Bob Lowry’s Legacy In Every Backyard with Terry Arko

The best pool chemistry advice is the kind you can use on your next route. We sit down with Terry Arco to share how Bob Lowry’s teachings are being refined into fast, field-ready training for residential service pros, plus a major update to the IPSA manuals that shaped a generation of technicians. If you’ve ever held chlorine at 3 ppm and still fought algae, or watched CYA granules sit on the floor in cold water, this walkthrough connects the dots between LSI, stabilizer, and free chlorine in a way that saves time and reduces callbacks.

Terry explains how a six-hour class became a tight, high-impact course based on Lowry’s 26-page Pool Chemistry for Service Pros. We unpack the three recurring challenges on most routes—water balance swings, misunderstood CYA behavior, and persistent algae despite “right” chlorine levels—and show how to solve them with clear targets and better testing. Expect actionable tips on managing LSI to avoid scale and corrosion, setting free chlorine relative to CYA and sunlight, and using aeration demos to see pH dynamics in real time.

We also highlight HASA’s stewardship of Bob’s work, including updated IPSA training manuals and a Spanish edition in progress, while honoring the way Bob bridged lab smarts with backyard realities. From liquid pool conditioner to phone calls returned, his legacy is practical chemistry that respects the craft and the clock. The 2026 schedule brings these condensed courses to major shows and regional events nationwide, so you can level up without losing a day on the route.

• Abridged course drawn from Pool Chemistry for Service Pros
• Focus on LSI for scale and corrosion control
• Practical CYA management tied to sunlight and chlorine strength
• Rethinking fixed free chlorine targets to prevent algae
• Demonstrations on aeration and pH behavior
• HASA stewardship of Bob Lowry copyrights
• IPSA manuals updated and Spanish versions in development
• 2026 training at Western, Southwest, Florida, Arizona, and Fresno events

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Intro
• 2:23 Coaching Program Promo
• 3:43 2026 Show Schedule And Courses
• 4:43 Abridged Lowry Course Overview
• 7:43 Nationwide Trainings And Dates
• 10:28 Compressing A Six-Hour Class
• 13:24 IPSA Manuals Ownership And Updates
• 16:34 Why The Books Changed Service Routines
• 19:29 Focus On Residential Pool Pros

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Welcome to the Pool Game Podcast Show. I'm joined today by Terry Archov Hosta. We're going to talk a little bit about the upcoming pool shows and also what Hosta is doing with Bob Lowry's residential pool training. It's really exciting that Hasta is actually condensing his program and taking it to some of the pool shows and other events around the country in 2026. And you're going to really enjoy Terry Arco talking, of course, about Bob Lowry and about the training material that Hasa has available for the Pool Pros. 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.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Hey Dave.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Hey Terry, how are you doing?

2026 Show Schedule And Courses

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Good, good. Sorry I'm a little behind here. It's been a busy morning so far already. Yeah, so what's new with you? Well, you know, the new year has hit, so I can't believe it. Uh we're already in February. I know. It's been a it's a bit busy, busy time, which is good. All good stuff for the industry. And so I've already been out a lot of places. And uh I say I say me, it's Asa, Rinda, all over teaching, educating, putting on classes, and uh getting ready to continue to kick in pretty big with the Western show coming up. Yeah. We have about actually four four shows that are kind of crossing over all in the month of February. It's a it's it's a busy month for us. So but definitely uh gonna be at the Western. And I did want to point out that we are offering Bob Lowry's Pool Chemistry for Service Pros. This is an abridged version of the the PCTI Pool Chemistry Training Institute course. So it goes all it goes over all the kind of the key principles from Bob, things like you know on water balance and CYA and aeration and three chlorine levels, proper pre-chlorine levels and everything. So we're offering that Saturday at the Western show, which is Valentine's Day, by the way. So bring your wife along, I guess, or your girlfriend. That's 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on Saturday morning at the Western.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Are you doing that at the other shows too?

Abridged Lowry Course Overview

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah, so that course is going to be offered at a lot of the other shows nationwide, along with a lot of other Arinda Academy courses, Hasa courses. We are at pretty much all of the shows nationwide. So anybody in those areas, Southwest Pool and Sphow, which I think is in Houston this year, which goes right the week after the Western. And we will be there. We'll also be uh when we get into March, you know, we have the Everything Under the Sun show in Florida. So out there kind of in the southeast, we're covering that, and we'll have classes there. So check those schedules. I'm also doing some things in actually March 5th, March 5th, 6th. I'll be out in Arizona, and it'll be the Southern Arizona PHTA is putting on a tabletop and an education day. So I'll be teaching there on the LSI. I'll also be doing a Bob Lowry's course out there at that time. And then a few weeks after that, I believe it's on the 27th, March 27th, there's a day-long education event taking place in the Fresno uh Clovis area in California. And uh we'll be offering Bob Lowry's pool chemistry for service pros in the morning of the 27th, uh, up in that Clovis area, I believe is where it is.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So how did you how did you convert the three-hour plus you know training into looks like it's gonna be 45 minutes?

