Latest Pool chemistry Podcast Episodes
How to Implement the Orenda Program
Rule Your Pool - March 30, 2022 13:00 - 48 minutes00:00 - Intro 03:12 - What is the Orenda Program? It's a philosophy, not a list of products. 04:45 - The history of Orenda 10:42 - It's never profitable to be reactive. Being proactive is much better. 12:42 - No chemical conflicts 21:05 - No long-term byproducts left behind 26:19 - What is...
What Causes Calcium Hardness to Change?
Rule Your Pool - March 23, 2022 13:00 - 12 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:29 - The amount of calcium carbonate is calcium hardness. How saturated that calcium carbonate is is measured using the LSI. 02:45 - If calcium rises, it's coming from somewhere. If calcium falls, it's going somewhere. 03:21 - What increases calcium hardness? 05:03 - What re...
How Salt Chlorine Generators Actually Work
Rule Your Pool - March 16, 2022 13:00 - 26 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:07 - Giving credit where credit is due 02:25 - Saltwater pools ARE chlorine pools 04:13 - Salt (NaCl) dissolves in water and the sodium (Na) separates from chloride (Cl-). That chloride is what the salt system converts into chlorine 04:43 - What a salt cell is and how it wor...
Preparing for Spring Openings in 2022
Rule Your Pool - March 02, 2022 14:00 - 19 minutes00:00 - Intro 00:59 - What is 2022 going to look like? What can we expect with the supply chain shortages? 05:10 - What can you do NOW to make openings smoother in a few weeks? 08:57 - Most pools with mesh covers (or no covers) will have lower calcium and higher pH than they winterized with....
The Power of Standardizing Pool Chemistry and Practices
Rule Your Pool - February 23, 2022 14:00 - 52 minutes00:00 - Intro....by Jarred? 02:35 - What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)? 07:34 - The root of the word "decide". 17:18 - When people do their own thing in a service business, they are incentivized to cover up their mistakes. 21:07 - Collective intelligence 24:00 - Step 1: Gain contr...
Ways to Reduce Employee Turnover
Rule Your Pool - February 09, 2022 14:00 - 26 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:43 - Swimming is an individual sport AND a team sport. Individual athletes racing the clock are part of a bigger team. This translates to pool companies as well. 04:02 - Let's focus on people. Not the job, not the skills, the people. People are always the most important aspect...
Organic Staining and Tannins
Rule Your Pool - January 19, 2022 14:00 - 22 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:44 - Drinks made from plants have natural color from Tannins. Wine, coffee, tea, etc. 06:10 - Nothing replaces the importance of physically cleaning organics out of the pool. Leaves, acorns and other droppings will overwhelm chlorine if you do not regularly remove them. 10:25...
Uneven Carbonation & other Plaster Discoloration | Calcium Issues, pt. 5
Rule Your Pool - January 05, 2022 14:00 - 31 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:49 - Most people mistake this problem for scale. But it's not scale. 05:05 - This is a chemistry issue, not specific to brand of finish or pigment. This is not a cement or pigment failure, it's a water chemistry problem that can be prevented. 06:01 - How this occurs during pl...
Calcite Crystals | Calcium Issues, pt. 4
Rule Your Pool - December 29, 2021 14:00 - 37 minutes00:00 - Intro 04:18 - Calcite crystals are not the same thing as scale 10:49 - Jarred describes photos of crystals 14:18 - Jarred explains how to prevent crystals, and explains it better than Eric. Well done, Jarred. 25:16 - We know of 4 types of crystals. Each has a different difficulty of ...
Calcium Nodules | Calcium Issues, pt. 3
Rule Your Pool - December 22, 2021 14:00 - 21 minutes00:00 - Intro 02:00 - Look up "nodule" on blog.orendatech.com, and you will find articles that show photos of calcium nodules. You can also do an online search of nodules and find plenty of information. 04:32 - This is the Orenda podcast, and we believe you should hear both opinions on nodules...
