More Rookie Pool Chemistry Mistakes Pt.2 – Bob Lowry

Think a four-hour pump schedule is “good enough”? We put that myth to rest with clear math, real-world examples, and a simple plan for dialing in filtration so you stop chasing cloudy water and recurring algae. With Bob Lowry in the chair, we unpack why three turnovers is the sweet spot for clarity and safety, how to measure true flow instead of guessing, and what happens to sanitizer when circulation goes quiet for twenty hours a day.

We also get honest about bather load. A backyard pool can hit zero free chlorine minutes after seven adults or a pack of energetic kids jump in. That’s not scare talk—it’s demand math. We walk through why “keep chlorine low” backfires in stabilized pools, how cyanuric acid changes your targets, and the exact pre-party and post-party steps to protect swimmers and keep callbacks off your weekend. You’ll hear practical guidance on variable-speed settings, placing a flow meter, and setting run times around gallons per minute, not habit.

Training ties it all together. Quick seminars often isolate one idea—like higher CYA—without showing the trade-offs for pH control and chlorine strength. We share why full-scope chemistry education builds confidence, speeds decisions on route, and helps you explain choices to cost-sensitive homeowners with data they can trust. You’ll learn where to find live and online pool chemistry certification, how to access technical bulletins, and how to turn testing-first into a repeatable, profitable workflow.

• three turnovers as the target for clarity and safety
• how to calculate turnover using actual flow rate
• circulation’s role in stopping biofilm and algae
• bather load math that crashes free chlorine
• why “keep chlorine low” is bad advice with CYA
• simple pre-party and post-party dosing plans
• full-course training versus one-hour seminars
• where to find certifications and tech bulletins
• daily workflow: test first, then dose with purpose

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Chapters

• 0:00 Best Of Bob Lowry Setup
• 2:13 Coaching Program Invitation
• 2:32 The Filtration Runtime Problem
• 3:12 What One Turnover Really Means
• 3:59 Why Three Turnovers Matter
• 5:06 Flow Rate, Math, And Scheduling
• 6:06 Circulation And Chlorine Depletion
• 6:58 High Bather Load Reality Check
• 8:21 Low Chlorine Myths Debunked
• 10:49 Communicating For Pool Parties
• 11:49 Training And Certification Matters
• 13:29 Courses, Shows, And Instructors
• 15:22 Where To Find Classes And Bulletins
• 16:40 Education Builds Confidence
• 17:49 Daily Chemistry Over Maintenance
• 18:19 Podcast Library And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:02

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. It is best of Bob Lowry. We're going to continue our talk in part two of some rookie chemistry mistakes. And again, Bob Lowry is going to unpack some common mistakes you can make out there that cost you time and money on your pool route. So I hope you enjoy this talk with Bob Lowry on some typical rookie chemistry mistakes. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. Another thing that we've touched on before is, you know, homeowners may not know this because they always are trying to cut their runtime down on their pool filter. That's one of the problems I have out there, is they're always telling me I just had a customer yesterday tell me, oh, can you reset my system so it's not running so long because my electricity bill was super high. But I think runtime of runtime of the pool filtration system is one thing that new people don't really pay attention to. You know, they may get an account where the customer has a 20,000-gallon pool running for four hours a day and they're scratching their head, you know, why is the pool cloudy? Why is there algae? So the runtime is a big deal, especially in the season.

SPEAKER_01: 2:24

Yeah, it you know, the the fact of the matter is that that from a filtration standpoint, if if you get one turnover of the pool, and a turnover is an amount of water that's equal to the volume that's in the pool gone through the filter. So um, and so it's based on water flow. So if you take the the gallons in the pool and divide it by the flow rate, then you will find out what your turnover is in minutes, um, assuming that your pump is in gallons per minute. So you can determine how many minutes or hours it is to get one turnover. But from a a filtration standpoint, one turnover will only give you about 65% filtration. And then if you get two turnovers, it will give you about 85% filtration. And three turnovers will get you about ninety-two to ninety-five percent, and four turnovers will get you ninety-eight or ninety-nine percent. So what we recommend is that you get three turnovers because the difference between three turnovers and four turnovers is like three percent, it's not worth doing, but you need to get three turnovers in your pool, and you can calculate for yourself how many minutes that's gonna be, and all you need to know is the flow rate. And so you put a uh a rotameter or flow valve uh right after the pump, uh, right after um I'm sorry, at least after the pump and and before it gets back to the pool to find out what your flow rate is, and and then all you have to do is do the math. You know, if you got 20 gallons or 30 gallons a minute running through there, you got a 15,000 gallon pool. How many minutes is that? You know, it's 500 minutes to get one turnover. And and 500 minutes is uh almost eight hours. You know, so so and if you want three turnovers, it's 24 hours. So if you if you only run your pump at 30 gallons a minute for four hours, that's not even one turnover. That's a half a turnover. So you can't possibly get get enough uh filtration to to have a great looking pool. The other thing is if the if you only run your pump for four hours a day, that means for 20 hours a day, there's no circulation. And and if you have a biomass, a biofilm, or an algae starting to grow someplace, it the that mass, that biomass uses up the chlorine that's in the vicinity. And if the circulation pump's not on, it used up all the chlorine. Now it can grow like crazy because there's no new sanitizer being brought to that area of the pool because there's no circulation.

