Pool Service Knowledge Every Tech Should Know – Vol 3

A pool system can look “broken” when it really just needs a reset, and that one detail can save you a ton of time on a route. We break down a field-proven troubleshooting habit that fixes a surprising number of problems: shutting off power to automation and pumps, waiting, and bringing systems back up clean. We talk through why older automation like Jandy Aqualink can act stuck, how sub-breakers inside panels help, and what a longer hard reset can do for variable speed pump error codes. We also cover the sneaky breaker trip that doesn’t look tripped at all, plus the quick flip that can bring a “dead” motor back to life.

From there, we get practical about the stuff customers don’t always think about. Toys in the pool can stain surfaces, clog skimmers, kill suction, and slow circulation. We share what we’ve seen on real accounts, how to educate families without sounding preachy, and a simple safety message that helps customers take toy cleanup seriously, especially around small kids.

We also dig into liability habits that separate a casual route from a professional pool service business: always closing and checking gates, notifying customers when a latch is failing, and making parking choices that prevent expensive property damage. If you’ve ever dealt with muriatic acid drips, driveway stains, or chemical rings on pool decking, you’ll love the “dip method” for rinsing bottles and keeping residues off surfaces. If you want more pool maintenance tips, pool safety reminders, and pool service business systems, subscribe, share this with a pool pro friend, and leave a review so more techs can find it.

• power cycling automation panels and variable speed pumps to clear errors fast
• checking breakers that look on but are slightly tripped
• explaining how pool toys stain surfaces and block circulation
• skimming coins efficiently and why we keep them as a tip
• closing and verifying gates every time to prevent accidents and lawsuits
• alerting customers right away when a gate latch fails
• avoiding driveway parking to prevent acid stains, oil leaks, and

