Advertise on podcast: The Pools Scientific Podcast

Winter pool maintenance is where most pool damage starts, and almost nobody does it.  Once the cover goes on, the water sits against the plaster, gelcoat, or vinyl liner for about six months, and cold water changes the chemistry in ways the summer rules don’t cover.  John walks through what happens under the cover, why winter pool chemistry runs on the LSI instead of the in season numbers, and what a pool closing kit leaves out.  You’ll hear what causes plaster etching in winter, why so many pools open green in spring, and the month by month plan for testing pool water in winter, from October closing through March.  If you’ve wondered how to winterize a pool so the surface survives, start here.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Pool plaster mottling is one of the most common complaints in new pool construction, and the industry's standard explanation, installer error or bad water chemistry, is usually wrong.  The real cause is calcium hydroxide migration during cement cure, and it has been a solved problem in commercial concrete construction since the 1950s. The pool industry just never picked it up. This episode covers the full mechanism: how Portland cement produces calcium hydroxide as a hydration byproduct, why it migrates to the surface, what it does when it gets there, and how the LSI determines whether your water is accelerating that process or allowing the plaster to stabilize. The fix exists. It's documented. It's been in use in other industries for decades. This episode explains why your pool contractor has almost certainly never mentioned it. Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Pool plaster mottling gets blamed on your water chemistry almost every time. This episode asks a different question.  What if the uneven gray discoloration was decided before the pool ever held a drop of water?  We get into the science of new pool plaster problems, and what pool plaster warranty coverage actually protects you from, and what it does not.  If your plaster is showing discoloration and mottling in the first few years, you are going to want to hear this one before your next call to the builder.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Pool metal stains rarely come from just one source, and this episode walks through the real chemistry behind them.  John covers where metals and minerals actually enter pool water, why iron, manganese, and copper stain differently, and why calcium and magnesium follow the same solubility rules everyone assumes are unique to metals.  He breaks down the difference between a sequestrant and a chelator, walks through a rare copper cyanurate case that took fifteen drain and refill cycles to correct, and explains whether salt water is actually corrosive at pool concentrations.  The episode closes with a full, step by step remediation protocol for anyone dealing with an active metal stain right now, including when algaecide is the right call and when it isn't.  If you've ever stared at a purple pool and had no idea why, this one's for you.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Closing day is the last time anyone touches your pool's chemistry until spring, and most closing checklists skip the one thing that actually matters: what happens to that water for the next five months.  This episode covers pool closing chemistry by pool type, since winterizing an above ground pool, winterizing an inground pool, vinyl liner pool winterizing, fiberglass pool closing, and plaster pool winterizing each carry a different physical risk, not just a different checklist.  From the water level rule that protects a vinyl liner's own shape, to why a fiberglass shell depends on its own water as ballast, to the buffer that lets plaster forgive a bad winter and the two ways that forgiveness runs out, this is the chemistry most closing guides leave out entirely.  Four companion guides, one for each pool type, are linked in the show notes for the complete protocol.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Why does that sharp chemical smell at the pool mean your chlorine is losing, not winning?  This episode breaks down the real chemistry behind combined chlorine and chloramines, the actual mechanism behind the seven and a half percent chlorine-to-cyanuric-acid ratio, and why a fixed LSI range can turn against your pool's plaster and equipment without warning.  Includes a real two-year, zero-CYA field experiment on salt pools, and why some of the most repeated advice at the pool store counter was never built for your specific water in the first place.  This one's about building the kind of pool chemistry confidence that doesn't depend on trusting whoever's behind the counter, knowing your own water well enough to trust yourself instead.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Eight real questions this episode, pulled from the Ask John page, the Trouble Free Pool forums, and real clients of the Pools Scientific field lab.  Every one of them starts the same way: a reading, a calculator, or a manufacturer spec that looks correct and still leads somewhere wrong.  - A plaster pool with a near-perfect LSI still growing scale.  - A salt cell manual that flatly contradicts this show's own numbers.  - A dosing calculator that's right until, suddenly, it isn't.  - And a decades-old warning about your skimmer that's been mostly wrong about what's actually dangerous.  Plus something new at the top of the episode, John's been sitting on for a while.  Have a question of your own? The Ask John page at poolsscientific.com is always open.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Twenty episodes in, this one is different.  Not a new chemistry lesson, a release.  Every dreaded test result, every answer taken on faith from a stranger, every quiet moment of not knowing, all of it gets named directly, and then set down for good.  This episode looks back at everything actually built along the way, not just the chemistry, but the confidence to trust it, and asks a question most shows never bother asking: what did it actually cost to get here, and what do you get to leave behind now that you have?  If pool ownership has ever felt heavier than it should, this one is for you.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Above ground pools, vinyl liners, and fiberglass shells all get treated like the industry's afterthoughts, but the actual chemistry never agreed to that hierarchy.  This episode walks through above ground pool chemistry, including why cyanuric acid protects an above ground pool exactly as much as any gunite pool, the real reasoning behind calcium hardness targets in a vinyl pool, and the honest mechanics behind vinyl liner wrinkles and fiberglass pool blisters, including a real case where an eight dollar fix solved what looked like a ten thousand dollar problem.  Three different pools, three different histories, and one real standard connecting all of them.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

