Summer Pool Survival Guide with Terry Arko

Summer doesn’t “start” on a date for pool pros, it starts the moment the water warms and your easy week turns into a sprint. Terry Arco from HASA joins me to unpack what really changes when pools transition from spring to summer, and why the industry can feel like feast or famine depending on weather, bather load, and how prepared you are before the rush hits.

We get specific about summer pool care: how rising water temperature shifts LSI, why calcium becomes more likely to precipitate and form scale, and why algae goes from dormant spores to rapid growth. That chemistry shift is exactly why chlorine demand climbs so fast, and why a “coasting” route can suddenly require tighter testing, faster adjustments, and fewer missed visits. We also talk practical prevention: proactive shock treatments while pools are quieter, checking cyanuric acid (CYA) early, and getting ahead of phosphates, borates, and total dissolved solids (TDS) so you’re not stacking fixes later.

Then we zoom out to the real-world pressures pool service professionals face, including budgeting for 2x to 3x chemical use and navigating rising costs tied to fuel, transport, and labor. We also cover drought restrictions that can limit draining, which makes early-season drain and dilute decisions even more important. Finally, we get into pool tech safety: hydration that actually works (electrolytes, not just water), cooling strategies, and how to avoid the fatigue that can lead to dangerous mistakes on deck.

If you want a smoother, safer, more profitable summer, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a pool pro friend, and leave a review with your best preseason checklist tip.

We talk with Terry Arco from HASA about the spring to summer shift that makes pools change fast and forces pool pros to move from cruising to full speed. We break down what warm water does to balance, algae risk, and your workload, plus how to protect your body when heat becomes the biggest hazard on the route.  
• seasonal weather swings that disrupt the old summer calendar  
• warmer water driving LSI changes and increasing scale potential  
• algae waking up as temperatures rise and chlorine demand spiking  
• proactive shock treatments before heavy pool use starts  
• managing CYA early and avoiding mid-summer drain surprises  
• checking phosphates, borates, and TDS to reduce troubleshooting later  
• budgeting for higher chemical spend and ongoing price increases  
• drought restrictions affecting draining and dilution strategies  
• hydration with electrolytes and practical heat-safety routines  
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Transcript

0:14

Hey, welcome to the Pool Grey Podcast Show. Today I'll be joined by Terry Arco of Hosta. We're going to talk about some summertime tips, some things to do to stay safe out there as a pool pro. And we also cover some things to expect in the summertime when you transition from spring to summer. And we'll go over that in detail as well. 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. So I'm joined today by Terry Arco of Hasa. How are you doing, Terry? Doing fantastic, David. Really good. Good to be on here again. It's been a while. Yeah, so the

Welcome And Summer Game Plan

1:03

season is starting. So, all right, it started already for a lot of people. And so I think we were going to talk a little bit about some of the common problems in the summer season and the things that the pool pros struggle with out there. So let's get started with you know, a few things that are on the top of your mind. You people may not know this, but you had a pool service route in the San Fernando Valley for many years. And so you're quite familiar with our smoggy hot weather here in Southern California. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I should uh let me just correct you real quick on that. It wasn't the San Fernando Valley, it was the San Gabriel Valley, which is which is which we refer to that as the other valley. I guess the people from San Fernando referred to it as the other valley. Right. And then if you're in San Gabriel, you refer to San Fernando as the other valley. But I was in the other valley. So in the Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, all that that area there. And mostly a foothill area. So yeah, I did do pools there. And yes, I am very familiar with the hot and smoggy days. So that was that was something that I I I I was going to talk about to begin with. We've had an interesting year weather-wise here. I think even California, you had some unusually warm weather early, earlier than expected, I think, a lot of times were there. And it's it's kind of gone back and forth, rain and and then heat and so forth. So a lot of interesting things. And I I think that's one thing now that I I'm beginning to say, you know, everybody sort of anticipates, you know, Memorial Day is sort of like that's the day that it everything starts kicking in and getting going. But with the weather the way it is, sometimes I think we're we're not on the same kind of calendar that we used to be a long time ago. Because things can weather can get hot, and then it can actually get cool in June, too. Even down in Southern California, we get June gloom there sometimes for a week or two, and it gets rather cool. So it's it it's interesting. And all that affects, you know, affects everything that you do. I think the biggest thing for the pool industry for me, in my experience, is it tends

