Price Pressure, Manufacturer Conflict, Boric Acid Logistics, & the Chemistry of Disinfection

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Others describe losing bids because they have competitors that are charging $100 a month and yeah, that includes chems.

One technician in Tampa said that they, themselves, they admitted they charged $70 a month for a full residential service and they still feel squeezed.

Welcome to Friday.

I'm Rudy Stankwitz. This is the Talking Pool's podcast. I hope your week kicked ass.

Not kicked your ass. I hope it kicked ass. There is a huge difference.

But you know what? I do know that there are some folks out there who did feel a little bit beat up in this past week.

Maybe in the past several weeks and guess what? You're not alone.

Good morning. Have a quick industry alert one that might not sit well with a lot of folks, but the war on Iran.

I'm just going to say it bluntly does have the capabilities of disrupting the boric acid supply chains.

Let's start with the part that's already changed. American borate is no longer supplying boric acid or borax in the US market.

American borate historically acted as the US distributor of imported boron products primarily sourcing borates from Turkey and supplying them to North American buyers.

The company was not a mining operation. It was a logistics and distribution bridge between overseas producers and US industry.

Turkey matters here because it holds the largest boron reserves in the world and its state-owned producer, Etai Maiden, supplies a significant portion of the global boron market.

With American borates stepping away from this segment, many buyers are now purchasing boric acid directly from Turkish suppliers rather than through a domestic intermediary.

Under normal circumstances, that's manageable. But right now, circumstances are anything but normal.

The war problem, the escalating conflict involving Iran is beginning to stress global shipping routes, while boric acid shipments from Turkey do not originate in the Persian Gulf.

The broader region includes several of the most important shipping choke points on Earth, including the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea Corridor, and access to the Suez Canal.

When conflict destabilizes those areas, shipping companies often respond by rerouting vessels, increasing freight rates or adding war risk insurance premiums.

That doesn't stop boric acid from being mined, but it can absolutely slow down the ability to move it.

Why this matters? Boric acid is a bulk industrial mineral, meaning transportation is a major part of its cost structure.

When shipping routes, Titan supply chains can quickly feel the strain through delayed shipments, freight surcharges, or temporary back orders.

And the pool industry should remember something important. We are not the primary consumer of boron.

Larger industries such as fiberglass manufacturing, agriculture, and detergents consume far more borates than pool chemistry.

If supply chains tighten, those industries usually get priority. The bottom line, there is no current shortage of boron or boric acid production.

But with a major distributor exiting the market and geopolitical tensions rising around key global shipping corridors, the supply chain that moves these materials is under new pressure.

And as the past few years have shown repeatedly, supply chains rarely break because the chemistry disappears. They break when the ship stop moving.

But you know what? I do know that there are some folks out there who did feel a little bit beat up in this past week, maybe in the past several weeks.

And guess what? You're not alone because in the Facebook threads, warehouse, aisles, pool professionals are debating price hikes, automation, Amazon.

And whether or not this trade still has a future. Now, it was a small sample. It was a few dozen pool service professionals and just one thread, but it did have two days of comments, which again, hardly a scientific survey.

But in a land where everything is all raw, raw, yeah, yeah, purple flying unicorn that shit skittles. Here we are dealing with some issues that are not all excitement.

And some of the people are reacting as if it's hurting as badly as shitting out a flaming porcupine. And if you're a manufacturer, listen, this message is loud and clear for you.

I am going to go through the gist of it. I'm going to tell you what came up and what was said, especially now we have all of these state of the industry of things coming out.

I didn't analysis on one of them a few weeks ago. And they are mostly positive. And guess what? It is mostly positive, the emotion, the drive.

But there's also some serious concerns that the manufacturers need to open their fucking ears and listen to. Thankfully, it was not any of the manufacturers that sponsor the talking pools podcast.

There are quite a few good ones out there, but then there are those where they don't want your loyalty. They want your credit card. You're not a customer to them.

