Full Transcript for Let's Talk About WaterGuru

sequestrant, even though I probably didn't need one, but because it was I was getting these chemicals for free and it was following the instructions, and it was a phosphate-based metal sequestrant. 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:14.720 So my phosphates were up to 3,000 parts per billion later when I got it tested and such. 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:16.480 So um, so it's just a mess. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:21.519 So I went um online, as people, you know, because uh uh that was available then. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:22.639 This was 20 years ago, right? 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:35.680 But still online was available on the internet, and I found this forum where this guy was saying these things that called the pool forum, the uh guy named uh Ben Powell saying things that were different, very different from what the pool industry was talking about. 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:55.360 And um, you know, but I looked into it and I dove into the chemistry of what he was describing, because he was doing it more from observational and he did have John Volchtowitz as a uh chemist that he had talked to some, but but mostly he was doing it based on observation, and I went deep dive into the chemistry, and that's how I that's how I first you know got into it. 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:03.519 And I went under the pool forums of various forums, including Trouble Free Pool and others that came later um after the after the pool forum. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:11.040 Um I was Chem Geek on there, if anybody goes and searches online for that stuff, and it goes deep dive into chemistry all over the place. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:14.240 And that happened for almost a decade, right? 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:23.120 And then um uh a guy, uh Teddy Shallone ran into me, uh called me up, and he's a serial entrepreneur, and he was having trouble with his spa. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:29.519 And I talked talked to him about how to the spas are very different than pools in terms of how you manage, especially the chlorine dosing and all that. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.560 So I explained what that was, and based on bather load and all that. 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.639 And he you know, jokingly somewhat said, you know, well, can't that be automated? 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:37.759 And I said, Well, yeah, sure. 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:39.519 You know, he knew that it could have automated that. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:45.839 And then uh that's how we got into uh it wasn't called Water Guru originally, but that's that was the beginning of the of the business. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.199 I did it on the side first. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:53.759 I had a full-time job, of course, and then after about four years, I it looked like it was gonna be real, so I quit my job and did it full-time. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.600 And then since then, now here we are today with Waterguru. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.800 And you've got an interesting background in the industry too, correct? 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:10.560 Tell us a little bit of your background, uh Richard, because it's pretty so so I also had so some other so at that same time. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:29.600 So before Waterguru, uh, I when this was going on, I also went to the um Council for the Model, well, before the Council for the Model Croatic Health Code even existed, I was bothering uh one of the C C people with emails and uh, you know, saying that uh the the state code should be different. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:35.040 Uh, you know, they're not accounting for cyanuric acid, uh the disinfection rates are, you know, and so on. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:44.399 And and uh uh eventually, uh, you know, then the the the model quite health code effort started and they put me on that. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:08:03.040 I mean, I became a member and then and then we had a cyaneric committee where uh uh I was one of uh you know, the most of the people were indust there were a couple of different industry people on there, and there were a couple of academic uh people on there from um uh scientists and uh chemists and other biologists and so on. 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:19.439 And uh yeah, we wrote a paper, and I was the lead author on the paper, and it's uh available in the in the uh journal Water um about the risk of gastrointestinal illness as a function of you know cyanic free chlorine ratio and the relationships and all that and goes into a lot of detail. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:26.160 So, yeah, so I got into into that side of it as as well because I really wanted to improve the you know with my experience. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:30.879 I wanted to, you know, and also the deep knowledge of chemistry that I went into deep dive. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:36.960 I wanted to, you know, share that with the and benefit the industry of overall, both both residential and commercial. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:44.720 So that's uh uh that was up in parallel with and then you know uh happened with uh when water guru started forming as well. 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:47.120 And and my oh my background, my original background. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:48.320 Yes, you're academic. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.200 So my academic side was physics and chemistry, right? 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:57.120 And I never but I went, but I also did you know computer science work and programming and that system and systems work. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:32.960 And so my most of my jobs were more in the in the um you know, in programming, and then also in ironically, which became very useful in this, uh, what I'm doing now, uh, is uh I got into color science as well for something that was being done with the print because it was in the printing industry and you know, Siamagente yellow colors and how they mix and how you match and color match to other uh colors that you want to match to, uh, and and got into all that, including optics and how you know colors are seen and and all that, uh, because was uh uh working with color printers and how to get them to be right

and all that. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:38.559 So uh that all got tied together because this product that we have now, that's what it is. 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:51.039 It's an optical you know reader uh for color of uh the color exposure in test pads, and then the chemistry, of course, is chemistry and test pads and the chemistry of the water and what the advice is associated with it. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:10:17.360 So all this side work that I did that wasn't even my regular you know job ended up and for for a lot of it, yeah, it ended up being very, very valuable to uh you know to what the academics and then the practical work experience from jobs that you had, and it's like and the public health side, which I would not have known anything about that except working with you know people on this uh committee in terms of you know how the things are measured and what the experiments are done and all that. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:21.039 So I got a uh yeah, a very quick education and all that. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:26.320 So you were on the original uh council for the model aquatic health code. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:30.240 Yeah, because I was because I was bothering the CDC even before that existed. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.240 Then they then when they started to create that, they said, Hey, this is something you should probably join. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:44.960 And and and uh after a while being on there, then they were forming committees, and then once they formed that committee, uh the Sineric committee was one that you know that made I remember that committee very well. 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:50.240 I I wasn't on it, but I knew a few people on it, so that was pretty exciting. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:54.879 And I think they've incorporated a lot of that into the pool operator certification courses now. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:58.240 Yeah, they took some of what we did, some they didn't, but they did take some of it. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.840 Yeah, uh the model quad once it was officially in the model aquatic health code. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:04.320 So it's very impressive that you have that background, Richard. 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:05.120 That's awesome. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:13.919 So now we want to go down to Jerry Siegel and tell us how you got in the industry and where you're at, your background, and everything like that. 