Weather Swings And Seasonal Whiplash

3:28

to be either feast or famine, if that's one way you want to look at it. Or I guess another way to look at it is kind of I'm I'm right now, I'm I'm I'm training to run a 5k in July. And when I first started several months ago, they they said that the best way to train is you you walk, you start out walking, okay, and then you, you know, when you get to a point and then you run, and you start to run. And then you run until and when you start to feel tired, or you feel like you know, you're kind of your body's kind of not doing well or whatever, you stop and you walk some more. And so I think I think for pool professionals, that's that's kind of the way it is. We kind of go from walking to running. Uh the running's definitely a lot harder than the walking. And then then we have to slow down and walk some more, but then we have to run. And I think seasonally that's that's kind of how it goes. We kind of in the off season, we're we're walking, and that's that's that's not too bad. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, boom, we have to we have to start running. And the running is definitely harder. And I think that's the season, and and we start to get into the season into summer, and we definitely have to go at a faster pace, a much faster pace. We have to think about a lot more, we have to do a lot more. And I I think that's where I see, you know, the challenges. That's where the challenges are. And the challenges also are just what's going on in the pool and the changes in the pool, you know, and I think the biggest one is just uh the water, the water temperature increasing. That that that's a very big one. So and that can be either a result of you know, maybe the water was down in the 60s or cooler, and then you know, the season is starting to come, and so a customer might have a heater and they want to heat their pool. So that's one thing, and that's gonna be a definite change. And you know that that you know, that changes LSI right away. If you consider, you know, if you go 15 degrees, if you change your temperature by 15 degrees, you're changing the LSI by 0.1.

