Clear and safe aren’t the same thing. Six numbers tell you which one you have.
Signs you need it
Almost always the stabilizer holding it back.
That’s combined chlorine, the used-up kind, not too much chlorine.
Low alkalinity lets pH bounce with every rain.
How we do it
Cyanuric acid protects chlorine from sunlight, and it also holds it back. At 30 ppm a pool needs about 2 ppm of free chlorine to stay sanitary; at 100 ppm it needs nearer 8, and no amount of shocking fixes that. The only cure for high stabilizer is draining water.
Low alkalinity makes pH bounce with every rain; high calcium hardness scales the heater before it clouds the water; pH above 7.8 costs you most of your chlorine’s strength. They are one system, so all six go on the report and you can see which one moved.
We won’t dose a pool we didn’t test, and we won’t tell you the water is fine because it is clear. Clear and safe are different conditions, and only one of them is visible.
Step by step
Free and combined chlorine, pH, alkalinity, calcium and stabilizer.
One reading out of range usually explains the others.
Only what the numbers call for, logged by amount.
All six, with the range each should be in.
What it costs
No surprise lines. Every job is quoted in writing, and nothing is done until you reply.
In writing, with the reading or the pressure that made us recommend it. Approve all of it, some of it, or none of it.
A partial drain for high stabilizer is quoted in writing on the visit that finds it, never slipped in.
Reviews
Luis has been on our pool every Thursday for two years. The report is on my phone before his truck is out of the driveway, and I finally understand why the chlorine kept vanishing: stabilizer was at 90. They told me to drain a foot instead of selling me more shock.
Honest about the salt cell. It had one more acid wash in it, so that is what they did. When it did need replacing a year later, the quote came in writing first.
Straight answers
Nine times out of ten it is stabilizer (cyanuric acid). It protects chlorine from the sun and also holds it back, so a pool at 80 ppm needs roughly three times the free chlorine of a pool at 30. More chlorine won’t fix it; replacing some water will.
Clear and safe are different conditions, and only one of them is visible. A pool can be perfectly clear with no free chlorine left in it, and cloudy after a storm with nothing wrong. That is why we write the numbers down.
Free chlorine, combined chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness and cyanuric acid (stabilizer). Together they say whether the water is safe, comfortable and kind to the equipment.
Tell us what it is doing. If it can wait, we’ll say so, and if it can’t, we’ll say that too.
Bots On Staff · built for shops like yours
Say the pool has gone green and it asks how long for. Days is chemistry. Weeks can mean the stabiliser is high and it needs a partial drain rather than more chemicals.
It takes a name and a number and hands it straight over. Nothing here is held, booked or confirmed, and it will not price the job.
website from $1,195, paid oncebots from $149 a month
The whole number, on the page. We build your first page free, on your own name, in 12–48 hrs — you look at it before any money moves.
It does not roll over to the next month.
Mini $49 a month (no bots) · Starter $149 a month (starting with bots) · Growth $249 a month (full bots). The website is priced on its own, paid once.
The website is yours to keep, on your own domain. The chat and the marketing stop with the service.
Thirty days’ notice, any time. No year, no lock.
One company per area. When yours is taken, it’s taken.