You're a transaction. They care about your wallet, not your well-being. And to them, you're revenue with a pulse in this comment from one service company entrepreneur hits.

Reps only care about padding their pockets. We have few reps that really want to help.

The best training I've attended was Fluidra. Pricey, but worth it. Small companies can't compete with online pricing when the price is lower than what we pay at distribution.

Many are like myself. We do everything but build. Either way, we don't just work on one system. We work on them all, including off brands.

We never know what we're going to pull up to on a job. We may favor a manufacturer over another, but we can't just change out a system because we don't like it. We have to learn it and move on.

Software pricing is insane. When skimmer started, it was okay. Price was way better than. It's 4x, the amount it was when we started.

I love this industry, but it's nothing like it was when I first started.

I miss those days. People, reps, manufacturers, etc.

Actually reached out, trained, gave samples or items to try, along with marketing materials for your store.

Signs, shirts, displays, you name it. They actually had to work for your business. Today, you're lucky if they even return your calls.

I will say it's not all of them, but majority. I could go on and on, but I'm sure it's the same everyone is going through.

We have an industry under strain. It's not collapsing, but it is quietly reorganizing in real time. I'm definitely overdue for a price increase.

One entrepreneur wrote, plan on doing it right before the summer. So that way, if I lose a few, it'll be too hot to care.

So that was meant as a joke, but you know what? It read like a strategy.

So in Florida, ground zero for America's backyard pool economy service providers openly acknowledge charging only a fraction of what service companies and other states demand.

As low as a third, others describe losing bids because they have competitors that are charging a hundred bucks a month. And yeah, that includes chems.

One technician in Tampa said that they themselves, they admitted they charge 70 bucks a month for a full residential service. And they still feel squeezed.

Well, the baddest text in the pool service, seeing the pool service ass kickers who listen to the talking pools podcast. That's you. You're a bad ass mofo.

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Must pop by the pool tech, talkin' pool spot, cat, pools checkin' water balance with Clint Eastwood's crit.

No pool stain is too tough. Adjustin' flow rates were always enough, like Wonder Woman, adding borrots, Mike Tyson, knocking out filters.

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This pool service pros a bad-ass machine, making waves in the game. If you know what I mean, kicking queen of the green, clean like a talkin' pool.

In the land of the free, they give all that they've got.

One technician in Tampa said that they, themselves, they admitted they charged 70 bucks a month for a full residential service and they still feel squeezed.

This is not an industry anchored by price discipline, it is anchored by fear.

Fear of losing accounts, fear of pricing too high, fear of being replaced by the next guy with a truck in a test kit.

When pool pros talk about raising prices only when it's so hot that they won't care what they're describing is not market strategy.

That's emotional timing, and emotional timing is what emerges when math is unclear.

Very few in the thread referenced hard numbers, route our cost overhead absorption margin targets.

Instead the conversation circled around feelings, risk, exhaustion, resentment, the tone was unmistakable.

If pricing anxiety is one fault line distribution is another, multiple professionals describe the reality that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.

Buying or manufacturer parts on Amazon because they are cheaper and shipped faster than local distribution.

One tech cited a sensor priced at 109 bucks to distribution 45 bucks OEM on Amazon in 12 bucks for a knockoff is client then walked at the $250 installed invoice.

The math has changed.

Manufacturers once relied on local professionals that their primary channel the market today massive internet fulfillment centers move equipment and volumes at dwarf entire regional service ecosystem tech.

You can even find brand name pool equipment in fucking Walmart as one comment or put it if you combined all the pool companies in Michigan they would not match the volume of a single warehouse shipping heaters out the door.

That matters.

When professionals feel undercut by the very manufacturers whose products they install something deeper than margin erosion occurs.

Trust erodes.

The manufacturers don't care about us professionals anymore one tech wrote.

They're making so much money selling online again not a peer reviewed data set it's anecdotal.

