The Blame Game
It was a spring day and the store was starting to more frequent water tests with customer trying to get their pool balanced for the season. The doors were wide open to allow the breeze to flow through the store to reduce the humidity from the spas on the floor on a warm day.
A lady walks back to the water test center and Harold Osborne II (AKA H2O detective), follows her to help diagnose her water. Harold asks, “What seems to be the problem?”
“I started my pool up and I have a salt system. I’ve added 4 bags of salt and I still can’t get my chlorine level up. The pools a little green and I am running the system at 100% production and I am not making any progress.”, the customer states.
“Well, your salt level is a little high.”, says Harold.
“That’s what I am talking about! I think there is something wrong with the system. I think I should get a tech. out to take a look.” she says in an exasperated manner.
“Hold on for a minute. Let’s walk through this first. First of all, one shouldn’t add salt just because the chlorine level is low and adding salt will not necessarily raise your chlorine level. You need a proper amount of salt, not more or less. You see, what salt systems do, is run at a constant rate putting a small steady amount of chlorine into the pool. When one has an issue, like a little algae like one would expect when starting a pool for the season, a salt system is not intended to handle this type of situation. One needs a lot of chlorine all at one time to get enough chlorine in the pool to kill all the algae. Your salt system is probably working, but the chlorine is being used up trying to kill the algae and it can’t get to a high enough level to make any progress. What you need to do is shock the pool with liquid chlorine and put a dose in of Eliminator and that will kill your algae and allow your salt system to catch up and get an established level.”, Harold knew the customer would be skeptical. He’s given this speech many times before and the customer is always skeptical in this situation.
“I really don’t think that my system is working, I’ve been running it at 100% production 24 hours a day. It hard for me to believe that it still doesn’t show chlorine if it’s working”, says the customer with a doubtful look.
“Please give my recommendation a try. If it doesn’t work then you can always have service come out. If it works it will save you a service call for no reason.”, Harold was resolute with his answer and the customer grudgingly agreed to give it a go.
Two weeks passed and Harold saw her in the store at the water test station. This time he wasn’t testing the water. The customer said that her pool was clear now and that the chlorine was holding and all is well. The salt system was doing exactly what it was supposed to do and no service call was needed.
This was not news to Harold. He’s seen it countless times before.
H2O Detective: The Case of the Mistaken Diagnosis
It was a hot day at the beginning of August and the store was finally starting to slow down a little after a long summer of extremely heavy customer volume. Harold Osborne II, A.K.A. H2O detective, had just finished up a standard water test and the next customer came up to the test station and held over her bottle. She was a rather small lady of about 5′ tall and in her mid thirties. She was wearing squared eye glasses and had short brown hair. She had a rather smart look to her and for some reason Harold imagined her in a college library studying for an exam.
“I am at my wits end. I am hoping that you can help me out. I’ve been taking my water sample to a different pool store and I have dumped over $100 in Phosphate remover to try and get my pool to hold chlorine and get rid of the algae and nothing seems to work. The phosphates have come down some, but I can’t get completely rid of them. I have a friend that brings her water here and she says that you guys are the best.” She said with a tone of exasperation.
“Tell your friend thanks for speaking so highly of us. I hope we can live up to the hype.” Harold started filling the sample tubes with water then reagents. By the time the reagents were dissolved there really was no need to run it though the machine, because after testing thousands of waters he knew what the results were by color. The tests were always nonetheless run through the machine and recorded into the store data base for future reference. He proceeded to type the customers information into the computer and run the test.
“It does show that there is zero chlorine in your pool, your PH is fine and your phosphate are a little high at 1300 parts per billion. How much chlorine have you been putting in and how often?” asked Harold.
“That’s exactly what I am talking about. This has been going on for over two weeks. I’ve put three treatments of phosphate remover in and I’ve been putting about two gallons of chlorine in the pool nearly every day for the last week and about once every two days prior to that and the problem doesn’t go away. I just can’t seem to get the phosphates down low enough to have the chlorine stay in the water.” She responded, rather despondently.
“Well, in my opinion you are treating one of the potential causes rather then treating the problem itself. The phosphates are not eating the chlorine, it is actually the chlorine is spending itself oxidizing the algae. The problem is, you have 20,000 gallons of water in your pool. If everything is going great and you just need a weekly shock, two gallons is the perfect amount. You, however do not have a perfect situation. You have a mildly bad situation and you need to treat it as such. I would recommend that you put in 8 bags of shock and some Eliminator to completely wipe out the algae.” Suggested Harold.
