Swimming Pool 101: A Crash Course for Rookies

[Music] it's my friend Ben he has lawn care right now right used to work for IBM right I got out of the corporate world of lawn care and now he wants to get into full service so I'm just going over some things that he needs to kind of know about it so so you don't know anything about pools at all no no this is a pool of course and the first thing you know about the pools that the water is not in a natural state you've been to a lake or a pond you know that the water is natural state is to be a swamp grass or green so so the basic thing you're going to do with the pool care is you want to keep the water clear like this that was swimmable and by doing that there's there's three elements there's the chemistry I wish you you watch some of my videos right the bull yes so the chemistry and then there's the circulation we need and then there's the maintenance cleaning and like getting the leaves out dirt out at weight the water stays clear uh-huh so those are the three basic things that you have to do and it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it it does a learning curve like what everything you know what everything you do there's a learning curve so yeah the thing you're going to run into is getting all the knowledge that's quick enough to do it correctly you know you start in the summertime summertime it's like one of the worst times that should do full service because the water is really warm if we're using their pool chemistry's a lot of times out of balance but once you balance everything get it all in shape it's pretty easy and you get the hang of it pretty quick the work here will being zeroing it out what is that zeroing out I mean stick there's no chlorine no chlorine yeah so basically the core is sanitizer that chlorine keeps the water looking good and so if there's no chlorine what happens you get algae you get a green pool it turns back to natural state of water this way and I'll show you the equipment so yeah so all the pools are going to have a basic set of equipment like this okay you're going to have a pump which is this thing right here if you walk we're going to see it's got a motor on the back so it's got a motor and it's got a pump in the front with an impeller that spins like a propeller on a boat that's a pulse of water in so the pump is on the suction side that there's two sides of pool equipment you do if you do like landscaping irrigation water goes one direction only right it goes out to the sprinklers and it turns off and then it comes on again lay down and at that time so what a pool it'll come on this timer is a timer right here it's an inner Matic time very common so these tripperz on/off will have the pool come on a certain time of the day I have it all for you right now you can turn it off manually also on and off and so right now it's off we can talk with I will annoy ya so basically the pump is like the heart of the system so if there's any kind of trouble with the pump motor going out pump not running long enough the circulation part of the equation is going to really screw up the chemistry so you can see like the chemistry is important circulation is also important with that and the maintenance or the third part like I mentioned so the pump has to be operating correctly this is the pool pump pump lid and this is the motor so then this thing here is the filter so all the pools are going to have a filter of some types goes to the water I'll get over that I'll get to that in one second basically you have three types they're cartridge which this one here is basically it's just like a cloth material then you have ve which is another common one in California and the least common one here is probably the sand filter so we're in common here in California but very popular in Midwest things like that all my videos cover those two so two basic components of the pool is the pump and the filter and then this is the heater here most schools in California has a heater that's not necessary but you're going to see the heater here so this is your basic set up this one here has a salt system so you can have salt this particular scene generates chlorine for the pool there's that go it's a little bit complicated but basically it converts the salt and the chlorine with chlorine as an element of salt based and so there's different sanitizers like you know if you watch my videos I go over the chlorine things like that in a salt system salt systems are very popular in California you're going to see a lot of these on the pools here you see a lot of the salsa so they have videos covering every system how to maintain a how to clean it so that's not going to be a problem anything before the pump is considered the suction side of the pool so that's flex the water pump sucks the water in and if I'm pretty powerful this thing can pull 60 to 80 gallons a minute so it's a pretty powerful thing one is running so this is a suction side here in front of the pump you see the pump there and that's the suction side and then it goes through the heater here and it goes back into the pool on the return side it passes through the filter first see this pipe here coming out on top of the pump so it pulls it in here and it goes into the filter the filter filters of water and once this filters the water it goes back into the pool so I'll show you a tool here see the pool size like this Pierce it's about thirteen thousand gallon that's pretty common size pool in California you have some bigger ones too this was about thirteen thousand with this pump here is one and a half horsepower it'll take about four or five hours to get all the water through the filter back into the pool so it's constantly doing this why it's running yeah to keep that that creates the circulation which is part of keeping the pool yeah and you have to know like the signs of your pool how long to run it basically like this one here five hours a day is plenty for this length is 13,000 gallons with 60 count sixty gallons a minute going through it'll circulated all the water and that's because that's called one cycle of water when all the water from the pool goes through the pump into the filter and back into the pool again I guess all the bacteria virus out also helps with the circulate the chemicals in the pool all that