Warm Water Chemistry And LSI Shifts

5:49

So your LSI is gonna change just based on temperature, which means you know, if your temperature was 60, 65 and you're gonna go up to 80, 85, whatever, well, you know, your LSI has now gone up by 0.1 just from the temperature. And then, you know, other chemicals that you're gonna add, things you're gonna add, all all all these different things uh will have an effect on the LSI, of course. And that could be an immediate change. But the other thing, just in temperature going up is what's happening to what's happening to calcium. So calcium, you know, the the cooler the water is, calcium is going to be more soluble. It's in solution, and and actually the water is in more a little bit of a more of a corrosive state when it's cooler. But once that water begins to heat up, and once you get, you know, you kind of go past that threshold of about 70, 75 degrees, and you're going up more towards 80, say, now your calcium is precipitating as a solid. And as it precipitates as a solid, it also grabs something else that there's plenty of in the water, and something else that begins to move around a little faster as the water heats up, and that's the uh carbon dioxide or the CO2. And so you've got calcium precipitating, you've got CO2 becoming a lot more active and moving a lot faster. And so the potential for calcium carbon at scale becomes greater and greater as the water heats up, which again is what affects the LSI also. Then you just look at the whole other the aspect of you know, algae. Algae doesn't grow in cool water. It has a very hard time growing in cool water. It's in a spore form. But once that water begins to warm, those spores are going to immediately begin to transfer into the cellular form, they're gonna start to multiply. And that's another thing, it's just chemical changes, the changes in the amount of chlorine that are going to be needed immediately. So we always found, I mean, springtime is a notorious time for algae as well. We we tend to think of algae as being more into the summer, maybe, but uh springtime is definitely another time because you have water warming up, you may still have some spring rain, and that's gonna certainly bring nitrogen in. And then you just have an environment where the algae can, you know, double in as little as eight hours. You can have, you know, uh the algae multiplying. So I think those are again, when I say you're gonna go from walking to running, you have a lot of this going on. And I think you understand that you're in the you're in the industry, you see these things. Yeah, I think for me, I look at more like we're kind of coasting and autopilot and neutral, you know, like a Tesla on self-driving. And then all of a sudden I put my hand in the water and I'm like, hey, this water feels pretty warm. And you look at your your watch, and it's like you see it's like May May 1st or around that time, and it's like, oh wow, I gotta start boosting up the chlorine and I gotta start, you know, tr actually paying attention now to the pool. So yeah, it is a it it it's it is a strange dynamic, you know. Like you said, you're coasting, but then you just gotta hop into gear fast because things change so fast. And you know, when you got a route, I guess, where you're doing you know, 70 pools, what 50 pools, I don't know, whatever it is a week, and you're not getting so you're not getting to all those pools on the same day, obviously. And so, you know, you can when things start heating up, and then it's a week or so before you get to another one, and then you know, what's what's the pool like, what's the environment like, what's the backyard like, you know, what's the usage and everything like it can, you know, a lot of things can happen as we've we've all experienced. I think also one of the misnomers of the industry, and a lot of people think this is that like everyone uses their pool, and so when the summer hits, you're gonna have parties, and every single one of your pools is gonna be used, and you know, you have to it's gonna be like a a huge amount of work. But in reality, I wouldn't say that's true for all the pools out there residential-wise. Now, if you do commercial pool service, you're in a whole nother world and you're in a world of hurt because that's the time where they put a brick by the gate and prop it open, and everyone in the whole neighborhood comes in there and goes swimming, right? But I think for residential pools, it's a mix of both. I mean, you have some people that have their pools of decoration, and then you have some people that kill it in the summertime. So it's not like you're scrambling entirely with residential pools. Yeah, that that that can be true. It does, it does differ. The one thing really, though, that I say is regardless of what the the environment or the use of the pool or whatever, as early as you can, and and obviously now we've we've we've turned the corner past Memorial Day. So things are beginning to ramp up already. We've had incredibly unusually warm, weird weather up here in the Seattle area. But you know, tomorrow it's supposed to, temperatures are supposed to drop by almost 20 degrees and it's going to start raining again. You know, so you always kind of have those things. But some things that I recommend that you start in the spring and before we get even to what's the first day of summer, June 22nd, whatever is now, you know, really start the one thing I recommend a lot is do as many shock treatments now as you can, you know, while the while the pools aren't being used as much, you know, while the parties haven't kicked in as much and so forth. But, you know, that's one thing. And the other thing is obviously looking at things like where your phosphates are now. Can you deal with phosphates now, kind of getting them lower instead of trying to do do that in the summer? And the other thing is it, you know, are you are you using borates? If you're using borates, uh CYA, borates, all those things like that. Now is the time, I think, to look at those, check on those. Do they need to be topped up? What do you need to do to make those adjustments? And you know, early actually early

Proactive Spring Prep Before The Rush

12:13

spring's ideal, but but before we hit that, you know, that summer corner and turn that, any of those things that you can do and check now. If you got to do a little dilution to lower your CYA, now's the time to do it. You know, just get everything ready and and prepared as much as possible before we get into the thick of it, as I like to say. I think that, you know, that's that's the main thing really. And I think that's the main thing of what you were saying about, you know, it's like you're coasting and then boom, you you're in gear. So is there a way to make an easier transition? And I think the easier transition is when you're still kind of in the coasting, but you're maybe you're ramping up a little slower than just you know hitting the pedal to the metal. And so you're a little more prepared. Uh and definitely I think just starting to do some proactive shocking, and of course, you know me, I'm gonna recommend liquid is the best. Checking CYA and managing CYA now, checking borates, phosphates, things like that now, do everything now before the really busy season gets in. And then my feeling is, and what I might it's been my experience when I did pools, the season tends to go a little better because you're not handling some things or you've prepared, you know, you've done a better job preparing for that. I think the season can be much longer when you start off bad. Yes. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, the other one that I would say would be also total dissolved solids. I mean, these are all the things, you know, when I did pools, we had we had a system, and you know, the system was always in early spring. We were we were testing CYA, we were testing TDS. Of course, we didn't have borates, or we didn't work with borates back then, didn't know anything about phosphates back then either. But uh springtime was definitely a time where you know you managed your CYA, you checked the CYA. Do we need to add more? Do we need to drain and maybe reduce some? What do we need to do there? We handle it in the spring. And definitely spring was one of those times where we did the total dissolved solids test. And that was mainly just to see, you know, where's where's the level at? And do we need to make some adjustments there at that point to get us through the summer so we don't, you know, have an overabundance of TDS when we're trying to or having to add more chlorine, possibly more water balance chemicals, other things, algicides, clarifiers, enzymes, all those things, you know, that we use to troubleshoot in the season. I also think the uh the pool pro has to be aware that you're gonna spend a lot more money on chemicals in the summer. You know, the usage goes up pretty tremendously in some cases. Yes, yeah, it absolutely does. And that's another thing in, I guess, you know, business 101 or whatever is when you're doing your budgets for the year, you need to budget accordingly for the summer and figure the year you could be using two to three times the amount of chlorine or chemical. And that goes with anything else. Are you gonna need additional water balance or how much, you know, if you're gonna do phosphate removals or you're gonna need algecide, things like that. Yeah, those are all things you need to think about ahead of time and put into your budget for sure. It seems like every summer the chemicals get, you know, I always thought they were gonna just stabilize, but one thing after another, right now, the inflation because of the little problem we're having over in Iran is causing, you know, pretty massive inflation. So uh are chemical costs gonna still rise this season? Yep. Yep.

