Pool Chemistry and Maintenance From a Backyard Pool Owner
Nadia Caldwell · July 11, 2026
Stand at the equipment pad on a Tuesday in mid-summer, chlorine test kit in hand, and you’ll spot the pattern immediately: the free chlorine reading has tanked again, despite dosing just yesterday. So you add another dose. You recheck the stabilizer levels. A faint green shadow appears near the steps, triggering a full shock treatment … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 10, 2026
Dawn breaks at 7 a.m., and your pool’s surface has become a landing pad for an entire oak tree worth of branches and leaves. You reach for that threadbare skimmer net—the one that came vacuum-sealed to your telescoping pole back when you first set up—and you start dragging it across the water. It collects maybe … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 1, 2026
October, 7 a.m., at a Scottsdale community pool. Three sycamores towered over the deck, their branches shedding leaves with industrial efficiency. I’d cleared the skimmer basket before sunrise. By 9:30, the pump was cavitating hard. Four service calls later — noon hadn’t even arrived — homeowners were already lighting up my phone. You’ve been there … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · July 1, 2026
Back in spring, I’d notice the identical scene unfolding at a neighbour’s place: a brilliantly clear pool surface completely blanketed under a thick coating of yellow pine pollen, with the homeowner gripping a skimmer net with the expression of someone who’d personally declared war on the local tree canopy. Across more than ten years of … Read more
Nadia Caldwell · June 25, 2026
Sunrise routine across three different Scottsdale-area pools I was looking after: step onto the deck, assess the debris situation, and immediately calculate the overnight temperature loss. At one sprawling HOA complex, I routinely collected an entire skimmer basket’s worth of oak debris, insect matter, and airborne seed pods before sunrise — without fail, day after … Read more