The Pools Scientific Podcast

Pool metal stains rarely come from just one source, and this episode walks through the real chemistry behind them. John covers where metals and minerals actually enter pool water, why iron, manganese, and copper stain...

Closing day is the last time anyone touches your pool's chemistry until spring, and most closing checklists skip the one thing that actually matters: what happens to that water for the next five months. This episode...

Why does that sharp chemical smell at the pool mean your chlorine is losing, not winning? This episode breaks down the real chemistry behind combined chlorine and chloramines, the actual mechanism behind the seven and a...

Twenty episodes in, this one is different. Not a new chemistry lesson, a release. Every dreaded test result, every answer taken on faith from a stranger, every quiet moment of not knowing, all of it gets named directly...

Above ground pools, vinyl liners, and fiberglass shells all get treated like the industry's afterthoughts, but the actual chemistry never agreed to that hierarchy. This episode walks through above ground pool chemistry...

A real member's pool, followed across five real water tests over nearly three months. Every single time, a retail pool store gave the same handful of generic recommendations, and every single time, the real answer was...

Ten products sit on every pool store shelf with almost no real explanation attached: borates, enzymes, non-chlorine shock, chlorine neutralizers, clarifiers, flocculants, mineral and ionizer systems, scale control...

Test strips, drop titration, photometric readers, digital salt meters, TDS probes, automated monitors, even your thermometer. Every real type of pool test kit, not sponsored or promoted, explained with the honest pros...

A health inspector failed a pool that had nothing wrong with it, for having too much chlorine. What actually happened next traces back through a hundred years of pool chlorine history, a cyanuric acid relationship most...

Every pool runs on the same hydraulic loop, suction, pump, filter, and returns, and almost nobody who owns one has ever had it explained. John Cooper walks through the real physics behind pump cavitation, why turning a...

Your pool can test high on free chlorine and still turn green. This episode walks through the full life cycle of a pool algae bloom, how it stays dormant for weeks, why it seems to appear overnight, and what actually...

Shock has become the answer to every pool problem, which is the first sign nobody's actually answering the question. There's exactly one chemistry accurate definition of shocking a pool: achieving breakpoint...

If your pool smells like chlorine and your eyes are stinging, you've probably heard the same explanation everybody hears: too much chlorine. That answer is backwards. In this episode, John Cooper breaks down what's...

A short, straight answer to what the Chemist's Circle is, what it costs, and why it exists. Two personalized chemistry submissions a month, a real response within twenty four hours, written for your pool, not a general...

This week, John answers real questions from real listeners. No filler. Plus the first-ever So What? segment, and a check-in with Warren Bell, three weeks after we first told his story. Contributors to this episode: Mark...