Campfire Chronicles: True Pool Pro Field Stories

Ever walked up to a job and found the pool equipment living inside a freshly finished bedroom? We have—and that’s just the start. This story-driven episode shares the funniest, strangest, and most useful moments from decades on the route, each one paired with practical takeaways you can use today.

We start with access and liability: a garage converted to a mother-in-law unit, complete with D.E. filter and heater behind a tenant’s door. It sparked a frank look at boundaries, ventilation and code concerns, and why a professional sometimes has to walk away. From there we row—literally—into a pool with a center island only reachable by raft, and talk about how design choices create recurring labor costs. We break down builder mistakes that make equipment unserviceable: pipes over pump lids, heaters mounted above baskets, and filters wedged against walls. You’ll get a fast bid checklist to catch these issues early, and language you can use to recommend fixes before they become weekly headaches.

Then we move to the living, barking variables. Dogs on route can be sweet companions or sprinting escape artists. You’ll hear a Doberman sprint, the small-dog chase you never want, and simple rules that prevent escapes and protect your schedule. We also cover pricing when pets use the pool and the quiet grief of losing a familiar yard companion. Finally, we tackle the roadside chaos: a tire punctured by pliers, starters that die mid-route, and the tools that save your day. We share the tap-the-starter trick, why a compact jump pack like a NOCO Boost GB40 belongs in every truck, and how AAA can swap a battery while you keep working.

• garage conversion creates unsafe equipment access and liability  
• island pool requires raft access and sets service limits  
• inaccessible equipment from poor plumbing and tight pads  
• practical bid checks to catch design flaws early  
• pet policies, dog escapes, grief and pricing for pet use  
• roadside chaos, blowouts and the starter tap trick  
• jump starter picks, why AAA is worth it  

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Coaching Invite
• 3:24 The Garage Turned Mother‑In‑Law Unit
• 6:36 The Island Pool And Weekly Rafting
• 8:16 Builder Blunders And Inaccessible Equipment
• 11:37 Dogs On Route: Escapes And Emotions
• 17:19 Street Closures And A Shocking Incident
• 19:29 Road Hazards, Breakdowns, And Starters

