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After a few months of beating my head against the wall, I could not stand it anymore. So I wrote a letter to anyone that would listen. Not many did, but a big thanks to Service Industry News. Maybe we can get some answers, maybe not.

I want to understand why the APSP, an association that is supposed to be “dedicated to the growth and development of its members businesses,” would propose a residential pool water chemistry standard.

There are so many reasons that this is not a good idea, and only one unrealistic excuse that I can think of for even considering it.

It’s easy to hide under the” this is good for the safety of residential pool owners”.  Really?  Has water chemistry safety really been a problem in residential pools maintained by service professionals?  Have we had a lot of water related illnesses in people’s backyards?  A lot of chemical burns? 

Nope – not unless they are taking care of their own pools and that is what this standard may force them to do. Where do we see RWI’s? In commercial pools, THAT have a standard and ARE regulated. In many places across the country the definition of regulated changes. That’s another whole different discussion.

What this standard may end up doing is making once weekly service impossible, if you are going to follow it.  What I’ve heard so far is that it is going to look like the commercial standard, pH up to 7.8 and a max chlorine level of 4 ppm.  Are you kidding me?  Wake up! It is not possible on a once weekly service without some sort of automation?

I live in the tropics of Florida, where pools were up to 94 degrees by this past June, and this is when the rainy season starts.  Yep, I’m lucky if I come back to 2 ppm chlorine after leaving the pool at 15 ppm last week. Throw in 2 or 3 inches of rain and guess what happens. Now pH and balance is my real concern and focus of this letter. It really has little to do with the “safety of pool owners” and more to do with the increased liability to the service professional and decreased liability to the plaster manufacturers and applicators.

While we do have many customers that pay for 2 and 3 times a week pool service, it’s not the chemistry they are worried about. They want the pool clean, the bonus is we get to maintain the balance like a resort. 

And how are they going to enforce this anyway?  The only time I see this being  enforced is in the courts and that’s really expensive. All this does is give me extra liability problems –like I really need that.

All I can say is this is bad for my business.  The Association claiming to support my business needs to have MY back or back off.