keeps the pool looking good you need to circulate it daily daily a single yeah wintertime is not quite as your not the road as long as the water is pretty cold but it was a daily cycle especially in the summer sometimes longer in the summer than you would normally run it so warmer water attracts more more impurities Constans more problems because the chemicals get burned off by the Sun quicker so the Sun UV rays burn off the chlorine the UV rays now there's a chemical we put in the pool is called conditioner or CSI narak acid in a bonds with the chlorine molecule and blocks the UV rays and burning it off quicker so it slows down to burn still burned so for instance without conditioner in the water you put a gallon of liquid chlorine in here within two hours it's all gone but with the conditioner it'll hold for two or three days well because it burns it off slower so that's why hot water is a problem how wet is the problem is not because until first day the water temperature but the Sun like hitting it all day a lot of pools have spas you probably buy 90% of the pools here has flaws attached to them so instead of putting a separate pump and separate filtering they use the same system but you just turn the valves to isolate the water into the spa so you can make the spa self-contained little area with the valve and then when you're done you turn it back to the pool and why it's in full mode the spa will circulate too because of water water will flow into the spot too so it's a little bit complex at first but once you learn about it it's pretty easy that you know most builders don't want to put a separate pump in for the spa separate filter and it is used existing because you don't use you don't use the spas much use the pool so basically these valves here so basically to yourself here this one here on top is the return valve I marked its budget so right now that's all so if you want to isolate the spa you would just simply turn it this way turn the one down here on the bottom that way and by turning those valves that way it makes this existed in spa MO and I'll show you you'll see this apologist circulating like that see how it self-contained the water is going in there returning so so basically the valves control which what gets the water and there's a bypass here I'll show you that right now you're familiar with irrigation so just a bypass sure this is why when this is in full mode fausto circulates because the water will bypass and go to the spa still this is called the check valve and the bypass went lame so that the water's up so the spa's nicely stagnant in full mode lack of circulation stairs so in football so you can see now the tools that cool will be operating I'll walk over here for the homeowner to get this ball working they have to do what you just did come on there's automated systems to where they push a button and everything turns I have videos on that dude it's they're called automated system for this pool the homeowners gotta go back yeah manually turn all the valve yeah but there are automated systems - now you know since the 21st century everything can be automated you work for IBM so you know yeah [Music] here's another look at a pools plumbing you have the suction side here coming inside in front of the pump then you have the return side coming out of the pump going into the filter back out the filter into the heater and the back into the pool let's see how the pool circulating now you have the little water feature and the return Jets and there's an automatic cleaner in this pool here so it's helping to clean the pool so you'll find a lot of these too they were attached to the pool and they there's all different types of cleaners and it helps maintain the pool - it helps yeah but you still need a pool zone you still need a pool guy to clean it yeah and if you know the homeowner doesn't metal you know need to see this cloth circulating these a little overflow yeah so the spa circulates - in full mode that way everything is circulating so that's the key you know the circulation let me turn off that pumps you can give me a little better so that's the three main things you have to really worry about the chemistry the circulation and the maintenance and once you get all three of those in line any of those out of balance pool could look ugly you know some incidences is what what is it basically vacuuming the dirt off every week cleaning all the leaves out of the pool okay because what the leaves do the organic material will kick the chemicals out I'll just water so like a lot of leaves and grass clippings in the pool and the gardener's will really ruin the water if you leave them in there for a week [Music] and there's a basket here so this traps a lot of the debris from going into the pump see I'll show you the basket easier to clean amount of time it does this coming from the auto cleaner this is where the wiring gets pulled in from the pump there's a main drain to on the bottom there's grain on the bottom you can see there but most of the water gets pulled in from here but it's basket in here helps keep the pumps from getting clogged the not sure if you all that debris and we need to pump it over here that's it so how does this is really high up MA get the water gets pumped into here the water gets pulled by that pump that pumps you know and a lot of horsepower so you learn about all this stuff through my videos you know hard to the equipment but the red popsicles that water really really fat powerful pump you know and when I clean that basket some of the debris went through into the pump I'll show you that right now so when I seen that skimmer basket out some of the debris actually pass through which happens sometimes let me get this off so this is a pump lid for the pump and there's a basket in here also so this basket also has degree in it I kind of made it with that every week and then when you think the basket out of the pumps going to filled with water maybe closest particular filter with this every leaf on top you open it up and the water will come out of the filter back into the tone these are a little tricks you can find on my videos too let me close that up tight over here really dangerous you don't to put your whole hand in there see that bowl in there put your hand near that hole and you'll feel the