The pulse of a
Unknown:mess and the water is green, how much acid, how much glory. If
Jacque:good morning, everyone Happy Saturday. Hope you had a great week. , and you're listening and you are in the deep end with Frank Disher and my beautiful partner in life and own the show. Wow, Jacque, that was nice. That was really, really sweet. I've been practicing. You kind of stepped it up from last week. Then, yeah, oh, okay, all right. Well, I appreciate that. That's awesome. We're glad to be back. We're glad to be back this week, and maybe you can hear a little bit of what I say this week. My microphone was a little wackadoo last week, little bit of technical difficulties. We were actually being piped in through a phone lines, right, right? That had a lot of effect on it so, but you sounded great and you had some good information. We just didn't know what I was asking you. But it's fine. Everything's fine. Well, some people do call me pool Jesus. It's true. It's true, not to get sacrilegious
Frank Disher:or pool Jesus
Jacque:might work. Okay, that might work a little better. So this week we're going to talk about keep it simple. And I think you had a subtitle for that, keep it simple and what?
Frank Disher:Yeah, yeah, because keep it simple really doesn't encompass at all. It's really keep it simple and focus on the basics,
Jacque:the basics, the basics. I think that's really probably would have been a better title, okay, but, you know, we've kind of led with that, stick with the basics. Now that kind of worries me right there. If I'm owning this big honking bull and there's a lot to do, it's already scary because I don't know how to take care of the equipment, I don't know about the chemicals, I don't know about this and that and and then, but keep it simple and stick to the basics. Is that going to be just the minimal amount? Just do whatever's minimal? Well, this is basically for maintaining. It's not for like, overcoming or anything like that. It's more of a weekly treatment, weekly service that you need to perform as a service technician or as a homeowner with a swimming pool. So it's not going to get deep in the detail and water chemistry or anything like that. But
Frank Disher:I know your coffee yet you were counting the days until we really get into chemistry, probably bringing a guess for that. So you don't just because I don't like it when you look at me like that. My heart. Thanks you so much. I love it so much. That's great. That's great. So, so it's not just doing the minimum, and it's not just if you do your own pool, or if you have a service guy, even if you have a service guy once a week, well, yeah, or if you are a service tech, because the show is geared for the industry also. Hello, service technicians. I hope you're listening. We love you and we're hiring. Yes, we love you and we're hiring if you want to move to Texas, come on, or if you live in Texas, come, come look us up, because we are hiring service techs. But listen, if you are overwhelmed, if you're you're working wherever you're working, and you're overwhelmed, because sometimes you you don't know you were out on your own, and you don't know some of the tips and tricks and and the Keep it simple. Frank, has all the tips for you. Man. He, he knows exactly, exactly what to do. So what else are we going to talk about today? Oh, well, what are we keeping simple Exactly? Alright, chemistry, there's basically four things that you have to do to maintain and pull on a regular basis. Now, that is chemistry. That's of course, you know, everybody's adding chemicals the removal of debris. We'll discuss that so that, when you say debris, what do you like? Leaves, leaves, sticks, critters, critters.
Jacque:We can even talk a little bit about critters. Elaborate on that, yeah, critters have their own issues. They do. They do have issues. And we got filtration and we have circulation. Okay, so, and there is a difference between filtration and circulation. There is a difference. Circulation is the moving of water about the bowl. It's getting the water for the proper amount of time each day and making sure that the water is getting everywhere it needs to get so many people. They when I go out to these pool schools, well, we'll start off with circulation. How's that? I show up and their jets are just blowing straight out in the middle of the pool, or they have a jet blowing at a skimmer. So the stuff that falls on the top, they think that's going to help the water, the leaf, get into the skimmer, and they're really crippling themselves. And you're going to talk about that when we get to absolutely Yes, awesome, awesome. And so they don't know how to, how to focus on that, so that, and that's, that's a simple fix. That's a free fix. Free love it. We need to have like a bell when something is free that you talk about when. You to ring the bell. You can do this yourself in less than 30 seconds, and it cost you nothing, zero, free. We can do that. We can do, oh, my goodness. All right, so chemistry. We're talking about that because a you got to know it, even if you don't put the chemicals in yourself, but also because it causes some nasty stuff to happen in your pool if the games aren't right, the chemistry is very important, but the basic chemistry is what you need to focus on. Sure, it's not all these manufacturers. They make all these products that have all the super ingredients in it that are going to fix your pull Well, all of those products are necessary when you have to play catch up if it got away from me because a heavy storm or a big party or something like that. But the weekly is pretty simple, okay? And too many people, they try to complicate it. They try to add all this extra stuff. Now, there are things that are definitely worth adding. Sure you will talk about those, but the basic chemicals, the pH, alkalinity, chlorine, that's what you need to focus on on a weekly basis. And then there's, of course, other things that you need to watch so that you don't get the dreaded algae. Algae, algae, yes, it's gross. Yes, algae, let's talk