The Spare Parts Episode: Be Ready for Anything

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Hey, welcome to the Pooh Guy Podcast Show.
In this episode, I'm going totalk to you about ways to save
time out there, which translatesto money.
And this has a lot to do withinventory, supplies you want to
have on hand, and things you maynot think about is going to save
you time out there so you don'thave to stop in to your supplier

(01:23):
and pick up something that youprobably should have had in your
truck or garage.
Are you a pool service prolooking to take your business to
the next level?
Join the Pool Guy CoachingProgram.
Get expert advice, businesstips, exclusive content, and get
direct support.
From me, I'm a 35-year veteranin the industry.
Whether you're starting out orscaling up, I've got the tools
to help you succeed.

(01:44):
Learn more atswimmingpoollearning.com.
And I'll start off by stating afew things that are basic that
will stop you from having one ofthose red alert moments where
you're kind of in a pinch nowand you're struggling because
this should have been in placeto begin with.
And I'll start with my top threehere.
Number one, you want to have a50-pound bucket of dichlor on

(02:07):
your truck.
Dichlor is a stabilizedchlorine, and it's a chlorine
type that is not reallypurchased much out there because
of the fact that it has cyanericacid and it's kind of the cousin
to trichlor, except dry dichloris more pH neutral, and it's
safe to use in all pool surfacetypes.

(02:29):
Although I probably wouldn'tbroadcast it directly on vinyl
or fiberglass pools, I wouldjust add it to a bucket and stir
it in there, pour it in.
And it's a great chemical tohave because it's very
long-lasting as far as shelflife.
And it would be my number oneemergency chlorine type to carry
on a surface truck.

(02:53):
Keep it on your truck at alltimes so that you have this
emergency supply of chlorine.
I can guarantee you it's gonnaprevent you from that red alert
moment where you have six stopsleft and you have one gallon of
liquid chlorine left on yourtruck.
So instead of diverting to yoursupplier or running into Home
Depot to get some really cheapchlorine product, you definitely

(03:16):
want to have this on your truck.
Number two, a spare spareequipment, and I would
specifically say a spare poleand a spare leaf rake.
I can't tell you the times thatI've actually broken my leaf
rake or actually left itsomewhere.
And I've left my whole pole andleaf rake before at a pool stop.

(03:38):
I was distracted, I don't knowexactly what happened.
Phone call or something, and Igot to my truck.
I didn't even have my pole orleaf rake.
But the good news was I didn'thave to really go back right
away to get it because I alwayscarry a spare pole and a spare
leaf rake in my truck.
So if anything were to happen toyour pole or leaf rake, you have
a spare one in your truck, andbelieve me, that comes in really

(04:00):
handy because you may never needit, but that one time you're
gonna need to use it, you haveit on your truck.
And a lot of pool pros carryvarious leaf rakes, and I'm in
that category.
You'll have a fine mesh leafrake, you'll have something for
the spa, you have a big one forwindy situations.
So just carry one extra issometimes you know the minimum.

(04:21):
You would want to have a fewleaf rakes, and if you break one
or lose one, you definitelywould have a spare one on hand.
And this last one is somethingyou may not think about, but
having a spare battery for theriptide or for the bottom feeder
is something that you may wantto invest in.
Now, for the riptide, it's alittle less expensive.
You can get just a 20H battery.

(04:44):
What I like about the littletiny H battery or 18H battery is
you can actually put it on theriptide cart and you can just
plug in the riptide to it anddisconnect the connectors and
plug it in, and it's easy totransport.
We're not taking your primarybattery out, just leave it where
it's at, and then use this as aspare battery.
It's also good to put it in thebattery box to make the riptide
more portable.

