Pool Maintenance, what am I paying for?

[rvd]

Yea I do my own, sun has been eating up the chlorine this year. never heard of Pool RX, just ordered one. I have it dialed in right now and I own a boat and love them both.

I own multiple boats and have a pool at my bayhouse, love em all and so do my kids/grandkids but I agree with Glenn, they’re terrible investments from an economic perspective

[Bassdeer]

I clean pools for a living. This heat is hard on a pool. A clean filter is your best friend. I maintain 62 a week. I put a Pool RX in almost all of my pools. It’s magic. Check your Cyanuric acid. Not enough and your chlorine will get eaten up by the sun. That’s an easy fix…add more. If it’s too high your chlorine won’t work. Hard fix…you have to drain the pool.

Your right Pool RX is magic. Thanks

[DirtyDave]

Well things got better for a while, but back to chit again with this heat.
I'm not even sure if the kid actually shows up weekly like he's supposed to. (I'm at work when he's supposedly coming by)
Got a few specks of Black Algae that just showed up.

Going to try another cleaning service. I hate that I may just have to maintain the pool myself. The whole point of paying someone is because I dont want to F with it...

[RiverRat1]

How much are you guys paying for this service? Do you pay a company that hires kids to do the work?

[Richard M.]

You can take a water sample to a pool store and they will test it and tell you what you need to put in it. You need a basic free chlorine, PH, and cyanuric acid test. If your chlorine is good or high you are either under or over conditioned on stabilizer (cyanuric acid). Under conditioned will allow sun to kill your chlorine, over conditioned will have it bound up and not work. So glad to not have a pool anymore.

[DirtyDave]

How much are you guys paying for this service? Do you pay a company that hires kids to do the work?

I'm paying $60 a week plus chemicals. Yes young stoner kid does the work.

[DirtyDave]

You can take a water sample to a pool store and they will test it and tell you what you need to put in it. You need a basic free chlorine, PH, and cyanuric acid test. If your chlorine is good or high you are either under or over conditioned on stabilizer (cyanuric acid). Under conditioned will allow sun to kill your chlorine, over conditioned will have it bound up and not work. So glad to not have a pool anymore.

Yeah I take a water sample to Bonnie and Clydes in Decatur about once a month. Its always way out of whack!
So the "Chemicals" I'm paying for is probably just 1 or 2 chlorine tabs a week and he's not testing the water and adjusting accordingly

[EliteDriver]

No way in heck that would be okay. You are paying them for a service and they need to make it right. I do my own pool 1x per week and it looks better than that....Make sure they are cleaning the DE filters and not just backwashing...otherwise, you are just chasing your tail.

[DirtyDave]

No way in heck that would be okay. You are paying them for a service and they need to make it right. I do my own pool 1x per week and it looks better than that....Make sure they are cleaning the DE filters and not just backwashing...otherwise, you are just chasing your tail.

I really have no idea what they are doing when they come to clean it weekly. I'm assuming they just brush it and toss in 1 or 2 tabs and move on to the next one.
On the rare occasion I'm actually home when he comes by, he's not there for more than 10 min

[Claybird]

First off, I don't know squat about pools. That's why I pay for a pool cleaning service. They come once a week and it's usually thrs or fri. Today is Wed and this is what I came home to. Before I call and complain about the service, am I doing something wrong? Am I supposed to be cleaning/brushing the pool a few times a week? If I have to do it, what am I paying for?
When I signed up for the service they asked if I wanted it done weekly or every 2 weeks. I chose weekly. Can't imagine what it would look like with 2 weeks between cleanings.

Not sure about prices in your area, but I'm on the west side of Houston which is unfortunately more expensive than most areas. I pay about $195 per month after tax (was $175 before chemical costs went outrageous) for weekly cleaning/chemicals. My guy will come back and shock/clean if there's an algae bloom in between weekly visits. If your pool guy isn't willing to do this at no additional charge, I'd suggest looking for another one. These happen to me a few times a year and typically it's no big deal, common occurrence with our weather.

[Jtrage]

I know you don't want to do it yourself. I get that. I maintain our pool. More times than not I am having to spend more than one day a week doing something with it. That being said, I don't spend a lot of time doing what I do. I would just make sure your guys are maintaining appropriately. I would randomly take samples to a pool store to have them test to make sure you are on the right track.

[Death from Above]

Easier for me to do it than to make sure someone else is.

[ThisLadyHunts]

Stop taking a bath in your pool, Dirty Dave. ((wink, wink))

[Huntergirl723]

I lived in Alvin for years and had a pool. I used just one test, my eyes. If it was clear and blue, good. If it burned my eyes, too much chlorine. I never, ever tested nor used anything but chlorine. Except one time I did have the black algae and used the chemical for that. My FIL was always testing and using different chemicals according to what the tests showed. My pool was cleaner and he had to drain the pool twice to start over during my pool era. Don't overthink it.

[kyle1974]

Is it me or has the algae problem been worse this year than previously? A friend of mine showed me a YT video where a guy put a bag with some small random copper fittings in the skimmer basket and that cleared up the water nicely. I haven't tried it but there were lots of comments saying it worked.

I had the same thought. even with my normal chlorine routine my pool is getting algae growing on the walls of the pool. I'm not sure what's causing it.