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:19.279 My background is not nearly as illustrious as Richard's. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:23.919 Richard is truly the guru in Waterguru. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:44.000 Um, but um like Richard, you know, I spent uh a lifetime in uh Silicon Valley in the tech industry and you know, seen it through so many waves of innovation, or as we say around Silicon Valley, disruptive, you know, creation. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:12:04.080 And and that was what was exciting to me, you know, about Water Guru is seeing how Richard and the team have literally reinvented the basic, the fundamental technology for how we actually far more accurately um measure water chemistry. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:27.200 And then what I love about it is that and all the other types of data that we collect and turning that into action and creating a management software layer that allows hotels, property management firms, but also pool service firms to elevate the level of performance they have and being able to manage these these bodies of water. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:37.519 So my background is on the strategy and um and marketing side, business development side of technology. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:43.519 I was at HP, I was at um at Microsoft, I was uh C. 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:46.000 All companies that we know. 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:55.840 Yeah, and then and then I was CMO for Panasonic's um enterprise business, and I led the company's um uh smart cities initiative. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:13:14.159 And the whole thing about smart cities is connected assets so you could measure what is going on in that real physical world and bring that into the digital domain so it can be better managed. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:22.080 So the work I was doing with smart cities aligned beautifully with what Wataguru does. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:51.120 Wataguru is a smart, you know, uh manageable, you know, physical data and becomes an amazing tool for people that are having to maintain uh pools and also those that are concerned about the liability associated with uh commercial pools that are not well maintained, which is so easily and and often the case. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:14:00.480 Yep, I I know I used to be a public commercial pool inspector for a good amount of years, 17 years down here, I think, uh in Florida. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:08.480 So there's those properties that somebody going out manually testing, but then not writing their stuff on a log. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:15.840 There's a record, I'm there, there's chlorine pH completely off, gotta close it. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:30.799 And so, you know, it's the prop it it's a condo board, it's an HOA homeowner association, a condo owner association, and they want to know what's going on, but they don't understand it enough, and they don't where to they don't know where to find the log. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:49.200 I just did a webinar for like 200 people on Friday uh the last week, and it was through a property management company, pretty big one, and there are board members, you know, from condo boards and hoa boards in there as well as property managers. 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:55.519 And one of the things they asked was I mean, they have their hot topics, you know, and one of them is that log. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:58.559 Where do what are we supposed to test? 00:14:58.639 --> 00:14:59.279 How often? 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:00.480 Where do we keep it? 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:01.679 And all kinds of stuff. 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:04.799 So this would be something that would be pretty useful. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:05.759 Yeah. 00:15:06.080

--> 00:15:15.360 If if it could be approved to be able to, you know, use on a public pool, like in certain states where I know it's really tough, but you guys are working on that. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:18.080 So that would be something that would be very beneficial. 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:34.159 Um I I see the the the nice information that you get out of something like that, and it's going to be beneficial because they'll know if they have zero chlorine, they'll know if their pH is too high, stuff like that, and they can react quickly, right? 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:53.279 Yes, and and most importantly, because they do care about liability, we're the only system out there today that will not only provide everything all the information in real time and dashboards that make all the data actionable, which is what they care so much about. 00:15:53.519 --> 00:16:22.639 But fundamentally speaking, Richard, in the many things that he innovated in the 11 patents that we have, you know, we are uniquely able to detect and report on dangerously you know overchlorinated pool conditions, which is a big part of why there's 3,500 people sent to the ER every year because of exposure to commercial pools, you know, per the CDC. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:34.720 So we had to first and foremost reinvent the testing technology itself, and then secondly, add a management layer on top of that. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:40.320 So let's talk about what is water guru, how does it basically work? 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:44.480 And I any one of you, you Jeff or Richard, can take this one. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:45.679 How what is it? 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:46.960 How does it work? 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:48.799 And what does it give? 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:50.960 And how does it give the information? 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:57.519 So I know there's an app, so let's talk about all that for our listeners in a basic way that they're gonna understand. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:08.960 Let me while Richard's describing this, let me share uh a screen that will be a visual picture overview that Richard can talk from. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:15.839 That uh, because a picture is really worth uh a thousand words in this particular case. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.119 So let there we go. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.279 So we've got a shared screen. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:23.839 If you are uh seeing the podcast, you'll be able to see it. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:31.359 Richard's gonna kind of talk about it audibly for all those that are just listening to the podcast. 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:49.839 So, Richard, tell us about Water Guru, how it works, uh, what it does in a basic way for our listeners, how it helps the pool pro, you know, or the property, the property owners, because it it can help the pool pro, it can help the property owner. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:51.839 So I'll let let you go with that. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:52.720 Right. 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:58.559 So uh first of all, the the device itself is one that uh fits in the skimmer. 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:02.559 It basically replaces the skimmer lid for standard circular skimmers. 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:05.039 We have adapters for square skimmers as well. 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:11.359 Um and there's the the part that's the skimmer lid is the IoT communication part. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:18.319 That's the part that's got the antennas for you know going to Wi-Fi, uh as which is what it connects to. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:27.119 So it does need Wi-Fi, you know, capability or access uh at uh at the skimmer, and you can add extenders or do whatever you need to do to get that there. 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:52.319 Um and then below, as you can see from the the what uh what Jeff is showing now, there is a part that hangs into the water, so goes into the skimmer itself, which we call the lab unit, and that's the one that has a cassette in it, which has the uh test, the tests themselves that are read by the lab unit and then reported via Wi-Fi to the cloud, which then gets to your app. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:59.359 So uh the measurements are normally done uh once a day in the residential environment uh for the commercial environment. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:04.000 Uh it can be set up to read uh more than that, you know, two, four times a day. 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:05.839 Up to eight times a day. 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:07.519 Up to eight times a day. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:17.599 And um uh so the uh testing itself, the the cartridge or cassettes, um, have test pads in them. 