Commercial vs Residential: Bob Lowry Explains the Big Differences

The calm of a backyard pool and the chaos of a hotel deck look similar from the waterline—but they run on different rules. We pull back the curtain on why commercial water turns volatile under heavy bather load, how chlorine gets consumed faster than you can pour it, and what it really takes to keep guests safe and inspectors satisfied. From oxidation priorities to daily logs, this is a candid look at the work behind a compliant, open-for-business pool.

We talk through the core chemistry differences between residential and commercial service, showing how algae and bacteria drive decisions at home while bather waste dominates in public settings. You’ll hear why limited testing once a week works in a backyard but fails in a busy facility, and how ORP and pH automation provide continuous control and defensible data. We unpack the strengths and gaps of CPO training, where facility operations meet code, and where deeper chemistry knowledge fills the holes—covering sanitizer behavior, breakpoint chlorination, combined chlorine, and the pH leverage you need to keep water stable.

Then we get practical about business realities: interacting with health inspectors, documenting everything, handling fecal incidents, and responding to late-night calls that can decide whether a pool stays open. We weigh insurance requirements, true pricing for time and risk, and why mixing dozens of residential stops with a few commercial accounts can strain your schedule and cash flow. If you’re thinking about adding hotels, apartments, or HOAs, you’ll leave with a clearer view of the workload, the liability, and the systems that make it sustainable.

• core chemistry goals in residential vs commercial pools  
• limits of CPO for deep chemistry and where it helps  
• daily testing, logs, and inspector expectations  
• using ORP and pH automation for control and proof  
• fecal incident response, uptime pressure, and liability  
• pricing for risk, insurance needs, and hassle factor  
• choosing a business model and on‑site operator support  
• why adv

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Chapters

• 2:39 Setting The Topic And Credentials
• 3:35 Residential Vs Commercial Chemistry
• 6:08 Certification, CPO, And Public Safety
• 12:04 Why Records And Automation Matter
• 16:54 The Realities Of Commercial Service
• 20:34 Business Model, Risk, And Insurance
• 22:44 Complementary Training And Final Takeaways

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:51

Welcome to the pool of backyard Bob Lowy. We're going to tell the difference between a commercial pool and a residential backyard pool. And of course, Bob Lowy is a premier expert on regular residential swimming pools, although he does know a lot about commercial pools as well. It'll compare and contrast those two different pool categories for you. Are you a full 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 tool to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. I get asked this a lot, and you're the expert on this because of your residential certification course. Plus, you were a CPO instructor for many years. What's the main difference between a residential and a commercial pool? What would be some of the main differences that you can point out to the listeners?

SPEAKER_01: 2:52

Well, people ask me sometimes what's the difference between a CPO course and our course? And frankly, the CPO course has about 50 pages of pool chemistry. And our course has 228 pages of chemistry, and then a supplemental book that's another 28 pages. So we have something like 260 pages of chemistry in our class. So if you if you want to learn chemistry, we have chemistry. If you want to learn CPO, then they do. They teach you how to clean toilets and showers and you know take care of the books and you know stuff like that. So it's not the same thing. But you know, if you're doing commercial pools, they're required. So people say, well, what's the difference in chemistry? And frankly, the chemistry is the chemistry. What it boils down to, the only difference is that in a residential pool, the chlorine and oxidizer is there for uh we are trying to prevent bacteria and algae. And oxidation of swimmer waste is kind of secondary to what we're doing because the main problem is algae and bacteria. In a commercial pool, the biggest problem is beta contamination, and it uses up all of the chlorine, and then we have unsafe water. So the difference being that in a residential pool, the reason for chlorination is to get rid of uh bacteria and algae. In a commercial pool, the biggest reason that we had uh that we add chlorine is to get rid of beta contamination and to keep the water safe. So there's two different purposes, and as a result, in a residential pool, we can test the water once a week and have some chlorine. In a commercial pool, we have to check the pinning on the pool, either we have to check it continuously, or we at least have to measure it one time a day. And most health department codes on most commercial pools require that you measure the chlorine level one to three times per day minimum. And so you need to check the filter, the chlorine level, all the time and dispense chlorine to keep the level up.

