Robotic. Suction-side. Pressure-side. In-floor. Gone are the days when telescoping poles and handheld pool vacuums were the only tools for getting the job done. Gone, too, are the days when an automatic pool cleaning system was seen as a luxury. With in-floor pool cleaning systems, jets are built into the bottom of the pool floor,…
Pool professionals at all levels within the industry benefit from the education provided at the Western Pool & Spa ShowMarch 12-14, 2020Long Beach, California The Western Pool & Spa Show at the Long Beach Convention Center boasts one of the largest seminar schedules in the industry. Classes are provided from basic to advanced in both…
Jump into any one of the many pool industry Facebook groups, and you’ll find hundreds of professionals across North America and abroad sharing the good, bad and the ugly in the pool industry, motivated by a desire to connect and learn from each other. Jason Broswell, owner of Pool Service by Jason in Northridge, California,…
Photography by Ian Schatte New Year’s Day was big for the second generation of Mannings. Their ownership of Manning Pool Service in Houston, Texas, many years in the making, was finally official. Jeff Manning, Sr., who had been in the pool industry since 1982, started Manning Pool Service in 2001 as a one-pole operation running…
*Sponsored Content*brought to you by Pentair Good for business, good for the environment In light of the new Department of Energy regulations going into effect in 2021, now is a good time to integrate variable-speed pool pump replacement sales into your business plan. Selling the energy-saving benefits of variable-speed pool pumps (VSP) is quite rewarding, according…
With water conservation at the forefront of so many people’s minds these days, it’s no surprise the idea has trickled down into the pool industry. But Ted Kampe, Western division sales manager for Waterco USA in Augusta, Georgia, has been thinking about it for much longer. A dozen years ago in Australia, he developed the…
For many pool pros, podcasts have emerged as a popular way to keep up with best practices and industry trends while driving from customer to customer. While it’s not a replacement for trade shows or conferences, it’s a valuable method for gaining free industry knowledge from your colleagues and experts. These audio talk shows are…
Your marketing budget requires planning, flexibility Building a marketing budget can be tedious for pool professionals, but as Ian Schatte, marketing coordinator of Manning Pool Service in Houston, Texas, says, the best-laid plans require funding. Schatte prepares a quarterly budget for each department and a large umbrella marketing budget for the year, assessing its largest…
The subject of test kit interferences and whackadoo results has been discussed ad nauseam. The frequency of this topic is beneficial, because knowing your chemistry results are accurate is pretty darn important. We don’t, however, see a lot of the ancillary information these oddball findings bring to light. What is initially observed as erroneous may…
While many pool companies find it challenging to deal with HOAs for building and servicing, Krystle Stiles, owner of Tennessee Custom Pools in Brentwood, Tennessee, says understanding the role an HOA plays in any pool-building process is a must. “HOAs are a good thing,” Stiles says. “They oversee the common areas of a development, manage…
For pool service professionals, raising prices can be a tricky topic. How much to raise prices and how to inform customers of the changes are decisions that should be approached with care. Beau DeRohan, the owner of Great White Pool and Spa in Boise, Idaho, knows it’s a daunting but necessary task. “Our rates are…
Paolo Benedetti says pool owners should not have to accept cracks in pool shells as an inherent risk to owning a pool. While there is a difference between shrinkage cracks and structural cracks, says Benedetti, founder of Aquatic Technology Pool & Spa in Morgan Hill, California, “in a properly built shell, structural cracks should never…