PoolSolutions Free Version PoolLetter

Feb. 13, 1999 -- Volume 2, Number 18



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Hi Folks;

At last!

After this letter, no more stuff on indoor pools. (At least, not for a long time.)

Since the pool season is rapidly approaching, I've included a 'winter reminders' list in the letter. Read it. Think about it. Do the stuff you need to. Trust me; it will make summer more fun!

Also, I'm going to begin to address the process of picking a pool, and getting it built. Again, this is not a topic that affects all of you, but many PoolLetter recipients are still in the decision making process.

As you read some of the material I'm planning to publish, some of you almost certainly will decide that a pool is not for you. That's fine. If I can help those of you, who otherwise would discover two years AFTER buying a pool, that pools are not for you, I've done you, AND the pool business, a real service.

One reason so few people have pools is that so many people have heard pool horror stories. PoolSolutions exists to eliminate the causes of those horror stories. For many of you, providing the right information on pool chemistry, or equipment, or picking a contractor, is enough. If you can solve those problems, your pool will be a delight, rather than a torment.

But some people who buy pools never should have. They were persuaded by their own impulses and a salesman's hype. And now they are stuck with a permanent change to their home, one that requires continuing attention and money, and that they can't get rid of. If they'd had the right information before buying, they would have never bought. Providing them with that information is just as important as anything else I can do.

Pools aren't a good choice for everyone.

But, pools are a good choice for many people . . . many MORE people than currently are buying pools. I believe that if those of you who have pools, enjoy your pools more, then eventually, more people will buy pools. Helping people learn to care for their pools the easy way is part of the answer.

But, another part is helping people who really shouldn't have a pool, find that out BEFORE there is a big hole in their backyard.

So, in this PoolLetter, I'm beginning a series buying pools. I hope you find it helpful.

Best wishes,

 

Ben

SUBSCRIBER POSTSCRIPT: the HTML version of this letter is available at http://www.poolsolutions.com/members/archive/vol2_num18.html


In This Issue: PoolLetter Topics

Problems with Indoor Pools, Part 3

What Kind of Pool is BEST? Intro.  Jump top  Next  Jump down

Starting this time of year, I get asked some version of the fictitious email below, dozens of times:

"Hi Ben,

"Just found your site. We're planning to put a pool in this year, and wanted to know what sort of pool you think is the best. The salesmen all tell us something different.

"Thanks for your reply,

"John J. Doe"

And, till now, I've mostly hemmed and hawed and ducked the question.

Why?

Because there is no single answer.

Take me, for example. I know exactly what kind of pool we'd prefer if we could afford it.

My ideal pool would be 25' x 75', with a 13' deep end and a 10' wide swimout steps on the shallow end and a full rimflow gutter. The pool shell would be 8" to 12" of gunite with a double mat of #4 rebar on 6" - 9" centers. There would no expansion joints in the shell. All gunite rebound would be discarded. The finish would be white plaster, mixed with added copper sulfate for light color and algae resistance.

Equipment would include (2) 2HP 2-speed Hayward Super II pumps, and matched Sta-Rite DE filters; (2) Polaris 380 cleaners with booster pumps, a 16' Maxiflex diving board on a 1 meter Duraflex stand, (3) Competitor 25 yard lane ropes, a Blue-White 200 series peristaltic bleach feed pump and a 330 gallon bleach tank. Heat would be provided by a full set black polyethylene solar mat collectors mounted on the the roof of the roll-away enclosure, backed up by a ~300,000 BTU Laars electronic ignition gas heater.

The pump room would be fully instrumented -- for PoolSolution's sake, not for mine -- with influent, mid-system, and effluent temperature, pressure, flow, ORP, and pH transducers, all connected to a PC based data logging systems. All valves would be Hayward (industrial line, NOT pool product line) S-40 PVC ball or butterfly valves. Extra space and piping would be provided for installing and testing other pool system components.

The pool would be fully surrounded with a 7' high wooden privacy fence, and on one side, a specially designed roll-away winter enclosure, mounted on an in-deck stainless steel track. The deck would be 3500 psi air-entrained concrete poured at no more than 5" slump, with reinforcing wire and a single #4 rebar mat on 12" - 15" centers, and finished with a light horsehair broom finish. Control joints would be sawn into green concrete; a full depth polysulfide rubber filled expansion joint would encircle the entire pool. No concrete would be poured when temperatures below 28 degrees were likely within 30 days.

