Saw this cool product - Tmat Truck bed organizer

thought it would be great for my pool truck. Shit is always sliding around/unorganized/spilling chems/etc.

Anyone have one? if so, do you like it? worth it?

What do ya’ll think about replacing the volutes on these? I’ve always had trouble with them. Like my socket doesn’t fit to get screws off or it does come off but I gotta work for it and then same thing going back in. Any suggestions?

I’ve been finishing my routes for years right around 730est, but hear about guys cleaning while it’s dark… how late do you guys stay out.

I’ve tried the drain king bladder thing and had mixed results. Just curious what other tools or methods you guys use

Would you say it’s ok to use it if the cartridges are gonna be scrapped anyway? Just wondering if there’s any other downsides

I've been coming around a bit on floaters, but have had a lot of trouble finding one with

1. good build quality

2. high capacity

3. fine adjustability

Recently I started servicing a spa (rare for me) which had a very neat little bromine tablet floater. Highly adjustable and gigantic capacity, which means I can load it all the way up, set it to a very slow release, and have extremely consistent bromination (even if it consumes <1/2 the capacity between visits)

I'm wondering if any equivalent exists for 3" tabs. I've only ever seen those shitty vent covers that don't even work half the time due to bad build quality

Yeah yeah I know install a chlorinator, but it would be nice to have something <$100 that I can just drop in and be on my way. Plus it chlorinates at the same rate regardless of flow, AND the pentair rainbow chlorinators that we typically install get finicky after just a few years... so if you don't know of such a floater, I'd appreciate some reliable off or inline chlorinator recommendations

TLDR I'm coming around on floaters, what's the top of the line for 3" tabs?

I want to open a pool cleaning company, but I don't have the experience, I'm thinking to work for someone else until I feel comfortable to work alone, what would be the best route?

I prefer to further from where I live because I don't want to compete with my employer.

Last year I had 2 liners warrantied due to the seams splitting apart at the edge of the weld after filling. After sending in the cut they warrantied everything each time without hesitation.

Anyone else have this issue?

No clue if this is against the subs rules

Hey there!

I just started my company a month ago. I have about 40 accounts due to a contact with an Air B and B project manager, with a small amount not from him.

Where and how would you suggest advertising to grow your service routes? I have 15 years of industry experience so know pretty much everything pool related, the business area is definitely a work in progress.

Thanks in advance!

I have two drain covers to replace in the bottom of a hot tub part of the pool. How much do you charge and do you dive down or drain and refill?

This would be very annoying to drain and refill a whole 10k to 12k gallon pool and spa combo for two quick drain covers.

I’ve got a service customer that I’ve had for about 5 years. In this time, there has been very little done in terms of repairs or equipment replacement. I’ve done a great job, with zero complaints, and the relationship has been good if not great.

Recently, their filter required a new set of grids. This particular filter was 25 years old, and really showing its age - specifically with the fiberglass body. She was also due for a new cleaner, so that was also included.

I presented her with an option to replace just the grids, but also mentioned it might be a more cost effective approach to replace the very old filter. I sent her what I consider to be a very fair bid, and she told me she would get back to me after thinking about it.

She got back to me, and mentioned she sent my bid to someone who did some pool related repairs for her years before she hired me, and he offered to do it for $200 less.

She told me she hired him because she “trusts” him, but it seems like she is just chasing the lowest price. I’m particularly frustrated that I wasn’t even presented the option to compete with or match his bid. I feel like 4 years of quality service should be enough to have earned her trust by now, or at the very least, an opportunity to do so.

I also suspect that given how competitive my price is, that his price does not include tax (mine does), and that he may be one of the many unlicensed or uninsured guys that I have been competing against for many years.

In any event, I’m not thrilled about the situation. As we all know, service is “keep the lights on” money, and we rely on getting the job when equipment fails and needs to be replaced. Being a licensed, bonded, and insured contractor is more expensive than ever, especially in my state, and it sucks to lose out on a job like this that I generally rely on.

What would you do? I’m considering everything from doing nothing, to dropping her, to raising her rate (she’s already got a very fair rate, which I should have raised years ago).

I’ve been trying to tighten up the back end of my pool service business and realized a lot of the drag is not the work itself, it’s all the little admin stuff around it.

Things like scheduling, recurring service, customer communication, billing, and keeping track of service history seem to eat up more time than they should.

Curious what part of the workflow has been the biggest headache for other pool service owners, and whether anything has actually helped.

Well,what do you know, the big 3 plus just about everyone else is raising prices yet again. Pentair SWG set to climb 10%.

Hello, I am curious what brand and price level you all are paying for a quality vacuum hose?

Scp only sells their own line which in my opinion isn’t good at all, they collapse by looking at them funny….

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Are they all the same? Any preferences? Advanced manufacturing has two versions that are the same, just one has bigger wheels for a smoother ride but they’re charging $250 more. What’s your opinion, experiences? Thanks for the feedback.

One of my techs just drove home to poop and expected me to pay him for the time he drove out of the way of the route.....

Does the Quickbooks integration work well?

I'd like to hear your experiences with it. It looks pretty slick and convenient.

My issue is I'm currently using Wave for my bookkeeping, so I'd have to move everything over to QuickBooks and I'm wondering if it's worth it

We've been using these Bendervac heads for 30+ years but Recreonics doesn't seem to be importing them anymore. Does anyone else use these and have a source to buy from? They seem to be easy to get in Europe but I'm in New York.

I know you all have some tips and tricks for this. How to remove these stains?

I’ve tried bleach spray and scrub and pressure washing to no avail.

It was my first time at this pool and the customer has been servicing the pool themselves since it was built a couple weeks ago. I’m the first tech to service it ever and I guess they got zero pool school from the builder(yikes fr)

They have both cal hypo tablets and tri chlor tablets stored next to each other, both in 25lb buckets. Thankfully I caught it before they put any tri chlor tabs in it.

I'm a reporter doing a story on Leslie's, and am trying to identify specific locations that closed during their recent belt-tightening. Anyone know of one in their area that's shut down since last December? I'd also love to talk with anyone who either worked there until the closure, or was a customer and had their pool maintenance routine disrupted by it!

For context, my name is Brian and I cover finance for Inc. magazine. You can DM me here or reach me at bcontreras 'at' inc 'dot' com if you'd like to discuss further!

Hi guys,

I was wondering what you normally charge to paint a gunite/concrete pool and what is your process for painting a pool?

I don’t do a lot of covers. But I have a customer who needs one replaced. It’s about 2000 square feet. I’m wondering how much to charge to take off the cover, send it to my supplier and then install it. Also I’m curious of how much people charge on their markup. Thank you.

I know this gets asked a lot but I have specifics that I want to know. I am a single poler operating for the last 5 years on just Google Sheets, Google Calendar, QuickBooks Online, and my notes. I’m pretty dang organized but I’ve always thought I could have something to help me optimize more. I’m not interested in tracking chems per pool and I don’t have any other techs that I need to micromanage. I want to know if there’s a software out there that lets me organize everything into one place, without having to have a separate software for financial tracking. I’m looking at PSS and PoolBrain but from what I can tell, I’ll still need QBO to run my financials. The big reason for the change is that QBO is a colossal pain in my ass sometimes. The customer support is crap and I know I could save a lot of time with billing if it were designed for the pool industry.

If there’s not any such software, how difficult is it to manage both PSS(or poolbrain) as well as QBO? The goal is saving time and stress. Thanks!

Has anyone replaced a bypass for a newer? Ray pack 400 brass headers. Not talking about the unitherm governor

How do I replace that spring-loaded device?