While we are all sad to see it go, summer is drawing to a close here in Minnesota, and that means it will soon be time to close your pool for the winter. Because of our harsh winter weather, you will need to take steps to prevent your pool and equipment from damage, and you should also correctly treat your water to set yourself up for a clean and clear rather than swampy opening in the spring.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dolphin Pool and Spa Named in First-Ever Top 50 Swimming Pool and Spa Service Ranking
Los Angeles, October 2018 – Pool and Spa News, the premier media outlet for the pool and spa industry, has named Dolphin Pool and Spa in its annual ranking of top swimming pool and spa service firms across the United States and Canada.
Based in Plymouth, MN, the company placed 48 in the PSN and Jandy Top 50 Service List.
Top 50 Service firms, specializing in the cleaning, maintenance, repair and renovation of swimming pools and spas, have proven themselves as the most well-rounded in the country.
Pool/spa service companies from around the U.S. and Canada compete to appear on the Top 50 Service list. To determine this elite group, the media outlet evaluates businesses based on six pillars that indicate business excellence in the field:
* Earning power, based on a company’s service revenue from the previous year, helps determine overall business acumen and success;
* Staff management, training and retention indicate how the firm invests in its most important resource to ensure the highest-quality products and services;
* Participation in the swimming pool/spa industry, peripheral fields, and the business community at large, indicates the firm’s commitment to elevate its profession;
* Web presence makes up a vital part of reaching, informing and staying connected to consumers;
* Community service proves the ability of a business to take its good citizenship beyond its own operations;
* Customer service scores indicate a company’s commitment to what’s most important.
Businesses such as Dolphin Pool and Spa are leading the way for pools and spas, and the industry providing these life-enhancing products, to continue getting better.
About Pool and Spa News:
Founded in 1961 and based in Los Angeles, PSN serves the residential and construction swimming pool and spa industry. It is part of the Hanley Wood family of media platforms serving fields related to housing and construction.
Just a quick note at the end of our season to remind you of how to store your pool chemicals for the winter.
Finally, while pool chemicals are less sensitive to cold temperatures than too hot, most will lose some of their potency if they freeze.
Thank you for the great season, and we look forward to seeing you again next spring.
The temperature is dropping, and it’s starting to feel colder outside. Unfortunately, those two things mean that pool closing season is approaching. With pool closings soon, we would like to take this time to discuss winter closing kits and why it’s a good idea to utilize them.
Why is using a winter closing kit important?
Living in the Midwest, especially Minnesota, the use of a winter closing kit when closing your swimming pool in the fall is undeniably an excellent choice to make. Although people living in cold climate areas, don’t always use a winter closing kit, it can have an enormous effect on the clarity and condition of the pool water when opening in the spring. Winter closing kits are specifically designed to keep your pool fresh and free of algae during those winter months that the pool is not being filtered or circulated by the pump.
What is included in a winter closing kit?
While there are many different brands and formulations of winter closing kits, winter closing kits typically include two products: a formulation of shock and an algaecide. Over at Dolphin Pool & Spa, we suggest BioGuard’s Arctic Blue Winter Kit (available in two sizes: 12,000 gallons and 24,000 gallons). BioGuard’s Arctic Blue Winter Kit includes Arctic Blue Shock and Arctic Blue Algae Protector. In this two-step product, it becomes a convenient way to treat your pool before you close it down for the off-season. The first step, the Arctic Blue Shock, is formulated to oxidize and clarify throughout the winter months, while the second step, Arctic Blue Algae Protector, is used to prevent algae growth. The combination of using these two chemicals will aid in opening to a clearer, cleaner pool in the spring.
Why do I want to use a winter closing kit?
Along with helping customers open to a clearer, cleaner pool in the spring, the use of winter closing kit will save you considerable amounts of money in the spring on chlorine and other pool clearing chemicals. In the springtime when opening their pool, our customers spend a significant amount of money restoring the residual of chlorine that was lost during the winter months and in clearing the water. We have noticed that the customers who use the Arctic Blue Winter Kit will spend considerably less money on chlorine in Spring start-up, than the customers who admit they didn’t use a winter closing kit. Why? Because they don’t have algae and other contaminants using up the chlorine before it can build a residual, therefore using less chlorine and spending less money.
As pool and spa owners we rely on our filters to keep our water crystal clear. But that can become a daunting task especially as our filter media begins to age. You see depending on your type of filter you will eventually get a build up of scale, oils or both. And no matter what your filter type you should chemically clean your filter at least once a year.
Scale
Scale buildup comes from high calcium hardness. When you have too much calcium in the water, it will begin to drop out of solution. As the calcium falls out of solution it will start to form scale, the two places this will happen first are your heater and your filter.
Scale forms first in your heat exchanger or on your heating element because unlike most other chemicals calcium is less soluble in warm water than in cold, so when as the water is being warmed the calcium is precipitating out of solution. As it does so, it forms tiny jagged platelets that hook onto any rough surface. As the scale begins to develop it creates an even more ideal place for new scale platelets to grab hold.
The next most common place to see scale build up in your filter. One side effect of too much calcium hardness is cloudy water because all those nearly microscopic platelets are floating around; as this cloudy water is passing through your filter, some of those platelets get caught in your filter allowing, even more, to get caught. While it is good that your water is getting clearer, over time the efficiency of your filter is reduced because it is full of calcium. Adding a sequestrant to your water speeds up the process of clearing your water but also add to the clogging of your filter.
The fix for this is to clean your filter with a product like BioGuard’s Kleen-It. Using this product at least once a year will ensure that you have an efficient and free-flowing filter.
Oils
Oils in your pool water come primarily from your swimmers. Hair products, makeup, lotions and even body oils all come off in the water. In hot tubs, one sign that your filter is overloaded with oils is when the water begins to foam. The other thing that you will note if your filter needs to be cleaned is a dirty scum line along the water line.
Thankfully BioGuard has a product for this type of cleaning as well, Strip-Kwik. Again it is recommended that this process is done at least once a year to ensure your filter is working at it utmost capacity.