about algae a little bit, right? Algae is not a plant, but it has a lot of plant like characteristics. So if you had a plant that you wanted to do, well, well, first of all, I am not my mother who has a green thumb all over the universe, yard of the month, like every month, what's one of the things you do for your plants? Well, my plants, yes, that keeps them healthy and growing. Well, oh, you talk to him, I talked to my plants. Okay, you can talk to your plants, but no, that wasn't where you were no but related to algae. Yeah, you could talk to your algae, but if you wanted to do well, but you know, I would think that, you know, you'd want to talk mean to it. Yeah, you know, you don't want to think, yeah, just, just go out there, shake your finger at it, growl, you know, use some expletives or something, you would. I wouldn't. But where I was trying to get was compost. Okay, so compost, it decays, and as it decaying, it releases nutrients and stuff that feed the plant. So the plant does well. Well, algae is kind of the same way, and that's on the the removing the debris. Okay? If you let a lot of leaves and stuff just sit in the bottom of your pool, and you're constantly letting organic matter just kind of sit in your pool and rot, you're you're putting a lot of nutrients into the water that algae like, yes. So algae, you know it's going to do better in a pool that has garbage in it. So that's why you got to remove the debris. Okay, so that makes total sense. Total sense. So are all of these four things, the water chemistry, the circulation, the filtration and the removal of debris, those are the things you're going to talk about and expand on later. But are those four things? Is that why our pool is always blue. I mean, do you keep a strong eye out for that? Well, I do everything. You know, my chemistry is very simple, right? We have to add very little to our pool, but I have my returns set up proper where I'm circulating my pool. Well, we're gonna talk about returns. And is that an easy fix? Oh my gosh, that's that's like the number one thing that I fix when I walk up to a swimming pool. Okay, so we circulate well, I run my pump. It's a variable speed bump. I run it at a lower speed, and it runs 24 hours a day, and so I'm constantly moving water. You don't have to run 24/7 but I recommend it right then we'll talk about why you recommend that one when we get there. And then chemistry, I keep chemistry very simple. I do use borates, and that's something we may brush on on this show. But I don't know what a borate is. It sounds a borate? Yes, they are very scary, like algae, if you look at it underneath the microscope. It has fangs, beady little eyes. It's green, like green. It's angry. Green is like a no go for bulls, yes, green plant, because the goal is a crystal clear blue. Yes, yes. Now it doesn't have to be bright blue, no, no, because water. Everybody's is different. Everybody's a little bit different. But you dang sure want it clear, right, right? Clear is an indication of really good water. And I want to talk about, yeah, what? When we get to that after the break here in a second, I want to talk about what makes a pool cloudy, okay, yeah. And talk about how to how to deal with that, because sometimes, if your pool has just been treated maybe it's cloudy, okay, yeah, and we'll talk about that when we come back from the break. But we are here today, and we're talking about keeping it simple, focusing on the basics of your pool. There are basics, ladies and gentlemen, it's not all difficult. It's not all hard. Take a dive into the deeper.
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Jacque:Why should you brush and we are back, and you are in the deep end with Frank Disher and Jackie, his sidekick that knows nothing about pools, but I'm learning a whole lot, y'all, so don't be scared about learning about pools, because the that's why we're doing this topic. First, keep it simple. Focus on the basics. There are basics, believe it or not, there are basics that are that are easy fixes, Frank Disher says, and that are free fixes. Frank Disher says, Yes. And hopefully, if you have issues in your pool and it becomes more than simple. Hopefully it will, it will be an easier fix if you know a little bit of these tips and tricks. So first thing you want to talk about is chemistry. Pool chemistry, yes, and our dogs do not like pool chemistry. They're obviously barking in the background. Yeah, when I go and I do, I do a pool school customers, I go out and I'll spend an hour and a half, two hours with them, and I take them through the filtration, you know, the basic things that you have to do. It's kind of, you know, the filtration, the circulation, the chemistry and the removal of debris. On the chemistry part, you know, there's basic things that you have to follow. And I've known so many service techs in the past that their fix was more chlorine, the better, right? All right, and that causes a lot of problems. And it seems logical, though supposed to clean, oh yeah, that seems very logical, but it has to be a balance, right? Yes, because too much is a bad thing, right? You know, it's like Lysol is a good thing, but, I mean, you don't want to spray your food with it. You don't, you know, you don't want to just covering everything. So when it comes to chemistry, you want the on a weekly basis. What you want to watch closely is your pH, your chlorine and your alkalinity. Okay, they all feed off each other. There's several apps out there that you can get, that you can download on your phone and punch in the information, and it'll tell you what you need to add to get it balanced. But keeping chlorine, you know, just more is the better. You know, there's a limit. All you need, as far as chlorine goes, all you need is, you know, one or two parts per million of active chlorine in your water to do all the sanitation that is necessary. So if I'm doing it myself, I a need to know how big my pool is. Absolutely, yes, you need a accurate volume. Okay, within, you know, 500 to 1000 gal, because that's going to