Nationwide Trainings And Dates

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Well, no, it's actually yeah, at the at the Western show, we don't get as much time as we want. So we have to abridge the abridged version, if that makes sense. Yes. And but normally when we do this a lot of places and when we like the events I'm going to, it'll be 90 minutes to two hours we usually go. Okay. Uh, and and and basically what we've done. So that you know, you any anybody who may have gotten certified under Bob or taken the kind of day-long class, really, it was it was a six-hour or so class. Basically, what we've done is we've we've just taken all the key elements of the class. And so I don't know a lot of people if you know that there was the the large book, which was about a 252-page book that went along with the course, and that was called Pool Chemistry for Residential Pools. And and that's quite intense, and you have it. There it is. Yeah. But then there was also a smaller, about 26-page book called Pool Chemistry for Service Pros. So this course basically is going out of that 26-page book, which that 26-page book is really a it's a synopsis of the bigger book. It's just all the key elements home down. And so that's what we did. We just we took that, we went from that book, the 26-page book. We created a course from that book, which I think really covers all of Bob's teachings very well. And obviously it's free, it's not a day-long commitment, but you're getting the the information you need. And we still do the demonstrations on aeration and so forth in the class.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, I also have these books that Bob did where's my camera. Remember these?

Compressing A Six-Hour Class

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yes, and and I'm glad you brought that up. Those are the IPSA training manuals. And so, you know, I think a lot of people know that Hasa, we we took on the from Bob, and this was Bob's desire. I I like to say this because, you know, just so people know, it was in Bob's heart, and what Bob wanted was for his legacy and his teaching, his very vital teachings to the pool industry to continue to go on and after he passed. And he was well aware in the last few years of his life of his mortality, and he knew what was coming. And so he approached, he approached me, he approached Hasa and said, you know, I would really like you to take these uh teachings on. And so that's what we've done. And so the copyrights have become HASAs from Bob Lowry's, and we own the copyrights to all his uh information and teaching. Along with that, he also was the copyrights to the IPSA manuals that he has. So we have all of that, and so what we've done on the IPSA training manuals, which are fantastic, amazing, but we're in need of some editing, in need of some updating and being brought into more current education, teachings, and so forth. And so we have worked with IPSA on those training manuals since we own the copyrights. HASA does, but we have, you know, basically said to Ipsa, we have the copyrights, but we're extending to you the ability, we'll work with you and we'll edit and we'll update and and and put these together in a 2026 version. So we have, I have been working with IPSA on that the last couple of years. And we finally have the, I believe uh the 2026 version of the basic training manual has been published. And we're working on some others. We're working on a Spanish version. So those IPSA handbooks are going to get upgraded, and they will continue to recognize Bob as the author and so forth, but we're also also updating and kind of bringing them into 2026 with more information and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

And the one I have here is actually 2006. It's one of the first editions, right? And it was really life-changing when I when I picked it up and was reading it because what you know, our generation of pool guys, this is like stuff that we don't really even pay attention to, where you know, the flash testing with the OTO, all that stuff. And so when I picked this book up and I saw everything in here and all the stuff I was doing wrong, by the way, it definitely changed how I service pools.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yes. It's it's a the all those books are great, and they're great from the standpoint of there's there's just such a great amount of information in the books. But also anything you can, if you had a subject in mind like just combined chlorine, something like that, you can go to that book, you can find it in the glossary or whatever, you can look it up, you can find the sections where he talks about that. And and everything uh that you look at is presented, uh, you're getting a lot of chemistry knowledge, but also it's presented in a very accessible, really understandable way, and in a way you can actually take out and use at the pools, like the next day, you can begin to implement uh the information that you're getting from those books. And I think that's the that's really the the major thing about those books that makes them so good. And I think that's why Ipsa uh continues to use them.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

And then the course, let's say you're a pool pro and you're you're doing pools for you're just starting and you want to get some basic knowledge of residential residential pool care, that course is actually perfect because a lot of residential pool pros don't do commercial pools, they're not CPO certified.