“8 bags of shock? That sounds like a lot.” Exclaimed the customer. “Can I try less? What about the Phosphates? They are still high!”
“The problem is…” retorted Harold, “this is science, and if you do the math, less just isn’t going to give you a positive outcome. One molecule of chlorine will go and kill one algae cell, the problem is, if you don’t kill them all off, they multiple at and incredible rate. If you don’t kill them all off at one time, the money you’ve spent on half measures are a complete waste of time and money, because by the time you do your next application the algae has multiplied back to the same level you were at the day prior. It’s better to take care of the problem once and for all. As far as the phosphates go, reducing phosphates is a tool, not an end all solution to fixing a problem or preventing a new problem from occurring. There are other weapons we can use to prevent algae, rather then phosphate removers. The problem with phosphate removers are, phosphates are naturally reoccurring and you will be constantly chasing after that ‘White Whale’ with little success.”
With a look of surrender the customer agreed to take Harold’s advice. She bought her chemicals and promised to follow up with a report and another water test in three days. There is very little Harold hasn’t seen in his line of work and this was no exception. As expected he had to really sell the answer he was suggesting, because it was going against what the customer believed and was told at a different establishment. He was confident that his solution would work and she would be in a lot better frame of mind the next time he saw her.
H2O Dectective Series: The Case Of The Haze
It was a cold day in December. A day right after Christmas and the store was quiet. The change from Christmas music to the standard Muzek 1980′s hit parade was an unexpected welcome to the employees swapping jokes around the front counter.
The day was cold, but not cold enough to turn the slight moisture falling from the sky into snow. A man of about 50 walked through the sliding doors and removed his over sized hat and walked toward the front counter. “I need to speak to the water expert.” he exclaimed as he reached into his coat pocket to remove his water sample.
“I can help you.” Said a voice reaching out over the counter. Harold Osborne II was an old hand in the pool and spa business. He had been in the business his whole life and had literally forgotten more then what most in the business would ever learn. Harold didn’t take any particular pride in this point. He understood that he gained this knowledge from a lifetime of retail sales and at the end of the day, he had become a solid retail sales associate in a niche market and that was about it.
“What kind of problems are you having Mr. Hamilton?”, asked Harold as he noticed the customers name on the test bottle.
“My spa was crystal clear and I adjusted my chemicals and it turned cloudy instantly.”
Harold led him back to the water test station and did the standard run up of chemical tests that every customer expects. The tests were not really needed, as Jeff had a good hunch what the problem was before running the tests.
The tests came back and everything was in the exact range they were supposed to be in. Harold asked, “Let me guess, did you add PH increaser to your hot tub right before it went cloudy?”
“Well, yes I did.” mentioned Mr. Hamilton.
“That’s just what I expected. The problem with the water is the PH was increased too quickly. Tap water from the faucet has a lot of calcium and other dissolved solids that are in the water. When you increase your PH too quickly, it takes the calcium out of this dissolved state and makes it a solid again and that’s what the haze is from.”
“What do I have to do to fix it? Is it time to drain the spa? I just drained it a few weeks ago.” Complained Mr. Hamilton.
“You shouldn’t have to drain the spa. Add about 10 ounces of Stain and Scale Remover and that should convert the calcium back into a liquid and by doing so, remove the haze from the water after a day or so. After doing this, it’s a good idea to follow up with the weekly maintenance dose of the Stain and Scale Remover. It’s a good product and will prevent you from having excessive build of calcium in your plumbing and on your heater.” Harold was starting to get in his preaching mode. This is what he was good at and often went on far too long, to the point of boring the customers with information beyond their general need.
Harold went and showed the customer the Stain and Scale Remover on the shelf and the customer left. Another problem solved. But, Harold knew that there would always be another case to solve. Not many problems were too difficult for Harold, but he was looking forward to the challenge.
What Spa Mode To Operate On
Customers often ask which spa mode they should operate their spa on for peak energy efficiency. The two most common modes are “standard” and “economy”. The standard mode operates much like setting the thermostat on your home HVAC unit, one places the temperature where they would like it and the spa will stay there all the time.