SPEAKER_00: 5:32

And I guess another question I get asked too I know here in LA County you can either be CPO certified or be certified through the county through the health department test. So when did it become kind of the rule for, you know, when we're talking commercial pools here, we're talking hotels, apartments, HOA communities, anything where it's not in a residential backyard setting, so to speak. Where did it become like part of the code to have to be certified to do these pools? You know, where did it all come from? And is it, you know, the residential pools, you don't need CPO certification in most areas. What would be the reasoning behind being CPO certified?

SPEAKER_01: 6:12

Well, you know, eventually I think the the homeowners are going to demand that service techs know what they're doing. And there's going to be some kind of certification required because, you know, after all, if you look at what's happened with parents at schools and at uh daycare places and stuff like that, they're concerned about their children. And and are they safe? And are they gonna get disease and are they gonna you know come home with black eyes or get in a fight and have somebody bite them or something? There's all kinds of things that they're concerned about, their children. And so, rightfully so, people are concerned about their kids. And and the bottom line is they've got a swimming pool and they rent the they want the water to be safe, and they are depending on their pool guy to make their water safe. And there's nothing to say that that the pool guy knows what he's doing. You know, you can you can go buy a pole and a vac and some hose and go buy some chemicals and put them in the back of your truck and call yourself a pool guy. And there's no difference between him and some guy that's been been through my course and and been in business for eight or ten years that taken my course and really knows what he's doing, versus some guy that, you know, never even read the label on a on a chlorine bottle and you know, taking care of your pool. As soon as somebody gets sick and they can prove it came from the pool, guess who they're suing? And and and even at that, a service guy doesn't have anything to point to. You know, all he can say is, well, I followed the PHTA guidelines, you know, and that's all he can say he did. He can't say certified, he can't say, you know, he can't point to anything he's done except maybe he's a CPO, but that doesn't prove that he knows how to take care of a residential pool. So I think that the public is going to demand um that we know more. You know, you have guys that work as electricians in your house and they have to be certified. We got guys that work in your house, and you know, they have certification, they have insurance, they're bonded, you know, those kinds of things. And and eventually I think it's going to happen with service tax. And I have heard in in Florida that there is a movement right now to have all service tech certified in the state of Florida. You mean like CPO certification? Well, no, not CPO, but just be certified. But the problem is that there hasn't been any kind of certification until the Pool Chemistry Training Institute came along and said, we have certification. So perhaps something like our course will be adopted as a as a uh as a uh course in Florida, and other people can copy our course and give a similar course. You know, in LA County, you've had to have a uh a license there to be a service tech for uh it goes clear back to the 1970s. You know, I uh I moved to California in 1977, and believe it or not, I don't know if you know this or not, but even though I started Leisure Time Chemical in 1977, in 1978, I was a pool guy for six weeks. And I rode with a guy that had a a pool service business in La Cagnata, California. And I did this on purpose because I wanted to understand what service decks do and how pools operate and all that stuff. So every day for six weeks, I rode with a pool guy who was a smart guy. He actually in those days taught class to prepare you to take the LA County exam. And he used to teach people the what they needed to know to take the exam. And so he's a smart guy about pools, but he wasn't a chemist, and I wasn't a pool guy. So we befriended each other and and I asked him if he could do us. I took six weeks off from my job and rode with him every day for uh for six weeks. And so I've done everything that a pool guy can do, and I've been a pool guy. So, and and I'm a chemist, so I have a unique position uh where I know about pools and I know chemistry. So I'm in a better position than a lot of other chemists in this pool industry are in.