IPSA Manuals Ownership And Updates

Why The Books Changed Service Routines

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Correct. Correct. And and it's good. You know, the thing about Bob and Bob's teaching is I I think just Bob had a special place in his heart for the residential backyard pool professional. Much so. I think he I think he was aware that hey, you know, there's already a CPO that's commercial, there's you know, the AFO other things that were out there, but nobody was really doing anything from an educational sort of on the certification standpoint towards the residential pool tech. And I I just think Bob really had a heart for that. I know, you know, one of the first things he did when he came out to Southern California from he was living in Georgia, and when he was getting into creating products, inventing products for the pool industry. And he really, you know, he was a chemist. He had two chemist degrees. He was a smart guy, but he wanted to really get the feel and the understanding of boots on the ground. And he talks about that's one of the first things he did when he came out to Southern California. He went to a pool service company and went to the owner and said, I want to work for you for free. And and I just I want to learn everything that a service, you know, one of your service techs has to do. And I want to go with them, I want to be at the pool, I want to see what they do. And I think that's the beauty of Bob is, you know, he was an academic. He certainly had an academic brain, but he did not want to come off as an academic. I think he wanted to come off as, you know, someone who legitimately understood what residential pool pros, their challenges, and what they were dealing with. And that's what we address in this class. In this shorter class, this two-hour class. I mean, we start out the class. It's basically we say this is for operational pools, this is for backyard pools, this is for you, the pool service technician, the single pole guy that's going in backyards. And we want to address, you know, the the three main challenges that we think every backyard pool pro faces, which is usually number one has to do with water balance. Okay. I mean, you know, David, you're a service guy. I don't think you can legitimately tell us you've never had challenges with water balance in any of your pools or questions or something that's gone wrong there that has caused you to, you know, be stumped. You know, I think we all face that. There's water balance issues. The other thing is with CYA, our understanding of CYA, our understanding of how it works, what it does in the pool, how it affects chlorine, and and and those those things. That's another part. And then the last one is, and I think this is a big one. You know, I've been I I've been doing this 30, 35 years as far as on the uh on the side where I'm a troubleshooter for pool guys. And I think the biggest question I always get or problem or challenge I see is guys will come up to me and they'll say, I'm maintaining my free fluorine at the right levels, and I still have algae. I mean, that's a big one. You know, well, where's it what's what's the right level to you? You know, and most of the time the answer is three ppm. You know, well, I I got I I'm at three. Or somebody might say, I'm at five. I'm I'm keeping it at five, and but nice pool still has allergy. And so that's a challenge, uh, that one right there. And and why is that happening? And so that's the third thing we address is you know, what is the proper free chlorine level needed, not only to keep the pool, you know, bacteria reduced and the water safe from a microbiological, I guess, uh, you know, from a from a kind of illness uh standpoint, but also to keep algae from blooming and growing. And so we address those things. And I know that Bob had such a great heart for those types of challenges, and he really wanted to help the pool pro with those situations.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

What I find interesting about Bob is all the pool guys that have contacted me over the years saying that they would actually text him, they call him, he'd answer his phone, they email him, he'd answer right back. So he was not just a teacher, he was someone who was involved directly with the pool pros, answering their questions. It was amazing. You know, all the people that have shared the personal interactions with Bob Lowry, who is this, you know, a really famous chemist in the industry calling you back.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, and you know, he wasn't a guy that was up in the ivory tower. I, you know, I mean, he was approachable. And this is kind of turning into a tribute to Bob again, but that that's okay. You know, he was approachable, and I I'll say what I'll say about him is very gracious. He was always very gracious to anyone. He would talk to anyone, it didn't matter. And I always say, you know, I was friends with him for many, many, many years, and even closer, closer friends in the last 10 years or so. And I'm not a smart guy, you know, everybody kind of looks to me like, oh, you know, Terry Arco. Well, I I mean, I'm just like I say, I'm just a glorified pool guy. And it's taken me a long time to learn what I learned. And a lot of what I learned, I learned because Bob had the patience to answer my questions. And he was always, always as smart and brilliant as that guy was. He never came off condescending, he never came off as better than you. It was always just, you know, I want to help you with this. You know, we're gonna get this figured out.

Focus On Residential Pool Pros

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah, and he invented so many chemicals for the industry. My favorite, I always told him was liquid pool conditioner. I just love that product for new pool startups. And, you know, someone that brilliant that can make all these products, and then giving his education and and sharing it, again, his humility is is unmatched.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yeah, and that's uh if you think about that, and and and and the whole premise of that product was you know, what's what's the biggest problem we have with traditional, you know, cyanuric acid conditioner, you know, the granule or you know, even the flake stuff or whatever that's there. And it's it's dissolving. And I think any pool pro knows in the if the water's colder or cooler, and they and a lot of times you you want to condition in the spring, right? Get ready for the summer. And those temperatures, you know, might not be that good or conducive of where you're gonna put that CYA in, and you know, you see it blowing through the filter, or you see it's laying for days and days and days it's laying on the bottom of the pool. And and Bob understood that. Obviously, people came to him and said, hey, you know, like my what can I do to get my conditioner to dissolve better, you know? Okay, we'll put it in a bucket of warm water, what you know, just things, all these things. And that product was born out of that issue right there. Well, hey, let's let's liquefy it already. So we take, you know, we we put the convenience in the product.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

And if you're interested in other episodes, you can of course go to my website, swimmingpoollearning.com, click on the podcast icon on the banner, and there'll be over 1800 podcasts for you to listen to there. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at poolguidecoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have you rest of your week? God bless.