California – the place to be!
Spring time in Riverside
Ever seen Palm trees in front of snow-covered mountains!–well, we did!
As we drove to SCP-Riverside for our CPO class, this past Thursday and Friday, April 8-9 the view was gorgeous… snow-covered San Bernadino Mountains on one side and green-covered hills on the other. Yes, we are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful place!
This Riverside class ended up at full capacity, too! We had several last-minute sign-ups — and even a few walk-ins — forcing us to find and set up extra tables and chairs, just before class started! This light-hearted group consisted of a wide variety of interests and backgrounds–but all had a common, serious goal of earning their pool certification, while having a little fun in the process! We applaud their efforts to improve themselves and our pool industry by attaining these necessary CPO credentials.
Pool water chemistry was of special interest. It can be thought of in two separate and distinct but related categories: disinfection and water balance. The disinfection category includes disinfection, oxidation and clarification processes (killing the pathogens and then getting rid of those dead bodies and other contaminates), and the water balance category is making sure the water is not corrosive or scaling.
The question was asked: “What exactly is pH?” — Well, it is simply the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) in water. The unit of measure for pH is a number from 0 to 14. This number is the negative log10 of the hydrogen ion concentration. At room temperature, the concentration of H+ = 1 x 10-7 moles/liter, so the pH is 7. The pH of swimming pool water should be between 7.2 and 7.8 with an ideal range of 7.4 to 7.6.
Just for fun, here’s a neat little animation of the pH scale you can play with: pH scale. We had a great class discussion about water balance, the pH scale, the calcium saturation index, bicarb, acid and much more.
Steve and the new BIG BOSS, Matt Semonza, in his new Riverside office.
Thanks again, PoolCorp, for hosting us and helping us promote our classes! Also–thanks for letting us put out our bowl of Mike n Ike’s and Hot Tamales on your sales counter — they still seem to be a hit! We’re hoping that pool tech customers will enjoy the candy and use the candy labels to sign up for a future CPO class in Riverside!
Matt Semonza was recently promoted from SCP Orange’s Branch Manager to PoolCorp’s Riverside Regional Manager. Congratulations, Matt! We’re excited for you and know you will do well in this challenging position. BTW, your new office is pretty awesome, too, and has a terrific view!