Carbonate Clouding and Dust | Calcium Issues, pt. 2
Rule Your Pool - December 15, 2021 14:00 - 38 minutes00:00 - Intro 00:36 - Welcome to the team, Ryan Rickaby! 01:20 - Review of calcium hardness (amount of calcium carbonate) vs. LSI (saturation of calcium carbonate) 04:30 - Soda ash clouds the water instantly 12:10 - Sharing Eric's screen (alkalinity equilibrium), which can be found on the Or...
What is Scale? | Calcium Issues, pt. 1
Rule Your Pool - December 08, 2021 14:00 - 34 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:57 - Definition of scale: Scale is the hardened deposit of a calcium compound that has precipitated out of solution. 02:30 - Analogy of sugar in a drink. This analogy explains the difference between the saturation of calcium carbonate (LSI), and the amount of calcium carbonat...
Draining and Diluting a Pool
Rule Your Pool - December 01, 2021 14:00 - 16 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:42 - Dilution is not always the solution. But it can be the most practical answer to get certain chemistry levels reduced. 06:54 - Evaporation will not lead to dilution, because the dissolved solids stayed behind. Things will accumulate because tap water adds more dissolved so...
Ways to suppress pH from naturally rising
Rule Your Pool - November 17, 2021 14:00 - 27 minutes00:00 - Intro 02:01 - Recap of Henry's Law of differential pressures. Any gas dissolved in a liquid will equalize with that same gas above the liquid. 04:36 - If you exceed the pH ceiling, the atmosphere will literally push CO2 back into the water. 04:57 - Where does CO2 come from when adding...
Water Chemistry Testing: 201
Rule Your Pool - November 10, 2021 14:00 - 28 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:11 - Things can go wrong in water testing, so let's review the common mistakes and interferences. 05:07 - Reagent expiration dates mean nothing if the kit is not stored properly. All test kits have a finite shelf life. 09:10 - Bleaching reagents (very high chlorine) can disto...
Water Chemistry Testing: 101
Rule Your Pool - November 03, 2021 13:00 - 29 minutes00:00 - Intro - Joe's back! 01:44 - Water chemistry testing is important because without it, managing swimming pools well becomes impossible. 05:55 - Water testing is not difficult, but it takes practice and some effort to get good at it. It helps to keep a log of your test results! 06:31 - H...
Introducing the Orenda Help Desk in Pool Service Software (PSS)
Rule Your Pool - October 27, 2021 13:00 - 23 minutes00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Today's episode is about addressing problem pools in the most efficient way 02:02 - Introducing Gus Velez, founder of Pool Service Software 04:36 - PSS users are pool service professionals 07:35 - They had a few chemistry support tickets come in, and they are not chemis...
PPM and PPB
Rule Your Pool - October 20, 2021 13:00 - 14 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:59 - PPM = parts per million. It's the density of a given substance dissolved in water. It's the ratio of that substance compared to water. 1 PPM means the dissolved substance is one-millionth of the volume of water. 03:47 - PPM = mg/L. Converting from the metric system it mak...
Concrete Pool Shell Problems | Weepers, Efflorescence, and Calcium Nodules
Rule Your Pool - October 13, 2021 13:00 - 30 minutes00:00 - Intro 02:54 - Water chemistry did not cause these problems. These are structural issues. 03:54 - Three main problems: weepers, efflorescence, and calcium nodules. 04:09 - Weepers are active leaks in concrete, where water is flowing through concrete. Usually this is from behind the con...
Pool Covers and Winterization
Rule Your Pool - October 06, 2021 13:00 - 27 minutes00:00 - Intro 02:35 - Jarred is wearing a Slytherin shirt. He's more of a Ravenclaw, TBH. 04:12 - Type of pool cover impacts your winterization chemistry (dilution, pH rise) 06:51 - Other types of pool covers that are not for winterizing: thermal and solar blankets. They are not safety covers...