water pressure being pulled in you know feel that pressure it's fully exploited into the hole yeah and that pulls it into the pumpkin echoes into the filter and then back out to extract that goes down to the bottom of the hole I know it's actually pulls in the surface oh yeah this is lots of surface water so this the corner here pulls all the water from the surface to see how it's kind of flowing in from the surface yeah yeah so that folder from the surface of the pool it is all of the dirt close to the surface that's water some dirt on a surface but how do we get this stuff on the bottom usually you vacuum it with the manual vacuum okay or the cleaner will get it see this cleaner working here oh we get the dirt on the bottom yeah okay my channel too is basically how you test the water we have like a basic test kit here and I kind of messed up here you have a basic test kit like this one here it does five test factors it does the chlorine pH the alkalinity and the calcium hardness those are like the pretty basic stuff and you have a more advanced test it for vast sqlite Taylor one here does does the chlorine as a pH it says the alkalinity calcium hardness also does the conditioner level we could test that but that's about seven basic test factors that you want to test for coffee and you test you test for the chlorine and asked to test the chorion acid every week every week the pH and I mean tested the chlorine and pH every week and then every month you do the alkalinity and every three months you do the calcium hardness it doesn't change much neither does the alkalinity they they're pretty stable and the videos cover you know how often the tests and stuff but yeah once a week and so these are these are reagents keeps react with the water and give you a reading I'll show you the chlorine to get an idea so just fill this with water and then you just drop the region in there you see it reacting with the water changing color yeah so that gives you an idea of how much chlorine is in the pool so this is where the matches races Leah yeah yeah all the test kits work on the same kind of basic principle or you match the color so you can see this is like 1.0 or you know like 2.0 right around there and what you're looking for virtually so it's better to be an ideal range here 3.0 102 2.0 yeah those the ideal range is it light yeah so that's how you touch the chemicals it's pretty basic you know give it the hang of it as you do it more often so this is your basic equipment here this is a leaf net you've used this before yeah this is what I use yeah and then the pole of course and then the brush you got to brush your pool first two pools once a week - it helps with the algae and there yes just the walls usually if you're going to vacuum the bottom [Music] I'll show you there's some more advanced test kits also I carry and these are digital like you can do digital reading so there's different test kits you can use basic ones are good they're sufficient so basically the vacuum the pool back in the pool I have this this hooks up to the you know the hole in the skimmer or you put your hand you felt the section will does vacuum hooks up there and then you have a regular vacuum like this here we pull it off you can see it we have the hose 50 foot hose and you have a vacuum and what happens is that all the dirt and debris get sucked in there into the into the pump so that's how that works pretty basic [Music] and the chemicals I carry I carry the the acids lower the pH down and the chlorine we check that it was low someone has about a gallon of liquid chlorine to that bring it up I'll take it out right now and then you have some base to bring the pH out if it's low and I cover that in a lot of the videos to how to add base how to add acid to it so those are the basic chemicals you can also get shocked I'll show you the shocked that I carry you get one of these here it's called Cal hypo you know anything besides liquid chlorine has a pretty good of has a wide effect on on the chemistry so if you add Cal hypo a lot of this raises the pH and calcium hardness so liquid chlorine is probably the best because it has very little effect on the water and then I carry some of these around too this is also a shock it's a try Clorox so it's good to have this in the summertime on my truck in case I run to a pool with a lot of problems and this really helps easy to carry back and I'm carrying a case of chlorine bag versus carrying four bags of this a little bit easier in most cases and then what we do also in California is a lot of pools use these here is a three inch tablet so because these affect the water quite a bit because they have conditioner in them and they also lower the pH how to apply those floater in the pool usually or in line system I have videos on that also so use appliance and pool that way using too much of them has a negative effect on the water chemistry for the raises the chemists stick the conditioner which really high conditioner is not so you would need hardness as opposed to liquid chlorine under what circumstances for you would disease on a weekly basis to kind of keep the coin level balance unless you're at home all the time and able add chemicals if you're doing it once a week like full-service tablets are necessary to keep the kit chemical level high enough in the pool between stops but a homeowner could just use regular liquid chlorine everything every week is their home they can add it you know like on on Monday you got it again on a Wednesday and again on a Friday if they need to but Pool Service is once a week we can't do that so the tablets help get you through the week from week to week so in order to keep it really clean how much time does they have to invest would you recommend the homeowner wants to do it themselves yeah you've got to put in how much time a week typically typically a week to 30 to 45 minutes cleaning it checking the chemistry adding it you know every so often basically what the pool guy spends at the pool you know we spend anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes at a pool so it's typical the same amount of time if they have that to invest a lot of times homeowners don't have this time will do that they're busy working and they get home when it's dark right so that's why the higher sir or the too