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:51

And welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to call it Pool Guy Campfire Stories. And this is when I'm going to tell you some stories out there that have happened to me or situations that I've been in that you can of course learn from, and these sometimes can be humorous and sometimes a little scary as well. So I hope you enjoy this episode here, and I think you're going to get some knowledge out of it, hopefully, and maybe a few laughs out of it. 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. I'll start with my all-time favorite story, and you may have heard this one before, you may not have. But there was a pool that I was doing, and it was a pretty nice account, easy account. For some reason, I'm not sure why they did this, but they put the they put an equipment room in the garage. So there was a garage, a one-car garage with a bathroom already, and then off to the side was this equipment room with a small filter. It had a 36 square foot D filter. It also had a heater in there and a pump. And it was all cement, so it was not a problem. So I would go in the side door, access the equipment room. When I cleaned the filter, I would just take the whole grid assembly outside because it was a small filter. I could take the 36 square foot assembly outside and hose it off. So it wasn't a big deal that they had this equipment room in the garage. It's not very common in Southern California actually to have an enclosed equipment room, really, unless you're in a commercial account. That in itself is not the story, of course. And then one day I got to the stop and I noticed that they were doing some construction in the garage. And I was curious, and you know, I thought they were remodeling the garage. So I went the following week and I noticed that they were putting drywall in. And so I started thinking, well, it looks like they're actually building a bedroom in here. Of course, they didn't get permits because this is kind of what people do. And they actually, after about three weeks, they actually had the floor in LVP. It was in the actual whole area of the garage. They put a new door on the equipment room to make it look nice. It had a bathroom already. They added a shower to it, and they made it a one-bedroom mother-in-law unit, and they actually moved their parents in from overseas. And so I would get to the stop and then I would knock on a door and the person would open the door. It was kind of embarrassing. I'm like going into the their little house to access their the filter and the timer and everything. And it's just kind of kind of creepy, you know. Like I'm entering this one-bedroom unit that they converted to get to the pool equipment. And then I started thinking about some liability. I'm I'm like, okay, there's a heater in here. Yes, it's vented, but I just felt like it was just the whole thing was weird having to knock on the door to get in there, because now it's a little house instead of a garage. And then at the crossing L VP and be careful, I don't get it dirty. And then I was thinking, how am I going to clean this filter and take it across this floor? It was just a big mess. So I told the owner, you know, since you converted the garage to a room, I don't feel comfortable servicing the pool anymore. I just feel like it's it's just not something that I want to do. And I don't know who took over that account, but again, they're gonna get there and it's gonna be a total shocker when they see the equipment room inside someone's house. So one of those things that can happen, probably never would happen to you on your route, but these are odd things that can happen out there. So thankfully I got rid of that account, and I don't have to every week knock on someone's door and enter their house to get to the filter, get to the pool equipment, turn it on. And it was quite loud too, so I'm not sure what the idea was behind this. You know, you know, during the eight-hour runtime, it's gonna be pretty loud in that little one-bedroom place back there. Another one that I thought was interesting was this pool that was built by a builder, and he actually put a little island in the center. This was like it was a pretty big pool. Now the island in the center had like a little area you can sit in, and you know, the the owner said if I could brush around the the island, like clean the tiles and make sure it's clean around the island area. So he bought a little raft for me, like one of those uh orange rafts where I can get into and row over to the little island. I mean it was like eight feet away from the the edge of the pool, and so you know, I was like, well, this is a bit unusual and interesting. I guess I can do this once in a while, go there and clean the pool and go through the island and brush the tiles and make sure that area is clean. The the funny thing is, you know, I didn't really need it a lot, but he was really insistent that every week I get into this little raft and row over there and clean that area, so it just got to the point where it's like, okay, yeah, there's an island. I can get over there in the raft and brush the tiles and clean it every so often, but I don't have to do it every week. And he was really insistent that I get in this little raft and paddle over there to clean it. It looked weird. I wish I had a video of it. This is before I was filming all my stuff, and it's just one of those weird accounts where it's like, well, I mean, if you built a bridge or something, that'd be better. I just didn't feel comfortable every week getting in there and rowing over there. It was really an awkward situation, and so that account, of course, I took off my route. And so the other pool guy inheriting it is gonna get the same kind of you know insistence that he gets into this raft every week and row over there and clean that area. So, this is an example of a builder going a little crazy and not really being considerate of the Pool Service Pro. Now, since I'm talking about builders not being considerate, this happens a lot, and this is a situation that you may find yourself in, but you may have equipment that's really inaccessible because of the way they installed the equipment at the pad. This happens a lot in California because you know we have really small equipment pad areas, really small footprints in backyards, and you may run into bizarre things. There was one installation, I'm gonna share a couple here. There's one in particular where they had put the piping or the plumbing in such a way that it was impossible to get the pump lid off the Intelliflow pump. So they had a pipe going across the top. I don't know how it passed the inspection, to be honest with you, but you probably have run into the situation where it's really hard to get the lids off these pumps because there's pipes around it. You know, there's one installation that I had where they had the heater on this actual metal pad above the pump because there was no room for the heater. I guess you could do it, I guess it was code, I'm not sure. But I couldn't reach the pump basket because it was underneath the heater, the whole heater apparatus that they put in there. And