[Villages Kahuna]

Nancy,

I suppose I might have smelled a chlorine odor a couple of times in the two years we've had a pool. But it was only the kind of smell that you get a whiff and it's gone. I would say that chlorine odor is not an issue at all. How much of that is due to the weekly attention paid by Florida Spa & Pool is another question. Do the professionally-maintained pools have less of an odor than those maintained by the homeowner? Don't know. What I can say is that in two years, FS&P has never added any chemicals to our pool. They do install the little solid chlorine "donuts", I think it's every month, but no other chemicals whatsoever. Our pool has the clearest water of any pool I've ever seen. It just sparkles.

Our FS&P pool guy tells me that part of that is a funcrion of building the pool correctly in the first place. He says that once the pool is filled, someone from FS&P has to come back daily for about 30 days to brush down the entire pool surface. The purpose is to "raise" some of the components of the concrete lining so they wash out thru the filter. Our pool guy says that results in almost no further leaching of the "base" chemicals from the concrete after the first month, resulting in almost no need to add acid to offset the lower pH from the base chemicals.

So much for the pool chemistry lesson. No question here--it's chlorine and Florida Spa & Pool for me. Now, how about gas versus electric golf carts?