old yeah I have a lot elderly clients that they can't maintain it it's too hard for them to lift up chemicals and vacuum the pool and the troubleshoot is so and a lot of people are just busy you know so that's where you get a lot of service accounts people that are busy or people that are elderly yeah I can't maintain their pool so basically you know when you balance the chemicals you're going to learn about all the different chemistries chemistries a method called the BBB method will use household products and maintain their pool it's very common it's very easy to do you know basically you two seem chlorine and then the acid to lower the pH and then a base to raise it up those are the basic chemical and conditioner to protect the chlorine from the Sun I go over that all my videos and an e-book has a lot of that into ebooks organizes the things because I could jump around I should attempt to I could attempt to just look at videos and that's fine yeah but they're they're not organized for me to know they're not there must be a message yeah so the e-book is like a regular book with table of contents and so then I have articles and then they are underneath the article or the video links I said like so if you want to learn about the basic chemistry underneath that lisaanne ebook because all the chemistry videos that I have you want to learn how about pool service under the pool service videos with all the full service links and you just click on the link and it takes you to a video on the subject so if you're you know you get to a pool and you ph is really low you want to raise it up my ebook in there shows you how to add baking soda to raise up the I mean that tells you how to add the base to raise up the alkalinity is low or the pH of is low and the district over the mechanics of the full equipment I have several videos on like facing equipment how it works I have someone how to replace the loader how to replace the pump how to clean the filters every almost every filter that you'll find in California is on my channel and other states too so you'll find every single filter that how to take it apart clean it maintain it on on in my book with a link because I have over 600 videos so I have filmed them with everything you build all those yeah oh I know yeah so then 5 years worth of gel malleable yeah I mean that's a lot I should charge for but I gave it away for free you know the other thing I charge for the e-book is I had to pay for the software it's not free so that's why I charge for the book software cost money to format it and put it in the eBook format [Music] this thing here that I'm we're looking at while we're talking this is a assistant vacuum so separate from the pumps and the in the it's separate from the filtration system so you're going to be it's here in Rancho Cucamonga really windy area of California this is really important because a bag goes on top and then it drops all the debris in here this propeller is like a boat propeller so it's it's a thirty pound thrust motor so pulls all the debris into the bag that goes on top so this is like a hugging to clean it out without the pulses yeah you would to use this as a separate system why or Jesus well if there's a lot of leaves in the bottom of the pool like if you see a pool that's really dirty you would need to you need this to get it out because this vacuum would get clogged up trying to vacuum it out a pool vacuum can only take so much debris out of the pool they're just at the bag on top so all the debris gets trapped in here and that's how we get set out of the pool so it's very convenient to have one of these if you're an area where there's a lot of wind and a lot of debris in the pool [Music] this is you know and these cards are also essential like a lot of pool guys don't use these cards I don't know why carrying all the stuff back to the backyard is very difficult you know you put everything in a cart like this and it just goes right back so any questions I went over a lot of stuff pretty quickly oh so basically you're you're giving me everything until you reboot right yeah the book and then I of course to my youtube channel you can find my website you can find everything on those three things to date book organizes everything for you right basically and then if you join my group you know you can text me or and call me I just got a guy which is texting me actually three guys text me today one guy called me from Texas and two guys text me today with problems one has a salt cell problem so did you find that helpful oh yeah yeah so you can take if you watch the videos up when I started out in the business someone had to train me for two months yeah there was no YouTube yeah there were no cell phone I had a pager I think that was I had a pager like in the mid 90s oh very much you have that video hands-on with somebody I had to be trained with someone but now with the videos and everything I mean I watch YouTube videos to fix my car I watch them that I put a microwave in watching a video my house you know that you pull out the instructions of the microwave and it's like small print you know what you're doing I just watch the video and I put my above my oven my boys in no problem and the same thing with the videos that I make you can watch him and learn everything you need I have videos on how to clean a green pool you know just about everything you can find you know like the liability insurance I have a video on that explaining about why you need that every video everything you need for your pool I pretty much cover it so [Music] all right well that's the basics okay so I hope you found this video helpful whether you're a homeowner or someone who's thinking about getting into the full service business and for an additional resource to go along with this video check out my ebook all the information covered in this video is organized in ebooks with video links by section [Music]

Channel: Swimming Pool Tips, Reviews & How To - SPL

Views: 649,054

Rating: 4.8046274 out of 5

Keywords: Swimming pool 101, a Crash course in pool care, I know nothing about my pool, Swimming pool help, Want to start a pool service?, swimming pool care overview vidoe, YouTube Pool care video

Id: JPNPwcX25O0

Length: 26min 35sec (1595 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2017