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:24.160 Uh and uh basically uh for those that use you know test strips, you know, they sometimes call them guest strips, right? 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:26.559 Because it is hard to read them. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:31.519 Uh they uh can sometimes be flaky, you know, sometimes they're okay, sometimes they're not, and so on. 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:38.160 So we took a look at that, uh, and there was nothing inherently technically wrong with the technology if it was done well. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:48.559 It was just that it was really designed originally for visual comparison, so there wasn't a lot of care, as much care taken to be, you know, quite as precise. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:55.519 But technically it's not uh the chemics, chemistry and the chemicals in such are very similar to what the liquid test kits do. 00:19:55.759 --> 00:20:00.160 So there wasn't a reason where, if it was read electronically, why it couldn't be accurate. 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:08.240 So we took the approach of using the the test pads because it's a very uh expandable platform. 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:21.440 We can add additional test pads uh with measuring a different uh additional uh reagents and do so in a way that's very cost effective because we don't need to add a whole bunch of different you know optics and electronics and all the rest of it, right? 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:26.240 So um, so it's expandable and and and uh

and reasonable cost. 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:28.160 So that's why we went with that approach. 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:45.519 And uh that's uh the way it works is it does open up uh there's a long film with test pads along the film that are sealed, you know, and as it's working, it opens it up and exposes it to water, reads the reading, uh, then goes to the next pad and so on. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:50.240 And there's a white reference pad uh every time we do a set of readings. 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.200 Uh so it's basically self-calibrating, you know. 00:20:53.279 --> 00:21:07.680 So there's because because things happen, like the optics will, you know, the over time they could get clouded or they could get some uh, you know, or the RGB LEDs themselves, if they were to drift for any reason, you know, you don't want to have to have the thing get off. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:14.799 So by having it recalibrated every time you do it, it's uh you know, it's self-referenced and it uh is able to be more accurate that way. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:20.960 So that's the core part, that's that center part uh in his diagram of the monitoring system. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:26.720 Um and what it's measuring though is uh more than just the water chemistry that I just described. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:42.160 And he shows some of this on the left-hand side, where in addition, we have a flow sensor uh in there as well that's uh primarily to make sure that, you know, we make sure it's in water, first of all, because if it's not in water, we don't even bother doing or you know, doing a reading, uh trying to read. 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:45.839 But if it's uh and if it's in water, then it can tell if there's flow or not. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:59.759 So there are several uh situations where uh flow you know went to zero uh for an extended uh time, and uh people were able to figure out that their uh pump either failed uh or that their schedule changed. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.480 And it wasn't, you know, having circulation at the time when we're doing reading. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:08.880 And to get the best readings, you do want to have the pool circulating water. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:11.519 So that's why we have a flow sensor there. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:15.440 That flow sensor is also a temperature sensor, so that's how we get the temperature reading. 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:20.000 And we send up the temperature reading every time we're reporting to the cloud, which is every half hour. 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:26.880 The device, because it's sitting in the skimmer, you know, it's obviously not line powered, you know, it's not connected with a power cord, right? 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:28.400 So it's got batteries in it. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:37.680 So that's why it's not, you know, like always on with Wi-Fi, because you can't do that, you know, you obviously be draining power the whole time if that's the case. 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:42.559 But we do report up every

half hour, we'll blip up to the cat cloud, see if there's something there. 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:49.359 Now, if you want a measurement right away, you can also, instead of waiting for your scheduled measurement, you can just request a measure now. 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:54.079 And if you do that within Bluetooth range, so in addition to the Wi-Fi, we also have Bluetooth in there. 00:22:54.160 --> 00:23:05.599 And the reason we have that in there is not just for the initial setup of Wi-Fi credentials because it makes it easy to do that, but we also have it in there so you can immediately tell the device, hey, check with the cloud. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:09.759 I just asked for a measure now and you know, go figure out what to do, and it'll do that right away. 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:11.839 So you won't have to wait for your next half hour. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:23.279 If you're not in Bluetooth range and you say measure now or make changes or whatever, that the device is supposed to do something, it'll take up to a half hour, you know, because the next time it checks to the cloud, right? 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:25.680 So that's why we have both the Bluetooth and the Wi-Fi there. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:26.400 That's pretty. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:45.119 And and and and a simplified version is to say on the left of the screen, you see all you see a lot of the data that we capture, water chemistry, uh, pool temperature, pump flow, and we also know the the water level because if it's too low, we obviously would be out of water. 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:50.079 On the right is how we turn data into action. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:24:06.799 So these are all the sets of screens that we equip the pool maintenance person with so they're able to effectively use the data in a way that gives them control over the body of water. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:38.240 And um, from pool health, early warning system, um, analytics to look at what's been happening with the pool over time, automated data logging, and super important, Richard uh engineered a very science-driven, very accurate dosage guidance system so that even if you don't have a CPO training, even if you know background, um, you're still able to use the system. 00:24:38.319 --> 00:25:10.799 Or if you do have a lot of our customers do have CPO training staff, and even with that, our guidance, we have been told over and over and over again from our customers, ends up giving them better outcomes than how they had been doing something for the last 10-15 years, because they're used to guesstimate data, and so using old rules of thumb of what to do, and now they have accurate, more precise data. 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:21.839 And then what does the science tell us about what to do in in that situation to really dial this in um, you know, to get the optimum results? 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:28.160 Yeah, it's a combination of uh the you know, there's garbage in, garbage out is what people uh uh refer to that as. 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:32.000 And uh so if you have more accurate information coming in, you can get better results out. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:32.960 So that's part of it. 00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:47.039 And the other part of it is uh, you know, as as any of you have taken the CPO course, you know, there's there can be a lot of uh even though it's tried to be, you know, tried to be simplified, you know, there's a lot of you know computation and multiplications and math and and you know, which is really annoying. 00:25:47.119 --> 00:26:10.400 And they we have the you know uh calculator uh apps that can that can do things, but the it's it's more than that because there's certain computations that aren't even taught in the CPO, and instead they use just rough tables, even if you if you buy a Taylor kit too and you look at the manual or whatever, there's some tables, but they make assumptions like for the pH adjustment, they assume a certain total alkalinity level to be in a reasonable range. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:16.799 You know, but if the alkalinity level is is uh quite different, the amount of acid you need to lower the pH is going to be different. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:21.680 And that's not built into those tables, and there's there's the calculations are actually quite complex for that. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:29.359 But we have that, we know all of that uh information, and when we get have that information, we'll we'll output the right, you know, the right value. 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:33.759 So that's so it's better both because the inputs are better, but also the algorithms are better. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:45.279 Um, and as far as the dosage guidance and also not just dosage, but the um, you know, there's some help associated with it and some explanations for people that want to do a more deep dive and that sort of thing. 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:54.079 Um, and this is just scratching the the surface because uh, and it's you know, and although it's nice from a marketing point of view to call it AI, it's really even better than AI. 00:26:54.400 --> 00:26:55.759 I would call it better than AI. 00:26:55.839 --> 00:27:10.000 Because if you do, if you use current AI to scrape basically what it'll do, it scrapes things that are on the web, uh, you know, on the internet, and uh a lot of the information's wrong, especially in this uh particular industry, right? 00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:21.599 You know, so that because the advice has just been done over decades with uh not to be necessarily scientifically accurate, but to maximize sale of product, and you know, you get what you get when that happens. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:22.319 Exactly. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:26.960 So to Richard's point, this is more like an expert system. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:28.240 Right. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:31.119 It's more like a it's more like an expert system than an AI. 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:33.440 It's better, like I'd say it's I call it better than AI. 00:27:33.519

--> 00:27:43.039 You know, at some point, AI will kick in to have enough reasoning and and uh capability, you know, to be able to figure things out itself and figure out some chemistry and that sort of thing. 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:45.839 But in the meantime, we'll we have that part of it. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:51.759 And the AI part can be uh uh useful for you know the language aspect of it, being able to communicate back and forth. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:55.119 And we use that in our chat bots for the for the help, for example. 00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:56.799 It's great, they're great for things like that. 00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:02.319 You know, you go online and you just ask a question and it comes back and it finds the FAQ articles and can summarize them. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:05.119 And you know, that the AI is is wonderful for that. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:11.920 But when it comes to the actually doing the calculations and do the chemistry, uh, you know, figuring out what really needs to be done, it's not there yet. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:13.039 So this is better than that. 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:15.279 It's it's like Jeff said, it's really an expert system. 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:22.400 And and the early warning alerts, we hear from a lot of customers that this is how they avoid asset downtime. 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:30.799 Because if the pump is going to fail, oftentimes we'll see the early indications, the early signals of that. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:34.400 And those come up in the warning alerts. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:46.640 So we hear from customers how they're able to replace the pumps before they completely fail, eliminating asset downtime, eliminating a lot of green pool situations. 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:54.960 It's a whole different game when you have accurate, timely information that becomes actionable. 00:28:55.359 --> 00:29:10.240 Well, it's because it's not just testing water chemistry, it's got the flow sensor, and then I can say you got my aunt and uncle, what you guys provided a unit, which I'm gonna be showing a lot of my people on social media soon. 00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:20.079 Um easy to install, put it in, it's been testing water, and like the one thing we figured out, because you said that it reads temperature. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:25.519 I had gotten him like a regular floating digital thermometer for his pool. 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:40.319 And we started getting the temperature from the water guru, and then we're looking at this thermometer, and we're like, okay, this thermometer is not working anymore, the cheap floating digital one that we got on Amazon or whatever. 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:54.400 And it's because it's kept saying it was 77 all the time, but then I'm like, this is not 77 degree water, and the guru's like reporting 84, 85, and this pool sits in the sun. 00:29:54.640 --> 00:30:02.000 So that's a lot more believable when I go dip myself in, and I'm like, no, I I wouldn't be in here if it was 77 right now. 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:06.720 I live in Florida, so anything under 80 was like, no way, Jose. 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.440 You know, we don't go swimming until it's in the 80s. 00:30:09.920 --> 00:30:16.640 And so we knew that that thermometer, there's an example right there, and we've only been using it for like 15 days. 00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:24.319 And we already knew one little thing right there, but the flow sensor is gonna, like you said, give you an idea of your flow if you're having pump issues. 00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:27.039 It's not just about water chemistry. 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:33.599 That's why it's not called water chemistry guru, it's called water guru because it's doing other things as well. 00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:38.319 And the thing I thought was cool is you can actually order chemicals too. 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:49.599 Like it, it know, and you could it almost you could do chemical inventory with it, it looks like, and and buy chemicals that you need based on what it's testing and telling you to use, which I thought was pretty cool too. 00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:56.799 Yeah, and and the temperature reading is really interesting because we now have customers with commercial pools. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:59.200 Country clubs is where it started. 00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:02.000 Now it's moving into hotels as well. 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:10.480 Where um so Troon is the largest um country club management firm in the industry. 00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:14.960 They manage over 900 country clubs, golf clubs, etc. 00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:21.920 And their members don't want to come to the pool unless the pool temperature is right, you know, especially if you're doing laps. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:32.000 And and and they had a huge amount of just member dissatisfaction with never knowing what it's gonna be when they arrived, right? 00:31:32.160 --> 00:31:35.920 Depending on the time of day and and other factors. 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:43.680 Um, even when they had the pool heater set maybe at 82, there's other parts of the pool that were, you know, 75. 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:57.839 So they used our technology to, we gave them a widget which they just put on their website, and it's all connected to our system in their pool, and they so they install this in the colder part of the pool. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:09.279 So now they're able to reset their pool heater so that the part of the pool that was uncomfortable is is no longer uncomfortable. 00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:16.240 But again, it's this whole idea of connected pool, the value of real-time data. 00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:31.200 And as Richard was saying, you know, while we may measure water chemistry two or six or eight times a day, depending on what the customer wants, um, we'll measure pool temperature every 30 minutes of the day, 48 times a day. 00:32:31.279 --> 00:32:48.240 So that pool temperature reading is gonna constantly be changing as the day goes on, and people will always

