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Well we are fast coming into the time that everyone likes to use their pools.  So I thought that it would be a good time to refresh everyone’s minds as to what to do and not to do in regards to your pool.  I think the most important thing that comes to mind is safety.  Every summer you hear of so many accidents that involve a pool.  My very first concern is, do you have a child safety fence around your pool?  If not get one!  If you live in the Sarasota, Florida area give me a call and we can get it set up.  To me a safety fence is one of the most important safety features that a pool owner can install.  There also are devices available that you set on the edge of the pool that will sound an alarm if someone accidently falls in.  They work and are not that expensive and will give you some added peace of mind.  Another thing that should be done is if your pool has a cage you should install key locking door latches and be sure that you keep your cage locked.  You don’t want the neighbor kids using your pool when you are not home.  If you have an open pool then be sure to have a secure fence around the pool that will restrict the traffic into the pool.  If you have an above ground pool make sure that you have a way of taking the steps out or blocking the steps and once again install a pool alarm for the extra peace of mind…….

Another very important concern that recently is getting a lot of attention is entrapment.  That is when a swimmer will get entrapped on a main drain or other point of suction.  A person with long hair is very susceptible to being trapped under water or a person that gets sucked onto a main drain that doesn’t have an approved cover on.  A very scary thought!  The single most impotent thing that needs to be done to be sure that this never happens is keep your main drain covers in place.  Most of the accidents have involved pools or spas that the main drain cover was not in place.  There are new covers available that will give you an added safety factor and in commercial pools and spas the new covers are mandated.  There are also safety devices that can be installed near your pool pump that will prevent entrapment and some of the newer pool pumps are designed to provide that type of protection.

Another safety concern is the pool or spa water chemistry.  It is pretty obvious that if the water is not treated properly than bad things can happen, to people and to pool equipment.   If you take care of your own pool be sure to take a sample of your water to a good pool store once a month and have them test the water.  This way you will be sure that the water is balanced and safe and they will advise you as to what needs to be done.  If you have a pool service it is not a bad idea once an awhile that you take a sample in just to be sure that the company is doing their job.  Just be sure not to take the water sample right after they were there servicing your pool, give it a day or so. It is your pool and you and your loved once are going to be swimming in it so you should be sure that the water is safe for you and your pool equipment.  I have seen so many heaters and pool surfaces ruined because of bad chemistry.

These are times that everything is changing.  So many things are uncertain, the economy, jobs, investments, credit, the list is endless.  One thing that will not change is that your swimming pool or spa needs a lot of TLC.  Pools are one thing that you just can’t forget about, if you do bad things will happen.  We cleaned up a pool this last year that had not had any maintenance done to it for over 4 years.  Wow what a mess!!!!  It was not a swimming pool any more it had turned into a frog pond.  In fact we have been cleaning up quite few pools that have been neglected.  The only option you have to not doing anything with your pool is fill it in and turn it into a huge planter.  I have seen this done once.  To me the best option is to maintain your pool or spa on a weekly basis and keep your investment intact.  Even if you never use it, you will be helping to keep the value of your property up.  The aesthetics of a clean sparkling pool in the back yard is unsurpassed.  So keep your eye on this blog for all types of info on how to accomplish that.  If you live in the Sarasota, Florida area then give us a call at 941-493-7221 or email us at bruce@elsolservices.com and we will help you in any way that we are able.

With that in mind there are a lot of individuals that would prefer to do their own pool/spa maintenance and we totally understand.  You can save some money and have the satisfaction of doing it yourself.  Pool maintenance is not as hard as you would think.  I think that most people are intimidated by chemistry.  We have a program available that we will come to your place and train you in proper pool or spa maintenance including chemistry.  We will work with you as long as you need to feel comfortable doing it yourself.  We charge $29 per visit which includes the chemicals that you need to get started.  We will also show you how to do some basic repairs.  I know this sounds really strange that a pool service company that makes it’s living on maintaining pools is willing to teach owners to care for their own pools but we understand that in times like these we need to help each other as much as possible.  If you are interested give us a call or e-mail and we can get started saving you some money and giving you a sense of hands on ownership.