Winterizing Your Spa
First of all, I don’t understand why anyone would want to winterize a spa. Most of our customers find that using “their spa on a cold winters day, is just the thing their body needs to warm up the bones and take care of all of their aches and pains. The tough part of using the spa in the winter, is getting to the spa in the cold. Once you are in a spa, one could care less if there is a blizzard raging! Getting out is easy as well, the entire body is warm to the core and one barely feels the cold on the way back to the house. For those that are resolute on winterizing their spa, here are some tips.
Winter Patio Furniture Clearance
We’ve got a lot of new furniture that is getting ready to or has already hit our receiving docks. We need to make space, therefore we’ve put clearance pricing on a large selection of furniture that isn’t in this current year’s line up. It’s a little early, but if you want a great deal on beautiful outdoor furniture, now is the time to buy.
Power Ionizer
Eastgate Pools is excited about a new product for this upcoming swimming season. It is called the Power Ionizer.
Are you tired of high chlorine levels? Are you tired of a green pool? Have you heard of a salt system? Do you know the benefits of copper ions?
Well, this system has taken the benefits of salt and copper and rolled it into one all encompassing, hybrid, pool sanitizing system that sanitizes the pool eliminating 100% need for daily chlorine consumption. This system covers so many bases that it’s nearly impossible to have an algae outbreak.
If you want to save time and money, come in and check out this product!
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
It’s cold outside and it’s going to be colder before it’s all said and done. Have you seen the infomercials that have been running this season about Edenpure heaters? They are a phenomena. It’s not so much the Edenpure brand that’s so great, although it’s a fantastic product. It’s the concept of zone heating and the energy efficient and safe means that an infrared heater supplies the heat that is the exciting thing. People are shutting off their forced air furnaces and coming in and buying one or two units to heat either their whole house or just a section of the house they want to heat. We recently got in a new unit called the Infinity Heat zone heater, we are excited about it! It puts out more heat then other units and it has two speeds for even more energy conservation. Come in and find out what all the buzz is about.
Thank You!
All of us at Eastgate Pools would like to thank our customers for a successful 2010. We would also like to thank Mother Nature, without her influence and an unusually hot summer, we may not have as much steam heading out of this recession as we currently have. All signs point to another great year. We look forward to seeing everyone again in this new year!
Good luck to you all!
Pool Cue Tips
We have sold thousands of cues over the many years we’ve been in business at Eastgate Pools. From time to time the tips of these cues wear out and need replaced. This is a job that customers often look for help with. We have the items at our store that can help you with this project and here is some advice if you plan on undertaking this project.
- Essentially make sure the tip and cue surfaces are clean, maybe using a piece of sand paper.
- Use superglue (ideally gel based as water based superglue can be too brittle) or a cue tip cement to attach your tip.
Then place the tip on the cue and press down firmly with your finger. Leave the cue for as long as possible to form a good bond, ideally overnight at least. We recommend that you clamp the tip down to make a tight seal. (of course we sell this clamp or an entire cue tip repair kit)
Are You A Card Shark?
Do you have your buddies over every weekend into the wee hours of the night all trying to claim the big pot? Well, shame on you gambling is illegal. For those of you that are looking for good wholesome family entertainment, we have a large selection of card tables. They range from 3 in 1 dining, card and bumper pool tables to large Texas Hold’em tables that can sit 8 people. If you are playing on your kitchen table still, it’s time to step up and play with style.
Struggling To Find The Perfect Christmas Present?
If you are struggling for a Christmas present idea for someone in your life that loves to play, come and check out our gaming department. We’ve built quite a reputation for finding the hard to find gaming items. We carry a ton of darts and dart boards, foosball tables, air hockey, shuffleboard, billiards tables and accessories to go along with all the fore mentioned items. Even if you already have your dream game and just need an item or two to go along with it, Eastgate Pools probably has what you are looking for. Come in and check us out.
Black Friday Specials!!!!
Black Friday is almost here. We have gaming galore. We’ve got air hockey, foosball tables, billiard tables, shuffle board, pop-a-shot, and many, many, other fun things to make your family’s Christmas one to remember. We are open extended hours for this one day event. The doors open at 8 AM and we will stay open till 8 PM. Please stop by and check out our specials. We’ll be providing hot chocolate, coffee and cookies for our customers pleasure. The first 100 customers receive a door prize!