know, but just by going to a website, they'll always know before they get in their car and get to the pool what to expect. 00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:54.799 And and we've been using the the cassette that tests in my aunt and uncle's pool. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:33:00.559 And I go there two, usually two times a week to swim during the summer with the kids, just started like three weeks ago. 00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:03.519 And we've had this in about two weeks now. 00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:18.720 And it we have the cassette that tests free chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, and pretty accurate to my Taylor test that I did with it, very close and everything. 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:29.519 And it's it, I was telling you know, funny story I was telling somebody the other day is my my husband goes, it's like you're stalking your uncle's pool. 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:30.720 You're not there. 00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:34.240 I'm about 20 minutes away from their house. 00:33:34.559 --> 00:33:43.279 And one day I'm looking at the readings from the previous day, and then it tested that day, and like the chlorine went up all of a sudden, and the pH went down. 00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:47.279 And I tested him and said, Oh, shocked the pool today, huh? 00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:50.400 And added some acid to bring the pH down. 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:52.720 And he goes, Yeah, how'd you know? 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:56.640 I go, remember you got that thing in your skimmer called water guru? 00:33:57.359 --> 00:34:04.720 It I saw the test today, and your chlorine jumped, and it's not from the salt chlorine generator, really, that did that. 00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:07.759 You you added some cal hypo, didn't you? 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:08.719 Yes, I did. 00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:12.159 And he's like, I'm stalking this pool without being there. 00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:21.840 And that's just a fun way to say it monitors, and you can even tell when somebody else does something and you're not even there, you're not the one that did it. 00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:32.719 Right, because the feature, the pool sharing feature is used both in, you know, you're describing it in a way that would be like a residential uh typically environment where somebody's sharing it with a family member and that sort of thing. 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:44.239 So, but this and the same basic concept is done in the commercial environment as well, obviously, because you can have the pool service be the owner of it and then that's sharing it with the residents or the other way around, depending on what they want, you know. 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:53.440 So it's that, so it's a basic the same concept, it's just extended to be uh able to and this is transforming the pool service industry. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:35:00.000 So we have several hundred pool service companies already using us and pool builders. 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:16.000 And because they're able to monitor their customers' pools, even if they're going out once a week, if the customer has a pool party on Saturday, they're able to call the customer up on Sunday and say, Must have been an amazing pool party you had. 00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:19.280 And the customer's like shocked and go, Yes, how did you know? 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:22.800 And they're like, because Water Guru told us. 00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:29.840 And so they know they can't wait another six days or five days to come out and redose the pool. 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:32.000 They know they have to come out sooner. 00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:43.039 So this is transforming the pool service industry to be service as needed, not merely limited to service as scheduled. 00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:44.800 Yeah, it's proactive instead of reactive. 00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:47.679 Yeah, it helps, yeah, it's proactive instead of reactive. 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:50.960 It helps prioritize where they need to go. 00:35:51.039 --> 00:36:03.360 So if they see a zero chlorine on one of the customers' pools, it's like, okay, maybe I do my route a little bit different today, go to these customers first, and then do the other customers that they're chlorine and everything tested fine. 00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:04.480 Yeah, absolutely. 00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:04.960 Absolutely. 00:36:05.199 --> 00:36:16.239 Because that's the hardest part of a pool service is the weekly, you know, the fact that if they're only there weekly, things can happen during the week, and uh it doesn't take that long for the pool to go south, depending on how it's been managed. 00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:18.079 And yeah, you want to stay on top of it. 00:36:18.320 --> 00:36:21.840 Let's talk about your integration that you've had with uh pool route software. 00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:22.960 That's kind of cool too. 00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:23.920 Let's talk about that. 00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:25.840 Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth. 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:30.000 So we're super excited about the integration with pool brain. 00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:37.840 Um, and now we're looking at integrations with pool maintenance or maintenance management software systems in the property management world as well. 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:41.039 But pool brain is a great example. 00:36:41.280 --> 00:37:02.719 So uh Adam Beach is the co is the founder and CEO, and it's his vision of the future of the pool service industry that you have access to the chemistry and pump flow information seven days a week, not just the once a week when you're there. 00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:16.880 So when things are going wrong, those other six days, it elevates the performance of the pool service company and it improves the lives of you know of their of their customers. 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:37.039 So um we have a shared vision with pool brain, where you know, with Adam, and we now have quite a few um pools um or pool service companies using pool brain that are now you know doing this with Wataguru, and it's really exciting

to see. 00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:51.760 Even ASP, which is the largest pool service company in the US, now has has us rolled out to quite a few of their uh you know of their uh operations in different states and and the like. 00:37:51.920 --> 00:38:10.559 So we are seeing this transformation now beginning to happen finally in the pool service industry, and it's a complete parallel with what hotels and property management firms and country clubs and aquatic centers are doing with us, you know, uh with uh self-maintenance. 00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:26.719 And I I was saying this like a few years ago when I, you know, looking at the pool route software, that integration's pretty neat because now you can prioritize within your route software for that pool text route where they need to go. 00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:40.960 So now you're using their GPS locations and the abilities that the route software has along with the information that you're bringing into the route software, which is additional information that they don't have, right? 00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:59.360 And I always said that would make it nice to be able to prioritize where you're going on your route at that point, but not have to do it on paper, you know, have the route software be able to look at the information it gets from a unit like this based on water chemistry, especially chlorine and pH. 00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:00.880 Those are the two biggies, right? 00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:07.679 Especially when we start going toward public swimming pools and health agencies and stuff like that. 00:39:08.079 --> 00:39:13.920 It's prioritizing those that you need to go out to before maybe the health inspector shows up that day. 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:15.039 Exactly. 00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:23.840 And you would be able to close that pool knowing that it has zero chlorine or the pH is out of range or the the chlorine's too high. 00:39:23.920 --> 00:39:30.639 Like you said, your unit is able to read really, and it's the only unit that can read really high chlorine levels of the city. 00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:35.920 Yeah, yeah, it is essentially it's the there, there are other uh methods that just not typically used. 00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:50.079 And uh so let's let's talk about this because this is and I I was kind of heading into that, and then I'm gonna say that happened a lot where then with the regular test kit, you got to have distilled water to be able to do the higher level chlorine test. 00:39:50.159 --> 00:39:58.079 And a lot of pool operators will not do that because they don't have distilled water with them or they just don't want to go through the effort of doing that. 00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:12.800 And so your unit can test those high chlorine levels, be able to, you know, send that information, and somebody can react to it and close the pool until they can get that chlorine level down to normal operating ranges within their health code. 00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:14.559 So let's I'll let you guys talk about that. 00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:20.159 So this is what Richard engineered, and I'm gonna let him go and describe how this happens. 