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Transcript

Welcome And What You’ll Learn

Fixes That Start With Power

Toys That Damage Pools And Flow

Gates, Drowning Risk, And Liability

Parking Choices That Prevent Claims

The Dip Method For Acid Bottles

Final Reminders And Where To Learn

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm gonna go over some Pool Pro Knowledge. This is volume three technically. And these are things that you learn out in the field over time, but I'm gonna kind of accelerate your learning by giving you this inside information that all pool pros learn eventually out there in the field. 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. The first one here is when all else fails, turn off the power to the system. Now this seems kind of like a no-brainer, but unless you've been in the field long enough, you don't realize how effective this tool actually is. Now there's some older Aqualink systems that when you get to the pool, it should be running, but it's not. And I've called Jandy on this, and there's really not a lot of explanation for it. But let's just say you have a Jandy Aqualink system. You get there at 9 a.m. The pool should be on, but it's not. So what I do when I run into the situation is I just open up the panel, turn off the subbreakers that are inside the panel, all the Jandy Aqua links, all the automatic panels have subbreakers there. Turn it off for like 30 seconds, turn it back on, and invariably it'll kick into the normal run cycle. Same thing happens if you're out in the field and you hit the wrong button. Let's say you hit something on the panel, you change the setting, or let's say the customer left it on spa mode and there's no way to access the inside controller to put it back in pool mode. Simply turn off the power for 30 seconds or so, turn it back on, and the system should reset back into the automatic mode that it was in before. So it's a good trick. Same with variable speed pumps. Sometimes you have a pump with an error code, simply turn off the power to it. Sometimes they need a little longer to do the reset. I think Pentare I think recommends like two or three minutes until it gets a hard reset. Turn it back on, and sometimes that fixes whatever error was in that standalone variable speed pump. So in my book, turning the power off and on does solve a lot of problems out there in the field. And if all else fails, and if you're kind of drawing a blank on what to do, turn the breakers off and then turn them back on and give it some time to reset. Now there are situations where you may have no power to the equipment. Let's say the motor should be running, it's a single-speed motor, and it should be running, but it's not. Sometimes those breakers actually trip slightly, and this happens to a lot of pool equipment. You don't even notice that it's tripped because it looks like it's still on. So a good tip is to always flip it back and then flip it back on, or flip it off and then back on again, and that should solve that problem. So some breakers just don't show tripped in the middle, they're just slightly tripped, and that's a way to solve that problem as well. On and off, turn the power on and off, and that does really reset a lot of issues out there. Here's something you're gonna run into if you service pools with a lot of kids that use them. Toys in the pool. This can be very annoying. These toys can actually damage the pool surface. I've been to pools before where they had hot wheel cars on the bottom, even water guns like super soakers, squirt guns. Does anyone still use those? But when I was a kid, we used super soakers all the time. There's actually screws in those guns, they're not really made for pool use. And if they let the gun settle to the bottom, those screws will start to rust and leave a stain. Hot wheels, of course, you know, there's metal on the bottom. When they put money in the pool, I actually skim it out. It does take a little effort and a little practice skimming out coins on the bottom of the pool. You have to have the right leaf rake to do it. I like the piranha 2 leaf rake for scooping out coins. It has a really nice leading edge lip. And you just kind of get in front of the coin and move the leaf rake quickly, and that causes a little bit of water to kind of lift up the coin and you scoop it up. And I keep all those coins as a tip basically. I don't put them back on the pool side. I've done that before where I'm like, okay, well, I'll just put them back here on the side of the pool. And then, of course, the following week the coins are back in the pool, and I'm spending time getting them out. So I just take them and just consider it a tip. Sometimes I make as much as$2 with these coins that the kids put in the pool. But other toys can be really annoying. Also, noodles, any kind of boogie boards can clog up the skimmer, and also a lot of leaf debris tends and dead bugs tend to gather underneath these toys. One thing you would want to educate the customer with is that the toys actually do interfere with the pool circulation and can they remove all the toys when they're done using it? Also, this one I like to use a lot if there's small kids there, and it's a scary one, it's a true one, but it really scares the customer, and they'll implement this right away. And I let them know that toys in the pool floating like a boogie board or a pool noodle is very attractive to a small child, and they'll go out there to try to play with it or reach for it, and then they'll fall in the pool, and god forbid something tragic happens, and that's enough for me to say that. And the customer right away understands this, and all the toys are always removed whenever I get to that stop because they want to avoid any kind of accidental, you know, the scenario that I'm talking about is really bad, and basically they take that seriously. But I also let them know that those noodles and the boogie boards get stuck into the skimmer and they cause the pool to lose its suction sometimes. I don't really like toys on the bottom of the pool either. I let them know that certain things will stain the pool surface. It's one of those things when you get to the pool and the pool bottom is full of leaves because one of those diving missiles got stuck inside the cleaner and it stopped it all week long, or something else had sucked up in there. It's one of those things where educate the customer that toys really affect the pool and the operation of the pool. They all should be removed, and they probably shouldn't use any toys with screws or metals in it to prevent staining on the bottom of the pool. Let me talk a little bit about gates since I've kind of touched on some safety issues on drowning. Gates are something that you really have to focus on when you're out there working. And I know that it's one of those secondary things sometimes when you're working out there. The gates always have to be closed after you're done servicing the pool. One thing that I always do whenever I have a gate of any kind, once I finish servicing the pool, if I go out to my truck to get something, I make sure the gate is closed. I know it's annoying sometimes, and you want to come back in and access it quickly, but locking the gates is something that has really been on my top priority list. I have a friend that actually had been sued because the child got into the pool. No one really knows if it was the pool service or the landscaper that left the side gate open, and the child actually went into the pool and they were able to resuscitate him, but he had brain damage. And the lawsuit and the court battle fortunately had liability insurance, but the payout was a million dollars for him, and the insurance covered that. Usually the attorney will sue for the amount of the insurance, and that's what they did, and they got a million dollar settlement for that case. And again, I always make sure that when I leave, I grab the gate and I shake it to make sure it's completely locked. And it's one of those things where it's up to you to really focus on any entry gate, any exit gate, make sure that it closes and latches. If there's a problem with the gate, at any point, let the customer know that the gate's not working, and that way