Hello all,
It's sicisum, the original author of this topic. My account has been locked, and I've been very busy with the pool store this akward season here in Kansas. I would like to address some of the things you have posted, which are very stereotypical I must add.
@waterbear
I completely agree with you 100%. Chemical manufacturing companies (Chemtura, Haviland, Proteam, Arch/Lonza, & Natural Chemistry I can speak on) do not teach retail dealers on proper water balance. BioGuard (Chemtura) for example offers "Pool Schools" once a year to help teach retail teams how to sell product- not to balance pool water. They may address how this special patented (magic as they may say) chemical affects the pool water, but they don't tell the chemistry behind it. As you said, they give you a program that doses everything high to help sell (although, levels CAN be adjusted by dealers inside BioGuards recommendations).
@chem geek
Whichever pool store you visited obviously hasn't trained their retail team. TA/pH CYA/Chlorine relationship is considered (to me) the building blocks of understanding water chemistry. If you don't understand how one products affects the other, then you shouldn't sell the product at all. Many customers honestly DON'T understand that raising TA will increase the pH, and unless your pH is low enough for TA to raise it to an acceptable range, you will need Lo N' Slo (pH Decrease) to offset what off balance you have caused by adding Balance Pak 100, also known as BAKING SODA. Yes, it's unbelievable!!! A Platinum BioGuard Dealer is admitting that this Balance Pak 100 is no bag of magic! All of us at our retail store do not understand BioGuards stand on believing CYA is acceptable at 200ppm. However, Alex does not allow us to lower these ranges, but we teach our retail team to keep CYA levels in a truly acceptable range. We inform our customers on the CYA additive on Trichlor and Dichlor based products.
@LegsOnEarth
You work in supply distribution, not a retail location. Not all retail people are idiots when it comes to water balance. While water chemistry never changes, the distribution and retail worlds are VERY different.
And once again, @waterbear, I am back! Under a new name! Check out BioGuards new magic in a bottle, Pool Tonic here. There is absolutely NOTHING comparable to this, and it removes Phosphate! Surprising coming from a company that swears Phosphates do not cause algae blooms...... Anywho. I'm going to try to stay active here to try and see how I can better myself in providing customers quality pool care information. I'm not here to be an arrogant ****.
EDIT:
Some of you may ask why I carry BioGuard products. I like that they do try and reach markets that enjoy pretty looking bottles and pails. They like you to pay for it too, and BioGuard has MAP pricing, so you can't argue about dealers forcing the high prices.