A real member's pool, followed across five real water tests over nearly three months.  Every single time, a retail pool store gave the same handful of generic recommendations, and every single time, the real answer was something else entirely.  This episode walks the whole case file in order: a chlorine reading roughly a hundred and forty times higher than the pool needed, a crash to zero, a stubborn haze, a genuine equipment mystery, and where it all stands today.  A real look at what happens when someone actually pays attention to a pool instead of running the same recipe every time.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Ten products sit on every pool store shelf with almost no real explanation attached: borates, enzymes, non-chlorine shock, chlorine neutralizers, clarifiers, flocculants, mineral and ionizer systems, scale control, defoamers, and phosphate removers.  This episode goes through each one with the actual chemistry, what it is, what it does, and when it earns a place in your pool, no gimmicks, no shopping list.  Learn the real mechanism behind pool clarifier versus flocculant, whether a pool ionizer is worth it, what phosphate remover actually does to algae risk, and why enzyme treatment might save your sand filter media for decades.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Test strips, drop titration, photometric readers, digital salt meters, TDS probes, automated monitors, even your thermometer.  Every real type of pool test kit, not sponsored or promoted, explained with the honest pros and cons of each, so you can pick the one that actually fits how you test.  Then a real world comparison: five different kits, one pool, wildly different numbers, and the actual reason why.  If you're trying to find the best pool test kit for your own water, this covers the whole decision, not just one product pick.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

A health inspector failed a pool that had nothing wrong with it, for having too much chlorine.  What actually happened next traces back through a hundred years of pool chlorine history, a cyanuric acid relationship most codes get wrong, and a real arithmetic error sitting inside a real municipal pool code.  Full citations, both code excerpts, and the chemistry sources are in the show notes at poolsscientific.com  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Every pool runs on the same hydraulic loop, suction, pump, filter, and returns, and almost nobody who owns one has ever had it explained.  John Cooper walks through the real physics behind pump cavitation, why turning a pump up rarely fixes a dead spot, and how a simple piece of equipment most pool owners have never heard of uses pure physics to protect a cartridge filter.  From there, the same water carries into thermodynamics: thermal stratification, evaporative cooling, and how temperature swings quietly move a pool's LSI hour by hour.  It all closes on a real field story, a negative edge pool, a pump fighting sixteen feet of head it was never built to handle, and the pump curve that finally proved it.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.

Your pool can test high on free chlorine and still turn green.  This episode walks through the full life cycle of a pool algae bloom, how it stays dormant for weeks, why it seems to appear overnight, and what actually happens at the cellular level when it dies.  We cover all four types you'll actually run into, green, mustard, black, and pink slime, plus the real chemistry behind the cyanuric acid to chlorine ratio that determines whether a bloom takes hold in the first place.  Then we get into pool algaecide itself: what's actually in the bottle (quats, polyquats, copper), how each one works, and an honest answer to a question the industry rarely explains clearly, does algaecide actually work, or is it solving a problem correct chlorine already solves on its own.  Show notes and free resources at PoolsScientific.com. Subscribe to the weekly email list for episode updates. Ebooks available at payhip.com/poolsscientific. Follow us on Instagram @poolsscientific24. The Pools Scientific Podcast is produced by Pools Scientific LLC — Elevated Pool Care Through Science and Technology.