SPEAKER_00: 11:30

Yeah, so the CPO certification for commercial pools just kind of protects the you know, protects you as a pool service provider and also the person that hires you, right? That you're certified. And if there's a problem, you know, it goes, it falls on somewhere, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 11:46

Yeah, but I was a CPO instructor for 21 years, and um a lot of people just took the course just because they needed to be certified. And and some people took it because they really wanted to know. But frankly, you know, you use chemistry all day long in those courses, in those classes. And if you've got commercial pools, what's the first thing you do? You check the water and adjust the chemicals, you know, and they teach a little bit about pool chemistry and the CPO course, and it's not really enough to give you a good understanding of chemistry.

SPEAKER_00: 12:24

Yeah, we we talked kind of about the next question here already: certified residential versus the CPO course, and you mentioned how you focus more on chemistry. So I think I'll just throw it out there. If someone gets their CPO and they're taking care of a commercial pool, usually they have residential pools also. So I think your course kind of complements the CPO course in a way, or maybe the CPO would complement your course if you look at it that way. But I think you probably need your course regardless if you had the CPO or not.

SPEAKER_01: 12:54

Yeah, I I do believe that you know our goal was to teach pool chemistry. And I didn't want to be confused or compete with CPO. So I didn't want to create another CPO course. What I wanted to do was create a chemistry course. And so we created a chemistry course. So I can't give you all the stuff that that the CPO teaches. You know, they teach a whole lot of things about you know evaporation and wind and and taking care of locker rooms and and making sure you adjust this and figure that out in the books and all kinds of stuff. And and while it it's a great, a great thing to teach you to be a commercial pool operator, it doesn't teach you to, it doesn't teach you very much chemistry. It doesn't teach you what to do. So we teach chemistry. That's where we are. And I think that a lot of people have taken our course, um, understand chemistry better, so that they can be a better commercial pool operator, for sure. Because all of the chemistry is the chemistry, regardless of the pool. So the chemistry is the chemistry until we get to disinfection and oxidation. And that's where it changes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:12

And I think what what can you tell someone who's thinking about switching over or adding commercial pools to their account? The first thing I tell them myself is that, well, you're gonna have to deal with the health inspector, something you probably never have dealt with before at residential pools. And what other advice do you think we should give the listeners here if they're thinking about expanding into maybe the HO community and an apartment complex or hotel?

SPEAKER_01: 14:38

Well, it it's a whole nother world. It's a lot different than you have been exposed to if you've only been doing residential. It's not gonna be possible for you to go to a one-time a week uh commercial pool. It's not gonna be possible for you to do that. And and you're taking on the responsibility of providing safe water to everybody that gets in that pool. Uh, for the most part, uh, you're gonna have to go to that pool every day, and you're gonna need to keep accurate records because at some point somebody's going to get bring a lawsuit against that hotel or motel or homeowners association or something. Somebody's gonna have a lawsuit and start legal legal uh things going, and you're gonna need to provide your records, and if you can't provide records, then they're gonna find you at least partially at fault. Because you're gonna say, well, you know, I keep the pool between 2.0 and 4.0 parts per million, I keep the pH between 7.2 and 7.8, and you're gonna say, yeah, where's your records? Where's the test you made on the pool every week, every time? You're gonna need to make all the tests every time you go there. If if, well, not necessarily if you're gonna go there every day, but you need to at least make pH, alkalinity, and chlorine level every time you make a test on the water, two or three times a day, even. So you're gonna need to get automation in there. So you may need to understand ORP and pH so that you can adjust the pH and chlorine levels automatically. And so you're gonna need to understand how that works and understand how they can help you to maintain the water because they they measure chlorine and pH continuously. And that's a good thing because they're measuring it all the time. And if you have to go back and prove what the pH was at a certain time, you can prove that. That part of it's good, but you need to understand there's a lot of liability here. And the only way you're gonna cover yourself is by keeping really accurate records. And the more work you have to do to keep records and keep things up to date, you have to charge money for your time.

SPEAKER_00: 17:14

And you have to uh charge for the hassle factor because you're gonna get a call that there's a diaper floating in the pool from the management company.

