Amaze Your Customer on Your Pool Route!

A green pool can make a customer feel defeated, but for a skilled pool service pro it can become the moment they finally trust you for weekly service. I’m breaking down the “amazing moments” that turn chaos into clarity, starting with the two green pool cleanup strategies that matter most: floc with aluminum sulfate when you can vacuum to waste, and shock and awe when you need a fast kill and strong filtration. 

From there, I get practical about the hidden accelerator most techs overlook: the filter. If a cartridge filter is packed with old, crushed media, or a DE filter has torn and stained grids, your cleanup slows down no matter how much chlorine you add. I explain why swapping cartridges or grids during a cleanup can be the difference between “still cloudy” and “you can see the bottom,” and how that single decision can save days on a green pool recovery.

Then we move into route-changing equipment and workflow. Pro vacuum systems like Hammerhead, Riptide, Bottom Feeder, and the Shrimp cleaner can cut leaf cleanup time dramatically, especially after wind events, and I even cover a newer cartridge filter assembly that helps capture fine dirt down to roughly 10 to 20 microns. For surface debris, we look at PoolSkim and solar-powered skimmers like Betta, plus when each one makes sense for high-leaf pools. 

• Shock and awe vs floc for green pool cleanup based on filter type and vacuum to waste access
• Using high chlorine to kill algae and organics fast
• Using aluminum sulfate floc to drop debris for vacuuming
• Replacing worn cartridge elements to accelerate clearing green water
• Replacing damaged DE grids to restore filtration during a cleanup
• Why pro vacuum systems beat leaf rakes and leaf baggers
• Simple math for funding a vacuum system through savings or small rate changes
• New fine-dirt cartridge filter assembly for Bottom Feeder and Shrimp
• PoolSkim setup notes and when it works best
• Betta and other solar skimmers for high-leaf pools
• Chlorine enhancers like PoolRx, borates at 50 ppm, phosphate removal plu