00:40:20.400 --> 00:40:25.519 But what you're seeing here, this was actually a graph sent to us from Pool Brain. 00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:30.000 So this is a graph in their system, even though we have our own graphs as well. 00:40:30.159 --> 00:40:35.440 And when they sent this to me a few months ago, they said, You have to see this, Jeff. 00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:38.159 And I said, Great, I can't wait to see this. 00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:42.239 And when I looked at it, I said, What's so interesting here? 00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:46.320 I said, I see uh an overchlorinated pool. 00:40:46.480 --> 00:40:50.320 I know this happens all the time, it's very common, you know. 00:40:50.559 --> 00:41:05.760 Um pool companies hand feed and if the tech's not trained very well, they hand feed liquid sodium hypochlorite into the pool and they're not really thinking about the volume of water or anything else, and they overchlorinate. 00:41:06.079 --> 00:41:06.320 Right. 00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:13.519 And and Richard will explain the other ways that this happens, but I'm looking at this and going, why are you guys sending this to me? 00:41:13.679 --> 00:41:15.119 What's so special? 00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:17.039 And they said, Jeff, you don't understand. 00:41:17.199 --> 00:41:19.840 We've been in the pool service industry for decades. 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:23.920 We've never, ever, ever seen a graph like this before. 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:25.760 And I'm like, what are you talking about? 00:41:25.920 --> 00:41:26.639 This is common. 00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:37.440 They said, Yeah, but you're the only technology, you're the only system out there that actually can detect this and report it. 00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:46.719 And all the other tests don't do that, they all bleach out, and then we don't even know that there's a dangerously overchlorinated pool. 00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:55.599 So I'll let Richard expand on this, but this is this is a revelation for the pool industry. 00:41:56.079 --> 00:41:56.320 Yeah. 00:41:56.559 --> 00:42:13.840 So one of the things we did is when we were uh looking at uh how we were going to be measuring, uh, you know, there were some systems uh that uh existed for uh measuring ORP and pH through you know electronic uh uh sensors, right? 00:42:14.079 --> 00:42:16.320 You know, membrane-based-based sensors. 00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:24.800 And uh there's issues with that, particularly with the ORP, because of the um it's not actually measuring chlorine, you know. 00:42:24.880 --> 00:42:28.800 So it's measuring something that is, you know, it's the sum of oxidizers minus reducing agents in the pool. 00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:34.800 And so it's affected by cyanuric acid, it's affected by bather loads, affected by things that are not related to the actual amount of chlorine in the pool. 00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:41.280

And so and so and that's why in the commercial environment, you know, no states allow it to be used standalone. 00:42:41.360 --> 00:42:45.519 They all require it to be used in conjunction with a regular free chlorine test. 00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:52.159 It's basically used as process control where you set the set point on a regular basis, you know, against the free chlorine, you know. 00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:55.920 So it's that and that's because it can drift and change because of these other factors. 00:42:56.159 --> 00:43:01.920 So, you know, we looked at that, we looked at, you know, in terms of how to measure this stuff, we looked at that and said, no, that's just really not the way to go. 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:03.280 Let's measure chlorine directly. 00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:16.079 So then when you measure the different parameters directly, as as uh we do with uh chemicals that are similar to the chemical chemicals in your uh test kits, but we had a choice of you know what kinds of chemicals to use. 00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:39.920 And we went through uh in the in the chlorine one in particular, instead of using a DPD chemical, which is what the uh what it uh standard test kits use for the liquid test kits, um there's another one uh called TMB that can be used and actually turned out to be better for us anyway because it was less sensitive to moisture, so it could last longer in our test strips, and in our uh film strips, I should say. 00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:47.039 And uh uh and it has the nice benefit of not bleaching out uh when the chlorine level gets high. 00:43:47.119 --> 00:43:54.960 Now it does do some strange things in terms of changing in the the types of colors and getting more darker gray and all that, but they're all optical things that we can detect. 00:43:55.119 --> 00:43:57.199 In other words, we can see that, oh, wait a second. 00:43:57.280 --> 00:43:59.360 Okay, the chlorine's actually getting really high. 00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:04.159 Um And so we report that uh and and are able to detect that. 00:44:04.239 --> 00:44:07.920 Um and as you pointed out, Lauren, there's there's ways around the DPD uh part. 00:44:08.079 --> 00:44:10.639 You mentioned one, which is is that you could do a water dilution. 00:44:10.719 --> 00:44:20.800 You know, another that I believe is mentioned in the uh CPO course is that the one can add more DPD dye, uh, you know, but you'd have to kind of know that it was getting bleached out, you know, when you did that. 00:44:21.039 --> 00:44:29.039 Um the um uh you can use a um you know more expensive but also more accurate test like a FASTPD count the drops test. 00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:33.440 That one can measure also very high, although it'll flash pink and disappear as well right away. 00:44:33.519 --> 00:44:42.480 So you got to catch that and then add more powder in in in the Yeah, they always say add the third, third, uh the third scoop of powder stays pink. 00:44:42.639 --> 00:44:50.079 And then I mean, yes,

I have read really high chlorine levels with an FASDPD uh Taylor test kit. 00:44:50.159 --> 00:45:02.960 Yeah, and I've gotten like 58 parts per million, 30 parts per million, and you know and people need to believe that this high chlorine has issues. 00:45:03.119 --> 00:45:05.280 Um absolutely. 00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:18.559 I mean a swimsuit, skin and hair, the oxidation of that, but then also, you know, if it depending on if there's cyanuric acid in the pool or not, and so on, it can really get, or if you're above the COA level, it can get, you know, it can get very high and be bad for your teeth and all these other things too. 00:45:18.639 --> 00:45:21.840 And the eyes and I had a complaint when I worked at the health department. 00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:26.320 Somebody called me, said, I think there's too much chlorine in the hot tub in our HOA. 00:45:26.880 --> 00:45:33.119 I go out there that day, I go test it with an FAS DPD, and I get 30 parts per million. 00:45:33.199 --> 00:45:40.000 And their big concern when they were on the phone with me is the hair on their legs had burned off and their male parts were burned. 00:45:40.239 --> 00:45:40.880 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:45:41.519 --> 00:45:46.800 So they're pretty is an older gentleman, he's pretty concerned about how it's making them feel, right? 00:45:47.280 --> 00:45:51.760 He had some chemical burns going on and stuff there because chlorine was way too high. 00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:57.440 Yeah, and it's of course, it's a very big and Jeff, why don't you talk about the liability aspect of it because there have been some incidents? 00:45:58.079 --> 00:46:00.239 So so this is this is huge, right? 00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:06.079 So, this whole what you're looking at here is um a phenomenal education tool. 00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:17.519 This is an interview, um, you know, interviewing Richard, and I asked him, I said, Well, Bretane Properties, which is a very high-end resort, I mean, you could you could see their pools. 00:46:17.599 --> 00:46:24.800 These guys are not low end, these guys spend money high-end resort, they have CPO trained people. 00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:38.159 But if the CPO trained people don't have the right tools, they can't do their job as well as they would like to and as the business needs them to. 00:46:38.320 --> 00:46:47.440 So they had a wildly over-chlorinated pool, but they didn't know that because if they're not using our technology, you're not gonna know that. 00:46:47.599 --> 00:46:50.480 You're gonna end up in a liability situation. 