Buzz About Black & Decker Pool Pumps
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Holy Hannah if you have not been active in the swimming pool industry related social media groups lately then you have been missing an epic flame war between a large portion of industry professionals versus a new brand of variable speed pool pump "making waves" so to speak. Black and Decker have launched an entire line of variable speed pool pumps that are available directly to customers on the internet. These include an above ground model and three inground models sized at 1.5hp, 2hp and 3hp (plus also a line of cover pumps). So why is this significant? There have always been other brands of pool pumps available from recognizable names (Speck, Waterway) as well as other less known or possibly less reputable names. So why does anyone care about these new pumps? The answer is pool owners are probably going to buy a lot of these. That is something that is new. Traditionally the big three manufacturers of pool equipment Pentair, Hayward, Jandy (now Fluidra) own essentially the entire market. For the first time they stand to lose significant market share to a relatively unknown brand (as far as pool equipment goes).
This is actually really huge news. This has basically never happened before and I would describe this as somewhat of a "perfect storm" situation which has arrived us at where we are today. Which is a few months before the full swing of the 2022 swimming pool season. If you would, take just a moment and jump on Amazon and search for a pool pump. Pretend you are a pool owner with a broken pool pump and you did exactly what so many people do these days when you need something new. You go to Amazon (or just the internet in general) and search for what options you have available. If you did in fact go to Amazon and do this search as I recommended then you would have seen at least a half dozen listings for the orange and black Black and Decker pool pumps. Fast shipping with Amazon prime, and a variety of sizes available to buy. In stock. Low prices. Long warranty offering. If you are a pool professional then it does not matter what your personal (or professional) feelings are about these pumps. You need to be aware that this is what your customers are doing and seeing. If you think that a pool owner is not going to go to the internet first then you are kidding yourself. Even those that do not intend to buy online will go there to take a look at the options. This is just a reality of the world we live in now. Accept that or get left behind.
A perfect storm has arrived - Going back a few years Jandy took a hard stance against online sales of pool equipment which pool professionals responded well to, and resulted in Pentair and Hayward following suit. Pool professionals were tired of being undersold by the internet. Pool owners were buying their own equipment and expecting professionals to install it for peanuts. Or expecting professionals to match prices with Amazon, which happened to be retailing products for lower than a professional could purchase through wholesale protected dealer channels. What needed to happen was internet direct sales from manufacturers and distributors should have been priced higher instead of undercutting the industry professionals they were also supplying with products. Two pricing levels. Wholesale pricing to pool professionals and retail pricing to retail. What retail actually got was wholesale direct pricing and this cut out the pool professional from the supply chain. Removing pool products from the internet to appease pool professionals has left a void online that a new brand has stepped in to fill. Throw into the mix the difficulty with pool product stock over the last year or more, plus some effective branding and marketing by Black and Decker, and now you have the perfect storm potential to get pool owners to do something that was largely impossible before...getting them to switch brands for the pool equipment that they use.
Brand loyalty to pool pumps - Brand loyalty is at the heart of the question about why Black and Decker pumps are creating some buzz in 2022. Normally within the pool industry, professionals are fiercely loyal to one brand or another. It would be uncommon to find a pool professional without hard lines of brand specific loyalty, most especially for pumps. This is often due to the technical nature and time it takes to learn a brand of equipment with proficiency, mixed in with a dash a negative previous experiences leaving a bad taste in your mouth for a particular brand. People still, to this day, fight tooth and nail over Hayward versus Pentair etc. to the point of threats of physical violence, slurs against the integrity of one's mother, and whispering gypsy curses about the children of opposing brand users. It is almost heartwarming to see all of these enemies come together to focus their hate on the new guys, Black and Decker. Jokes aside, Jandy did something bold when they removed products from internet sales and created a rift within the devoted loyalty of pool professionals. I suspect Hayward and Pentair were losing a lot of business with this marketing strategy from Jandy, so they did the same to appease the unruly masses. The only problem is that nobody addressed the elephant in the room which is internet direct pool equipment and how to create an economy that supports the builders/stores/contractors as well as the pool owner, the distributor and the manufacturer. So now, once again, the loyalty of swimming pools to one brand or another is being shaken. With only a few options from the big three available online for pool pumps, and all of those with reduced (or zero) warranty offerings, a new player has stepped up to fill the void. People want to buy stuff online and if the big three won't do it then someone else will. So here we are with some of the biggest news and rumblings online in 2022 being about variable speed Black and Decker pool pumps.
If the big three had addressed the broken pricing problems then it would not have left the market open for these new pumps in the first place. As it stands now you are extremely likely to start seeing Black and Decker pumps on your service routes. Also you are extremely likely to see new product lines available online moving forward. Perhaps the big three will come back into that market with competitive product prices and warranties for online sales, perhaps not, it might depend on how much success these new pumps from Black and Decker have and how much market share the big guys start losing.
I can not see pool owners stopping with the online spending. Everybody buys everything online now, and if your argument is that you don't, then you are in the minority. I also can not see pool equipment manufacturers like Hayward, Pentair and Fluidra accepting any loss of market share to a new brand either...so it is hard to say what the future holds. I know for me personally and professionally I want to see pool dealers, contractors and service people protected from being squeezed out. But I also want to see a free and open market where every last pool product is available to buy online complete with warranty coverage. However retail pricing must be higher than wholesale and dealer pricing. If that problem is not fixed then there is no way forward for the big three online and we will see more and more new players to the pool equipment ecosystem moving forward whether you agree with that or not.
I will be running the new Black and Decker pool pumps through my test lab so if you want to see how these pumps stack up for power and flow comparisons to the Hayward and Pentair pumps that I have previously tested then be sure to subscribe to the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube channel so you see this new content as it becomes available.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool specialist from Ontario Canada and one of the most trusted voices in the swimming pool industry. With over 20,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the Pleatco Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print. Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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www.PoolPartsToGo.com
New Black + Decker variable speed pumps are available online from www.PoolPartsToGo.com and they are a drop in replacement for many popular pump models including Pentair Superflo and Hayward Super Pumps. With an adjustable platform base, union connections included and a very strong warranty these pumps offer an impressive value to pool owners.
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www.PoolSuppliesCanada.ca
When it comes to ordering pool and spa supplies online in Canada www.PoolSuppliesCanada.ca is by far the best option. They carry everything from chemicals to replacement pumps to entire pool kits, with free shipping options and more "in stock" items than any other Canadian online retailer.
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