(05:04):
And for the bottom feeder, Iwould suggest if you're using it
a lot, to get a spare batterypack for the bottom feeder
itself.
If you go to their website, theydo have a bottom feeder they
sell with two batteries for$19.24 at this recording.
You can save$100, of course, onthat with promo code DVB100.
Then they have actually athree-battery pack, that's three

(05:26):
of their batteries for$15.67.
Not sure if my discount codeworks for that, but you could
buy a spare battery for about$589 as well.
And this comes in handy,especially if you use it a lot
and you do need that extra bitof gas in your vacuum system,
and sometimes you forget tocharge it, or there's a problem
charging it one day, or you'rejust having a really bad day,

(05:49):
and there's a huge amount ofwind debris to clean up.
Having the extra battery isdefinitely a time saver.
You wouldn't want to revert tousing your leafwake on the
bottom of a pool, and the extrabattery does save you from that
problem.
So, those are the three big onesthat I see that I would
definitely invest in and have onmy truck so that I'm not kind of

(06:11):
caught in the pinch where thoseitems are necessary and I don't
have them on my vehicle.
Then I have to go to mysupplier, and you can't just go
to your supplier and buy abottom feeder battery or an AH
battery that's already fullycharged.
I don't think the supplierscarry those, but you get what I
mean.
You just order one, get one onAmazon, get a little 18H

(06:32):
battery, that'll give you likean hour and a half, two hours of
charge, maybe, and that'ssufficient.
And you can keep it in yourtruck and just make sure you
keep it charged for thoseemergencies.
So let me dig into some reallyvital inventory here.
Now I have this old sheet that Icreated actually several years
ago, where it has pool core partnumbers on here, and this this I

(06:55):
can actually send to you if youemail me at David
SmeepoLearning.com.
If you shop at Superior Productsor SCP, this should work for you
there with these part numbersalready on here.
And I do have my preference forextra things that I carry and
the way to carry them.
So a lot of times you're gonnarun out of room in your truck if

(07:17):
you're like me and you'recarrying a lot of extra parts
and supplies.
Fortunately, with a four-doortruck, we can really stack the
back seat pretty well.
At my Honda Ridge Line, one sideor both sides actually fold up,

(07:50):
exposing the whole back of theback area for storage, but you
probably wouldn't want to usethe whole thing for storage.
You would want to kind ofmodulate that with the back of
your truck, and so you wouldhave some buckets with parts in
it.
I just like reusing the trichlorbuckets and I put parts in
there, various parts in there.
If you're fortunate to have ahouse with a garage, your garage

(08:13):
is a great place for a lot ofthe spare parts.
Although your spouse maydisagree with this, I keep a lot
of spare parts in the garage,and it's one of those things
where I'm constantly goingthrough my inventory and getting
rid of a lot of stuff that Ihaven't used in a long time to
clear it out.
But it's a great place to keep alot of spare parts so you don't
have to go to the supplier toget them.
But make sure you put them inyour truck when you do need

(08:35):
them.
So let me start with someessentials here.
And no matter how you transportor carry them, you're gonna want
to have plenty of parts that arecommon.
So find the pumps that you usecommonly on your pool route.
Here in my area of SouthernCalifornia, we're Pentair heavy,
90% of the backyards are Pentairtan, and so it makes sense to

(08:59):
have some Pentair O-rings partslike that on your truck.
So, of course, you would want tocarry the filter O-rings, and I
have all the part numbers hereagain, and you would want the
O-ring for the Penthair Cleanand Clear Plus and the Penthair
4000 series and 2000 series onyour truck.
For sure, you would want tocarry those, and again, each

(09:21):
area is a little bit different.
But if you have Penthair pumps,of course, I have a bunch of
Whisperflow parts that I carry.
I carry the V20200 Whisperflowbasket, that's a thicker one,
and then there's also a theWhisperflow pump lid O-ring,
which is the PAC 101 3148.

