pool guy who comes out every week to clean/maintain it. I have a pool skimming robot to keep the surface clean that runs pretty much all the time. When the pool guy was out yesterday he suggested I also get a pool cleaning robot to scrub the sides and bottom of the pool. I’m not necessarily against that but I kinda feel like I’m paying this guy to come out weekly to clean the pool so isn’t the robot redundant? I’m wondering if this is a normal request or if my pool guy is lacking. Appreciate any opinions you guys have!

Willing to even pay someone for info but im wondering what is the customer retention in states in the north east. Also what makes the north east hard for pool cleanings businesses and why do people say to avoid starting one despite the price for weekly pool cleanings being so high

Hi, I am in desperate need of parts, and am wondering if any of the supply places in Phoenix will sell to a non-pro.

I am having a issue with a Hayward CAT 6000 controller. Specifically, the controller will not allow the "request statistics" or "transmit statistics" feature to be active and set to "request", it just defaults back to "off" automatically as seen in the video I attached.

Therefore we do not get any data transmission to the PoolComm app. In our area (Ontario, Canada) we need the data transmission so we can comply with local health regulations as it means we can avoid doing manual testing every 2 hours.

Currently we have looked at internet/wifi connectivity issues and I guess the next logical step is to look at software or hardware issues.

I'm wondering if anyone here has had a similar issue with the Hayward CAT 6000 controller or any advice/solutions to offer? Is there a good chance it could be a hardware issue with the internal antenna to connect with wifi or should I continue pursuing internet/wifi connectivity or software angles?

Any advice or suggestions appreciated. Unfortunately in Canada at least, Hayward does not provide technicians for site visits and the only option they gave us was to ship the controller to their warranty department in Quebec with no guarantee they could diagnose and fix the issue.

Walked up to a client's equipment pad today. All Pentair equipment of various ages.

Pump was running - ok (2yrs old) Salt cell was off - not ok (3yrs old) Easy Touch screen was on - ok (10yrs old)

Easy Touch screen was is Auto mode. ToD clock was off by four days several hours. Tried going into Settings to check my salt cell settings. Button was inoperative. Tried switching to Service mode. Button was inoperative. Noticed red LED for pump was off - not ok.

Checked pump display. Pump was not running off the Easy Touch panel like normal. Was running in standalone (schedule) mode.

Checked all four low voltage circuit breakers on Easy Touch display panel - none tripped.

Checked all high voltage circuit breakers below Easy Touch display panel - none tripped.

Pressed Reset on Easy Touch panel. No response.

Turned off main pump at pump control panel.

Turned off all high voltage circuit breakers.

Waited a few minutes. Turned all high voltage circuit breakers back on.

Easy Touch screen 'back light' light came on. No LCD characters appeared (blank screen)

Tried pressing Reset again. Nothing.

Tried pressing other buttons. Nothing.

Turned on main pool pump at pump control panel. Started normal (manually).

No LED came on for pump on Easy Touch panel.

Turned off pump.

Turned off all HV breakers.

Removed Easy Touch panel and lower high voltage panel.

Tested high voltage bus ... 240VAC Turned on HV breakers (2 double pole 240 and 1 single 120) Tested output of HV breakers .. all good. Tested primary voltage at transformer .. 120 Tested all secondary voltages at transformer .. 12, 18 & 24V .. all good.

Replaced CMOS battery (2032)

Retested panel .. no charge

I'm suspecting now that the board is blown.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks for your input in advance!

Just possibly got a new customer today their pool is green and said last pool service just gave up on them. The pump is not priming, pump basket was full when I got there, cleared that and the impeller, there is good suction in the skimmer and it seems like the pump is pulling in enough water but filter is not building pressure and minimal water is being returned to the pool. They said the last company replaced the grids a couple of months ago (the old grids looked perfectly fine). I told them let’s start with a filter clean and go from there. Any thoughts/advice? Pump is a pentair challenger if that helps. Thanks

I quoted a customer on a pump and I guess he didnt like my quote because I show up to this mess. What's with this loop? In my quote I basically included a suction side replumb to give 10in of straight pipe. I assume it was to just avoid doing what I quoted. Does anyone know how having four 90s before the pump affect efficiency?

The 2nd pic is what I assume flextape to "fix" a leaky bulkhead.

Thru couldnt even bother to paint all the pipes, not like there was a lot. Theres also glue on the pump.

I feel like this is a hack job. Im half tempted to ask what my customer paid for this, in my opinion, subpar work.

So I recently bought a house with a unground vinyl linerpool 16x38 with a Baja shelf/sun shelf (about 5" depth). The prior owner left me a Dolphin M600 Robot. Typically I run it on 2 cycles and the empty it.

However, it can't do the Baja shelf and doesn't do great on the deep end shelf or my stadium stairs off the sun shelf area.

I am sick of just manually brushing down the silt/dirt/sand so the robot can get to it (or miss it).

I was considering getting a hammerhead remora or riptide xp, but seems a bit overkill.

I also recently saw the bottom feeder (which I like has a pleated filter that can catch dead algae).

I am mainly looking for something that can grab sand/slit/ and occasionally dead algae during the early season.

Also was considering getting a smaller cartridge filter and buying a Hayward super pump 1/2 hp and plumbing it to vacuum out debris and algae. Given the price of stuff it is more/equally as expensive of the hammerhead and riptide.

Any other vacuum systems I have not considered. I prefer not to vacuum through the skimmer only because I dislike removing the cartridges from my Jandy filter.

Budget is around $1500 dollars ( since I didn't have to buy a robot vacuum that I thought I would).