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Transcript

Welcome And Coaching Invite

Two Fast Green Pool Fixes

New Filter Media Speeds Clarity

Why Pro Vacuums Change Everything

Fine Dirt Upgrade For Vacuums

PoolSkim And Solar Surface Cleaners

Chlorine Enhancers That Prevent Algae

More Podcasts And Final Links

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Hey, welcome to the Pool Vaya Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about some amazing moments pool care, and you'll kind of get the hang of it once you hear the different things I talk about in here. But these are things that can amaze customers and even amaze yourself out there on your pool route. 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 this first one here. And this is always something that amazes the customer. Usually this will amaze the customer how fast you can turn the green pool that they've been struggling with and trying to turn around themselves from green to kind of a murky blue. I wouldn't say crystal clear within a couple of days, but you'll get a lot better results than the customer was getting with whatever they were doing. Sometimes the customer will spend upwards of three or four hundred dollars in chemicals trying to turn this thing around. And it is something that if you've done this correctly, the process is what makes this amazing. And there's two different ways you can do the green pool cleanup depending on your area and what works best for you, and the filter type that you're dealing with. In my area, we have mainly cartridge filters and diatomaceous earth filters or D filters, which is the backwashed piston and not the multi-port valve. If you're in an area with sand filters or with D filters that have the multi multi-port valve where you can vacuum the waste, then you would want to do the flock method of green pool cleanup versus the shock and awe method, which we use here in the west coast area for most pools. Flocking is using aluminum sulfate to drop everything down to the bottom of the pool. The shock and awe process works really well as as you want to raise the chlorine level to an astronomical level to destroy just about everything in the pool, the green algae, the organic stuff that's in there, everything gets killed, and it has a similar effect. The only reason why we don't do the flock method here is because a lot of times the pool pro doesn't have a way of vacuuming out all of the aluminum sulfate that drops to the bottom of the pool as well. So with the flock method, you're adding about 12 to 15 pounds of aluminum sulfate that drops everything, clumps everything together basically, and drops it down to the bottom of the pool, and you have to have some way of vacuuming this out to waste for it to be effective. And this is why we do the shock and awe method here because you just have to worry about the dead algae that is at the bottom of the pool and not all the extra stuff to vacuum out. Either way, these methods are highly effective, and the customer has been struggling for a long time trying to clear the pool up, you get back there and you dump in a boatload of chlorine, enough to break, of course, this green pool. You clean the filter, you may even change the filter elements. This is something that really is sounds counterintuitive. But if you get to a pool that has a cartridge filter and the pool is green, and you want to clear it up quickly, changing that cartridge or the four quad cartridges out of that system, putting brand new cartridges in there really accelerates the green pool cleanup process, and it sounds counterintuitive. Why would you want to put brand new cartridges in a pool that has green water? All of that's gonna go into the cartridge filter, get it really dirty, but they clean off really well with the new cartridges. You know, they'll come back come out pretty much pure white again right away. And this really does accelerate the cleanup. So if you're doing a green pool cleanup, you open up the filter and you see the cartridges are really old, the bands are broken, they look compacted and crushed, go ahead and change those cartridges out during the process, and you're gonna see amazing results. Same thing with a D filter. If you open it up and you see the grids are torn or they're kind of crushed and broken in there, or they're really stained. Changing all eight grids out during the green pool cleanup process really accelerates things. So if you know the process and you know what you're doing, shocking the pool, cleaning the filter, changing out the elements, or flocking the pool and allowing everything to drop down to the bottom for two days. You just leave the system off for 48 hours, and then you vacuum out the waste. You're gonna have pretty amazing results for the customer turning that green pool to a murky blue pool where you can actually see the bottom of the pool, and they'll really be amazed. And a lot of times they're gonna come on for pool service because they think you're a miracle worker when you do something that dramatic. I know there are still a lot of old school pool guys out there that don't really believe in the vacuum systems, you know, the hammerhead, the riptide, the bottom feeder, and they just clean the pools there the way they used to do it. But I'm gonna tell you that something that's really amazing is when you actually use a vacuum system for the first time on your pool route. Now you don't have to have pools that are just totally destroyed by leaf debris, although these help tremendously in those situations, but just everyday usage of the vacuum system makes your life a lot easier and it does speed up your day out there, and really it gives you that professional tool that you've been missing in your arsenal. You know, I really think that carrying back a 50-foot pool hose and a vacuum head is really an antiquidated way of cleaning pools. Really, the vacuum system can do just about everything the manual vacuum can do. Up to a point, of course, the fine dirt can't be taken out with the vacuum system. The smallest micron bag you can usually use is a 60 micron bag, and you're still gonna have dirt passed through there. But in all intents and purposes, this is gonna really speed up your day out there, and it's also going to come in extremely handy when you have those wind events. It'll take a three-week process down to two weeks or even one week in a lot of cases, and it's something that if you've ever tried to get a lot of leaf debris out of the bottom of the pool, which is a leaf rake, what happens you start in the shallow end, you're scooping all the leaves out, you're stirring everything up, then you get to the deep end and you're stirring everything up there. By the time you finish the pool, after 20 minutes, your arms are sore and you really haven't cleaned it completely. And it's one of those things where the most time-consuming part of it is waiting for that debris to settle back down to the bottom. So you can leave you can use a leaf rake again to scoop it out of the pool. If you're using, you know, a leaf bagger with the garden hose on there. Yes, you will pick up the leaf debris, you know, fairly quickly, but you have to set it up, get it in there, and you have to move really slowly in the pool. But it is faster, I think, and more efficient than just using a leaf rake. But why would you use any of those things when there are vacuum systems out there and you may say, well, I'm not gonna spend you know two thousand dollars on a vacuum system, that's crazy. That's just a lot of money that I can't really afford to have. It's one of those things where if you just do the math, you'll find out that you can easily afford a vacuum system. If you just raise if you have 60 pools and you raise the rate by$3 on each pool, you probably won't do that, but that's you know, just an example here. If you just raise it by$3, you're going to get an extra$2,160 a year by just raising those pools fractionally. On the other end, if you can just save$180 a month, you know, maybe you cut out going to Starbucks or you take bring your own lunch to work. You'll have enough money in one year to pay for that vacuum system. So I wouldn't say that it's uneconomical, it's just something