determine how much of everything that I put in, even when I have issues, or even when there's something special, I need, I need to know how many gallons my pool holds. Yes, you can't do this properly. And guessing is not a good thing. I have people. They tell me all the time, well, I got this 40,000 gallon pool, and I'm like, Oh, wow, that's a big pool. Okay, I'll come out, we'll take a look, and we'll see what's going on. And I get out there and they got this play pool that's maybe 14,000 gallons. So when they've been dosing, they've been dosing the fire out of this od in their pool. Yes, they're they're putting just tons of chemicals, and most of it's just wasted and and now that chlorine is up around $5 a gallon, that makes my heart hurt. The shortage we have right now with chlorine. People are Odine, don't be doing that, friends, yes, and I said$5 a gallon. It's $5 a pound for tablet chlorine. Too much is too much. So how do I find out if I move into this pool, you know, if I build my pole, obviously, I'm gonna know how, hopefully, how big it is, yes, but if I move into a house, this may be a blonde moment question, I don't know, but I I'm sure. There's somebody out there wondering this, I move into a house, how do I find out how many gallons my pool holds? There are calculations, and there are a lot of apps that there is an app for everything. There is an app for everything where you can Google, pull volume, or how to calculate full volume, and it's basically length times width times average depth that gives you cubic feet of volume, and they're seven and a half gallons of water per cubic foot, can determine your gallonage by that and I write and I write that down, and then I test my water. Yes, testing, testing is one of the biggest problems people have. They're not testing properly. You know, they'll walk up to their pool that's been off for five hours, reach in, take a strip or whatever test kit that they're using, and they'll just grab some water off the top, and think that's good. Well, that's not a good sample. I was going to ask you, should you test at different areas and different depths every time? Well, if your water's circulating, well, you can pretty much test anywhere on the pool, if water is moving in that area, not right in front of a return, you know, away from a return, but where there's some water movement you want to go that's important, folks, not by a return, no, because if you have a like a chlorine feeder on your on your system, it's going to be pumping chlorine out of that jet. So that's going to throw you off a little bit. So get away from a jet and reach out as far as you can. Go elbow deep, and just get your sample from that depth. And that should give you a better reading as far as the average reading on the pool goes. And read the instructions, whatever test kit you're using, again with instructions, yes, the instructions. Every test gets different. They're all going to have their certain number of drops that they use. I can't tell you, Okay, always add this. Always add this, because, yeah, the chance of you having the kit that I use is slight, so you kind of have to get a mojo going if you're going to test it yourself. Yes. And if you pick up a different test kit. Read the instructions, because the chances are they're going to be different. Some of them are color comparators. Some of them are their drops, like the cloudier the water gets, or the water it changes color, and when it changes color, that's what your reading is. Sure there's different test kits. The strips are pretty much, you know, dip. Some of them are wait 30 seconds. Some of them are five seconds. It's so just read the instructions on yours. But I highly, highly recommend, once a month minimum, take your water in somewhere to test. And I ask if you recommend that, but make sure it's somebody that's going to be honest with you and not try. Yeah, you know, there's, you know, be careful. Check out people's reputations, because there are places that will try to sell you one of everything that's on the shelf if you're willing to buy it. And so a lot of those chemicals are going to cause you problems. And so now you got to fix that problem. So you're going to come back and you're going to buy more chemicals. So just take it somewhere. I prefer the computerized test. Okay, then they punch in your gallons, and typically they're going to give you a readout that says, what you need to add, how much you need to add. But here's a kicker, if you're going to be taking your water in somewhere and have them tell you how to treat it, use their chemicals, okay, because their test results and their recommendations are based on the chemicals they sell. And, oh, that's a great tip. Don't, don't go in and get the free water test and then head on to a big box store to buy just any kind of borate. Or you're a shock. Shock. Shock is a big one. Tabs are a big one. It's not the same stuff. Get it from there. Everybody thinks, Oh, I'm gonna save some money. I'm gonna I want to get my shock from one of the big box stores or buy it online or whatever. And well, the shock you get in a pool store is typically going to be much stronger strength, right? So when they give you a recommendation that you need to add two pounds of shock, and I'm talking like cow hypo. And they tell you, Okay, you need to have two pounds of cow hypo. Well, the cow hypo, they sell maybe 78% or 73% chlorine. And you say, Oh, well, I got some at home. And you go home and you open up the bucket or the box or bag that you got from some big box store, and it's got 20, 25% less chlorine in it. So that's Note to self, to write down by your pool gallons, because the pool store is going to ask you how many gallons, right? Yes. So that's another thing, is to write down what their tabs, the tabs that you're using, the tabs that you bought somewhere else, such, because that's going to make a difference. There are there are differences and the potency that's listed, the strength that's listed on the chlorine. But I keep going back to chlorine that's listed on the