00:46:50.639 --> 00:47:01.280 So they paid out a$26 million legal settlement because several of their guests ended up uh in the R with really bad chemical burns. 00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:06.400 And this is a whole interview with Richard saying, Richard, how did this happen? 00:47:07.360 --> 00:47:11.840 How common is this overchlorinated pool situation? 00:47:12.559 --> 00:47:26.079 And what in the world can you know property management firms, hotels, etc., do to avoid finding themselves in this same situation? 00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:32.239 $26 million would bankrupt the vast majority of property management firms. 00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:35.039 They can't afford to be in this situation. 00:47:35.280 --> 00:47:48.960 So Richard really peeled the layers of the onion away, talking about um the different uh contributing factors that cause overchlorination. 00:47:49.519 --> 00:47:52.719 And then we finally get into well, what do you do about it? 00:47:52.880 --> 00:48:10.719 And I mean, the short answer is you don't continue using century-old technology that has been relied upon for so long that that just people just learn to live with the inadequacies of it. 00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:19.119 And you finally, like everything else we've done in our lives, no one's using fax machines anymore, no one's using pagers anymore. 00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:34.960 I don't see anyone with a corded princess telephone anymore, but that's exactly what they're doing in using this antiquated testing technology and you know, risking their business on it. 00:48:35.119 --> 00:49:04.400 So Richard takes all of this apart and helps us to really understand that, and then you know, the fact that now we can finally have a technology that can detect this very dangerous problem, and that on top of that, better technology, we built a management system that lets pool staff do the job they've always wanted to be able to do, but never had the tools to do it. 00:49:04.639 --> 00:49:17.280 So, Richard's background in deep science, uh, in deep chemistry, in computer architecture, he didn't tell you he worked for IBM Research for a number of years. 00:49:17.440 --> 00:49:29.760 He's very modest, but he took all these different domains and was able to integrate across these different domains to develop a breakthrough system. 00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:31.440 And it's not easy to do. 00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:35.599 I mean, you know, we spend like 45 million dollars trying to do this. 00:49:35.760 --> 00:49:40.000 I mean, this is not easy to do, which is why no one's ever done it before. 00:49:40.239 --> 00:50:05.280 But that's the virtue of us being in Silicon Valley and having access to venture capital funding, because Richard's goal from the beginning was to reinvent this whole area of pool maintenance, and it had to start first with new technological approaches and then building the management control layers on top of that. 00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:10.960 This has been an unbelievably big lift for Richard and the development team. 00:50:11.280 --> 00:50:20.639 Well, it's very cool because the pool industry for a long time has just been like the same, you know, same equipment, same stuff. 00:50:20.960 --> 00:50:34.800 And finally, we're seeing our industry have people like you guys coming in and inventing and creating these systems that are really gonna help revolutionize the pool industry. 00:50:35.199 --> 00:50:48.239 And I bet you

in 10 years or even less than that, we're gonna see so much uh integration and just innovation in our industry. 00:50:48.559 --> 00:50:50.800 People didn't realize the pool industry was there. 00:50:50.880 --> 00:51:00.719 It's a nice little niche industry with the pool companies and their pool trade shows, and a lot of the general public doesn't know about our industry. 00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:20.320 And so the Silicon Valley or whatever you want to call it didn't really, you know, look at that our industry to, you know, invent something like this and other things that are gonna really change how we do our jobs in the pool industry. 00:51:20.480 --> 00:51:34.960 And that's why I have the podcast is because I like to have people like you guys on so that people can hear what is there because a lot of times they don't know, they're just so busy doing their jobs and taking care of their pools and trying to keep up. 00:51:35.199 --> 00:51:44.000 And sometimes a podcast is just an easy way for them to listen while they're driving, kind of like an audible book, and they go, Oh, what is it? 00:51:44.079 --> 00:51:47.519 I gotta look up this water guru and and see what this is. 00:51:47.679 --> 00:51:50.480 I'm hearing it on the podcast, and this sounds really cool. 00:51:50.800 --> 00:52:06.480 Well, there's nothing that makes us more excited than hearing from so many of our customers how this has transformed their pool operations, how it's modernized, you know, their their maintenance practices. 00:52:06.639 --> 00:52:12.079 They've modernized so much else within maintenance. 00:52:12.480 --> 00:52:21.920 And the pool has truly been the last bastion of finally getting this kind of innovation. 00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:37.440 And again, it's not because nobody ever cared, it's because there were a lot of failures that came before Richard and his team set forth to take on this very heavy lift. 00:52:37.599 --> 00:52:41.119 And it's it's very difficult to do. 00:52:41.280 --> 00:53:17.360 But uh, I know it's incredibly gratifying, you know, for Richard to see so not only so you know, God, you know, tens and tens and tens and tens of thousands of residential pools uh using our technology, but now, and thousands of commercial pools, but now the hot tub industry, the the factory-built hot tub industry, is standardizing on our technology for the next generation of factory-built hot tubs that the world is now going to be shortly seeing. 00:53:17.599 --> 00:53:33.360 So there's no better validation of Richard's vision and innovation coming to fruition than than seeing the an entire industry now transform based on what he's created. 00:53:33.679 --> 00:53:38.320 Yeah, this is the tip of the iceberg, too, is the other part of it, because it's just just getting started. 00:53:38.559 --> 00:53:46.960 So in it in it the part about the uh in terms of the advice and the guidance and that sort of thing is just the bare bones in there now. 00:53:47.119 --> 00:53:54.159 It it will get way, way, way more uh, you know, advanced, but you won't know it's advanced, it'll just be telling you the right thing. 00:53:54.400 --> 00:54:14.960 But there is there is so much opportunity because there was so much that was just uh wrong chemically in the industry advice, in the traditional industry advice, you know, the whole total alkalinity pH relationship and how they you know how you manage that appropriately, and and you know, they weren't talking about carbon dioxide outgassing and what causes that and how do you minimize that and what do you do? 00:54:15.199 --> 00:54:15.519 None of that. 00:54:15.599 --> 00:54:18.559 You know, salt water chlorine generator pools, oh pH is always rising. 00:54:18.639 --> 00:54:19.679 Well, no, it doesn't have to. 00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:22.880 There's ways of actually making it, so it won't it won't do that as much. 00:54:23.119 --> 00:54:31.679 And um, that wasn't really uh, you know, discussed, understood, and it is just part of core chemistry in terms of explaining physics in terms of explaining it. 00:54:31.840 --> 00:54:34.960 And then you figured it out, and here's the appropriate advice. 00:54:35.039 --> 00:54:38.079 You don't have to know the chemistry to know the advice of what to do. 00:54:38.159 --> 00:54:39.039 You just get the advice. 00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:41.760 If you want to know more, you can get more, but you don't need to know that. 00:54:41.920 --> 00:54:44.159 You know, so this is at the tip of the iceberg that way. 00:54:44.239 --> 00:54:55.760 And then when it comes to spas, there's a whole uh part about not just the measuring, but just the actual dosing itself and what you do, because it's very, as I mentioned, it's very different. 00:54:55.840 --> 00:54:59.440 And the same thing's true with the uh uh high bather load commercial pools. 00:54:59.519 --> 00:55:09.920 The spas, even residential spas, are basically like uh high bather load uh uh pools uh in a commercial environment because the the chlorine usage is really dominated by the bather load. 00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:11.679 It's not really dominated, you know, in between. 00:55:11.760 --> 00:55:21.679 So if you have your weekend people in spo in spas, for example, sure, in between the weekend soaks, it's more like the way a pool is in terms of maintaining the chlorine level, right? 00:55:22.079 --> 00:55:33.920 But when you soak, you at you know, your sweat and urine is and and skin cells and all the rest of it, a lot of chlorine demand, way more than that background amount, right, in terms of maintaining chlorine. 00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:38.320 So if you're just trying to maintain chlorine level, you're gonna completely foul up your spa. 00:55:38.400 --> 00:55:49.360 What you'd have to do is you have to dose after you get out from your soak with an amount in proportion to how long you've been in there, how many people have been in there relative, you know, and uh we can calculate all that sort of thing.