SPEAKER_01: 17:23

So there's Yeah, and you're gonna get that. You're gonna get lawn chairs in the pool, you're gonna get people, you know, you're gonna get diapers in the pool, as you say. You're gonna get all kinds of stuff. They're gonna give you a call and say, hey, somebody pooped in the pool. What are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_03: 17:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:38

And they expect you to drop what you're doing and be there right now. Otherwise, you know, their only option is they the health department finds out and they close the pool. And believe me, no hotel, motel, homeowners associated once their pool closed by the health department. There's too many rumors and too many opinions about what caused it. And it's bad for business.

SPEAKER_00: 18:05

You know, I think in California, a lot of companies will either do all residential or all commercial because it's really hard, like you said, to split it. So if you have you know 60 residential and three commercial pools, it's really hard to manage that. And I think that's something to look at. And also you're gonna need more liability insurance. Most of the commercial accounts will require you to have$2 million per incident incident. So, like you said, there's a lot that goes into commercial pools. And I I'm of the opinion that there's plenty of residential pools out there, and commercial pools are gonna give you migraine headaches, sleepless nights. Uh I've done I've I've done those for many years myself, and I'm glad I'm not doing commercial pools anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 18:47

Yeah, I think the only way it makes sense to do a commercial pool is is if you go there every day, and then you still have somebody that's there that's that is the operator of the pool that can assist you. Because if you're the only guy, I mean, some of these places, they're gonna they're gonna call you and tell you there's a bobby pin on the bottom of the pool called the stain. And it's gonna call you at two o'clock in the morning and expect you to fix it. You know, and they're just there's all that kind of stuff. And frankly, I I I would not want to do very many commercial pools.

SPEAKER_00: 19:28

Yeah. I'm in agreement with you. Unless you do it, unless you do it specifically as your business model.

SPEAKER_01: 19:33

If if that's your business model, then my my idea of that would be perhaps you could you could do three pools a day. How much money are you gonna make? How much money do you want to make? If you're only gonna have three people paying you, how much are you gonna make?

SPEAKER_00: 19:51

And then you have the other aspect, if you lose one of those accounts, you lose one-third of all your income. So many factors to, you know, the commercial pool thing is not just getting your CPO, there's a lot of things that are on the periphery that you need to really think about. And I think it's important to address that. And and I think your residential course definitely will help them to understand what's going on in a commercial pool, because to me, I think the chemistry of a commercial pool is much harder. Not only do you have the health department making sure that the spa pH doesn't drop below 7.2, you know, or 7.4, whatever, however, that however picky they are, but you also have the chlorine demand being higher. So the chemistry part of it, I think, like you mentioned, the CPO course is focused on main drains and other things of that nature. So your course definitely would come in handy for anyone doing residential and commercial.

SPEAKER_01: 20:45

Yeah, I I believe so. I think you know, you need to know the chemistry no matter what you do. Uh you need to understand what's going on and how it all works. And having that knowledge will help you and take care of commercial pools better.

SPEAKER_00: 21:01

Well, thanks again for your time. And I know that you're you're um not in your usual spot in Peru. And taking time out of your week to do this is uh really thoughtful of you for the listeners here, and we really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:16

Well, you know, I uh I also make a commitment, you know. I told you that I would do a monthly uh uh broadcast with you, and and uh that's my commitment, and I want to give back to the industry. I have been in this industry for many years, and I I would like to give back to our industry, and this is my commitment to once a month uh providing uh an hour or so of of my time with you to to chop up into some some smaller segments so people can listen to them. And and I enjoy it. This is my life, this is my passion. This is my 48th year of doing this. And uh as somebody said, you've got all the knowledge. We just have to ask the right questions. Yeah. So true. But it it's all there. All we need to do is somebody to ask me about it, somebody to access it.

SPEAKER_00: 22:11

And if you're interested in another podcast, you can find those by going to my website, swingfullearning.com, clicking on the banner. There'll be over 1800 podcasts for you to listen to. And if you're interested in a coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at PoogaiCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a great rest of your week. God bless.