container is average. And if it sat in a back room for six months, or sat in a warehouse for six months before it made it to a back room somewhere, and then it finally made it out to the front counter, where nobody in the stores knows how to treat a pool when you actually dose it, it could be a lot, you know. So it's a lot less burden. And I know we're going to go, you're going to have a chemistry show, just chemistry, because I know there's a lot of new with our shortage of chemicals and tabs. There's a lot of new ways that you that people are experimenting on how to treat your pool, and you'll have to talk about that with an expert. Look at some liquid chlorine and some acid and all of that. And so we're not gonna get into that today, but there are other ways you just you have to know the basics of your pool so that you can treat it right, and know that the answers to the questions that they may ask you. So do you recommend floaters? Should that be a daily thing? Even I'm not a big anti floater guy. I know some of the plaster companies or plaster manufacturers will say they'll void your warranty if you have a floating chemical dispenser, okay? Because they do cause problems. They get hung up on steps so you have a concentration of the chemical in one spot and that can? You just gotta watch it and be careful. Yeah, it, can, it can, you know, it can hurt your plaster or liner, if you have a vinyl liner, or your fiberglass, if you have a fiberglass pool. And real quick, what? Before we go on to circulation, what makes a pool cloudy? We have some customers that will call and say, Oh my gosh. Y'all just treated my pool yesterday and it's cloudy. Yes, right. When we're there, like when you're served in a pool, we get there and say, there's, like, high combined chlorines, or the chlorine it dropped out because we got three inches of rain or, or they had a big party, and so we have to get a big spike in chlorine. And typically it's either liquid shock that we use, or it's a granular shock, and it does cloud up the water. Sometimes it's normally an indication that they have high calcium levels and stuff like that, but it will dilute. It just takes time for the water to completely mix and for filtration to take some of that out. The cloudiness is a result of the chlorine, but, but the chlorine was necessary, right? So now, sometimes the cloudiness, you know, it could be other reasons that it's cloudy, but typically it's because we had to do a shock of the pool, right? Which, okay, you know, to to when you think it's gonna be cloudy for sometimes, but it depends on the pool. You know, a lot of times these are customers. We've been telling them, You need to drain your pool. Your pool. Your calcium levels are through the roof, and they don't want to drain their pool. So that's the results they get, right? So talk a little bit about circulation, and how you can keep that simple, and how it relates to the whole maintenance of your pool. No, I do these pool schools, I go out, and typically one of the first things I look at is how the returns are set up in their swimming pool. And like I said earlier, you know, a lot of times they're just blowing straight out and straight up and just moving water back. And they shouldn't do that. No, no, my recommendation is always that you go down and around. And a lot of the lot of the service guys, if you're listening, if you'll set your jets up properly, where you're turning the entire body of water and not rippling the surface, everything's going slightly down and around all in the same direction. You eliminate dead spots in the pool. And that's a free fix. Now, sometimes you do have to get a different style jet, where it shoots out it sideways, instead of, you know, at an angle out into the pool to so jets can be replaced, even after the yes, they can. I know that might be a dumb question too, but almost all the time, okay, but there are some jets out there that are permanent and you cannot replace them, but still, you should have some movement, some degree of angle that you can change to accomplish the turning of the pool better. So that's part of the basics, is make sure that you're watching those jets, and make sure that there's an even circulation and no dead spots, yes, and I've had people come in, come to the store and tell me, yeah. You know, we've had our pool 10 years. We had algae every year, four or five times during the summer and and we check their water and their water's Right, yeah. So I'm like, Well, okay, there's four things you gotta have, not right? Yeah, there's four things you gotta have, and one of those is good chemistry. But then there's circulation, filtration and removal of debris. If you have good chemistry, better chemistry is not gonna fix it, right? Good's good. So there's something else causing this, and I've fixed so many pools, but all I did was change their jets, wow, and get the water moving in a more consistent circular motion. And that's why people love you. Yeah, I try to fix it for years, and you come in and go, Well, this little thing, my bop here just needs to move around. And sometimes I am the sixth or seventh pool guy that's been in their backyard, and I'm the first one to mention that, you know, hey, you know, here's your problem, right? Or part of your problem anyway, you know, let's, let's change these jets, and let's get the water moving better. And that alone. You want your water moving. You don't want it to be it to be still. And a lot of times these people, they, you know, after, after we do that, they end up saving, you know, a few $100 a year on algaecides and extra chlorine. That's awesome. All right, well, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about filtration and how that relates to circulation, because I'm assuming that all relates together and then brushing and removing debris. Aren't all excited. Everybody wants to do that. If you have teenagers, make them listen, because we will tell them what they can remove, even the critters and all of that we're in the deep end with. And Jackie, we'll be right back.