I'm not going to claim that we had thousands of people involved in the conversation or even that we had a hundred people involved in the conversation but it did have individuals from across the continent and it is emotionally consistent another undercurrent ran through the discussion durability some of the veterans recall equipment lasting two decades now.

Everyone's citing life expectancies of seven to ten years some is lowest five some is lowest three whether those figures reflect documented engineering data or field perception it's beside the point because it's perception that drives behavior if professionals believe equipment fail sooner they lose brand loyalty if parts become harder to source they lose patience if warranty training feels more like up selling the education they lose enthusiasm and loyalty dissolves.

Installation decisions shift to price not partnership the long arc of trade craftsmanship begins to flatten even the invisible tools of the trade software platforms accounting systems they are under scrutiny nervous companies are complaining about the per account pricing models rising subscription fees dependency without proportional support in many industries software is priced per user.

In the pool sector we're all being charged per service account that's created a lot of friction one tech said software costs are approaching the point where the value of said software is not there that frustration is not that software exists it is that it has become indispensable and expensive dependency amplifies resentment maybe the most striking comment in the thread came from a 30 year veteran who announced he was leaving the industry for crypto.

We are becoming obsolete as pool cleaner technicians he wrote the automation will soon replace us here comes Megan with a telephone is that realistic probably not in the near future robots are not navigating complex plumbing pads or diagnosing obscure water chemistry problems but the comment reveals something else.

After decades in the trade that person felt unprotected by distributors unsupported by manufacturers squeezed by price competition and replaced by technology narratives it's not a labor shortage problem.

Another pool guy pointed at a cycle that economists would recognize immediately companies pay text modest wages then the tech goes independent then the market supply increases and the prices drop the margin strength wages stagnate and then the loop repeats take a look at Florida your round climate it lowers the barrier to entry.

If you want a truck a truck a poll some tabs and a bottle of test strips and boom a new pool service company pops up in your town you know what they might only last year but there will be someone else that replaces the next year with the same gutter guzzling strategy without strong pricing discipline fragmentation accelerates then here's a question in the thread that lingered is there is ceiling on what the homeowners will pay.

Yeah but price ceilings are not fixed by inflation charts alone they are shaped by the density of competition perceived complexity in the perceived replaceability of the technician and markets flooded with low cost pool service companies the ceiling lowers and markets where services positioned as expertise rather than labor.

The ceiling rises again i'm not talking about national averages the amount of folks that I spoke to it is not quantify elasticity curves it does however reveal that many operators are unsure where that ceiling lies and they're afraid to test it because as the.

Manufacturing distributor prices rise you might just say fine that's okay i'll just rise the call raised the cost of my customers.

To make up for but you know what your customers are only willing to pay so much for service and as the manufacturer distributor prices rise we start to get backlash on every one of your price increases from every one of your customers because it's just getting higher than the perceived value the margin shrinks down into single digits and then why do we even get out of bed in the morning.

It would be irresponsible to extrapolate to far from a few dozen online comments again the American pool service industry spans tens of thousands of companies chemical pricing has.

Or does it at least seem to have stabilized since the volatility of the pandemic years buying groups do exist some pool companies are thriving but i'll tell you what from this conversation there are a few patterns.

Chronic under pricing channel conflict with manufacturers distribution distrust software fatigue labor fragmentation burn out this is not collapse it's an inflection point industries rarely implode in dramatic fashion more often they reorganize stratifying into tears at the bottom high volume low margin operators racing against heat and exhaustion.

In the middle fearful pricing unstable footing at the top discipline margins selective clientele deliberate positioning the middle tier feels the most pressure and pressure when sustained reshapes markets in the race between heat.

Amazon automation margin math America's pool professionals are asking a question that reaches beyond chlorine and cartridges beyond album and boards who exactly is this industry built to serve and how long can it serve everyone at once these are real fears these are real concerns and.