There are a few other details. But my point is, that my ideal pool would be not an ideal pool for most people. In fact, it would be a nightmare pool for many.

Without knowing you, and seeing your property . . . and your budget, I can't tell you what pool would be ideal for you.

But, I give you some guidelines and information that may help you find, and build, your ideal pool.

I'll start this week, continue next week, and finish . . . eventually.


What Kind of Pool is BEST? - Part 1   Jump top  Previous  Next  Jump down

What kind of pool is best?

It depends.

Why do you want a pool?

For exercise? Do you want to swim laps? How fast, and how far? Water jogging? In pool Tae Bo?

For therapy and rehab? Does it need to be heated? How much? Can you afford the heat bill?

Are you hoping to get your wife into low fabric, or no fabric, swimsuits? Do you have nosy neighbors or 50 acres of woods surrounding the pool? Can you install a privacy fence?

Is it for you? Your wife or husband? The kids? The grandkids? Your clients? Your cousins and neighbors and postman?

Or, is it a decoration -- an essential element of your landscaping -- or maybe, even an artistic statement?

Be honest, now -- is it just because everyone else has one, or because you're expected to get one, since you can afford it now?

Guess what? Your friendly neighborhood pool salesman isn't likely to ask you these questions.

Why?

Because your answers might result in your discovering that the pool he's selling is not really the pool you want. Or, worse, you might realize that a pool is not even what you really want. So, you'll have to ask the questions yourself.

And, there are even more questions you ought to ask, and answer.

How will you use your pool, once you get it? Is it for actual swimming (you know, back-and-forth, back-and-forth), for water play, for sunning, for admiring?

How will you actually use it, after you've had it for a year, and the 'new' has worn off?

Whose going to care for it? You? Your wife or husband? A service person? Do THEY know that, yet?

Are you neat and spotless, tolerant of mess, or a real slob? Is the pool care person neat and spotless, tolerant of mess, or a slob?

And, of course, the big UGLY question: what can you really afford to spend -- after you've allowed for operating costs?

Your answers to these questions will largely determine what sort of pool you should get. And YOU are the one who will have to both ask the questions, and supply the answers.

Better get out the notepad!

A little planning and head scratching now, can save a world of headaches later. Each one of those questions are ones you should ask, and try to answer, BEFORE you meet with your first pool salesman. Some of them, you may not be able to answer till you have more pool information, but trying to answer them now is not a waste of time.


What Kind of Pool is BEST? - Part 2  Jump top  Previous  Next  Jump down

Aboveground or inground -- that is the question. And it's one you should ask early on.

There's a tendency to make the decision purely on financial grounds. Abovegrounds are cheaper. And budgets are important.

But there's more to it than that.

There is a tendency to make recreational purchases on a impulse -- a sustained impulse maybe, but an impulse nonetheless. While this is wasteful, it's usually not disastrous. When you and your family get tired of the boat, pool table, RV, or whatever, you can always get rid of it, and often, can sell it.

Pools are more difficult to divorce. Getting rid of an inground pool is usually difficult and expensive.

But, you can get rid of an aboveground fairly easily. So, if you are not sure just how much you'll like your pool after five years, consider an aboveground. Or, if you are pretty sure you only want a pool for the the next 6 - 10 years, an aboveground may be a better choice.

A list might help:

Aboveground pools :

Inground pools

Which is best? It depends on what you and your family want, enjoy, need, and can afford.


Indoor Pool Effects on Buildings   Jump top  Previous  Next  Jump down

I'm a little frustrated with indoor pools; I have a short attention span, and tend to prefer to move from topic to topic, circling back every so often. I've been on indoor pools long enough.

But, if you don't to allow for the effects an indoor pool will have on your on buildings and enclosures, you will end up FAR more frustrated with your indoor pool than I have ever been.

I can sum up these effects in four words: INDOOR POOLS DESTROY BUILDINGS.

Does that seem simple? It is.