Unknown:Hey Jackie, hey Frank. Have you ever wondered how you can clean between all those pesky filter pleats on a cartridge filter? Yeah, I lose sleep over it. I mean, it's so tedious and it takes forever. I could never seem to get them all clean. Well, here's a pro tip. Try the cyclone filter cleaner. It uses water pressure from your garden hose to spin the filter as you clean it. This allows all the filter pleats to get thoroughly cleaned out. And the best part is it is fast and doesn't hurt your back. Wow. The cyclone filter cleaner. You got it. The cyclone filter cleaner, you can thank me later. Thank and what I love about their filter cleaner is they have this wand. It's the best filter cleaning spray device I've ever used. We've tried many, many different ones. They got a short version now and they got a long version. But I love using those things, even on our de filters. We use their wands. And do we have a code? We have a special discount code if you go to cyclone filter tools.com and use code deep end. It'll save 10% on your order so you can buy direct from them. Great stuff. I'm glad I found it. We got one on every truck. My guys love it. Guys don't miss out on this. This is the best filter cleaning system out there. Is it safe to swim?
Jacque:Why should you brush? And we're back, and we are in the deep end with Frank Disher and Jackie, and we've been talking about keeping things simple, which, as we go through this, seems like an easier thing to do than what I would think at the beginning, as long as you know your pool, as long as you get knowledge and educated about your pool. So we're going to talk about the third thing on Frank Disher, four list of keeping it simple, and that is filtration. Tell me what that is. Filtration is the removal of small particles that are suspended in the water. It's taking all that garbage out that's helps with your water clarity. Some of those particles may be feeding algae. So, you know, algae feeds off nutrients in the water, and so the more that stuff that you can filter out, the better you are. Now, there are different types of filtration. You know, there's de filters, which filter to very small microns, which two to three microns, I believe, is where de falls. So that's going to make the water even clear, right? And you have cartridge filters, which are fabric covered cartridges that are in inside of the filter canister, and physical removal of debris that you got to break down and clean. Then you have sand filters, which is just a large filter that has a bed of sand in it, and that's the poorest filtration. Sand is not a good filter by itself, but in many areas of the country, it works great for them. Yeah, here in Texas, I've had a lot of problem with sand filters because it doesn't remove enough of the stuff. But there are other medias that you can use instead of sand, like glass. And there's also zeal, bright Zeo. There's different brands of Zeo products, which is a mind when you're talking about small debris, what do you what are you talking about? Like, like, if you let your dog swim, nipple and pet hair, a little every, every little thing, every little thing that falls pollen, dirt filter is going to and it's anything that's come come out of solution in the water, but I'm assuming you have to get your filter cleaned. Some filters. Yes, some more. Often, sand filters. If you sand, typically, you can go three to five years if you put a glass media in on one it filters much, much better. It's very close to the filter, same filtration rate as de as far as the size of microns that will filter out that can go for years and years in here, we've been doing glass for probably 15 years. I've never had to change the glass out in a filter so that's pretty much a permanent meeting. You have to backwash occasionally, but it's very low maintenance in de. You have to backwash. We recommend you backwash every month, regardless of pressure, because the de gets packed up in there on our service, our guys are instructed to backwash at least once a month, but then still twice a year. You. Have to break the filter down and clean it, because every time you backwash, you never get it all out. And what happens if you don't clean your filter? If you don't clean your filter, you start getting small particles that really start clogging it up and extra pressure. Your pressure will go up on on your filter. You'll lose flow, which is important to circulation, so less flow is not better. You know, you want the best flow that you can get. So that starts building up, and you start creating this pressure, it can start damaging the filter elements, whether it's de or whether it's cartridge, and filter elements typically will not last as long. You know, I've had people tell me that they got to replace their grids every year, and it's because they're not very good at doing their back washing or their regular cleaning, so they have to replace the elements quite often, and those are expensive. So now, what about we? I know we've had some people that we do a filter clean for them, and then maybe a month or two later, our tech will report back to us that, hey, will you contact this customer? They need a filter clean? And we'll look and go. We just did that two months ago. So if your filter is getting that, is there something else wrong that needs maintenance? I mean, what does that mean? It basically just the filter elements are getting clogged. Okay, so there's something that needs to be adjusted or, yeah, well, not really adjusted. It's, it's a lot of times, if people have done a lot of phosphate treatments. It's a very minuscule and it gets into the fabric and it's hard to get out. Cartridge filters are very difficult to clean. I recommend people doing that themselves. Well, no, they can do it themselves, but you just got to be very thorough. You could spend three hours cleaning a cartridge, you know, say, a 500 square foot cartridge filter, because every time you hit it with a hose, you get more stuff out, right? So the stuff, it gets pleated, so it's back up in the grooves, and it's hard to get out. And then the fabric, you start getting particles embedded into the fabric. So some people, their cartridges have to be replaced, quite frequent, just because their pool of how they use the pool their environment. You know, we talked last time about the environment. Some people's