Readings and dosing advice

Enter a chemistry reading and PoolChecker Pro answers with specific doses: not "add chlorine" but how much of what, for this pool, in priority order, with how-to steps a first-season tech can follow.

Where readings happen

On the stop screen's Chemistry tab during a visit, or on the pool page (New Reading) any time. Fields color as you type: green in range, amber off, red critical. Either way the reading lands in the pool's permanent history and feeds the trend charts.

The two inputs that make the math right

1. Pool volume. Every dose scales with gallons. A pool recorded at 15,000 gallons that actually holds 30,000 gets half-strength advice forever. If the dosing ever feels consistently weak or strong, check the volume on the pool's details first.
2. Sanitizer type. Chlorine and bromine pools get entirely different chemistry (see Bromine pools).

What the advice covers

pH, chlorine, alkalinity, stabilizer (CYA), calcium hardness, salt, and phosphates, each with color-coded urgency and exact amounts. The engine also computes combined chlorine from your free and total readings, and when it crosses the shock threshold it says so explicitly, because that is the number techs most often fail to act on.

The staleness nudge

The pool page's water verdict fades honestly with age. Once a reading is older than about one and a third service cycles, a green verdict downgrades to "retest due" and the dosing hint disappears, because advising doses from stale numbers is how pools go green. Amber and red verdicts do not soften with age; a known problem stays a problem until a new reading says otherwise.

Ripple effects

• Readings attach to the pool's permanent record, so a customer change never erases water history.
• The dashboard's Chemistry Health card flags pools whose latest reading is out of range, so the office spots trouble without opening every pool.
• If chemical inventory tracking is on, the chemicals a tech logs as used at the stop decrement stock and feed the cost side of profit per pool. One entry, three systems updated.