Is it really that bad? It is.

Do you really need to worry about it? You do.

The causes are simple to identify, but complex to understand and correct. Pools create excessive humidity, give off corrosive fumes, and result in puddles, drips and splashes of water, and in the storage of corrosive chemicals.

All indoor pools -- everyone of them -- results in all four problems, at least some of the time. And unless you manage everyone of these problems correctly, the life of the building which contains the pool will be dramatically shortened.

Addressing the problems, causes, and cures is far beyond the scope of this article. So, I'm going to limit myself to some general suggestions.

Some of you are aware of the damage to buildings which excessive moisture causes; some of you have had to rebuild your bathrooms for just this reason. Just imagine a bathroom in which a hot shower was always running: then imagine how quickly that bathroom would deteriorate. Now, imagine how much worse the damage would be, if the door to this nightmare bathroom was always left open. Would the damage stop in the bedroom or hall . . . or would it reach even more distant rooms?

An indoor pool, heated to 85 or so, releases FAR more humidity than that shower will. And, with most indoor pools, the humidity is combined with low levels of corrosive chemicals.

The result? Sheetrock falls, window frames rot, doors rust, light switches fail, carpets mildew.

Sounds bad? It gets worse!

For a variety of reasons, electrical wiring in the vicinity of an indoor pools often becomes corroded. Corroded wiring tends to overheat at each junction, i.e.. light switch, receptacle, or light fixture. Overheated wiring tends to ignite surrounding flammable materials, ie. your house. OVERHEATED HOUSES BURN DOWN!

So, what to do?

First, if you are planning an indoor pool, seriously consider putting it inside a building that is SEPARATE from your home, or other non-pool structure. Separate means no shared vapor permeable walls, no shared ventilation systems, and no other means by which pool air can reach your house. Build the enclosure with nonflammable, non-corroding components, and use outdoor wiring and fixtures. Do this, and you don't have to worry much, even if you don't manage your chemistry or ventilation properly.

Second, if you are determined to build a pool inside your home, you need to hire someone who has experience in successfully operating indoor pools in such a manner that they do not damage buildings -- and then use them as a consultant to make sure all other components of your pool and construction will work together successfully. Early in your consultation with this person, determine who -- you, your spouse, an outside company -- will be responsible for routine maintenance of the pool, and then make SURE that the design is one that this person can successfully manage.

Third, if you end up purchasing a dehumidification system and full HVAC package, make SURE that someone overseeing the design process understands pools use AND dehumidification AND pool operation. These systems become a major headache, more often than not. Usually the problem is that the system was not properly designed for the particular pool, bather load, chemical systems, and operating pattern unique to the pool. Warning: very, very few people are qualified to do this: based on my experience, I doubt ANYONE is FULLY qualified, but get as close as you can.


 Guide to Pool Buying Online Jump top  Previous  Next  Jump down

No matter how much you are able to save by using the tips I've put on the PoolSolution's website, or in my PoolLetters, you still will have to spend money on your pool. As most of you know, buying right can save you lots of money.

Most of you already know, from my tips pages, to buy baking soda ($0.40/lb.) at the grocery, instead of alkalinity increaser at the pool store ($1.20). But not everything can be bought at the grocery store. Over the next few months, I'm planning a series of articles about how to buy what you need for your pool. The BEST way varies depending on you, and on what you need.

For most, maybe all, of you it remains important for you to find a good dealer . . . and buy from him. It's not fair for you to expect his advice and help for free, and then not buy any of his products. Frankly, I think the really good dealers should be charging for their advice, but the market structure of the pool business doesn't allow for that.

But, the more you know, and the more experienced you are, the less hand holding you need. And, when you truly are ready to do it yourself, there are tremendous savings available if you purchase pool equipment and components online. Currently, if you shop around, you can buy most pool equipment as cheaply as all but the largest pool dealers!

In the subscriber only section below, I've listed online prices for two very commonly sold inground pool pumps: the Hayward MaxFlo pump, and the Hayward Super pump, each in the 1HP uprate size (identical to the 3/4 HP full rate pump!). Most sites sold one of these two pumps, but not both. So, there is little overlap in the two listings.