Just another small blog.  These days are hard for everyone and every business.  We are starting to see a lot of customers that are paying us either very slowly or not at all.  When I purchase all my materials, chemicals and even big ticket items I pay COD.  So let’s say I install a new gas heater.  I pay up front for the new heater, pay up front for the gas to be disconnected and then re-piped and I pay for the time and materials to install it so it really hurts when I have to wait weeks or even months to get paid.  This is also true for our weekly service, I have customers that are going two, three or even longer before they pay for their service.  I also have had new customers that have hired us to service their pool that I believe had no intention of ever paying us, that is just not right.  I am sure that they would not appreciate it if someone did that to them.  This is the first time that I have had to use a collection agency in 10 years of business to get some of my money back.  So from now on there will be required the following on any purchase that is over $500 plus this will also apply to our monthly service accounts;

1.  50% Down Payment on all approved estimates over $500.
2.  Payment due upon completion and/or receipt of invoice.
3.  $35 fee for returned checks.
4.  Delinquent Accounts - 60 days past due will automatically be placed into Collections.
5.  A 100% fee will be charged for the Collections Agent.

So if the account is past due to the point that it is going to collections then let’s say the total owed is $700 when it goes to collection it is now $1400. I hate setting it up this way but the times are dictating this type of action.  Plus for any account that is past due that account will be changed so that they are billed at the beginning of the month, before service is completed, not at the end of the month like it is now.

Even here in Sarasota, Florida you can tell that winter is not far away.  So what does that mean for my pool.  For one it is not going to be used near as much as was a couple of months ago.  So let’s list a few things that you can do to help see your pool through the winter and have it ready for you in the spring.

1.   The days are shorter now and so is the run time for your pool.  You can set the timer so that it only runs for 6 hours a day.  This will assure that the pool water turns over and will save you some on your electric bill.

2.  If you heat your pool pool you should put on the solar blanket, especially over night.  Remember that without a blanket on the water you will lose all your heat over night when the night time temp falls below 60 degrees.  This will make heating your pool very expensive so if you want to keep a warm pool through the winter then use a solar blanket on the water.  Just take it off once a week during the day to let the water breath a little.

3.  Be sure to stop using chlorine tabs if that is how you sanitize your pool.  If you use tabs through the winter months you will drive up the chlorine level to be way too high plus the stabilizer level will also go through the roof and when your stabilizer is too high your pool will turn a nasty yellow color.  You will probably only need to add liquid chlorine every other week or so.  You still need to test every week though to keep you water balanced.

Stains,  in all the years that I have been in business this has been one of the top concerns that customers have.  In-ground pools here in Sarasota, Florida and I am sure everywhere are very prone to staining.  Even if you doing everything right,  right water balance, brushing the entire pool at least once a week and the right way,  keeping the right plants around the pool and getting rid of the wrong ones, doing all the right things you still might get staining.  Some stains are what is called "bleed through stains" ,they are very difficult to remove permanently.  Some stains come from outside sources like metal objects dropped into the pool or fertilizer, again very hard to remove.  Some stains come from a high metal content in the make up water, the water that you use to fill the pool.  A lot of stains come from having a bad algae problem and the surface gets stained from the algae that was allowed to grow on the surface.  So in order to keep your pool looking like it did when it was brand new takes a lot of diligence.  Sometimes there is no solution but to have the pool re-surfaced.  Most surfaces have a life of around 10 years after that it will start to show it’s age.

To continue this discussion we need to talk about how to get rid of stains.  Like anything else, everyone has their own methods of doing things, their own little tricks.  What I am going to tell you is what has been working for us in our business.  We have dealt with a lot of stains and have seen a lot of successes and a lot of failures.  So let’s deal with a few things that don’t work.  What I mean by not working is that it doesn’t have long term effects.  One is acid washing.  Acid washing has been used for years to remove stubborn stains from pools, especially Marcite.  In essence a small amount of the surface is removed when it is acid washed.  It has been my experience that acid washing will make the pool look like new but in a few months time even with proper maintenance it will start look as bad if not worse then it did before the acid wash.  An acid wash can cost up to near $800 dollars so I would save your money and try a few other treatments that we will discuss.