May maybe just a small percentage but they should be addressed so that one comment got me thinking 30 year veteran that's leaving for cryptocurrency what about you have you ever wanted to quit jacks magic products is your industry leader in identifying removing and preventing stains how with a range of high performance equal friendly products keeping pool safe clean and ready to use all year round the jacks magic three step program is a quick and effective way to remove stains and scaling first we identify the problem then our top.

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I've been getting service industry news since I first stepped into this business and every time it landed I did the same thing flip straight to the horror file the weird installs the absurd finds the stuff only pull pros ever see then I go back and read the articles.

Service industry news is a twice monthly trade publication for pool and spot service text 24 issues a year emailed free to over 10,000 text and available on their app every issue covers nationwide industry news and real technical content you actually will use get your free subscription at service industry news dot net.

This question comes from Simon Sprag badass pool warrior out of Spain owns and operates tech pools of alaconte hope I said that right in Spain comment on my last podcast episode which he responds to it on Facebook I know I didn't give enough information to give the whole just of the scenario there so I'm assuming he listened to the episode on last Friday as well.

But I did want to address it it's a little bit lengthy so I might break it into pieces as we go instead of just doing it all in one shot because I don't want to leave anything out because he did definitely take some time in asking this and but I'll just let's just read it there we go.

I just read your Facebook post in case my comment gets buried here are some thoughts for you this Rudy is a great debate you are technically correct of course the LSI has little to do with disinfectant efficacy my view is there are two distinct considerations disinfectant balance saturation index balance whilst we all agree pH effects.

hyperchlorous acid hyperchlorate ion balance but where signer acid is involved then the required prediction is the 7.5% rule so Simon's talking about the fact that signer acid is in the water thus slow down how chlorine works but if we maintain a chlorine level.

7.5% of whatever the signer acid level is we're good to go as far as preventing bacteria algae germs and wall that means is if you ride your signer acid level at 100 parts per million you need to maintain a chlorine level of 7.5 parts per million hopefully nobody's up that high but if we're 50 parts per million then you're looking at 3.75 ppm or just 4 parts per million and that's more than sufficient and 50 parts per million is next where you should be anyway out.

He goes on to be clear I am not a chemist so I tested theories in real life circumstances much as we all do definitely as I do.

Keeping the the 7.5% CYA less than 50 parts per million all is good but this means that no stabilized product is best dispensing and is best dispensing every hour or even more frequently at low levels.

So yeah if you're topped out at 50 parts per million for signer acid and we're adding stabilized product obviously that level is just going to climb so what Simon's saying here and I agree if you once you hit 50 if you were using stabilized products stop you've reached the point that you want to be at switch to liquid chlorine switch to calcium hypochloride something otherwise be prepared to build up to a point where you're going to need to drain and refill so I agree with you on that as well Simon.

He is also stating that the best way to add a disinfectant is in controlled smaller doses over long periods of time not dumping in two and a half gallons on Wednesday jacking the level too high and then allowing it to trichle off the course of the week hoping there's still some testable level of chlorine in the water when I arrive next Wednesday.

Simon is on the money here as well for the love of a pair of underwear with so many holes in it that it whistles when I fart install either automation or a Cal hypo tab erosion feeder.

The pH value is big hyped value and is also volatile in nature again more practical analysis reveals a linear correlation of free chlorine strong acid pH control and parentheses which in outdoor pulls relates to CO2 off-gassing therefore the conclusion is to relate pH to chlorine use then control pH against the LSI elements which avoids range chemistry it does.

But like I said last week range chemistry does exist for a reason and as I went into in the episode in your typical pool if you stay within the ideal ranges your LSI will be in balance there are exceptions there are always exceptions as far as pH goes yes I know we can balance to the saturation index at a high pH but there are other factors to consider.

At a high pH mustard algae and black algae will grow better that environment is more conducive to the growth for those two types of algae on the other hand a lower pH less than 7.5 is better for green algae so it depends what's your geographic battle where we fighting against determine where I'm going to keep the pH based off of that doesn't mean that if my pH is over 7.5 I'm definitely going to have black algae or I'm definitely going to get mustard algae doesn't mean that at all.

