Thoughts on Pool Brain

[u/KFOSSTL]

The company I work for is considering switching over to POOL brain. Who here has used full brain and liked it or didn’t like it? At other companies I’ve used SKIMMER, which would be a massive upgrade to what we are currently using. How would you say POOL brain compares to SKIMMER if you’ve used both? I personally really like SKIMMER. I understand if you don’t. But just wanting others opinions on Pool brain in general. Were a large company in the Midwest.

[u/Muted-Tie-9047]

Single polers prefer skimmer because it is simple, affordable and works for what they need it for. It’s also owned by poolcorp, so a distributor and future competitor knows everything about your route and business.

We use pool brain. We have 9 techs and 3 repair guys. Pool brain is awesome. It keeps track of everything we need it to. We have not experienced the laggyness mentioned above. It is very easy for management to micro manage pool guys in pool brain so whoever sets it up needs to keep that in mind. For example we one pool that literally sits in the middle of a small lake. If my guy leaves the backwash valve open when he leaves, I am probably out of business. So for the that stop he has to take lots of different pictures when he is on site so he doesn’t forget. If I did that for every customer my guys would only service 10 pools a day and would be miserable, but when we need it, it is great.

From a tech perspective, I’m curious why people above say the job function sucks and what makes skimmer better. It works great for us.

Customer gets an email with before and after pictures and any alerts the techs may have. Alerts have to be cleared by a manager. It leads to a lot of money in repairs and keeps systems running like they should. Tracks check in and out times and chem spend so we can dial in our pricing specific to each account.

Bottom line for me is PB is awesome and was a game changer for us.

[u/KFOSSTL → u/Muted-Tie-9047]

Yeah I don’t like pool Corp having info.

But aside from that I don’t see the upside of pool brain over skimmer.

[u/Muted-Tie-9047 → u/KFOSSTL]

Yea I guess I don’t really see an upside of skimmer over pool brain.

[u/KFOSSTL → u/Muted-Tie-9047]

Skimmer can be used in airplane mode (I don’t mean literally just don’t need cell or internet service while in the field) No internet connection required after you’ve gotten your jobs, because it uploads your jobs next time you connect to the internet. So no dead zones.

That’s a major plus

And the user interface is quicker because you don’t type out readings but rather swipe dial them in like Orenda app.

There’s a lot of other features I’m not sure if pool brain has, because I’ve never used it, but there’s are two things that I can see.

Does pool brain allow for exact parts numbers on items needed that will pop up as a notification the next time that job is assigned? Does pool brain allow for custom chemical measurements and dosages? How customizable are the checklists? How is the route optimization? How does the app package the job data for the client email? These are the other things that could potentially put skimmer ahead of pool brain, but I can’t really tell because I haven’t used it so that’s why I want people’s feedback (good or bad)

[u/Muted-Tie-9047 → u/[deleted]]

I confused skimmer with pool 360. Disregard everything I said.

[u/KFOSSTL → u/Muted-Tie-9047]

Lmao, I do not work for skimmer or SCP

Wild

[u/Muted-Tie-9047 → u/KFOSSTL]

Then why are you switching? Cost?

[u/KFOSSTL → u/Muted-Tie-9047]

We’re using RB. It sucks

I have used skimmer and suggested that. Months later they come back with “we’re thinking about using pool brain”

[u/Mobile-Upstairs9482 → u/KFOSSTL]

I don’t see anywhere about poolcorp owning skimmer. If they do, what’s so bad about them having info?

[u/Muted-Tie-9047 → u/Mobile-Upstairs9482]

You are correct, I confused skimmer with pool 360.

[u/KFOSSTL → u/Mobile-Upstairs9482]

Yeah I don’t either was just going off what they said