My pool journey

I have owned only one pool in my lifetime, and I didn’t even want it at the beginning. I heard plenty of negative stories about the cost of maintaining them.  In 2011, my wife and kids wanted a pool. I resisted and tried various strategies to persuade them to see it my way.

I have an architecture and construction background, so I started designing the pool myself. My son wanted a slide. My daughter wanted a waterfall. My wife wanted a spa. Our dogs wanted a wet deck. I wanted a lot of stonework so that it felt like we were in a lagoon. This was part of my resistance strategy, too. I told my wife the pool must be chlorine water because of all the stone. My wife was adamant that she didn’t want our kids swimming in Chlorine because of how bad it is for humans and our pets. She was adamant that our swimming hole be a saltwater pool. I told her salt will destroy all the beautiful stonework. I was hoping that our stalemate would quash the entire project. However, my wife is a very talented researcher, and she took to the internet to find an alternative to chlorine and saltwater swimming pools . . . she found a Copper sanitation option for swimming pools.

CRAP!  I lost the chess match. I guess we’re building a swimming pool.

We broke ground in April and filled it up in June 2011. It’s been a Copper pool for 13yrs now, and I must admit; it’s been fantastic.  The water has no odor and is crystal clear.

At first, I tried outsourcing the maintenance to some Pool Service Providers (PSPs). They didn’t understand Copper Sanitation at all, so I repeatedly taught their employees. There is quite a bit of turnover among the technicians in the PSP industry, sadly, so I provided a lot of training. But I did enjoy a cost advantage since these PSPs were only adding three chemicals to my pool every week: Acid, Anti-phosphate, and a pound of non-chlorine shock as a maintenance dose. However, after my fourth PSP and perpetual need to train them, I decided to maintain the pool myself. I spend 30 minutes a week on it and find the weekly routine to be extremely easy. Alongside the low cost for maintenance, another benefit is the benign nature of my water on people, the environment, and all the soft goods we swim with.

Regarding people, we have friends who dye their hair all sorts of colors, and my water has no effect on their hair. In contrast, I've heard unfortunate stories about how chlorine affects dyed hair.

Regarding the environment, Copper is only lethal to algae and microbes. I backwash my pool onto my lawn without guilt.

And, regarding soft goods, my pool water does not degrade people’s swimwear, or the various pool floats we use. I’ve had the same pool floats for a decade now.

I think the biggest challenge of Copper Sanitation is the low level of competency among the PSPs, and I intend to change this, especially in the Austin, Texas area.