environment is it's going to short the life of cartridges or de or yourself, or could change out a filter. But you don't always recommend that have, don't you have some stories about people that try to change their own filter? Oh, my Lord, yeah. I tell all my customers this, and I tell them not to scare them, just to make them aware. I had a customer get killed by their filter, and he didn't get it together properly, and the lid blew off, and it crushed his chest in his head, and his wife found him dead. But it there's a good ending. I know that sounds odd, but his wife had just left the house and she forgot something, and she runs in to grab it off the kitchen counter, and she hears a big boom, because her husband's out in the backyard working on the pool. And she's like, what was that? So she's walks out in the backyard. Yeah, she walks out in the backyard, and there he is, against the fence, bloody mess, dead, and she screams. Next door neighbor happens to be a fireman. Oh, he hears her scream. He comes running over. He revives him. Resuscitates him. He had no heartbeat. He was not breathing. He was a dead man. Oh, my goodness, we referred to him as our dead customer, our dead customer. He's still on service. Yeah, I wouldn't have made him tell that story, folks, if it hadn't been a good day. We're not trying to scare you or anything, but, but even keeping this, this stuff simple, back to the basics, sometimes can be difficult if you don't know exactly if what you're doing. I highly recommend if you're going to be doing your own filter cleanings, have somebody that knows what they're doing come out. And I don't mean your cousin, I mean somebody that truly knows he just finds somebody that really knows what they're doing, that has a teacher's heart. That's not one of these guys. It's like, well, if you watch me, I charge double No, that ain't the guy you want. You want somebody that's like, hey, you know, I understand you're gonna be doing this yourself. So let me make sure you understand the little things that you need to know. Watch for, to watch for. So I don't have to read about you on the internet, right? So it's, it's very simple things. Once you've done it a few times, you're probably, as you know, almost as good as anybody else are doing it, but, and we'll hire you. Yes? Well, yeah, come on staff with us. We can talk. But so there are things in filter cleans that that you do have to be very cautious about. But it's like, if you're driving through West Texas and you're going 110 miles an hour on the highway in the rain at night with your lights off and bald tires, something's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen. But if you take the proper precautions, this is definitely something that a homeowner can do, and it's definitely something that any service tech can do. But lot of service techs, they jump out there. They're just like, oh, I can figure that out. And then they skip a step, or they put something back together improperly, and they become dead people, wow, wow. Alright, so we've talked about cams, we've talked about circulation, we've talked about filtration. Let's talk a little bit about brushing out and keeping the the debris. Brush it. Brush it out. Remove it completely. Whatever it is. When you talking debris, tell me some things you've seen in pools. Name it. I actually had had a guy tell me a story one time where he was had a pool is a foreclosure. And as this is back in the early 2000s when the world was not so good and there's a lot of foreclosures out on the market, and this, this pool had been down for a couple years. Well, this bank's like, Okay, we're going to get this house ready to sell. So they called him up. He went out, and the water's black, so he's draining the pool. He's got a trash pump in it, netting out what he can. He knows there's something big down in there, but he don't know what it is. Well, when the water gets when the water gets about three feet deep, he sees these four things start to emerge out of the water. And he's kind of trying to figure it out. As the water gets lower and lower, he realizes it's a cow. What? Yes, there was a cow in the pool. So I won't go into the grossness not to say I'm assuming it was a dead cow, no baby. It was it was a scuba cow. It was a sea cow. It was a manatee. Yeah. Well, we will move on. But the reason it's so important to get debris out of the water is debris. You know, algae is not a plant, but it has a lot of character. Characteristics, like a plant and like, like we were talking about on the the compost, dead plant material and debris is going to release nutrients and stuff into the water that makes algae healthy. So if we don't want that, we do not want that, we do not want to feed our algae. We want to eradicate it. So keeping special organic debris out of the water is out of the floor of the pool and out of your skimmers. It's to your advantage. So I know a lot of the floor, yeah, but also the skimmers, also the steps, yes, net netting the debris off the surface, you know. And it also, you know, if you get a lot of leaves falling, it's clogging up your skimmers. That's going to hurt your flow, which is going to hurt your circulation. I'm seeing a theme here that all these, yes, okay, so you keep the debris out of the water. A lot of you know, a lot of people, they have a cleaner that does a great job. It takes care of everything. Some people, they had a lot of trees. They could have four cleaners in the pool, and it's not gonna be able to keep up. So even if you have a service, or if you are a service tech, you know, you need to make sure the customer understands that I'm coming once a week. You know, I'm things happen. The other thing they might want to look at your the wind blows. We get a cold snap. You know, people, people need to understand that you cleaning all the leaves out one day is not going to, you know, in some cases, is not going to be good enough for the week. So they're going to have to get out there. They're going to have to empty their skimmers, right? They're going to have to grab a net, get the stuff off the surface and and maybe chase a few leaves down on the bottom, empty their cleaners if they get full of debris, and just get on that as much as you can while the situation's happening. Now, if you have a customer, or you have a pool that it don't matter the time of year, you're