SPEAKER_00: 6:00

Yeah, and I think that's key. You know, the circulation is something that people don't pay too much attention to when they're starting, and it's a key factor for sure. Um, another thing I think that new people don't understand is the high bather load and how it affects the pool. I know we talked a little bit about that with the Airbnb um segment, but high bather load really affects the pool, residential pool, especially, because they're first of all, they're not as big as a commercial pool per se, in most cases. So a commercial pool has, you know, 30,000, 40,000 gallons or more, and you have a little 10,000 gallon pool back there, and you have eight or ten kids in there. Um the high bather load, how does that affect the water chemistry in a pool itself?

SPEAKER_01: 6:45

Well, um, the biggest thing is that the chlorine level goes to zero quickly. We hear this from homeowners all the time. I need to keep a low chlorine level in my pool. And I, you know, I respond with all kinds of answers to that because that's just wrong. You know, keeping a low chlorine level is is a terrible idea. Um, first of all, you got cyanuric acid in the pool, and that's preventing you from getting in touch with very much chlorine anyway. And you should tell that to your homeowners that that there's only three percent of the chlorine that you're being exposed to. So it's practically nothing. Um and secondly, the an adult bather has a a chlorine demand of four grams of chlorine each each one. And so I did the math some time ago and uh in response to a question I got from someone. And the fact of the matter is in a 15,000 gallon pool, once you put in 7.3 people, if you had two parts per million of chlorine in the pool, it's now zero. Okay, so if you put in 10 kids, um I'm not sure, it depends on the kids, I'm sure, but I'm not sure whether an adult is equal to a kid or a kid's actually equal to more, because I have a feeling that kids actually pee in the pool more than more than adults do. Um but uh uh in any case maybe ten kids is equal to seven adults. So the minute you put ten kids in the pool, you're out of chlorine. And and if it's a one call a week, how long's it gonna be? How long does that bacteria from those kids have to multiply and and thrive in that pool till you get back and put some chlorine in it? You know, that's that's the thing that you need to think about. The number one thing that you are charged with as a as a service guy is to provide safe water. And and if you ask a homeowner, they just did a survey. The number one thing that people want is safe water. So you're supposed to provide safe water. How are you gonna provide safe water if if 10 minutes after after 10 kids get in the pool, there isn't any chlorine? How are you gonna do that?

SPEAKER_00: 9:47

Yeah, and so I think the key for that is um, you know, even as a new pool service provider, communication with the customer. Nowadays you can text cust they can text you, and I would let the customer know, hey, look, if you're having a pool party, let us know ahead of time so we can prepare for it. And we may be able to leave you, you know, a gallon of liquid, whatever we can leave you after the party to pour in. And I think that's the key is the understanding that you just can't go through your day and treat every pool the same because some pools, of course, no one ever uses them. That's you know, one of the things you run into. But then there are those pools where they're using them all summer long. I mean, I've I've been back at accounts before where I go back there at eight in the morning and there's already kids in the pool. Yeah. So it's one of those things that you just have to be aware of that that affects it. And I think the last thing we'll touch on here is the importance of proper training. And you have a certified residential course that you do on Saturdays uh once a month, roughly, and you also they also teach that at the pool shows. And I think one thing that new people don't realize or don't understand is the importance of getting educated, getting trained getting training. You know, if you go to a pool show, though these rooms should be full of everyone in there, but usually they're half full, most of the courses. And I think the importance of education and continue education is important because you've even said new things come on, the industry that you weren't aware of in the past, and they're you have to kind of be up on it. And your tech bulletins are a great way of getting that out there. And I just read the one on PH you put out there, and I think you know, being educated and learning new things and and realizing that things change a lot in the industry, um, and just learning the basics, you know, is really important.