What it means is there's an environment more conducive to that so there's a better chance you could doesn't guarantee that you will the same as if it was lower than 7.5 it doesn't guarantee you're going to end up with a green algae problem just means that that condition is better for green algae growth the other things to consider we've spoken about it before as well.

When your pH is high you have more hypochloride ion than you have hypochlorous acid cyanide acid attraction or rather hyperchlorous acid attraction to cyanide acid is not the same as hypochloride ions attraction to cyanide acid in fact hypochloride ion does not have an attraction and at a higher pH we have more hypochloride ion than we have hypochlorous acid so what we see is that starts to peel away and as it peels away we lose it to solar UV

degradation and we actually use it at a much quicker rate than we may have otherwise then on top of that we have to look at how our specialty chemicals work.

Most of them don't work as well with the higher pH phosphate removers for example if you add your dose of lanthanum to a pool when the pH is on the higher side the lanthanum is going to react with the carbonate and the water and cloud it.

That's what's going to happen instead of reacting with the phosphate and the water which then would have made no clouding so we want to avoid that as well because what that means is then you're going to have to add more phosphate remover to do the job and it's not true just a phosphate remover is it's your algae sides it's your your keylating agents go through they all have a pH where they work best and a lot of them are lower than that 7.5 mark so that's why I suggest that we look at the ideal ranges first if we can.

Definitely double check the LSI if your calcium hardness is 500 parts per million coming out of the tap my whole thing within the ideal range thing isn't going to work just not going to happen so yeah I get it.

That's where I was out on that one the result is back to Simon the result is swimmer feedback of greater comfort we found a huge reduction in structural damage scale formation that all said you put forward well balanced

skittered science based presentation but our bottom line is the poor pool person cleaning pools our role is to make their lives easier and take away the hassle my current solution works well galling this across an industry at war is another subject factors think outside pools using ORP reactive measures are the solution okay in reality 99% of pool cleaners don't know what ORP means they think redox is something to do with pH the industry argue salt for us is chlorine is what he's saying.

The manufacturers still think with salt you use less chlorine than with chlorine even though salt is chlorine okay a little bit of a tongue twister there Simon so so it's so really what do you think so I think we talk about making it simple for the people in the field I gotcha I get it you know what and three decades ago it was just simple that was it you had this when this happened you had that when that happens everything is cookie cutter we do it just like so and mostly what we did was go out and add chlorine and acid we vacuumed we brush we.

You know we netted leaves we did those things but we mostly just added chlorine and acid and I get folks that say to me you know we're making it harder it should be simple it used to be easy why are you making it harder than it needs to be.

It's not that we're making it harder and it's not that it's getting more complicated it's just that 30 years of advancement in science we have much better information we have better tech and we can now get a better feel

or a better idea we have proof of what we're actually doing to the pool by exercising a certain step or by omitting or overlooking or not testing or testing for we have much much better information we've come up with much better product to handle the different tasks we want to

have a pool that's in good shape clear water no algae we don't want to damage the vessel whether that's scaling or etching we don't want to damage the equipment I get it but

I don't want to dumb down the information for the new pool new pool tech either if the job has changed right I look at it like this you know look at your landscaper your

landscaper comes out they edge lawn they mow the lawn they do this they do that and they can look at a patch of grass and tell you why it's dying they know how long the grass each

blade has to be for the time of season for the grass to root best to survive whatever your geography brings to it and then you have the

kid down the street with the lawnmower and that kid comes out and mows the lawn and leaves doesn't know a fucking thing about how grass grows just that it

does it just grows it just is so you have a choice in which pool pro you want to be you also have a choice in which pool pro you want to have

working for you I think they get easier to start but as they go on we should be producing pool pros whose thought process are more in line with modern chemistry and

scientific advancements in the industry and if that's not the people that we're hiring if the people were hiring can't get to that point maybe we're

hiring the wrong people maybe we need a better quality person somebody who has the capability to grow and yet we don't need them to be a

