A new direction

My original goal, when I started PoolSolutions way back in 1996, was to help my customers, who owned or operated a number of very large commercial and public pools in the SE Tennessee / NW Georgia region. It turned out that they weren't interested in spending their free time learning to operate their pool better (duh!), but lots and lots of homeowners WERE interested. And that began the 20 year journey from "WaterCare, Inc" to PoolSolutions, PoolForum, and the "BBB Method".

But, it's time for a reset.

For me, the "BBB Method" was merely a handy label that moderator CarlD created for the general approach to pool care that I'd developed. It was never, never, never a prescription to use "bleach, borax, and baking soda" on all pools. But a lot of people have taken it that way . . . and that needs to change.

But there are other problems.

As I noted, my LOCAL customers were owners and operators of VERY large commercial or public pools, averaging 160,000 gallons of water . . . and 100+ users per day. I suspected that the methods that I was using on those pools would work well for home pool owners, and I was right. But it's turned out that some of the recommendations I've made over the years, while entirely appropriate for large PUBLIC pools, are a bit of an overkill for small PRIVATE pools.

So, a lot of my recommendations need to be trimmed and simplified.

God willing, I'll be developing and publishing this information during 2016 and extending into 2017. But here's an outline of where I'll be going.

Testing:

• For most pools only pH, chlorine, and stabilizer need to be tested regularly. 
• Concrete (plaster, tile, Diamonbrite, et. al) pools need to test alkalinity and calcium more often, but not that often.
• So the K2006 / PS206 / TF-100 kits aren't actually needed for most pools.

Maintenance:

To work well, pools need just 5 things

• Good filtration,
• Consistent chlorination,
• Good algae control,
• Adequate pH control, and
• Adequate physical cleaning

Stuff:

People like to add stuff to their pools: fountains, overflows, toys, slides, salt systems, controllers, heaters, cleaning systems. zero edges, and so on. Without exception, adding stuff to your pool makes it harder to operate, more likely to have problems, more difficult to operate, and more expensive.

There's nothing wrong with adding stuff to your pool, but many people end up regretting the stuff (or the pool) because they didn't understand what they were getting into.

I want to change that, and give people the opportunity to 'just say no' before its too late.