All Posts

PoolRx is a small mineral unit that sits right in your pump basket. As water flows past it, it slowly releases copper into the pool, and copper is a natural algae fighter. What it does well: it keeps algae from getting a foothold, so a lot of pools can run a little less chlorine day to day and still stay clear between visits. The Honest Tradeoff The copper does not leave with the water. Unit after unit, season after season, the copper level quietly creeps up, and nothing take

Halloween decorations around your pool, part two: inflatables, cords, and fog machines. Those giant yard inflatables are basically sails with faces. Use the stakes and tethers that came with them, choose a flat spot, and bring them in when strong wind is coming. If one blows into the pool, it can cover the skimmer and block the water coming in. That makes the pump work harder, and no decoration is worth equipment trouble. For plug-in decorations, keep cords and appliances awa

Your automatic pool cleaner was doing laps yesterday, and today it is just sitting there. Before you assume it is broken, check the suction. Most of the time it is something simple. A suction cleaner has no motor of its own. It borrows power from your pump, pulling water through the skimmer, the pump basket, and its hose. Block that flow anywhere and the cleaner stops. Check one, the pump basket. If it is packed with leaves, water cannot get through and suction drops. Turn th

When we test your pool, this spinning disc test reads six numbers at once. Each one tells us something different about your water. First, free chlorine. That is the chlorine ready to work right now, killing germs and algae. It is the number we protect. Combined chlorine is chlorine that already fought and lost. It makes that sharp pool smell, and it tells us the water needs help. pH tells us if the water leans sour or sweet, acid or base. Out of balance, water stings eyes and

Shock works best after the sun goes down, and honestly, there is one simple reason why. Ultraviolet sunlight eats chlorine, so a dose poured in at noon starts burning off before it can even get to work. By dinnertime, that midday shock has lost most of its punch, because it spent the afternoon fighting the sun instead of the algae. At night, that same chlorine gets hour after hour of quiet, undisturbed work on the algae and bacteria hiding in your water. The pump keeps runnin

Not all algae is the same problem wearing different colors. Green algae is the one everybody knows, and it moves fast. After heat, rain, or a busy swim weekend, the whole pool can cloud up overnight. The good news is it brushes right off the walls, and a proper shock usually knocks it out. Yellow algae is the mustard color, and it plays a sneakier trick. It clings to shady walls and steps like dust, and it brushes away easy. But skip the stronger treatment this one needs, and

In fall, the real fight for your pool happens right on the surface. Every leaf that lands either gets caught early, or it sinks, waterlogs, and causes trouble. Down on the floor, sunk leaves pile up, stain the plaster, and quietly feed algae while they rot. The rest get sucked into the skimmer and pack the basket solid. That is exactly what a leaf net stretched over the pool is for. It catches the bulk of the leaves while they are still floating and dry. Stretch it snug acros

See that white, flaky crust creeping along your tile at the waterline? That is not soap scum. It is calcium scale. Most of it is calcium carbonate, the chalky kind. A harder gray-white cousin, calcium silicate, can form too, and it is far more stubborn. Scale forms when calcium hardness, pH, and alkalinity climb together, especially in warm water. The water cannot hold that much calcium, so it plates onto tile. The same crust grows where you cannot see it, on salt cell plates

Part 3 of our filters series: when a filter clean stops working. A good clean should keep your pressure low for months, and when it does not, the cartridges are telling you something. Tell one: the baseline never resets. The gauge drops to its clean starting point, then climbs back to dirty within a few days. Tell two: look at the pleats. Healthy pleats stand crisp and even. Torn, frayed, or flattened ones let water slip through the gaps it should be straining. Tell three: th

That clear tube on your pool plumbing is quietly making your chlorine for you. It is called a salt cell. For Frisco and North Dallas pool owners with salt systems, here is what is actually happening inside that tube, and why a flashing inspect cell light so often gets misread. Inside the cell are metal plates with a special coating. Pool water with dissolved salt, plain sodium chloride, flows between them, and a gentle electric current runs across those plates. That is electr

In summer, your pump timer mostly just saves electricity. In fall, it quietly stands guard over your whole pool. For Frisco and North Dallas pool owners, the timer setting that worked all summer can quietly work against the pool once the days shorten and the leaves start falling. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care explains why fall run hours matter, and the sixty-second dial check that keeps the system honest. The days get shorter and cooler, so the water needs fewer hours of

Your skimmer basket is the first net in your pool system, and it is the one everyone forgets. It sits at the waterline catching leaves, twigs, and bugs before they reach your pump. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care walks through the sixty-second check that keeps a packed or cracked basket from quietly starving your pump. Over a few days, a basket packs tighter and tighter with debris, and it starts to starve your pump of water. A heaped basket hides under a pool that looks p

Your chlorine has a sunscreen of its own, and like sunscreen, a little helps while too much can overstay its welcome. For Frisco and North Dallas pool owners, cyanuric acid, or CYA, explains why a pool can test fine on chlorine and still sanitize slowly. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care explains how CYA builds up week after week, the working range to aim for, and the practical way to bring a high level back down. On a sunny day, CYA shields chlorine from ultraviolet light,

Part 2 of our filters series looks inside the tank. For Frisco and North Dallas pool owners, what is inside the filter explains why two pools on the same route can look so different: the media inside decides how fine a particle the water gives up before it comes back to the pool. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care opens both main filter types and explains the simple pressure rule that says when each one needs attention. Open a cartridge filter and you will find pleated cartri

A heavy rain does more than add water to your pool, and before it ever looks cloudy, the storm has already changed your chemistry. Frisco and North Dallas pool owners see it after every big storm: the water was fine before the rain and drifts out of balance once it passes. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care explains what rain and runoff really do to your chlorine and stabilizer, and the simple order of steps that keeps a storm from turning into a cloudy pool. Every inch of ra

September in Texas is still brutally hot, and for Frisco and North Dallas pools the danger is not always what you can see in the water. It is the water that is quietly disappearing. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care explains how evaporation drops the waterline below the skimmer, why that makes a pump run dry and melt its shaft seal, and the simple midpoint rule that protects your equipment. September in Texas is still brutally hot, and that intense sun is silently threatenin

A cloudy pool that will not clear is usually not a chemical problem. For Frisco and North Dallas pool owners, the real culprit is often the most vital equipment on the pad: the filter. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care covers exactly when to clean cartridge and DE filters, the routine schedule they need, and the point where cleaning is no longer enough and replacement is the only fix. Struggling with a cloudy pool? You might be ignoring the most vital equipment on your pad,

A pump motor talks before it quits, and the sounds it makes are the first chapter. For Frisco and North Dallas owners, learning that vocabulary is the difference between a regular visit price and a midnight emergency. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care translates the whines, rattles, hums, and clicks a failing motor makes, and explains the order a pro diagnoses them in: listen first, meter second. A pump motor talks before it quits, and the sounds it makes are the first chapt

Between professional visits, a healthy pool only asks for five minutes a week. For Frisco and North Dallas owners, this is the quick routine that catches small drifts before they turn into cloudy water or a project. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care walks through the five checks in order: test, basket, level, gauge, and a good look at the water itself. 5 minutes, once a week between our visits. That is all it takes to keep a healthy pool healthy. Here is the 5-minute weekly

It is the test result most pool owners never look at, and it is the earliest warning a pool gives. Combined chlorine explains the strong "chlorine" smell, the red eyes, and water that tests fine but does not feel right. In this video, Next Wave Pool Care explains what combined chlorine is, how to find your number with one subtraction, and the breakpoint fix that burns it off. Here is a test result most pool owners never look at, combined chlorine. Your total chlorine is free