chemist not at all Simon I agree with you wholeheartedly but you know what Simon you should want them to be at least as good as you are I

mostly use the ideal ranges as a goal to shoot for in corrections I don't use an app I do it written out on paper so I calculate what I

need to do myself and then I look we have basically three values that have an ideal range total

alkalinity or carbonate alkalinity calcium hardness and pH that's it those three and if those three are in the ideal range

your saturation index is most likely to be balanced that's again in dealing with typical pool so we can do both

teach them the saturation index and if there's a problem tell them to shoot for the ideal range if they can't they can't

okay we need to tweak it some other way but if they can why not so yeah we can dumb it down to start but don't

dumb it down and make that the job the job is not a dumb down job if you dumb down the job and keep it dumb that

person working for you is going to be a dumb down dipshit and nobody wants a dumb down dipshit doing a damn thing

at their pool or for their company you feel me send them the classes send them to education teach them how

to use the saturation index I don't want to dumb it down the sign and I don't think you're asking me that I don't

think that's what you're asking me in what I'm reading here because I know the value you put on a well-educated

tech but they do need no water chemistry they need to know what we know and they'll get there and through I

don't think the saturation index is a very complicated thing especially with all the apps that are available nowadays

it makes it super simple I don't think we should use one or the other on its own like I said I think we

should use both anyway great question as always Simon this is not his first rodeo with us Simon is a long

time listener and I appreciate you my friend thank you so that one comment got me thinking the 30

year veteran that's leaving for cryptocurrency what about you have you ever wanted to quit and have you

hit that wall I have more than once this industry for as great as it is it will test you it will test your

patience it will test your marriage I get it there's just days that you feel like you're holding

together a business with zip ties but here's the part maybe you don't want to hear you don't get to

quit you're not allowed to why this industry needs pros like you we need you this job is hard running a

small business is hard but a pool service company that is an entirely different level of hard you're the

chemist the mechanic the bookkeeper the therapist the collections department all in 95 plus degree

heat enough to cause you to lose your shit during the pandemic we were deemed essential not because we

vacuum leaves because cloudy water contributes to drowning because stagnant water breeds mosquitoes

because sanitation matters you protect public health in work boots or crocs depending on who you are so

before you say you've felt my lord take a look at how far you've come remember your first month when

you were guessing every green pool felt like defeat now you can hear a pump and immediately know what's

wrong you can read water before you test it sometimes tell me you can't I'm not saying that you can tell

it's good by looking at it but you know what you get a pretty good feel for your pools because they do

develop patterns you've handled storms you've handled hurricanes you've handled blizzards shortages price spikes

getting no chlorine no acid you made your way through that and that's not luck that's growth that's

grit and maybe you didn't hit your number so what if you aimed for the summit and landed halfway up you're

still halfway up most people talk about being their own boss well guess what you did it most people quit

in the first brutal season you didn't the reason you're exhausted is because you care that way you

feel that's ownership that's pride you don't need to figure out the next five years just win tomorrow

one more route one more invoice one more sunrise rest if you need to raise your rates if you

should fire the headache customer but don't quit on something you built with sweat and grit because

this week punched you in the balls you are stronger than you feel this season is just beginning and

so are you you got this God bless the pool pro

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when you introduce chlorine into a swimming pool whether

it's sodium hypochloride calcium hypochloride trichloride

dichlor every one of them produces the same active disinfectant once it's dissolved

hypochloris acid that's the molecule doing the work

not the word chlorine the word

hypochloris acid in water hypochloris acid exists in equilibrium with the hypochloride ion

that equilibrium is controlled by pH

lower pH shifts the balance toward hypochloris acid

higher pH shifts it towards hypochloride ion

hypochloris acid is dramatically more effective as a disinfectant than hypochloride ion

orders of magnitude more effective

so when we talk about pH not talking about swimmer comfort

we're talking about molecular speciation

we're talking about how much of your sanitizer exists in its most biologically aggressive form