Budgeting For Higher Chemical Use

16:15

Yeah. You know, I think the biggest thing uh where you see the increase and and the increase is gonna come is just now because of the ridiculous fuel charges, because of what's going on in the world. And you know, in some cases, transport relies on diesel more so than just regular gasoline. And I don't know if you've looked at the cost of diesel lately, but that has really gone high. Yeah, yeah. And so when you're doing transport and your transport relies on that, obviously that increases your cost um to deliver goods. And unfortunately, to keep going, you that that cost has got to get passed on. So, yes, we are seeing that. And it's all kinds of other costs involved. I mean, here in California, the minimum wage goes up like every year, and there's labor costs that go up. So I always tell people that always thinking is, well, you know, the tablets are going to drop back down to $80 a bucket, 50-pound bucket. The reality is that fuel costs, labor costs, even stuff that we don't even know, like cost of plastic coming from overseas, all goes up every year. Yeah, absolutely agreed. And you know, this I was thinking about something else too. You know, talking about all these things happen that we just have no control over in the world. And that's it's always gonna be that way. We're gonna have these emergency situations, and they seem to be coming more and more. But the other thing I think about too, and the other reason that I believe it's good to just be as proactive as you could be, like even now, is because one of the things, as you know, David, that's always gonna come up, and it in in California, certain areas of California, Arizona, once we get into the hotter, drier seasons, the other thing that always tends to come up is drought too. Then all of a sudden we get into a drought because we get into this warm, extended time without any rain. And so, you know, the the government agencies or whatever, the maybe the local agencies will say, Oh, now we have to put drought restrictions in. And that restricts what you can do at the pool, too. And that and that can be some restrictions to draining. So again, that's another reason. If you need to do your drain and dilutes, if you need to, you know, deal with your TDS and your CYAs and all of those things, if you can knock that out early in the season before all that stuff, you know, kind of comes