SPEAKER_01: 11:34

Well, there really is isn't anything that's out there that's a whole course. And that's why we developed the the the pool chemistry uh uh course that we did, um, because you can go read an article, you can go to a seminar and stuff, but most of those are on a subject, or they're just they just they have one hour to discuss pool chemistry, and they just say, keep your pool in these ranges, have a nice day. And and you know, you're still left with, how do I do that? I would just say, get educated, learn what you're doing. If you attend a seminar, recognize that the guy is just talking about one subject. And what we try to do is we put it all together so that you understand that if you go to a seminar and some guy says, it's okay to keep cyanuric acid higher, you know, he doesn't tell you what it's gonna do to pH and what it's gonna do to how much chlorine you're gonna need in the pool. You know, all he's doing is saying it's not gonna hurt your plaster or something. So recognize that listening to a subject is not the same as listening to a whole course. And and you really should these days listen to a whole course so that you know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00: 12:53

Yeah, and I think your your particular course, I took it uh several months ago. You go over the gambit, you go over what water is, you know, basically you start at the basic and you work your way up. And a lot of things that we cover in these podcasts, you cover in the class and they get certified. So they get, you know, certification, they get a patch, they get a a little thing they can hang. And I think it's important to have that certification and the education, uh, more so your class over the CPO. Not that CPO is not necessary, especially if we're doing commercial accounts, but I think the CPO course does not focus on the chemistry like your course does.

SPEAKER_01: 13:32

Well, and I used to be a CPO instructor, and I can tell you that the the number of pages on chemistry in the CPO manual is about 50 pages. And the book that I wrote that goes with the course is 228 pages of chemistry. And then we also have a second book that's 28 pages. So we have 250 pages of pool chemistry. And and CPO has 50. You know, I often joke and say if you want to know how to clean toilets, take a CPO course. You know, if you want to know pool chemistry, come to our course.

SPEAKER_00: 14:11

Yeah, and I'll definitely give a plug for your the course at the end of the of the uh uh podcast. In fact, I'll do that in all the podcast episodes so people can find the course.

SPEAKER_01: 14:20

Yeah, we do have some that are in person. I'll be giving a course probably at the pool industry expo in Sept in September. Um, and we just finalized that like yesterday. Okay. Um and we I will probably be giving a course at after the Dallas show, the Pool Expo in in Dallas. We're probably going to give a class on Friday after the show.

SPEAKER_00: 14:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 14:46

Um in person. Um and I may give one at the Atlantic City show in uh late January. Got it. Yeah, so the instructors will be giving them online and in person, you know, whenever they whenever they want to. Um and we now have six active instructors that are teaching the the uh pool chemistry certification course.

SPEAKER_00: 15:13

Yeah, and they can find that easily by going to your website uh pctti.online, and then you have the courses there. They can also sign up for your tech bulletins. Um there'll be a pop-up when you go there. And I recommend you sign up for uh Bob's tech bulletins. They come in about quarterly, is that about right?

SPEAKER_01: 15:30

Um, I try to do one a month, but it seems like they're getting farther apart these days.

SPEAKER_00: 15:34

You're pretty busy.

SPEAKER_01: 15:35

But there are 15 tech bulletins on the website that are free that you can look at online or even download as a PDF.

SPEAKER_00: 15:46

Well, again, I thank you for the time with all the content here. And I think again, the education I think is a key. And then learning as much as you can about what you're doing out there is the key to success. In any industry, you know, whether auto mechanic or computer programmer, the more you know, the better you're gonna be at your job, and the better you're gonna serve your customers and and the better you're gonna be at your business. I think the confidence that being educated gives you is the key. And, you know, people say, oh, you don't need a college degree because you know you can make more money without it. But with that said, at least a college degree gives you that confidence that you have that knowledge base. And the same in the pool industry, the more courses you take, the more education you get, the more confident you're gonna be out there servicing those pools.

SPEAKER_01: 16:35

Chemistry is something you use every day in every pool. And and understanding the chemicals and the chemistry are what you're making your living from. The rest is just maintenance. Anybody could do. You could teach somebody how to, you know, how to check the filter pressure and clean the skimmer basket and the pump strainer basket, how to brush it and vacuum it. You can teach them how to do that in a in two days. You know, the rest of it is understanding the chemistry, but you use it every day. What's the first thing you do when you go to the pool? Take a water sample and and measure the measure the things that are in the water and then start adding chemicals. You need to understand.

SPEAKER_00: 17:15

If you're looking for the podcast, you can go to my website, swimming for learning.com, on the podcast, on the banner is a podcast icon. Click on that, and there'll be a drop down menu with over eighteen hundred podcasts for you there. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at PoolGuyCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a good rest of your week. God bless.