hypochloris acid is small it's electrically neutral and that neutrality matters

because neutral molecules cross lipid membranes far more efficiently than charge species

bacteria have phospholipid membranes

viruses have protein capsids and sometimes lipid envelopes

protozoa have protective outer structures

hypochloris acid can diffuse through those barriers

once inside the cell initiates oxidative reactions

it oxidizes amino acids it reacts groups in enzymes

it damages membrane it alters nucleic acids

this is multi site oxidative assault

enzymatic pathways collapse membrane permeability changes

genetic material becomes compromised cellular homeostasis

fails and that failure is disinfection

it is forced oxidative collapse viruses are different

they don't metabolize they are nucleic acid enclosed in proteins

sometimes surrounded by lipid

hypochloris acid if a lipid envelope is present

it oxidizes those lipids

once structural proteins are altered viral attachment mechanisms begin to fail

that is viral inactivation

now introduce cyanoric acid in the outdoor pools

cyanoric acid forms reversible complexes with chlorine

producing chlorinated isocyanurate species

those complexes serve as a chlorine reservoir

they protect chlorine from UV photodegradation but they also reduce instantaneous concentration of free hypochloris acid

so when you measure free chlorine

you are measuring hypochloris acid, hypochloride ion

and chlorine reversibly bound to cyanoric acid

until disinfecting strength depends on the equilibrium between free chlorine and cyanoric acid

that's why the free chlorine to cyanoric acid ratio matters

not because someone said so

but because equilibrium chemistry demands it

now let's separate oxidation from disinfection

they're related but they're not identical

when chlorine reacts with sweat, urea, ammonia, skin oils, pollen, leaves

that's oxidation demand

when chlorine reacts with ammonia it forms monochloramine

with additional reaction dichloramine

further chlorination produces nitrogen

trichloride these are combined chlorine species

they are weaker disinfectants and stronger irritants

breakpoint chlorination is the point at which sufficient chlorine has been introduced

to oxidize chlorinated nitrogen intermedians

toward nitrogen gas and other end products

that is chemical cleanup

disinfection specifically refers to pathogen inactivation

two different reaction pathways

now let's talk about oxidation reduction potential

because rp does not measure chlorine concentration

it measures the electrochemical tendency of the water to accept electrons

that's it

hypochloris acid contributes strongly to oxidation potential

hypochloride ion contributes less

chloramines contribute weekly

cyanoric acid lowers measurable or rp because it buffers hypochloris acid concentration

so two pools can both show four parts per million of free chlorine

one may exhibit significantly higher disinfection kinetics than the other

same number different chemical environment

swimming pool is not sterile

it's a managed oxidative environment

you are not eliminating all microorganisms

your maintaining conditions where pathogens are inactivated faster than they can replicate

disinfection in a swimming pool is redox chemistry

it's electron transfer

hypochloris acid functioning as oxidizing agent

biological molecules are oxidized when enough critical molecules are altered

integrity fails

and that failure is death

so what's actually happening is equilibrium management between hypochloris acid

ion chlorinated isocyanurids monocloramine dichloramine nitrogen trichloride

organic nitrogen compounds and environmental oxidant demand

hydraulic mixing and mass transfer

you are managing a dynamic redox reactor

that is disinfection

now if we look at UV radiation

that drives fatalities

ultraviolet photons strike hypochloris acid and break chemical bonds

hypochloris acid can have an effective half-life of under an hour in strong sunlight

half of your active disinfection gone

not consumed biologically but destroyed by photons

with cyanoric acid present

chlorinated isocyanurid complexes absorb UV differently

chlorine bounds a cyanoric acid re-equilibriates as hypochloris acid is degraded

the apparent half-life extends

but increasing cyanoric acid lowers instantaneous hypochloris acid concentration

you gain persistence but you sacrifice speed

so everything is a trade-off

now considered disinfection byproducts

when hypochloris acid reacts with organic matter

hydrogenated organic compounds formed

trihalomethanes such as chloroform

holiocytic acids formed through repeated halogenation and oxidation

these compounds accumulate under high organic load and insufficient oxidation

indoor pools often see higher accumulation because there's no UV degradation and limited volatization