this other one that I'm talking about, the plumbing was over the pump lid, literally, and so it was no way you can get the basket out. So you would take the lid off, and then I would use my hand and I would kind of just get the debris out of there. And then I thought one day, well, what's gonna happen when the pump basket cracks and I can't access it anymore? And so I told the customer, this needs to be replumbed, this is kind of crazy. But they put a pipe right over the pump basket and I can't get it out. And he saw it, he's like, Yeah, that's kind of weird, and so that was of course replumbed. I believe the builder went back there and did it. It was kind of embarrassing. I think the excuse was he wasn't even paying attention to where the pump was or where the pump lid was when he did the insulation and was on him. Another one is when they put the filters or pumps and motors right up against the wall of the house. Now there is a code about that, and of course they don't follow that to the letter, and a lot of times you can't get the filter clamp off, or if you have a system three filter, you can't get one of the clamps off because right up against the drywall. Happens a lot. I've had this problem where someone installed a Penter 420 square foot clean and clear cartridge filter, they built a wall around the equipment area, and they built in such a way that the only way to get the clamp off is to get it off the filter in a certain way to where you can kind of rotate it and pull it towards you with the filter lid and kind of get it off that way. And getting it on is nearly impossible, and it was very frustrating. So, this will happen to you out there where you're gonna have equipment that's unaccessible, and you may not notice when you take the account and do the bid until you go to clean the filter or go to change a motor that's right up against the wall, and there's no way to remove it without cutting the plumbing. And it does happen a lot out here in Southern California. Now, I do love dogs, and I have nothing against people having pets, and I really don't care if the dog wants to use the pool, that's that's the customer's priority. And there's things you can put in place, of course. You can charge extra for chemicals, extra filter cleaning, you can add all these things to the pool to help enhance that. So dog swimming is an issue in California, of course, and probably your area too, and that's something that I can address in a different podcast. But I have a few pretty funny dog stories here as well. There was one dog, his name was Duke, and he you know he was a Doberman pincher, and he had a tendency. So the way this account works is that they they keep him in this little side area, and for me to access the account, there's a gate they move by the way, and so the dog's no longer there. The gate kind of moves out, and it's a big gate that for the driveway, and I have to throw the dog a treat to get him away from there when I'm coming in because it takes a while for the gate to actually close again. I have to get in there, get the keypad, and close the gate. So I have a dog treat. I carry these chicken chew treats, I get them on Amazon, so I give him the treat, and usually he doesn't run away. But for some reason, this one time he ran out the gate when it was closing. I don't know why he did that, he's never done that before. So I opened it and went over there, and he ran down the street. I can hear people screaming because he's a big dope-man pincher, and so I just yelled his name. It was one of those things where I was like, Well, I can't chase this dog, he's fast and he's already scaring people in the neighborhood. So I just yelled for him and I clapped really loud, and lo and behold, he turned around and came running back to me and went back into the gate and I gave him another treat. But it's one of those things where you will have these situations where dogs will get out. Unfortunately, I had a small dog get out. Now, these small dogs are terrible to catch. I mean, if you've ever had one get out, I think it was like a collie or something, and this dog is was fast, of course, and no way to corner these small dogs. Every time I get near a corner, you know, the dog would bolt a different way, and so I'm I'm like about halfway down the street now, a quarter of a mile chasing this dog. But fortunately there was another neighbor or someone a homeowner, I wouldn't say a neighbor since I'm half a mile, quarter mile away. He helped me corner the dog and I got it back in there. But I guess the moral of the story is don't let the dog out because you're gonna have a hard time getting it back in there, and it's gonna waste a lot of your time and effort, and it's frustrating and kind of scary having your customer's dog running around out there in the streets. So I'm really cautious about it, and every time I'm going back there, I make sure the gate closes and the dog's not gonna get out. It's gonna happen. The situations are gonna come up, like I mentioned with the Doberman Pincher running out with a weird way the gate opens up, but it's one of those things to be aware of and be really cognizant of not letting the dogs out. It's actually a little sad when you get to an account that you you've had for a long time and the dog's been there a long time and you find out the dog had passed away, and so there's a little bit of sadness that goes with kind of bonding with these dogs on your route. And I've had several of these situations, and it's pretty sad. Some of the dogs you really miss because they they're kind of like part of the pool itself, you know, they're sitting there watching you, and they come up to you, and they're like your dog basically. So it is kind of one of those things where you have to kind of be detached, but at the same time, you do miss these dogs when they do pass, and they don't last a long time. You know, my dog lasted 12 years and they just have a short lifespan. So it's one of those things you have to kind of get used to out there on the pool route. There are some dogs, however, that you're hoping that they pass away sooner than later, especially those small dogs that just never stop barking when you're at the pool. It's the most annoying thing in the world, and it's almost to the point where you have to drop the account because the dog is just so irritating, but you know what I'm talking about. Dog just never stops barking for that 15 or 20 minutes that you're there, and it's super annoying. You know, you can maybe put some music on with headphones or whatever, but you know, those are the dogs that you're like, okay, how old is this dog? Is it eight or nine? You know, do some math in your head. Of course, there's some stories I can tell about not being able to access the stop for some reason. One really sticks out in my mind here in California or my area, they do a lot of filming in the homes. So there's been some film shoots in the area where they had the street blocked off. But this one's pretty interesting. This was a street that was blocked off with police tape, couldn't get down into the pool, and wondering what's going on, you know. I saw like a lot of weird things on the street. You know, I