Closing your pool the Orenda way
Rule Your Pool - September 29, 2021 13:00 - 20 minutes00:00 - Intro, reconnect with nature 04:48 - Water would naturally seek balance if you just shut your pool off. But that is not advised, because water would correct itself at the expense of your pool. 08:04 - Err to the high side of calcium hardness going into the winter. LSI balance at the c...
Wildfires and Swimming Pools
Rule Your Pool - September 08, 2021 13:00 - 10 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:10 - Wildfires burn through forests and convert plant life into basic elements...primarily carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. 02:15 - The closer you are to the fire, the more contamination will get in your water. If you can smell smoke, it's getting into your pool too. 03:45 - ...
Pool Party Chemistry
Rule Your Pool - September 01, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:44 - Biggest difference between normal pool days and a pool party: bather load. 05:28 - Visit our Second Pillar of proactive pool care, about non-living organics. 08:21 - Holy trinity of pools: Circulation, Filtration, and Chemistry. All three suffer during a pool party. 13:...
Evaporation and Accumulation
Rule Your Pool - September 01, 2021 13:00 - 19 minutes00:00 - Intro 02:21 - Evaporation is the process of liquid water converting into water vapor (gas). And this process takes energy (heat) to occur. 03:40 - Humidity in the air and the difference between air and water temperature (delta T) are the two main factors that determine evaporation rate...
Containing pH vs. Controlling pH
Rule Your Pool - August 25, 2021 13:00 - 32 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:30 - Controlling pH is not possible. pH moves with anything that happens to the water. It's a reactionary chemistry. 04:07 - Many ways for you to balance the LSI. Use the Orenda App and find out what works for you. 05:45 - Disclosure for commercial pool operators with pH lim...
Calcium Flakes in Saltwater Pools
Rule Your Pool - August 18, 2021 13:00 - 32 minutes00:00 - Intro 03:15 - Calcium flakes and other deposits in salt pools are very common. You're not alone if your pool has them. 05:00 - Our first question when someone calls about calcium flakes: "what is your alkalinity?" 10:33 - How salt cells work, from the inside out 12:16 - What does the...
Combined Chlorine 201: How to reduce combined chlorine
Rule Your Pool - August 11, 2021 13:00 - 27 minutes00:00 - Intro 02:15 - How do we get rid of combined chlorine? Do we just let chlorine do its thing? 02:49 - Two categories of how to reduce combined chlorine: chemically and physically. 03:30 - Two chemical options: breakpoint chlorination and supplementing chlorine with enzyme or a non-chlor...
Combined Chlorine 101
Rule Your Pool - August 04, 2021 13:00 - 30 minutes00:00 - Intro 00:59 - This will be complex chemistry, but very simplified. 02:07 - What is combined chlorine? What does chlorine "combine with"? 05:32 - Combined chlorine is an indicator of your chlorine falling behind, and the byproducts are the cause of bather discomfort, irritation and sic...
Combined Chlorine 101: What are chloramines?
Rule Your Pool - August 04, 2021 13:00 - 30 minutes00:00 - Intro 00:59 - This will be complex chemistry, but very simplified. 02:07 - What is combined chlorine? What does chlorine "combine with"? 05:32 - Combined chlorine is an indicator of your chlorine falling behind, and the byproducts are the cause of bather discomfort, irritation and sic...
Muriatic acid alternatives: Sulfuric Acid, Sodium Bisulfate and CO2
Rule Your Pool - July 28, 2021 13:00 - 28 minutes00:00 - Intro 01:33 - We're in an muriatic acid shortage. Thanks, COVID. 02:21 - Two specialty acids: modified Muriatic Acids for less fuming: AcidBlue and AcidMagic. 03:06 - Muriatic acid is a diluted form of Hydrochloric acid (HCl). It is 31.45% HCl or less. 04:14 - Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) ...
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