(09:43):
I also carry a see-through lid,believe it or not.
I've had a couple of these crackover time on me, not very many,
but having a lid just is good tohave.
Sometimes you'll get to a poolthat's really old, also, and
changing out that lid for thewhisper flow or teleflow makes a
big difference.
And then you would want to carrythose O-rings for those pumps,

(10:03):
the thin O-ring, the uh PUR101-3400, and I also carry a
seal plate with me, just in caseI need to replace it.
That's kind of like the Achillesheel of the or Achilles tendon,
I guess, of the Whisper Flow.
The seal plate can get warpedpretty easily.
So those are the parts I carryfor that.

(10:25):
I do have some haywood pumps, soyou definitely would want, like
me, if you have haywood pumps tocarry the super two O-rings.
So basically, O-rings areimportant, and probably I would
say I would always have at leasttwo, probably three O-rings at
all at all times.
And rarely are you gonna changetwo O-rings in one day, but it

(10:45):
does happen.
And if you have three of them,you're fine.
But if you just have one O-ringand you change it and need
another one, then you're out ofluck.
And then you want to carry, ofcourse, all the filter parts
you're gonna need from the stemO-ring to the air bleeder valves
on these filters.
So I suggest making a list ofall the filters on your pool
route, all the pumps on yourpool route, and then kind of

(11:07):
inventory all of these togetherand find out you know how many
O-rings you're gonna need tocarry for Pentair filters, how
many you're gonna carry for thehaywood filters.
And if you're not doing filtercleanings at that point and
you're not tearing them apart,you probably don't need to carry
the box of O-rings with you onyour truck.
But when you're when it comestime for filter cleaning time,
put the box of O-rings in yourtruck and of course separate the

(11:30):
pump lid O-rings from the filterO-rings, so you're gonna always
want to carry those on yourtruck.
So you kind of get an idea thatfor every pump that's pump type
on your route or filter type onyour route, you want to carry
those spare parts, and just buyan inventory of them.
And when you use one of thoseparts, make sure you replace
that part.

(11:50):
This is one of the mostimportant things about
inventorying things andsomething that could cause you
much frustration if you're usingthese O-rings on your route, but
you don't replace them in atimely manner, which I do
immediately when I use when Iwrite it down.
I need to order anotherWhisperflow O-ring.
You want to definitely restockthe inventory because, like me,

(12:13):
you may forget to ordersomething that you should have,
you're looking in your truck forit, and then you realize you
never reordered it.
Big problem.
Very easily avoidable by placingan order for that right away
once you use it.
Again, you're gonna find thispart list that I created pretty
handy and helpful.
Just email me at David AsumipoLearning.com and I'll get that

(12:33):
over to you.
Like, for instance, I carryintermatic mechanism timers also
in case I have to change thatout.
I also carry the intermaticlittle on off trippers.
You should have plenty of thoseas well because they do go bad,
they get warped and bent, andyou know, you wouldn't want to
go to your supplier, get in lineand get to the counter and say,
Yeah, I need some intermaticon-off trippers, please.

(12:55):
After waiting 30 minutes for it,it doesn't make a lot of sense.
So have those on your truck.
I carry a lot of rainbowchlorinator parts, and again, I
have the part numbers here, it'seasy to order.
You have the oval check valve.
You need definitely need a lotof those.
The 8 in 8 inch, 8 feet tubing,black tubing is something you
must have also.
The tubing is one of the weaklinks of this uh offline

(13:18):
chlorinator, should make it morerobust.
There's also check valvefittings.
You can you can break parts ofthese pretty easily.
Always carry, of course, anextra lid, and these lid o-rings
are extremely important becausethe trichlor really ruins these
O-rings in the lid very rapidly.
So having the um R172009 O-ringis definitely important.

