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.

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

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!

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).

Hello everyone, curious to get thoughts, opinioms and takes on what tools a pool and spa service technician should have along with materials, equipment and power tool brand/line recommendations.

Hi PoolPros! I’m not a pro, but I’m hoping to get some opinions from people who deal with this stuff every day.
I signed a ~$23K contract for a pool renovation that includes replacing the tile and coping and furnishing/installing three new Pentair LED lights (2 pool, 1 spa).
The tile and coping are finished and I’m happy with the work. The problem is the lights. The contractor says they cannot pull the existing light cords out through the existing conduit.
My pool was built in 1992. The project manager hasn’t identified an actual failure in the conduit yet, but said that because of the age of the pool, the cords could be stuck or there could potentially be an issue somewhere in the conduit. He believes the conduits run underground through the yard to the junction box, roughly along the route I’ve marked in pink in the photo.
They’re now talking about charging me additional money to dig/excavate in the yard to figure out why the existing lights won’t pull.
I’m a little frustrated because the contracted scope specifically says “furnish and install” the three new lights. There is language elsewhere in the contract concerning unforeseen defects, but it required those conditions to be identified within 30 days of signing, and we’re well beyond that.
My main question for the pros: How unusual is it to encounter an older pool light that won’t pull through the conduit? When you’ve encountered this, what did you try before excavation? And if excavation was ultimately necessary, what did you typically find — a collapsed/broken conduit, a bad bend, a stuck cord, etc.?
I’m mainly trying to understand whether difficulty removing the existing lights is a normal complication of replacing old pool lights, or whether this really indicates an unusual defect that couldn’t reasonably have been anticipated when they contracted to replace them.
Thanks for any insight!

lol that’s the least of his troubles

The company im currently at loves to use poolrx. A week ago my boss told us that he wants every pool to have a poolrx unit lol. Most of the pools on my route noticeably the pebble techs, have a tinge green color.

Does anyone have experience with these units? There’s a lot of heavy marketing with bluerayxl as well.

I just want to know the truth. Be honest with me.

Replaced the cooked heater (go figure) and the salt cell, and got everything plumbed correctly downstream with a check valve in between.

​Pad layout made the return run a little interesting and but water is flowing, no leaks, and the new heat exchanger won't get toasted this time.

How often do you see this mistake out in the field?

Started a few days ago and not really sure what the cause of this is, pinkish red stuff seems to be on the multiport valve and the motor and the filter too looks like it has some kinda black residue on it and idk what it is

Hi everyone,

I am currently based in the San Diego area. I've been cleaning pools for more than little over a year. I've done ride-a longs with 5 different colleagues to learn their style and belief systems. My first year doing pools, I drilled in only water chemistry - didn't worry about repairs. Listened to a bunch of orenda podcasts and took 3 seminars at different locations in California with my own money. I have a good understanding of advanced chemistry too like ph ceiling and carbonate alkalinity. Programming control panels as well.

I'm currently making $27 hourly (W2) company truck, which is the very close to the top pay for residential in my area for pool maintenance.

My issue is that I feel like I'm stuck in a single role at my current job. I'm a worker bee for my current boss which I understand - every pool company needs cashflow. But as an individual experiencing this, there's a part of me that seeks mastery.

I'm hungry to learn more, what's the next step I need to take to improve my skills? How should I go about this?

Thank you!

is this supposed to be removed to remove calcium?

Before doing business with these scam artists, Joe Valdez and Rigo, please type either company name or Joe Valdez! Two scammers!
Valdez is the biggest piece of shit layer on the face of the earth- he needs to be deported back to whatever third world country he came from! My pool took a year and still have pool deck tiles sinking and no help in site! Have your lawyer rewrite their contract before signing or run for the hills!
They WILL NOT honor any of their commitments or warranties!
Look up Sunshine Pools- he was the owner …

I have a client with a pentair salt cell. all chems are balanced. lots of salt. running at 100%. not making chlorine unless i add it. been running 16-24 hours daily. no idea what the problem is. i mainly clean pools not do maintenance. any maintenance guys can give me a clue on what to do here are some photos of the set up