The Best Time of Day to Run Your Pool Equipment During Arizona Summers
The time of day a pool pump runs in Arizona’s summer affects three things simultaneously: water quality, pool equipment lifespan, and the electricity bill. Most pool owners set the pump schedule once and leave it, often inheriting the schedule from the previous owner or setting it based on general guidance that wasn’t specific to Arizona’s […]
Why Pool Water Can Look Clean but Still Be Unhealthy
Clear pool water is the standard most pool owners use to evaluate whether their pool is safe to swim in. It’s an understandable standard and an unreliable one. The appearance of pool water communicates one thing about the pool’s condition, and the chemistry of that water communicates something else, and the two don’t always agree. […]
How Much Time Does DIY Pool Maintenance Actually Take Each Month?
The time estimate most homeowners start with for DIY pool maintenance is optimistic in a specific way. The tasks that come to mind first — testing, adding chemicals, and emptying the baskets, are the quick ones. The tasks that take the most time are the ones that don’t come to mind until they’re happening: the […]
What Does Professional Pool Service Include That Homeowners Usually Miss?
A homeowner who maintains their own pool and the professional pool technician providing profession pool service to the same size pool in the same neighborhood are doing some of the same tasks and not doing the same job. The vacuuming, the chemical testing, the basket emptying — these are the visible tasks that DIY pool […]
How Pool Service Records Can Protect Property Value
Pool service records are the documentation that most pool owners never keep, and that becomes consequential at the worst possible moment, when the house is listed, when a buyer’s inspector finds something, or when a piece of equipment fails, and the warranty question becomes relevant. The records that didn’t seem worth maintaining through years of […]
What Professional Pool Technicians Notice Immediately When Arriving at a Pool
A pool technician who’s been servicing Arizona pools for several seasons develops a specific read in the first thirty seconds of arriving at a property. The water color, the equipment sounds, the deck surface, the skimmer line — these communicate the pool’s condition before anyone opens a testing kit or touches a piece of equipment. […]
How do I prevent pool staining in Arizona’s hard water conditions?
Pool staining in Arizona is a different problem than pool staining in most other markets because the source is different. In moderate climates, pool staining comes primarily from organic material. In Arizona, the dominant staining mechanism is mineral precipitation from fill water that’s some of the hardest in the country. The calcium and magnesium that […]
Why does my pool still get dirty even with regular cleaning?
Regular cleaning and a clean pool aren’t the same thing, and the frustration of doing everything that’s supposed to be done and still ending up with a dirty pool is a specific kind of frustrating because the effort is real and the result isn’t matching it. The problem isn’t usually effort. It’s that the cleaning […]
What happens if you don’t brush your pool regularly?
Brushing gets skipped more than any other pool maintenance task because it’s the one that produces the least visible immediate result. The pool looks the same after brushing as it did before. Nothing changes in an obvious way. The chemical test results don’t shift. The water doesn’t suddenly look clearer. It just feels like a […]
Is weekly pool service really necessary in Arizona?
Is weekly pool service really necessary in Arizona? The question comes up constantly and it’s a reasonable one. Weekly pool service is an ongoing cost that adds up over a season and over years, and for a pool owner who’s reasonably handy and willing to spend some time on maintenance, skipping professional service in favor […]