(13:44):
These things get like really fatwith the chemicals, and if you
when you buy a new one, they'relike super skinny, you'll be
like, Whoa, what happened?
What did they shrink the O-ringsdown?
But no, in reality, they'rereally thin, and they just kind
of get Bubba from all thechemicals that are interacting
in the chlorinator there.
I always carry an extra chlorinefloater because I've broken
these before and sometimes theyjust break, and it's good to

(14:06):
have one on hand so you canfloat some chlorine tablets in
there.
Also good to have a sparefloater in case you have a salt
system that's not working, andyou want to put trichlorine
tablets in there, so carry acouple of these extra floaters.
Now, again, just kind of gothrough all the parts that you
get at your supplier on aregular basis, and then you want
to inventory as much as you canon your truck if you can, and

(14:29):
then inventory the rest of it inyour garage.
And over time and over theyears, you're gonna build up
probably too much inventory, inmy opinion, because you're gonna
get to kind of like thishoarding mentality.
It's hard to avoid it when youstart building inventory.
I think it's human nature.
I read this story one time aboutthis person, I think he was at

(14:50):
one point the longest person,lost at sea on his own, and he
was in a lifeboat just byhimself in the ocean.
Can't remember how many days itwas, but it was a super long
time.
But when they went into hishouse after he died, they went
up into his attic, and this guyhad like tons of canned food
stacked up to the ceiling, youknow, years worth of canned food

(15:11):
because he was traumatized frombeing on that lifeboat all those
all that time, and when he gotback on dry land, he just always
had inventory of food.
Same thing here when you run outof something and you don't have
the part, you kind of getparanoid like this, and you
overbuy and you oversupply yourinventory a lot of times.
Like, for instance, I found theother day when I was going to my

(15:34):
garage, I found three Pentairbackwash pistons.
It's like you don't really needthree of them, but I think what
happens, I bought one, I usedit, then I bought another one.
Then I'm like, well, I betterhave two on my truck, and then I
ended up with three somehow.
So don't you don't have toover-inventory, and again, it's
one of those things that's hardnot to do.
Cleaner parts are extremelyimportant to inventory as well.

(15:55):
So go through all the cleanerson your route and make sure you
have those parts on hand so thatyou can actually change them out
while you're at the stop, getthe cleaner working again.
Now, if it's a more complicatedcleaner repair, I always carry a
spare cleaner on my truck.
I carry a zodiac ranger, I justput it in the back of my bed.
Try not to put it where it'sgonna get damaged because I've

(16:16):
actually broken my sparecleaners before by not being
careful.
If you want to be reallycareful, put it in the bed of
your truck.
But I do carry, I have like aspare navigator that just sits
back there, and then the spareranger is good.
These are suction cleaners.
I don't really carry sparepressure cleaners, they're not
super popular on my route, buthaving a spare suction cleaner

(16:36):
is great.
Of course, spare hoses arereally important.
You know, I've gone to softbefore where raccoons have
chewed the cleaner hoses, andsometimes you can turn them,
like twist them, so that thebite mark is underwater.
Other times you can't, so youneed to have these spare cleaner
hoses to put them on thecleaner.
So all these things will come toyou as you're doing your pool

(16:56):
route, what you're gonna need tohave on your truck, and what you
don't need to carry all thetime, you just take them off
your truck.
But essentially, inventoryenough stuff so that you really
never have to go to yoursupplier unless it's a unless
you're going to get supplies, Ishould say.
So don't go to your supplier toget something that you should
have on your truck or in yourgarage.

(17:17):
Go to the supplier only whenyou're reloading your mentor
inventory and chemicals on yourtruck.
And this is gonna save you ahuge amount of time and energy,
and it does take time to buildup this inventory.
It's not gonna happen overnight,but after a year or two doing
pool service, you should haveenough inventory to get you
through the week or that daywithout having to go pick up

(17:38):
something in an emergency.
Looking for other podcasts, youcan find those on my website,
swimmingpoollearning.com.
On the banner, click on thatpodcast icon.
There'll be a drop time in over1800 podcasts for you there.
And if you're interested in thecoaching program that I offer,
you can learn more atPoolGuyCoaching.com.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast.

(17:59):
Have a great rest of your weekand God bless.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Spare Parts Episode: Be Ready for Anything

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

The Spare Parts Episode: Be Ready for Anything

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang