Surviving Extreme Heat on the Pool Route

The heat doesn’t just make pool work uncomfortable, it changes the job. When the forecast locks in at 105 to 110 degrees, your energy drops, your patience gets thinner, and your risk of mistakes climbs. We break down how to approach extreme summer pool service like a system: protect your body first, then redesign the route and the work so you’re not fighting algae, vacuuming forever, or standing in direct sun at the worst time of day. 

We start with the reality of heat stress for pool technicians: why you can’t simply “mentally push through” a heat advisory, and why hydration and sun avoidance are non-negotiable for safety. From there, we get tactical about pool maintenance and algae prevention. Clean filters before peak season, then consider a seasonal water conditioner or algaecide-style charge that funds true summer helpers like PoolRx, borates at roughly 50 ppm, or an optional weekly program using phosphate remover and enzymes. The goal is simple SEO-friendly pool care: clearer water, steadier free chlorine, fewer emergencies, and less time wasted brushing algae in brutal weather. 

Then we move to route planning strategies that actually work in the field: start as early as possible, eliminate morning slowdowns like gas and supply stops, and build shade into your late-day pools so you get real relief. We also talk about “minimum effective service” during a heat wave, when manual vacuuming and full lab-style testing may not be the best use of time. 

• heat advisories as a real mental and physical drain
• hydration and avoiding direct sun to reduce heat illness risk
• stopping algae before it starts to avoid brutal brushing days
• cleaning filters before the season for better summer water clarity
• adding a seasonal charge for PoolRx or borates as chlorine helpers
• using phosphate remover and enzymes as an optional weekly booster
• starting at sunrise and removing morning delays
• planning stops around shade and using the truck AC to recover
• minimizing manual vacuuming during heat waves
• using test strips to speed up poo

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Transcript

Heat Stroke Risks And Hydration

Prevent Algae Before It Starts

Clean Filters Before Peak Season

PoolRx Borates And Weekly Boosters

Start Earlier To Beat The Peak

Route For Shade And Cooldowns

Fast Service Tactics In Heat

Avoid Costly Mistakes In Heat

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to give you some strategies and some tips to make it through those really hot summer months when the temperatures can be super hot, over 100 degrees, and you face some true burnout from being out there every day in the heat. 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 wouldn't say that the heat is all mental, because when you have a heat advisory when it's over 100, your body does start to kind of deteriorate in a way mentally, physically, emotionally, because your body just can't maintain the core temperature that's going to keep everything functioning correctly. You can easily get heat stroke out there if you're not drinking enough water, staying hydrated, and staying out of the direct sunlight. So it's really no joke, and you really can't psych yourself up mentally to do this. It's something that is just natural that you're gonna feel more fatigued and you're gonna feel a little bit less energy, and kind of you don't have that go-forward attitude that you normally would have when you run into a problem out there on your pool route. It's one of those things where the weather is a big factor in how you operate, and I think you can't really sugarcoat it. It gets hot in the summer in a lot of areas that we service. It gets humid in Florida, Georgia, those areas are you know back in East Coast, it gets pretty miserable. I personally would prefer a dry heat, because I'm probably used to it being in Southern California, versus humidity. The probably the one of the most humid places I've ever been to was Cancun, Mexico. You just were sweating, you're everything's sticky. And I wasn't even working, I was on vacation, so I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to work out in that kind of humidity. It was like humidity of like 90%. There were thunderstorms all the time. It was pretty crazy. But once you realize you can't really psych yourself out of it, and then it's just a natural thing to feel low energy and to feel like you're dragging out there. Then you can implement some strategies to kind of get through the day and the week and look at the forecast, and it shows hundred and you know, five degrees, 110 degrees for the whole 10-day forecast. It is disheartening, and it can cause you to feel like you can't make it through. And of course you can because a lot of pool pros every day, year in and year out, do work in the hot sun. I work in the hot sun, I know how it feels, and there are things you can implement to make the day a little easier. The first thing you would want to do, and this seems again like circular logic, but it's really something that you can implement, and it is that you don't want to be out there brushing algae and doing any extra work as far as pools that run out of chlorine, algae forms, the pool's cloudy, the filter pressure rises, all these things are are the side effect or the effects I should say, not really side effects, but the effects of a pool with algae in it. So, how can you have a pool route without algae? Well, it's pretty easy, and there are steps you can take to prevent algae from growing in the pools. Now I can't say you're gonna eliminate all algae in all pools, but you can make it easier and you can minimize it to where it's a really not an issue in these hot days. So the first thing you want to implement is regular filter cleaning before the season starts. This sounds really simple, but sometimes you get busy and you fall behind in your cleaning filters in May, sometimes June, which is definitely not advisable, especially in hot days. I would suggest having all the filters cleaned in your service area before the season starts. So March, April at the latest, you should have all the filters torn down, clean, and ready to go. And if you're in an area like mine where you have full-size filters, this really goes a long way in preventing poor water conditions in the summertime. So implement this so that you're going to have clean filters when the season begins. The second thing you can do is implement a seasonal ultracide charge to your customers. This is something that you can do by even calling it a water conditioner charge. This is an old school thing that we used to do all the time back in the day when we had to add conditioner to the pool, which is cyaneric acid. Before really the use of heavy use of tablets, we would actually have to add granular cyaneric acid to pools. Hard to believe, but yes, we had to do that. And then, of course, with the widespread use of trichlor tablets, you're not really adding cyaneric acid to the pool. So that water conditioner charge kind of went away, but you can still implement it and bring it back and say that you need to add a seasonal water conditioner, or you can call it a seasonal algicide charge. With this charge, you can implement a couple of enhancers. The ones that I would recommend you start off with would be the pool RX. It's a pretty easy thing to use and to put in the pools and to really enhance the water quality of those pools. When I say enhance, I'm really saying that this makes the chlorine last longer. So they're technically chlorine enhancers, and they make the chlorine, they take away, they eliminate things the chlorine is used up on normally, like microalgae, and you know you're gonna have a much easier time with a Polar X unit in the pool in the summer. Now, if you're not gonna use a polar X, I do recommend using borates to 50 parts per million. This will of course help you control the algae. It's not an algacyte like Polar X is, but it is an algostat, which means algae really won't form in the pool. It disrupts the cell formation of algae. And at 50 parts per million, this is kind of the sweet spot for it to be a chlorine enhancer in the pool. I get my borates from a website called do to diesel.com. Go on that site, just type in boric acid powder in the search box, and they'll FedEx it to your house, and you can add it to the customer's pools. You're you're gonna, of course, charge appropriately to cover the pull rex unit