that maybe you're thinking about and not wanting to invest in at this time. Once you use one, you're gonna realize that the amount of time it saves, first of all, it's ten times faster than the leaf bagger with the garden hose. You don't stir up the debris when you're moving it from one end to the other, like with the leaf rake, so you don't have to wait for it to settle back down. And it does pick up everything on the bottom of the pool, so there's no leftover leaf debris on the bottom for the next week. It's something that truly is amazing once you start using it. Now, with the bottom feeder and shrimp cleaner, there's a new revolutionary cartridge filter assembly, and this is a cartridge filter that goes on top the cleaner, it threads on there, and it picks up the fine dirt down to 10 to 20 microns. Basically, it picks up the dirt just like a cartridge filter would, and it's something that I think is revolutionizing these vacuum systems, and it's only available for the bottom feeder and shrimp cleaner currently, and I think it's something that if you, as I mentioned earlier, using a 50-foot hose and a vacuum head to clean the pools with the system is outdated because you can just get this cartridge filter assembly, put it on your bottom feeder or shrimp, or purchase it with or purchase the bottom feeder and shrimp with the cartridge filter assembly, and then you can vacuum out dirt as well as leaf debris in the pool, and you'll really never have to manually vacuum a pool again, essentially. But I'll say this again if you haven't purchased a hammerhead, riptide, or bottom feeder, or shrimp cleaner, these are professional vacuum systems out there. By the way, the bottom feeder and shrimp are completely cordless. The riptide and hammerhead have a cord. It's something that once you start using it, the only regret you're gonna have is why didn't I get a vacuum system earlier? It's really the truth of it. If you ask all the pool guys that have them, they're gonna tell you the same thing. I should have bought this a long time ago, and I'm kicking myself for not investing in it sooner. I'll touch on these two amazing devices as well. And the first one is the pool skim. And of course, this doesn't look like it's gonna work when you look at it. If you go to Amazon and look at the pool skim, you'll think, well, there's no way this thing's gonna work effectively, but it is really amazing how effective this device is. Now, there are a few caveats with this device. Number one, the pool has to have one and a half inch threaded return lines, and typically it needs to have more than one return line to work effectively. The second caveat is that it's pretty ugly in the pool. So if you have, you know, a pool that was built that cost$200,000 and there's a lot of leaf debris, of course, that gets in there, putting this in, the customer may kind of you know give you some, may not be as pleased with it as other people. So for the average pool, putting it in there is not a big deal, and it's something that will allow the pool to be pretty much debris-free on top. So if you have a pool where the skimmer basket is totally compacted with debris every week, or if you have two skimmers and they're both full of debris, adding the pool skim is pretty amazing. The before and after, one week with it working is amazing. Basically, it acts as a secondary skimmer outside of the system. The it has a weir, floating weir that pulls in debris into a debris bag. And the debris bag probably can hold about two skimmers, two skimmer baskets worth of debris, and it just leaves the pool amazingly clean if it's set up correctly. There's a little bit of setup with it, but once you have the pool skim installed, you're gonna see an amazing transformation in the pool that has it on there. The second device you can use for these, you know, really expensive pools where they don't want to put this in the return jet are the solar-powered leaf skimmers. There are several brands out there. I do prefer the beta brand, B-E-T-T-A. It's to me it's a superior solar-powered leaf cleaner or leaf debris cleaner that you put on the surface of the pool. You know what I'm talking about. They are great for cleaning off the leaf debris, very similar to the pool skim, actually. And you'll really see a huge dramatic difference in pools that have a lot of leaf debris. I put one of these in a pool that had made a really big problem with eucalyptus leaves going into the pool, falling to the bottom, clogging up the suction cleaner, and causing it just a mess in the pool. And I tell you, after one week with this in this in the in the pool, not only was the skimmer basket pretty much empty, but the pool, the bottom of the pool was clean, and the surface was clean as well. Now, yes, a few of the giant twigs kind of got stuck in the front, but it didn't stop the operation of it. And this is something that's really amazing, and it really can transform a pool out there using the solar power leaf skimmers in the pool. And I highly recommend trying one out, especially if the pool has a lot of leaf debris, where again the skimmer basket is full every week. This will alleviate that because a lot of times when the skimmer basket gets full, like midweek, the pool's not running well, you start to develop algae, the suction cleaner's not working, it turns into a big mess. But if you just eliminate the surface debris with either the pool skim or one of these solar powered surface cleaners, you'll see an amazing transformation in that pool. The last thing I'll touch on here are what I call chlorine enhancers. And these are any product that's going to make the chlorine much more effective in the pool. And there's a variety of these out there, more than what I mentioned here, but I would say that the main ones that you're going to hear about are the pool RX, you're going to hear about borates to 50 parts per million, and you'll hear about the phosphate and enzyme treatment that you can do. Those are the three main ones that are out there in the industry. There's other ones, you know, like the Remington Solar, Sunshock, you also have the Nature 2 system they can put in line. To some degree, the frog system is similar to that, but really it is not like the Pull R X or anything. And these are all ways to add a way, add something to the pool that enhances the chlorine, makes it much more effective. So, for example, the Pull RX will destroy all the microalgae in the pool and prevent algae from growing. The boric to 50 parts per million will is an algostat, and algae cells can't form in the pool. So a lot of times the microalgae or algae in the pool is what consumes the chlorine rapidly in the pool. That's why phosphoryl removers and enzyme, the combination of both of those, work highly effectively as well, and allowing the chlorine to work more effectively because you're eliminating a food source for the algae, and the enzymes are breaking down all the organics in the water. So any enhancer that you pick for your pool route is going to go a long way in making your job easier and preventing algae. And some of the results are simply amazing. I've put a pool rex in the pool that I've struggled with for a long time, and the re- the next week I get there, the pool looks great, the chlorine's holding perfectly, and the same thing with borates to 50 parts per million. The pool may be giving you a lot of trouble. And this is also great for pools that aren't even giving any trouble. It just makes those pools even easier to maintain. And those pools that give you trouble. When I added the Bore Eights to the pool, the pool just looks spectacular the following week. So the enhancers can give you amazing results. And I recommend picking one, maybe picking a combination of two, and then going forward and using them on your pool route, and you're gonna see really amazing results with these chorine enhancers out there. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swingprolearning.com. On the banner, click on the podcast icon, and there'll be a drop down menu with over 1900 podcasts for you there. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at poolguycoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a rest of your week and God blessed.