one of these people that got talked in the plant and crape myrtles all the way around your pool. All right? You're always that's a no, no. I'd love to look at Craig Myrtles in somebody else's yard. I don't like them in the front yard, in the front yard. Put them all over the front yard, but not around the pool, because they're dropping debris nine months out of the year, blooms and and leaves and and all that is just compounding your issues with circulation, with your chemistry, because now your your chlorine is trying to eat up all these organics, you know, oxidize them, and it's just not going to happen at a good enough rate, and you're not going to keep enough chlorine in the water. So keep that debris out, and it's going to make your life much, much easier in so many ways. Now, as far as brushing okay, even if you don't see algae, you need to be brushing algae is microscopic, so don't you don't see it until it's overnight. If you're not brushing it, can pop, yeah, even if you don't see the algae, there's algae in your pool. There really is. You know, every time the wind blows, you're getting a little bit of algae. Every time it rains, you're getting some algae. And when it gets on the surface of the pool, it's your your surface is not like glass things. It has little nooks and crannies all around. So algae will get up in these little nooks and crannies, and then it has a little protective layer that helps protect it from the chlorine. Or from algaecides or anything like that. So brushing, on minimum weekly basis, when you brush, pull it off the wall, tear off its little protective coating, and then the chemicals can get in and do what they need to do. Okay? So if you're not brushing, you're gonna have problems, not in every case, because some pools are just so perfect, but if you're not getting that stuff off the wall and getting it suspended into the water so it can be attacked from every angle, then you have a much higher chance of having algae issues. So brushing is critical. And for you guys that think you're going to start a service and are you going to do is chemicals, I've been there, done that, and lot of unhappy customers, even though we're keeping the chemicals right, if you're not brushing nobody's brushing those walls, you're going to have problems, and you're going to have a customer that's not happy with you because they think you're not doing your job when you're doing your job right, but they're not doing they're not doing their job. Yeah, well, right before we take a break, we have our little four pound morkey Lola, who's been on the air being so sweet today. So talk about, talk about little puppy dogs in the pool. Puppy dogs in the pool. What does that add? What do you have to do if your dogs like to swim? There's a lot of studies out there that say that one dog in the pool is equal to 70 swimmers. And I've heard 50. I've heard 100 All right, I don't buy into that. Okay, I know a dog in the pool Does, does cause some issues, but we have little pools that have two Golden Retrievers that live in the pool, and if that was equivalent to 70 swimmers, each 140 swimmers and a small pool, that would be disgusting, right? I mean it for dog lovers and dogs that love to jump in the pool, because Lola loves to get in the pool, yes, our other dog, cutie, does not. But good news, you can let them in there. You just have to be mindful that they do add some they do they do add some load. They they shed hair, they shed dander. Dogs don't sweat. The only, well, they sweat a little bit, the only place they sweat is where, where they don't have fur. I don't, I don't know if everybody's aware of that, but sweat is basically the equivalent of pee, urine. It's pretty close to the same chemical makeup. So, but their hair, you know, their hair can clog up the filter. It does put a little bit extra load on the pool. But here's the thing, and this the way I look at it, you make that dog live in Texas, right? Let it in the pool. Let it in the pool. It's hot. It's hot, no, but it is going to take a little bit of extra work to maintain a pool that that has dogs that swim, but good news for puppy dogs, it can be done. All right, we're gonna take a break, and then we're gonna come back, we're gonna wrap up, we're gonna talk to you about what you want to discuss next week, and we'll see you back in a minute.
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Jacque:Is it safe to swim? Why should you brush and we're back and we are still in the beginning. And it's Frank and Jackie, we're gonna wrap up what we talked about today. We were talking about keeping it simple. If you do cool yourself, or if you even have someone that comes once a week to help you out a little bit, there's still things that you have to do. And those are the basic things that you talked about. And what are those four basics, the four things whether you're a service tech, whether you have a service tech, or whether you do everything yourself, it's you got to have good chemistry if your chemistry is right and you're still having problems, your problem in chemistry. So it may take extra chemicals to resolve an issue, but it's not the cause. So the chem part of it is about your pH, your alkalinity, all your chlorine levels. And there's much more to that, that it was not an all inclusive chemistry class. There very light on chemistry, but All right, so we got to have good chemistry. We got to have good filtration, which means your filter is working adequately and taking debris or small particles out of the water. You got to have good circulation, which is getting water throughout the pool and all the little nooks and crannies, trying to turn the pool in one direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, whatever works best for your particular situation, and running for a proper amount of time. We didn't really cover that, but I, like all my pools, we turned over at least twice a day, where all the water in that pool, the volume of that water in the pool, goes through the pump and filter at least twice per day, and that means running at half for how long. Every pool is different. Every because pool sizes are different. Pool pumps are different people. Now we got all the variable speed, so the speed you're running, so you just have do some calculations, know your volume, how much flow you're getting at what speed. And then