or the borates. A third way you can enhance the water, and this is something that I did one season all summer long, and it was really effective. It just takes a little bit more effort and time, I think, than the pull rex or borease, which are in the water already. But you can use a combination of phosphate remover and enzymes at each stop. So you would buy the bottle, put it at the pool, and then you would add this maintenance dose every week, and it's pretty effective as well. But by having the clean filter at the beginning of the season and by using a chlorine enhancer in April or May when the season starts, this is going to really help you tremendously with the problem of time wasted out there brushing algae in 100-degree weather, which you don't want to be doing. So that's the first thing I would implement to make your job easier. The second suggestion would be to start as early as humanly possible to get your day started. That means arriving at your first pool when the sun is barely coming up, you can barely see the water, and you know the customer may wonder why you're there so early. So I would plan my route to where you know that maybe the house is vacant, or the customer goes to work at five in the morning. Plan it so that you're not disturbing the customer at the crack of dawn. You don't want a dog barking in the backyard. So organize your route to where your first, I always do this as well, your first two or three pools if you can, are customers you know are either gone at work already, or maybe the house is vacant, or maybe the pool is really far away from the house and you're not going to disturb anyone. So plan your route so you can get those pools out of the way. And then by the time it gets to a decent hour in the morning, you know, 7 30, 8 o'clock, 7 50, you're at the regular pools and starting back there, still quite early, but the earlier you get started, the earlier you're finish. And typically the peak of the heat in most areas is after 1 o'clock. So from 1 to 3 o'clock is when it's like the really peak. The other thing you can do besides organizing your route where you can start really early in the morning, and by the way, another tip here would be to eliminate anything that slows you down in the morning. If you have to get your supplies, get them after in the afternoon when you're done with your route. If you have to get gas in the car, try to plan that you know in the evening before and that way you're not stopping at the gas station and waiting for 10 minutes or wasting 10 minutes. Every minute counts when it gets hot out there. And I think it's really key to implement these things so that you're just out there first thing in the morning, knocking out the pools and not sidetracked or slowed down by anything else. And you should be familiar with your pool route to know which pools have shade at certain times of the day. So this is the next thing you can do that I was gonna say, but I kind of had other thoughts there, and I just got sidetracked, is to organize your day so that by one o'clock you're not standing out in the middle of the sun where it's beating down on you, which is probably the worst part of the heat wave, is when you're out there, you have I use a straw hat, you have your straw hat on, you have your you're at the pool, and the sun is just beating down on you, and there's there's zero shade back there at all. You there's nowhere you can stand but get out of the sun. Maybe you have to go against the house and stand in like a little area where you have a foot of shade. But try to plan your day if you can in the hot seasons where you have at least one or two pools out of like the last five or six pools where you have some relief. The shade really helps a lot. And if you can build in a little bit of relief between your last few stops, this goes a long way in getting through the rest of the day. If you have five pools at the end of the day where the sun's just pounding on you, it becomes really hard to think and to do anything. And so, if you can, if it's humanly possible, to set your route up so that you have some shade at some point near the end of your day, even the last pool being shady would be perfect. That's gonna, you know, you're gonna get in your truck at the end and feel a little bit revived at that point. And of course, in between stops, have your air conditioner on blazing so you cool off. I would even suggest taking a 10-minute break if you need to in your truck with the air conditioner on full blast. Now, a lot of other pool pros, you know, they put a rag on their neck, they get wet. I find that you know the splashing a little water on my shirt helps a little bit, but I really find that if I just kind of work out there and don't focus too much on the heat, I can get through the day pretty quickly because it does kind of build gradually during the day. I mean, during a heat wave, you may get to your truck at you know six in the morning to get ready to go to your first stop. It's already 90 degrees out there, doesn't help. It doesn't help kind of build the the day for you in a good way. It's really a downer already when you get out there and you get in your truck and it's already really hot in the in the truck itself. But it's one of those things where it kind of builds gradually. So I wouldn't recommend stopping at some point. I would just recommend working through the whole day as the heat builds and try to finish as early as possible rather than working till 11, taking a break, and then going back out there at 4 p.m. For me that wouldn't work. It's something that maybe you can try, but I kind of just like working through the whole day so I can just finish it up before it gets really hot at the peak of the heat. If there is a heat advisory that day, you can implement some ways to speed up the time at the pool. I still remember when I first was learning how to do pools and I was out there working. I had a pool where they had a chain link fence, and I could see the other pool guy a lot when he got to his pool. We would arrive nearly the same time at his account, my account next door, and we would see each other through the fence. And one day I was at a pool and it was really hot. It was already like 95 degrees, and it was like 10 in the morning, and I was vacuuming the pool with my manual vacuum. This is way back before vacuum systems and fact daddies and all this stuff that help get through that vacuuming process faster. And he looked over at me, he's like, What are you doing? It's you know, it's gonna be 110 degrees today. You don't want to be out there vacuuming, and the customer's not gonna be out there using their pool anyway. Just brush the pool, skim it, and and leave, you know. And I was like, Well, that's not really a full service stop, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he's perfectly correct. Most of the time when you have these heat waves or when it's really hot, the customer's not really even using their pool, they're not going back there maybe until late in the evening. And really, the customer's not unless the pool has a ton of dirt in the bottom, they're not really going to be on you. And I found this to be true about like having the pool completely dialed in when it's 110 degrees out there. It's one of those things where of course automatic cleaners help out a lot. If you have a suction cleaner vacuuming the pool, it's gonna look great. But if you have to do anything like fully vacuum the pool, thankfully, we now have the bottom feeder, we have you know vacuum systems that you can utilize to vacuum the pool within like a five-minute period. So it's not really that bad. But I definitely would not be manually vacuuming an entire pool when it's really hot out there, it's just really a waste of energy and it's gonna sap all your energy just standing there pushing that vacuum head back and forth in the pool. So try to do the minimal to get the pools clean. And if once it cools off, hopefully the following week's not gonna be too hot, you can make up for anything that you missed. But if you have your pool set up where you have automatic cleaners and you're not having the manual vacuum the entire pool with the pool hose, 50-foot pool hose and vacuum head, it's a great relief when you can go in there and just drop your vacuum system in and vacuum the pool and get out of there in a timely manner. And I'm a big fan of utilizing test strips when it's really hot out there. You can get the pool chemistry with a test strip instead of doing a full battery of test at that point. Your main focus is going to be the chlorine level and the free chlorine level in the pool anyway, at that point. And you know, it doesn't really matter if the pH is 7.8 or 7.6 that week. The test strip to me is good enough to speed up your day and get you out of that hot sun. At least during that week when it's super hot, you want to implement test strips to get to get the reading, and you don't really want to be doing a full battery again of tests with a with a photometer unless it's really necessary. Since the heat does kind of sap you and make you kind of loopy and you're not fully mentally focused, one thing that can happen is mistakes can happen in the backyard if you're doing anything. So you want to stay focused on your routine and don't get out of it, and especially if there's a problem with the pool. This happened to one of my group members, he was he's in Hemet, and it was like 110 degrees that day, and he took the filter apart because there was a problem, there was a broken grid, and he had to get a grid and put it in there. But it was so hot he wasn't thinking clearly, and he forgot to turn off the breaker to the pool. And so, what happened is he had the lid off and he had the pool still on the timer because he didn't turn off the breaker, and he went to get the grid, the pool came on, and of course, what's gonna happen is the water is gonna come out of the filter, and the pool drained down about six inches before he got back there. And he told me this was the problem, was it was just so hot he just couldn't think straight. And of course, he forgot to do this. This kind of a rookie mistake, and he definitely was a veteran, and it was just the heat, you know, making him not think clearly. So be careful when you're doing any kind of repairs or or minor things out there. I would not suggest doing like full installs in the heat. If you do that, do it early in the morning. Just be aware that your mental capacity is really affected by the heat. You're not gonna be 100% out there thinking clearly. So really focus on things that you're doing and try not to make these kind of mental errors out there, which can happen very easily when you're fatigued, when the sun's beating down on you, when you can't think straight, when you're unmotivated. All these are factors in making mistakes, and mistakes can occur because you're just overheating at that point. So drink lots of water, you know, reapply suntan lotion, try to organize your route so you can start early and have a little bit of shade at the end or some break at the end, and really have your air conditioner on full blast each time between the stops. I'm a big believer that that does recharge you and it does help you when you get between one stop and another. You know, when you get to your truck, you just feel so good that you can just get in there and take at least a five or six minute break while you're driving. And if you feel like you need a longer break in the car with air conditioner, definitely take that. But you will get through the summer. We do it all the time, year in and year out. It's just one of those things you you don't really get used to it, but you can do things to make it a little bit easier out there. And I really feel for the guys in Phoenix, Arizona, I'm not sure how they clean pools in 124-degree weather. To me, that's just amazing. The hottest it's ever gotten here. I think it was 116 degrees one time in my area or 118, but typically I'm in the high 90s to 105, it doesn't really get hotter than that. So 120, 125 degrees, you know, your hats off to you guys in Arizona. Well, actually, don't take your hats off right now because it's probably gonna get a you're gonna get a sunburn. But you know what I mean? It's just amazing that you can actually work in that weather, and it's one of those things where if you're like somewhere like in Oregon or Northern California, you won't probably ever experience what these guys in Phoenix go through. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those on my website by clicking on the podcast icon on the banner. There'll be a drop-down menu of about 1900 podcasts there for you. 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 and God bless.