Pool Maintenance Costs Keep Increasing
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Is my pool company ripping me off? They just had another price increase for my monthly maintenance package! This is something that pool owners by the thousands are asking these days after experiencing multiple price increases over a relatively short period of time. It has led pool owners perhaps more than ever to explore the potential of eliminating their monthly pool maintenance service company and taking over the care of the pool themselves in pursuit of keeping their monthly obligations for the pool as low as possible.
The short answer is yes you can probably reduce your monthly costs for pool care by eliminating the service company maintenance contract and taking care of the pool yourself. There would be a learning curve if you are new to caring for a pool, but other than this it amounts to basic effort just like maintaining a lawn or garden. Scoop leaves from the pool surface, brush the walls and floor, vacuum sunken debris, clean the skimmer and pump strainer baskets, monitor and clean the filter media as needed...and of course the water chemistry. There is no reason you can not learn these things if you want to take on the pool care for yourself, but before you do I would like you to be aware of a few important points.
Rising pool chemical costs - The main point of this article is that I want you (the pool owner) to understand that service cost increases that you are receiving from your local pool company almost certainly is not rising in line with the actual increase in pool chemical costs. Said another way, despite the fact that you have experienced an increase in the cost of paying for monthly pool service, I can all but guarantee that your service company makes less money from you today then they did (or would have) just two years ago. The increases you have been asked to pay are almost certainly not even covering the actual price increases that your service company is experiencing. Service companies all know that a price increase equals losing customers. Period. No matter how reasonable, or rare, a price increase is you can anticipate a certain percentage of drop-off from your customer lists. For this reason pool service companies tend to put off price increase letters until the absolute last possible opportunity. If you decide to leave your current pool service company in pursuit of lower costs you need to be aware that your current company is likely shouldering some of the latests price increases in order to retain you. When you go off on your own you can still save money because you are doing work yourself that you used to pay for, but the chemical costs are going to likely be higher than you are anticipating, eroding at the total potential savings you are likely to experience.
In the past 12 months I have completely lost count of how many price increase announcements I have received. I have received huge price increase notices only to receive another in less than a week from the same manufacturer with another increase. Some things like chlorine have seen a dozen or more price increases, going up by over 100% in price in most places, and also experiencing periods of scarce availability further driving up prices. It is pretty unlikely that your service company has increased your prices 12 times in 12 months, which is what they should have done if they were preserving their previous profit margins. But nobody is doing this because you would lose most of your customers who think they are being price gouged, when in reality these are just the cost increases we are all experiencing in the swimming pool industry. Fundamental products like pumps are running on backorder for weeks or months at a time and critical care items like chlorine and acid for controlling pH were hard or impossible to find for some pool owners over the past two pool seasons.
If you decide to take care of your own pool and try to save money you can do it and I can help you to learn about things like water chemistry or important pool maintenance tips but it is important to have your eyes open and know that the amount you can potentially can save is smaller than it used to be and you might not end up saving as much as you are thinking or hoping you will. Pool companies buy in bulk and in general have a pretty good ability to keep pools clear and safe with minimal chemical interaction. It might be worthwhile to stay with your maintenance company after all. It certainly is less in potential savings than ever before in my experience.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 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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