Rule Your Pool

00:00 - Intro - Joe's back! 01:44 - Water chemistry testing is important because without it, managing swimming pools well becomes impossible. 05:55 - Water testing is not difficult, but it takes practice and some effort to get good at it. It helps to keep a log of your test results! 06:31 - How often should you test? It depends on the factor(s), but some should be every week, other should be once...

00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Today's episode is about addressing problem pools in the most efficient way 02:02 - Introducing Gus Velez, founder of Pool Service Software 04:36 - PSS users are pool service professionals 07:35 - They had a few chemistry support tickets come in, and they are not chemistry experts. So they went out looking for a partner who can help their users with water chemistry. They foun...

00:00 - Intro 01:59 - PPM = parts per million. It's the density of a given substance dissolved in water. It's the ratio of that substance compared to water. 1 PPM means the dissolved substance is one-millionth of the volume of water. 03:47 - PPM = mg/L. Converting from the metric system it makes sense.  1 cubic meter of water contains 1000 Liters. Each liter contains 1000 mL. Then we switch to sol...

00:00 - Intro 02:54 - Water chemistry did not cause these problems. These are structural issues. 03:54 - Three main problems: weepers, efflorescence, and calcium nodules. 04:09 - Weepers are active leaks in concrete, where water is flowing through concrete. Usually this is from behind the concrete shell due to groundwater pressure. But it can also be on a raised wall where the pool itself pushes t...

00:00 - Intro 02:35 - Jarred is wearing a Slytherin shirt. He's more of a Ravenclaw, TBH. 04:12 - Type of pool cover impacts your winterization chemistry (dilution, pH rise) 06:51 - Other types of pool covers that are not for winterizing: thermal and solar blankets. They are not safety covers and are not appropriate for winterization. 08:40 - Safety covers are designed to support a lot of weight t...

00:00 - Intro, reconnect with nature 04:48 - Water would naturally seek balance if you just shut your pool off. But that is not advised, because water would correct itself at the expense of your pool. 08:04 - Err to the high side of calcium hardness going into the winter.  LSI balance at the coldest temperature is the main priority. 08:23 - The second priority of winterizing is keeping the water c...

00:00 - Intro 01:10 - Wildfires burn through forests and convert plant life into basic elements...primarily carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. 02:15 - The closer you are to the fire, the more contamination will get in your water. If you can smell smoke, it's getting into your pool too. 03:45 - Prepare for the smoke, ash and debris when fires start. Be proactive. 03:59 - Rare instances: helicopters b...

00:00 - Intro 01:44 - Biggest difference between normal pool days and a pool party: bather load. 05:28 - Visit our Second Pillar of proactive pool care, about non-living organics. 08:21 - Holy trinity of pools: Circulation, Filtration, and Chemistry. All three suffer during a pool party. 13:08 - Prepare water and clean it up afterward. Homeowners have an advantage because they know when the party...

00:00 - Intro 02:21 - Evaporation is the process of liquid water converting into water vapor (gas). And this process takes energy (heat) to occur. 03:40 - Humidity in the air and the difference between air and water temperature (delta T) are the two main factors that determine evaporation rate. 05:03 - How evaporation affects water chemistry.  An average pool loses roughly its entire volume of poo...

00:00 - Intro 01:30 - Controlling pH is not possible. pH moves with anything that happens to the water. It's a reactionary chemistry. 04:07 - Many ways for you to balance the LSI. Use the Orenda App and find out what works for you.  05:45 - Disclosure for commercial pool operators with pH limit of 7.8, and those with chemical automation/acid feeders. 10:26 - White rings around aggregate means the...

00:00 - Intro 03:15 - Calcium flakes and other deposits in salt pools are very common. You're not alone if your pool has them. 05:00 - Our first question when someone calls about calcium flakes: "what is your alkalinity?" 10:33 - How salt cells work, from the inside out 12:16 - What does the salt cell do throughout the day? What to the percentages of output actually mean? 14:12 - Reversing polarit...

00:00 - Intro 02:15 - How do we get rid of combined chlorine? Do we just let chlorine do its thing? 02:49 - Two categories of how to reduce combined chlorine: chemically and physically. 03:30 - Two chemical options: breakpoint chlorination and supplementing chlorine with enzyme or a non-chlorine oxidizer shock. But enzymes and non-chlorine oxidizers do not directly reduce combined chlorine...only...

00:00 - Intro 00:59 - This will be complex chemistry, but very simplified. 02:07 - What is combined chlorine? What does chlorine "combine with"? 05:32 - Combined chlorine is an indicator of your chlorine falling behind, and the byproducts are the cause of bather discomfort, irritation and sickness. 06:00 - The pool industry uses the term "chloramines" generally to describe all of these combined ch...

00:00 - Intro 01:33 - We're in an muriatic acid shortage. Thanks, COVID. 02:21 - Two specialty acids: modified Muriatic Acids for less fuming: AcidBlue and AcidMagic.  03:06 - Muriatic acid is a diluted form of Hydrochloric acid (HCl). It is 31.45% HCl or less. 04:14 - Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is sold in 38.5% concentration. It is comparable in dosing to standard 31.45% HCl. It takes just 2% more sul...

00:00 - Intro 02:57 - How to we make use of the limited chlorine we have? 03:33 - The chlorine shortage explained (by Joe, so it's better) 06:58 - Chlorinate at a time that direct sunlight does not hit the liquid chlorine. Either in shade or at night. 09:06 - Don't hoard liquid chlorine. It degrades over time, and don't be that person. Your peers and neighbors need chlorine too.  10:22 - What else...

00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Acid shortage. 03:18 - Why do we chase pH? Because the textbooks tell us to. 04:01 - Chlorine speed (%HOCl) and pH 06:18 - pH and bather comfort? Fake news. 07:03 - We have been conditioned to look to acid for help 09:31 - LSI first, range chemistry second. 10:24 - Containing pH instead of trying to control it 12:28 - Physics and pH rebound 13:42 - Equilibrium between water a...

00:00 - Intro 01:20 - Orenda is more of a philosophy than a product line 04:12 - Chemical conflicts 14:43 - No long-term byproducts left behind (Papaw's Law) 19:29 - Minimalist pool care 31:40 - The love affair with chlorine and acid is a bad habit, and it has consequences 37:24 - A trusted source of information for all levels of pool owners/operators ------------------------------------ Connect w...

00:00 - Intro 03:48 - Our strategy at Orenda: a minimalist approach, proactive pool chemistry 06:24 - What has changed in the pool industry culture? 09:00 - The aptitude in the industry has improved, and is essential for our future 09:47 - Old habits still dominate...but change is already occurring in a good direction  14:03 - Cynicism in pool forums is hurtful to our industry 18:20 - Give the cus...

00:00 - Intro 01:31 - Green water from calcium/alkalinity imbalance. Add calcium. 03:08 - Copper. Figure out where the copper is coming from (and stop it), then remove copper. 04:51 - SC-1000 is not a stain or metal remover. It is a chelating agent that needs to be used in conjunction with a citric/ascorbic acid and a metal filter/remover. 07:17 - Algae. Chlorine (HOCl) is the best algaecide. Oren...

00:00 - Intro 01:43 - This pool wasn't an opaque green, it was translucent, tinging green. 02:09 - We know of at least three reasons pools turn green. 03:11 - We could safely rule out copper for this customer. 03:43 - Jarred is a popular guy (phone rings). 04:50 - The next day, the water was perfectly clear and blue, by increasing calcium relative to alkalinity. 05:48 - We don't know why, but if y...

00:00 - Intro 01:19 - What is CYA and why do we use it? 04:54 - Hot temperatures do NOT mean you need more CYA. Temp has nothing to do with sunlight protection and CYA. But chlorine does get used up faster because it works better. 10:52 - You do not need a lower pH to have strong chlorine (%HOCl) when you have CYA in your water. 12:00 - Percentages of HOCl without CYA are pH-dependent. With CYA, t...

00:00 - Intro 01:21 - Why do we need to remove phosphates? Do they really matter? 03:59 - What do phosphate test kits actually measure?  04:40 - What are phosphates? And what variations of phosphates are there? 06:25 - Why are there phosphates in our drinking water?  09:34 - Environment and bathers 11:03 - Most metal sequestering agents are phosphate-based 14:32  - Time your phosphate removal trea...

00:00 - Intro 01:54 - Chlorine's responsibilities 02:48 - More of an oxidant demand than a sanitizer demand 03:02 -  Three categories of oxidants: metals, nitrogen compounds, and non-living organics 03:19 -  What does oxidation mean? 05:11 - Nitrogen compounds: ammonia and urea, and combined chlorine 07:54 -The bulk of chlorine's responsibilities (over 90%) are non-living organics 10:23 - Secondar...

00:00 - Intro 01:32 - Origins of the Orenda App's LSI calculator 02:47 - Traditional "RANGE CHEMISTRY" vs. the LSI 04:31 -  Why pools in different areas may need different chemistry parameters to satisfy the LSI 05:03 -  What is the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI), and its six factors? 06:20 - What does the LSI actually tell us? 08:00 - Calcium hardness is NOT the leading factor that causes scale...

00:47 - Where's Jarred? Oh yeah, we lost that recording... oops. 01:18 - "Stabilized" refers to two different things: sunlight protection for chlorine, and safer storage and handling. 03:10 - What are the dangers of having too much Cyanuric Acid (CYA)? 06:15 - Advantages of dichlor over trichlor? 07:49 - How much CYA does trichlor put into the water? Answer: 6 to 6.5 ppm per pound, per 10,000 gall...