The Field Notes
Chemistry explained. Myths corrected. No guesswork.
The Standard, Issue 2
The two jobs pool chemistry does at the same time, why clear water tells you nothing about safety, and where UV and ozone pick up what chlorine can’t. Plus what happens to a closed pool between October and April, and a first look at The Pools Scientific Guide to Off Season Maintenance.
The Chemistry Behind Plaster Densifiers: What Roman Concrete Teaches Us About Pool Plaster Failure
Pool plaster mottling is a bulk chemistry problem, not a surface problem, and the solution has existed in commercial construction for decades. The same pozzolanic reaction that kept Roman marine concrete standing for two thousand years is the mechanism behind colloidal silicate densifiers today.
The Standard, Issue 1
The first issue of our new monthly newsletter, a real crossover between the podcast and the field laboratory. Phosphate chemistry, AOP systems, the off season water balance program, and why this issue shares its name with Episode 20.
Do Pool Phosphates Matter? Why Both Sides of the Debate Are Half Right
Two camps have argued about pool phosphates for years, one says they are irrelevant, the other treats them as a primary threat. Both are half right. The actual mechanism connecting chlorine’s own baseline chemistry to phosphate risk has never been laid out until now.
The Cyanuric Acid to Free Chlorine Equilibrium
The full O’Brien equilibrium model behind the 7.5 percent rule, chlorine lock addressed directly, and real Cryptosporidium inactivation data quantifying the public health stakes. Cited chemistry, not folklore.
Pool Care Has Never Been a Science. Here’s What Changes When It Is.
Pool care runs on inherited folklore, not chemistry, and the little bit of real science it ever borrowed came from a completely different problem. Here is why dedicated pool science barely exists, and what it actually takes to build it.