I've listed true wholesale prices for each pump, as well as the published list price, usually about 2x the wholesale price. Dealers commonly sell pumps for 10% to 20% off list price. Amazingly, online prices for each pump range as low as 45% off list (below true wholesale!). Savings reach $200+ for a single pump.

But, before you rush out and buy online, think twice. Are you ready to take responsibility for installation yourself? These products mostly do not come with do-it-yourself instruction guides. And, if you select the wrong item, you may not be able to return it. If the item is defective, you almost certainly CAN return it, but you are responsible for shipping back to the supplier.

Be realistic. Dealing with a local dealer should be easier than buying online (I know: sometimes it's not). Don't just look at the savings, look at the costs of buying online, too.

 

The Best Prices Online:
(Balance of this section appears only in the Subscriber Version)

 


 EDITORIAL: Lack of Honesty is not just a Problem in the Pool Business Jump top  Previous  Jump down

Before starting Poolsolutions, I was pretty focused on doing what I needed to do to my customer's pools. All of the 'stuff' going on in the pool business was not too interesting, and I only paid enough attention so I could answer the questions I got about this or that AMAZING and MIRACULOUS new pool treatment that a passing salesman promised my customers. The technical pool information I sought mostly was available only through the company back doors -- engineers, customer service agents, and technicians -- and not through the front gate, guarded so jealously by the marketing departments. So, I just ignored most of the pool industries marketing efforts.

But, working with the website, and this letter, and your emails, has forced me to pay attention. And I don't like what I see. As I've shared before, quite a few dealers and service guys, and a few of the manufacturers are a lot better than I expected. Many are just as unhappy with what they see in the pool business as I am. But, overall, the marketing I see in the pool industry is worse that what I would have thought. The patterns of behavior I see actually frighten me.

What follows, won't interest many of you. This is fair warning: if you are not interested in the 'philosophical' side of things in (and out of) the pool business, please just skip this section. Otherwise, keep reading . . .

One of the consequences of having spent several years studying philosophy is that I always look around for a forest, whenever I find a tree. Unfortunately, if the dishonesty and cynicism displayed in pool industry marketing is a tree, it doesn't stand alone. There's shade and darkness all around.

For the young among you, it might be easier to understand if I explain that I'm old enough to have worn beads and long hair. Actually, I only wore beads once or twice, and my hair wasn't ever really that long, and I'm not really old enough to have been a hippie: I was in the last group of 18 year olds to get a draft number (mine was 18!). But, as they say, "it's the thought that counts!". And I had the thoughts.

A lot of people have made fun of that period, from the mid '60's through the mid '70's. A lot of the jokes are well deserved. I'm surprised there are not more jokes than there are. There was much that was pretentious and 'put-on' in the popular culture of the time.

All the kids my age were busy 'doing their own thing' in just the same way as millions of other 'free' spirits. Merely imagining conformity to nonconformity is confusing; trying to achieve it was mind boggling. The slogan, 'do your own thing', was often no more than an attempt to make radical selfishness presentable.

'And, in spite of all the talk about 'being honest', there was much that was dishonest. There always is: people are that way.

Everyone had to ask the big questions, whether they wanted to, or not. What is life? What is love? What is justice? . . . . What is truth?

And everyone had to listen to answers that often went on and on and on. What's worse, they had to pretend to be interested. But, among all the pretense, there were those moments that were genuine. Some of the time, among some of the kids, in some of the schools and communes and cities, things were what they claimed to be.

Sometimes, I wonder if those moments still occur.

When I was in high school and college, everyone -- students, teachers, politicians, businessmen -- all had to feign honesty. Like any widespread public profession of a shared virtue, much of this was hypocrisy. Nevertheless, I haven't been able to keep myself from feeling that all that hypocrisy, leavened with a little real honesty, was better than what we have today.

We've been treated to the spectacle of one company president -- who happens to be the richest man in the world -- claiming, under sworn oath, to be unsure what "is" means when used in a simple English sentence. Another president, also under oath and with a straight face, has claimed that the woman he was with had sex with him, but that he didn't have sex with her.