So the first step that should be done is good preventive maintenance.  All the years that I have been doing maintenance work I have seen it proven over and over that it is far better to keep a fire from burning then to have to run around and put it out.  You should be using a good Stain & Scale treatment for your pool on a regular basis as part of your maintenance routine.  That along with vigorous weekly brushing will go a long way to keep the stains away.  There are a lot of products out there but we seem to have settled on using Stain & Scale which is manufactured by All-Clear.  You can’t beat the price and for regular applications it does the job.  It is what is called a sequestion agent which actually makes the metals that are in your water big enough so that they can be filtered out.  Metals in pool water are what causes most of your staining.  You should follow the application advise that is on the bottle.  This is true for any chemicals that you apply to your pool.

Let say that you have stains and you want to get rid of them.  There are so many manufactures, selling so many products, each claiming to be best.  How do you know what to use?   We have tried just about everything on the market.  Here is what we do and it works most of the time.  Before you begin remember that there are some stains that just will not come out and the only option is to have a new surface applied to your pool.  Also remember that if you have a vinyl liner or a painted surface do not follow this advise, these chemicals and procedures are for plastered pools only.

The first thing that we do is use two products.  We put in 2 lbs of Multi-Stain Remover which is manufactured by Lo-Chlor.  This is a very strong citric acid.  If your pool has a yellowish look, the plastic parts like the main drain or the returns are yellow this will make your pool look bright white again.  Sometimes we just drop a little over top of the returns or the light fixture and it will become white again almost instantly.  Be sure that the pool has been turned off and the water calm.   We also put in a quart of Metal Gone also by Lo-Chlor.  This is probably one of the strongest sequestion agents on the market and the price is better then a lot of the other ones available. One thing that does happen when you use these products is that the residual chlorine is depleted so be sure to test often and add a little extra chlorine if needed during this treatment.  Plus be sure to test your water a little more often to be sure that your PH, Total Alkalinity, Calcium hardness and Stabilizer are in balance.  In fact if your stabilizer level is too high, like near or over 100ppm that could be the reason that your pool is staining.  If the stabilizer level is too high then you should lower it to below 50ppm before your do any stain treatment.  You need to drain water out about a third of the pool and then put in fresh make up water, it is the only way to lower the stabilizer.  You should see a stark improvement at how your pool looks.  Sometimes you might have to do another treatment and be sure that you brush the pool very vigorously during this process and sometimes we even use what is called a combo brush which a brush that has both vinyl and stainless bristles.

Another type of stain that is very common is dark areas on the bottom and on the side walls.  These are hard to get rid of.  Some are caused by high iron or magnesium levels some are bleed through stains  We have tried almost everything and now use a very unorthodox method.  We tun the the pool off and make sure that it will stay off for at least 12 hours.  Once the water is calm we sprinkle granular Tri-Chlor over the dark areas.  We use a product that is sold by All-clear called Algae Kill.  In essence you are bleaching out the stains.  Be very careful when handling tri-Chlor.  A lot of the time this is only a temporary solution but for a while your pool will be nice looking.  Don’t do this treatment too often because it can cause damage to the surface.  If the dark areas are on the side walls then it is very hard to get the tri-Chlor to sit there. 

There are times that we use a pumice on the dark areas.  Pumice will not hurt the surface and will take out some stains.  In fact you can use pumice on the calcium deposits that sometimes form around the tile and the glass block and it will not scratch the tile or glass but will take off the calcium.  It takes quite a bit of elbow grease but it does work.  You might want to use a little muratic acid first but be be sure to rinse it off after 30 seconds or else it will start to attack the grout.  Plus be very careful when handling muratic acid, don’t breath the fumes and don’t get any on your self or the pool deck.  If you do rinse it off immediately and there should be no problems.