Drought Limits And Smarter Drain Plans

19:03

about to where you can't do it, or maybe it's harder to do it, but you've already done it ahead of the game. And so you don't need to worry about it during those, you can get through that time possibly better. And I think that's logical because a lot of times you start the season and the CY is at 150 or you know, 180. And you know, doing training half the pool before the season starts is much easier than in the middle of summer when you're doing 10 million things and dealing with the heat and other pools and problems. So logically, you know, I think that's smart to do that. And I think customers are more approachable, like right before summer, like, hey, we're trying to get your pool ready for the season. Let's drain, you know, half the water and have some fresh water for the pool season, rather than like, you know, you're in July or August telling the customer you have to drain half the pool. They're like, why? I mean, the summer season's almost over. So it's yeah, got to be proactive there. And but I think that's also from the overuse of trichlor tablets, which you know, still to this day, I get people that are like, you know, why is my cyaneric acid going from 50 to 100? You know, I what am I doing? And I'm like, well, you know, the tablets have half half the weight of cyaneric acid, and they're like totally they're shocked by that. It's like, does anyone, you know, the pools are of course not telling them that, but no, no, you know, and so there's another whole side to this too, on this uh preparedness thing, too. When we, you know, we get into this, you know, when the heat starts to slam and everything. And and that is also, and again, as you point, we talked about it earlier in the beginning here about the the hot being familiar with the hot, smoggy days. And that's and that and that's taking care of yourself, you know. You know, just uh taking care of yourself from the standpoint of keeping cool. That that's even a matter of making sure, you know, maybe getting your air conditioned serviced in your truck to make sure that's running properly. So at least you can keep yourself cool between visits to the pool. You can cool yourself down, having, you know, fluids, liquids, and and and I will say, you know, a big misnomer a lot of times is guys, gals, whatever, and they they have a big pitcher of water, just water, and they're just drinking lots of water. But actually, that if you all you're doing is just drinking what straight water, that can that can all actually kind of dehydrate you faster because uh straight water is is gonna dilute out all your electrolytes in your body faster. And so, you know, I say you want to, I'm not a big fan of Gatorade necessarily because Gatorade has a lot of processed sugars and dyes

Heat Safety Hydration And Electrolytes

21:39

and stuff in it. But you can make your own Gatorade that's much better than that just by, you know, when you take your jug of water, you know, add some lemon juice, put a teaspoon of salt in there, and you've got your own natural Gatorade, and you drink that, and that's going to replenish your electrolytes and so forth. Or you could also, like Costco's got these, you know, these uh IV packs, these little these little packets you can pour in a bottle of water, they get your electrolytes back. Those are much better. So, you know, just kind of keeping tabs on that, on your hydration, obviously on your skin, and you know, protecting your skin against the sun. You know, Hasa, you know, we were at the trade shows, we were giving away, you know, big coolers that you can keep ice and drinks and things like that in. So if you're fortunate enough to win one of those, well, you know, put it to good use. And also, you know, Hasa, we give away the neck wraps that you can, you know, you can put in your cooler and keep them cool. And then when you go out, you put that around your neck and you know, keep your keep your body temperature lower. But I think that's important too, because you know, you you you don't want to you get a lot of a lot of guys that think, oh, you know, I'm tough, oh, I can handle it, oh, I don't need to do this, you know, I've been doing this 20 years or whatever. But you know, you dehydrate and go out and go down on a concrete deck and split your head open, you know, and then you wake up in a hospital. That's that's not a good thing. Yeah. So also, you know, protecting yourself out there when the season ramps up. Yeah, and there's a product on Amazon that people can get. I'll refer it to them. It's called trace mineral trace mineral drops. And you put these in your water, and this will these it's a natural way to kind of refresh your electrolytes besides Gatorade or all that sugar. I don't drink Gatorade because it's like 90% sugar. It's crazy, you know. Well, and it's not even sugar sugar, it's it's it's fake sugar. It's like you know, high frucose corn syrup or something. Yeah, it's really bad for you. Okay. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm just saying like what you said, the the mineral drops and things like that. And you know, the the other part of that is that you know, when you lose electrolytes and when you're dehydrated and all that, you're extremely fatigued. So your energy level just goes way down. And it's as simple as what you're saying, David, with you know, these mineral, if you can get these mineral drops, these mineral packs, or or just putting a little salt and lemon juice in there or something, and that's gonna make you get through the day much more energetically. You're gonna be more focused, you're gonna have better energy than being all fatigued and wiped out. Yeah, and the danger of being dehydrated or heat stroke even is that you don't know it until it's too late. Yeah, absolutely. And I've had heat stroke, and unfortunately for me, it occurred on a golf course and not while I was working. And it was just because, you know, very hot day, and I was not drinking enough, uh getting enough electrolytes. Yeah, yeah. And it was not pleasant. So if you're looking for more podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, SwimmyPorlearning.com, and clicking on the podcast icon at the banner. That'll take you to a drop down menu with over 1900 podcasts. 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 you rest of the week? God bless.