you avoid that liability. Really important to let them know right away if the gate's broken or if it's not latching properly, because that can be something that you know unfortunately someone could drown, and there's a huge liability issue. So keep that in mind that whatever gate you open, you close behind you. When you go out to your truck, close the gate. It's one of those things where you want to double check, triple check if you need to. I've actually driven back to a stop one time because I'm like, did I that gate shut all the way? And I went back and it was shut. So I'm kind of paranoid about gates after this incident from a friend of mine, and uh, and it's one of those things that kind of wakes you up to the to the fact that gates have to be latched all the time. Let me talk a little bit about parking. Now, this is something that it doesn't seem like you need to think about it, but you really do need to think about it. I really avoid at all costs if I can. Now, sometimes there's no street parking and you have to park there. Sometimes the pool is pretty far from the driveway, or actually the house is far from the driveway, and walking up is a little bit extra effort, but I try to avoid, if I can, 95% of the time of not parking my truck in the driveway of the customer. And there's a lot of reasons for this. The main reason is that I've had this happen where you know a returnable acid container was leaking in my truck, and when I pulled up to the driveway, some of it leaked out onto the driveway and you know drip some acid there. I've also taken stuff out of my truck before and dripped acid on the driveway, and this is really an important thing. Of course, if your truck's leaking oil, you don't want to park in the customer's driveway. But to avoid any kind of liability, staining of the driveway, you just want to make sure you don't park there and have your employees park on the street. I know it's a little extra effort to walk the extra 30 feet sometimes, but I really think that it's crucial to park on the street when you can at all times and not park in the customer's driveway because something's gonna happen, something's gonna spill. Acid is the number one thing that is spilled on driveways. You can spill some tile soap that has acid in it, whatever can stay in the driveway. Chances are you're gonna spill it and stay in the driveway, and then it's a big, big mess at that point. You know, are you gonna power wash the whole driveway? You know, there was one incident where they had to replace the entire driveway that was like$30,000. You don't want that to happen, and you definitely can avoid this really easily by walking the extra 20 or 30 feet, parking in the street when you can, and walking to the pool. And you could pretty much avoid all kinds of liabilities and spills and cleanups or anything by just simply not parking in the customer's driveway. I had a group member that always backed up in the customer's driveway because it was easy for him to back up in there and then go to the open the gate and go in the backyard. Well, he put his pool pole in his truck, but he forgot to kind of you know shorten it all the way or pull it in all the way, I guess contract it or whatever. There was a two-foot section hanging out the back of his truck still that normally isn't hanging out the back of the truck. And he backed into the driveway, and you guessed it, that pole that was sticking out two feet more than normal hit the garage door and dented or bent the panel. Now, if you know anything about these garage doors, this is something that used to be able used to be able to replace a panel set and put it in there, but really you can't anymore because a lot of times those doors they keep changing the models or manufacturers, and during COVID, a lot of them went out of business, and you can't find those panels, and so you actually have to replace the entire garage door, which is somewhere like around$800 or$900 in a lot of cases. And you definitely want to make sure you don't park in driveways and back in and put your pole through someone's garage. That would be a really expensive lesson, which he actually learned, and so he doesn't do that anymore, and he'll never back into a driveway again on his pool route. This one here I'll call the dip method. I learned this when I was 16, and the guy that was training me in Orange County, California always did this with the muranic acid. He would take the gallon jug whenever he used it at the pool, and if he had a tote which he carried, he would put it in the tote and always carried in there, of course. Never take it out of the tote. But if he did use the acid anywhere, he would pour the acid in the pool, then he would take the gallon jug and dip it in the pool and then put it back in the tote. That way you actually clean the acid bottle of any residue that may trickle down on the bottle. Same thing with a service cart. If you have your meritic acid in the service cart, you you use it, pour it in the pool, take that gallon jug and dip it in the pool, take it out, put it back in your service cart, and that way there's no chance of any residue leaking out of it. I also make sure the lid's on tight every time I use it after I use it as well. But this dip method has saved me a lot of trouble and headaches with acid dripping somewhere and damaging the customer's decking. You can also make sure that if you do take the acid out and if you're not putting it directly back into your tote or directly back into your service cart, a good place to put it, and I found this to be the ideal location for it. For whatever reason, you don't put it directly back in. I like putting it right on the skimmer lid. The skimmer lid is a piece of plastic, and if acid gets on there, not a big deal. But if you put the acid on the pool deck, that's something that could potentially leave an acid ring because there's maybe some residue on the bottle, it'll drip down to the bottom, and then it'll kind of just by gravity form like a half moon on the bottom and stain the pool deck. And I've been to surface accounts where I've seen the stains on the deck where people have put the gallon of acid on the actual deck of the pool, and you'll see that little half moon acid stain or acid drips here and there. But the dip method is highly effective in preventing any acid stains getting on the per the customer's deck. And if you do set it anywhere, the skimmer lid is a perfect place to set that gallon of muratic acid. And these are all pretty basic things that you kind of learn by making these mistakes out there in the field. You know, if you you really have to make sure you close those gates for liability, you don't park in a customer's driveway, and you don't stain their pool deck with any chemicals. You know, a lot of the acid, a lot of the tile cleaners that we use have acid in it. You know, the biodex has acid in it, the red tile soap by arrow has acid in it. So be very careful with those as well. The dip method works just as well with those containers. And so if you're using the Biodex tile soap or using the red arrow soap, make sure you dip it in the pool before you put it back in your tote. And don't put those on the customer's pool deck, whatever you do, because anything with acid in it is gonna eventually leak and leave a stain somewhere. And double check your acid containers in your truck to make sure those lids are on there tight. It's one of the things that is avoidable. And if you're dipping all your acid bottles, putting it back into the four by one case, you shouldn't have any problem with any kind of staining. The last thing you ever want to do is stain the customer's deck because then it's a big mess and it's a headache, and sometimes you can't clean it or fix it. So the best way to prevent any kind of staining on the driveway and the pool deck is not to cause the staining in the first place. Looking for other podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swimming for learning.com, on the podcast banner. There's an icon. Click on that. There'll be over 1900 podcasts you're listening to. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at poolguidecoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a good rest of your week and God bless.