just, again, you just have to do your homework on your equipment, on your particular Portland situation. Or if you're a tech, you need to do that calculation for a customer and set it according that's what they're paying for. Yes, yes, they're paying you to be the Pro. So be the Pro. And then the last thing is the removal debris and brushing so all four of those got to be in sync. If any of those are out of whack, you're going to have problems. And the problem that everybody goes to is more chemicals, more chemicals, more chemicals. But if you'll stay on the other three, and the other three, by the way, are just labor. You know, pretty much got some parts you can have to replace occasionally. But the only thing that cost you money weekly, really, is chemicals. So if you'll get the other three right, you'll save money on chemicals. I can't stress it enough how important it is to make sure that you're hitting it from every angle. The basics, those four things, keep attacking it. Don't neglect one. If you neglect any of the four, you're going to have a lot of stink. Yes, and and your your go to, is going to be more chemicals, but the more chemicals is more expensive, and if you do it yourself, it doesn't take that much time a day. No, it's weekly. No, my text. You know, if we're not vacuuming a pool, if we're just netting, and they got a cleaner, that's doing a good job, they're in and out of your backyard in 15 minutes, I know. And our customers are like they were only here 15 minutes. Yeah. Well, that's how does your pool? Yeah, your pool looks great. So maybe I should cut him down to 12, see if it still looks good. So, no, it just takes what it takes. Every pull is different. You cannot judge your pull by what your friend that lives on the other side of town. You can't compare what he's got to what you do, what he does and what he does, what you do, what he was told, versus what you were told. And right? Every pull has got a personality. So at some point you're going to actually have a show on all four of these things, because they're important of basics for owning a pool or being a service, yes, and I'll touch on them frequently, sure, and but yeah, the chemistry. I mean, that's a date of itself. I mean, that's a whole show. That might be two shows. It could be three or four shows, because there's just so many aspects of it. But the basics are the basics on chemistry, and those are the ones you got to watch. And then the I recommend the homeowner just ask for chlorine, pH and alkalinity, then take your water in somewhere occasionally to have them test the other the calcium hardness, the stabilizer levels, the and all those have their own aspects of you know why they're important, so just do the basics, and then you're going to have a lot less problems, right, right? So next week, we're going to maybe too soon for Texas, maybe maybe too soon in Texas, that and that, we did have a cold front this week. We only got up to like 91 most of the days this week. So it's fall, y'all, it's fall in Texas. So we but we know other areas you're getting really close. You do have leaves that are turning. You do have all of that. So we do want to talk about winterizing. We don't do that in Texas. That might be different this year after our snow again. We'll talk about that next week. We want to talk. About some covers, leaf covers, maybe some fencing that, because it's a perfect time to get all of that in when you're not swimming, it costs less, it's the materials might be more in stock. You never know. So we're going to talk about fall and everything that goes with it, heaters, what else and for the fall? Well, yeah, just, you know things to prepare for winter. Chemistry is not such a hard issue in the winter. No, we're not going to talk about chemistry. No, but, but you know, just ways to protect your pool during the winter. The biggest thing I can say about pools in winter is it's still your pool. This is still a very expensive asset sitting in your backyard. You must protect it even in the winter. So just, you can't just forget about and think it's gonna pop up next, next spring, when you're ready to, ready to write, no, because you're gonna damage your surfaces. You're gonna damage your equipment, and all that gets extremely expensive. Yeah, then you're looking at new plaster and coping and tile because it's been ruined, because you haven't taken Yeah, because you let it turn to a swamp. So, but we'll talk about some of you know about the covers. Mainly, any questions that you have, you're welcome to send them to us. We have a Facebook page called the deep end, so if you want to go on there and like us, that'd be awesome. You can see a picture of us, and you can send us some questions there if you want. And we are in Texas. We are in the south, but we also Frank, I say we, and when I say we, I mean the expert, Frank Disher has messed and done things with pools all over the nation. So even if you're in not there are many pools up north, but even if you're or have an indoor pool, or whatever your situation is, he he might just have an answer for you. So go ahead and and send us some questions, and we'll be happy to get you ready for winter. We're probably expecting another snowy winter in Texas, if you can believe it. So all you Texan people, all you down south people, don't be unprepared this year. Do not be unprepared and you want to turn in next week. Any other final words, no is. I just want to mention that a lot of the guys up north are already winterized. They're already there. They're already there. They're putting covers on pools and but it's a different world. You can't do that here in Texas. You can't do it in Florida. You can't do it across the south. People, yeah, so I don't care. Can't ask us some questions about from all over I don't care what your uncle Benny says out of New Jersey. Don't do it to your pool in the South. You're going to have problems. Oh, well, you had some great information this week, and I hope people will will take heed to some of that. Mister Disher, and we are so thankful that you listen to us. We're here every Saturday morning, 10am Eastern Time and 9am Central time, if you're down here with us, so tune in next week, because we can take you to the deep end with Frank Disher, anesthetic in life and on the radio, Jackie. We'll see y'all next week. Have a great week. Y'all. Take care.