they are evidence of chlorine reacting with organic material

they are not optional

they are consequences of halogen chemistry

control requires turnover

oxidation management and beta load control

now introduce advanced oxidation

like ozone hydrogen peroxide

catalytic systems

these generate hydroxyl radicals

hydroxyl radicals are among the most reactive oxidants in aqua systems

they are non-selective

they attack lipids, proteins, aromatic structures

and complex organics at diffusion control rates

they exist briefly

but in that brief existence

they fragment complex molecules

properly engineered advanced oxidation

reduces chlorine demand improperly engineered

it could accelerate chlorine degradation

and again system design matters

hyperchlorous acid is electrically neutral

hyperchlorite ion is negatively charged

microbial membranes are negatively charged

electrostatic repulsion slows hyperchloric penetration

so higher pH slows disinfection kinetics

and again someone's going to bring up the fact that well with cyanoric acid

the pH really doesn't matter as much

that's right because higher pH slows disinfection kinetics

it still does is just the starting point is so much lower

when you have cyanoric acid in the pool

temperature increases reaction rates exponentially

because more molecular collisions exceed activation energy thresholds

higher temperature accelerates oxidation

and disinfectant decay

lower temperatures slow everything

same chlorine level

different kinetic reality

think cold plunge pool

urea from sweat and urine reacts slowly with chlorine

it forms chlorinated nitrogen intermediates

these contribute to monocloramine dichloramine

nitrogen trichloride formation

nitrogen trichloride as you remember

is volatile it leaves the water and accumulates an indoor arid

is responsible for respiratory irritation

and the characteristic chlorine smell

when you're walking to an indoor pool

that smell is not free chlorine

it is chlorinated nitrogen compounds

and ventilation break point oxidation

and bather load management determine air quality

as much as water chemistry

in one of those environments

RP probes measure

measure electron flow potential

metal ions like iron copper and manganese shifts

between oxidation states

those redox transitions

influence the electrochemical environment

metal oxidation consumes chlorine

metal redox couples influence

ORP readings

the probe sees total redox environment

not just hydrochlorous acid

add to that biofilms

microorganisms produce extracellular polymeric substances

polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, or extracellular DNA

that matrix consumes oxidant before it penetrates

inner cells survive beyond diffusion barriers

disrupt the biofilm and chlorine demand spikes

brushing is biofilm control

circulation is oxidant delivery

chelation is redox stabilization

this is not a bucket of water would bleach in it

it's not it's a dynamic sunlight exposed nitrogen fed

electrochemically active oxidative reactor

understand that stop thinking and parts per million

start thinking in equilibrium kinetics and mass transfer

that's the difference between adding chlorine

and understanding disinfection

and that is all I have for you today

I know it was a lot

I apologize for that

the bottom line here is

I get that there are struggles

I know that as much as anyone

price increases

it hard and then we do raise those prices to the customer

but is there a limit in how much they're willing to pay?

I guess I'll leave you with that question

because that's the one that's on my mind

that said I know you're out there busting your ass

I know it's a hard job

and you're crushing it

I'm honored to know you

if you should get to that point where you are ready to say

fuck it and get out of pools

and trust me I hope you don't

but if you ever do pick up the phone and call me first

I'm not hard to find

God bless the pool pro

that's all I have for you this week

I'm ready to stank with

this is the Talking Pools podcast

until next time

be good

be safe

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I just wanted to take eight minutes to say thank you for listening today

I'm hoping you enjoyed the episode as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you

listen it's been a couple of wacky crazy screwed up years from pandemic to pool

again I just want you to know that we are all in this together

if there's anything that we can do for you

send me an email at talkingpoolsatgmail.com

again that's talkingpoolsatgmail.com

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