Were I to venture into the more arcane world of technical and scientific articles, I could bore you with articles that sport artfully written abstracts, which sound like the researcher has proved what those underwriting the research hoped he'd find, even though the body of the article itself laboriously explains that the research proved nothing of the sort. More than a few quotes from these deceptive abstracts have decorated sales slicks produced by marketing flacks in the pool industry . . . and in pharmaceuticals, energy management, tobacco sales, cosmetics, investments, and more.

Everyone -- seemingly -- is in on it. Currently, the Hardee's restaurant chain has paid for a series of TV ads in which 'ordinary' people are rewarded for engaging in extraordinarily selfish and destructive behavior. One extraordinarily dangerous ad -- almost certain to be emulated by a thoughtless teenager this summer -- portrays a young man simulating drowning in order to be rescued by a beautiful model/lifeguard. His reward for this deception is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. As a lifeguard instructor, I am furious at Hardee's for using this fantasy to promote its product. Unprepared water rescues are extremely dangerous, and the chance that someone will die as a direct result of this ad is not small.

Hardee's other ads in this series are even worse. We've stopped eating at Hardees.

Even more recently, we've discovered that the way to get the Olympic games to come to your city, is to budget several million dollars for bribes. It must be OK: everyone is doing it. Olympic swimming already had a checkered reputation, beginning with the East German swimmers years ago, continuing with the Chinese women a few years back, and sustained by the gold medals won by Ireland's Michelle Smith in Atlanta.

Just a few days ago, I discovered the 'end of the story', to use the 'Harveyism': in its just ended conference on drugs, the IOC made it plain that they don't intend to deal seriously with drugs. Apparently, they can't afford to. It seems too many current Olympic and world records were set by druggies, and there is real question whether a clean athlete can ever break those records! Broken records increase viewership; increased viewership equals increased ad revenues; revenues, we learn, are the Olympic bottom line.

On a smaller scale, I just found that one of my favorite software companies, a small Utah based firm called PowerQuest, has decided to play by the kind of rules Microsoft is known for. A recent crash recovery program they've released, Lost and Found, includes license terms that restrict its use to ONE hard drive on ONE computer: if your computer has two hard drives, as mine does, you have to buy TWO copies. Fair enough: a buyer can sell under any terms he chooses. But, the gotcha is that NOTHING on the box, NOTHING in their advertising, and NOTHING on their website discloses these very unusual and restrictive license terms. Nope, you only can learn this minor detail AFTER you've purchased, and opened the product. And, they don't mention even then, that they've used some of the innovative programming they are known for, to make it impossible for you to violate the license.

So, when I read that the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberto Menchu', made up much of the material in her autobiographical account of oppression in Guatemala, I was not surprised to learn that no one was calling for a recall of her prize. (New York Times, 15Dec98) Why single out one lie -- even a really big one -- for special treatment, when our whole culture is drowning in lies and deceptions, coming from all directions, and all groups?

But, I do find it discouraging that it is the American anthropologist and author who exposed Ms. Menchu's lies -- David Stoll -- is finding that he and his academic standing are coming under attack because he exposed what seems to be an academically popular lie.

Do we really want to live in a culture in which deception is publicly rewarded, and honesty is punished?

I don't.

In many -- probably most -- of these situations, people who are on the 'inside' have concluded that honesty and integrity is a luxury they can't afford. Microsoft, the IOC, Michelle Smith, PowerQuest, the Nobel Prize Committee apparently share this conclusion with many pool dealers and pool chemical companies and long distance service telemarketers: honesty will hit them in the wallet and that's intolerable.

I disagree. I think we'd do better to remember the Confucian aphorism:

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

[p. 143, The Wisdom of Confucius, Modern Library, 1943]

I don't believe we can afford to continue to live in a culture in which the only concern is what will sell or will bring more power; in a culture in which lying, cheating, stealing, and private abuse of public power are accepted and expected public behavior.

I'm not naive. I don't think that if we were all to agree that it's not OK, all these things would stop. I don't even believe that we are obligated to tell everyone the complete truth under every circumstance.

But I do believe that when we -- both as individuals, and as members of a culture -- agree to accept this sort of public betrayal and deception, both in ourselves and in others, this very acceptance corrodes both our own lives and our culture.

That's what I think we can't afford.

Ben

 


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