saw a tree trimming truck that was there that had trees that were halfway trimmed, and I thought, well, did the tree trimmer get sucked into that machine? I always think about that, you know, those machines. I've heard people get sucked in there and get cut up with the the tree bark or the tree making the bark, those machines that was there on the street, and the street was really quiet. There was like no one on the street, basically. They had closed the whole thing off, and I was really curious of what happened. So the following week I asked the customer, hey, what happened on your street? Why did they block it off? And why would there's no one no one in the neighborhood? Well, apparently, this is a weird story. The gardener had gotten upset with the homeowner. I don't know exactly what happened. He rammed his truck into their property, and then he set himself on fire in the truck. It was like really bizarre, and so it was like a big giant investigation. Everyone was evacuated from the neighborhood. I guess they thought maybe he was like there was some more terrorist activity associated with it. So that was like the weirdest thing that I've ever seen. Uh, you know, not able to access the pool because of this kind of terrorist act that this guy committed in a residential neighborhood, and I'm not sure what happened to him. The neighbor wasn't too sure either, but it's really weird, and you know, those things can happen. That was like the weirdest street closure that I've experienced. Then, of course, you have the mechanical issues with your vehicle. All of us have had the battery die, the starter go out. There's been a few things I've ran over that were weird. You know, when you're out there, you're gonna get flat tires. But I ran over a pair of pliers one day, and my tire just popped. It was like I'm driving 40 miles an hour down this street, and then I hear a pop, and then of course, my truck, the tire is like dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. I'm like, wow, I had a blowout, that's weird. So I pull over and I look, and literally the pair of pliers was in such a position on the road that when I hit it, it went right through the tire and popped it. And so when I took it, I of course I call triple A, and by the way, I recommend you have triple A, they come over and they change the tire for you, it's much easier. Took it to the tire shop, and he's like, Well, that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. You actually ran over a pair of pliers and it went right to your tire. So, yeah, those road hazards are out there. Typically, it's like a screw or a nail, and you have a slow leak, but this was a pretty wild flat tire, and then of course I had my starter go out all the time, and this happens a lot. You're gonna go through starters in this business because you take turning your truck on and off 20 or so times per day, and it's gonna wear out. And there's a little trick you can do, by the way, if you wanted to finish your route, you have to have the customer help you, but have them start the car, crawl under there with a hammer or your large channel locks. That's what I use. So if you have those large blue channel locks, you should carry those. Tap your starter with it and have them turn the ignition on, and your car should start up, and then your truck should start up, and then you can drive it around to your finish your route, but don't turn the truck off, of course. Keep the motor running, and you can finish your route and then go to your mechanic and get a new starter put in. So a little trick, that's what one of the tow truck drivers taught me. And I've been using that trick whenever my starter goes out, you just tap it with the with your wrench, have the customer turn the car on at the same time, and it should start up. And of course, battery, a different story. Now, one thing that you probably should get is one of those portable battery chargers they sell on Amazon, and it's it's better than jumper cables, you just attach it to the terminals and you turn it on, and it should give you enough juice to turn your truck on. And in that case, once you get your truck running, you definitely don't want to turn it off again. And actually, I have a funny story with that. I had I used to carry a pair of jumper cables before they had those devices, and so my battery died at a customer's house. She had a Mercedes SUV, and so she's like, Oh yeah, I'll give you a jump, no problem. So I pop her hood up and I'm looking for the battery. Could not find the battery in the engine, and she was like, What do you mean there's no battery in there? I'm like, Yeah, there's no battery here. Like, you know, she knows where the battery should be in the front compartment area, and so we opened the trunk looking for the battery, no battery there, and so I just was out of luck. I had to call triple A. She left and went to work. And next the following week she told me, Oh, you know where the battery was? It was under the passenger seat. It's like, okay, Mercedes. They don't have cup holders, they put the battery under the passenger seat. Really strange. So, yeah, this device is great to have. I'll actually give you the name of it. Definitely order it, and it's a great way to jump your truck without having to rely on jumper cables, looking for a battery and a Mercedes, things like that. And so the brand I use is Noco N O C O, and it's a battery boost plus, it has the actual jumper cable clips, kind of like a jumper cable, and there's all different prices, but uh you probably get away with the$90 one. Get that, keep that in your truck, keep it charged, and whenever you need a jump your truck because the battery will invariably die. Disconnect the positive and negative, hit the power button on the charger, turn the ignition, and you can probably start your truck. Usually it works 100% of the time. I haven't had a fail yet. I've used it for neighbors, I've used it when I was out at the shopping center, jumping someone's car. So it's a great little thing. Again, the Noco Boost, the one that I have here is the NoCo Boost GB40. So it's a thousand um amp charger. Definitely want to get one of those so that you can jump your car. But triple A is also great because then they come out and they just swap out the battery right there while you're waiting. So you can clean the pool, do whatever, maybe clean the filter since you're gonna be there a little longer, and then triple A will come there with a battery, swap it out. Then when the battery dies again, since you have the triple A battery, they'll warranty any kind of proration on it, and they'll just drop another battery. And so triple A is great for that. I would definitely recommend getting a membership there and then using their batteries going forward so they can easily swap it out on the road for you. If you're looking for other podcasts, of course, I have plenty of those. Go to my website, SonyproLearning.com on the banner, click on the podcast icon. There'll be a drop down menu there with over 1800 podcasts. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at PoolGuyCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have your serious week and God bless.