00:55:49.519 --> 00:55:53.920 And um uh, you know, and in the future potentially even dose automatically for you. 00:55:54.079 --> 00:55:57.760 So it's there's a there's a lot of the future. 00:55:58.000 --> 00:55:59.199 There's a lot for the future that we can do. 00:55:59.360 --> 00:56:05.360 Yeah, that's the no, right now it's a measurement, right now it's a measurement device, but it will work for spaws as a measurement device as well, and we'll start off that way. 00:56:05.440 --> 00:56:07.840 But I'm just saying we're just at the tip of the iceberg here. 00:56:08.079 --> 00:56:14.239 Yeah, that'd be really cool to move into where it can automatically dose based on the information it gets for you. 00:56:14.480 --> 00:56:30.719 Yeah, and and as Richard pointed out about the inadequacies of ORP systems earlier, so we are used by so many uh commercial pool operations um to recalibrate those ORP systems, you know. 00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:38.719 So um we we exist, we coexist peacefully coexist side by side with those systems today. 00:56:38.960 --> 00:56:52.800 Um if those uh automated uh dispensing systems uh companies were a little smarter, they would integrate with us and we would actually help automate the recalibration of those systems, right? 00:56:53.039 --> 00:57:08.000 But um, yeah, so anyway, it's like having both pieces of information, having the ORP and the actual chlorine test side by side, you know, to have the PPM and the ORP, it gives you a lot more information. 00:57:08.320 --> 00:57:14.239 Where if you're still doing the dosing as the human person, you have a lot more information to use, you know. 00:57:14.639 --> 00:57:19.199 So and in your past world, you've you've seen it all, Lauren. 00:57:19.760 --> 00:57:23.119 Yeah, I've seen ORPs on the public safety side. 00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:25.840 Yeah, I've seen the ORPs not work. 00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:36.960 Um it's great technology, but um just as Richard said, the ORP can be affected by other things, which then affects the chlorine level in the facility. 00:57:37.039 --> 00:57:42.400 It was typically an ORP on a hot a commercial hot tub or spa. 00:57:42.719 --> 00:57:46.880 It's a small body of water and it can fluctuate and be affected very quickly. 00:57:46.960 --> 00:57:51.039 And pool operator doesn't know what to do and they don't have enough information. 00:57:51.119 --> 00:57:54.159 It's just a lot of different scenarios going on. 00:57:54.639 --> 00:57:57.280 But that's another podcast episode there. 00:57:57.840 --> 00:57:58.559 Exactly. 00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:00.320 Well, it's been awesome. 00:58:00.719 --> 00:58:05.199 Any last things you want to talk about and throw in really quick? 00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:07.840 We're just getting started. 00:58:08.239 --> 00:58:12.880 We are seeing incredible market adoption. 00:58:13.360 --> 00:58:23.360 Um I think last year we grew 3x over the year before, and this year it's also another really steep growth curve for us. 00:58:23.599 --> 00:58:33.119 So more of the industry is starting to hear about us, and we hear more of pool service companies learning about us from their customers or from pool brain. 00:58:33.440 --> 00:58:44.239 Um, you know, but the the industry is starting to understand that we exist and what we're doing is very important and very serious. 00:58:44.559 --> 00:58:50.079 Public health protection, liability protection, all of these things. 00:58:50.400 --> 00:59:02.159 And pool maintenance people, whether they're contracted or on site, in-house, love having a tool that just makes their job so much easier. 00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:05.119 Any final thoughts from you, Richard? 00:59:05.920 --> 00:59:09.920 Um, no, just if you want to find out more, go to waterguru.com. 00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:11.280 I was gonna get there. 00:59:11.760 --> 00:59:12.719 Awesome, yes. 00:59:13.039 --> 00:59:17.199 Waterguru.com, and you'll find their contact info. 00:59:17.280 --> 00:59:26.480 You'll find all this awesome information, scientific, uh, really good visuals that explain everything to you when you go there. 00:59:26.800 --> 00:59:30.719 Um thank you for being on the podcast today. 00:59:30.880 --> 00:59:37.119 I was really excited to have you guys on, and I even learned some things today along the way with my listener. 00:59:37.280 --> 00:59:39.119 So thank you so much, guys. 00:59:39.679 --> 00:59:40.400 Thank you, Laura. 00:59:40.719 --> 00:59:42.000 Thanks for having us. 00:59:44.320 --> 00:59:48.159 Thanks for diving in today with the Let's Talk About Pools Podcast. 00:59:48.320 --> 00:59:51.360 Be sure to follow us on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page. 00:59:51.519 --> 00:59:59.119 And feel free to rate, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast so more aquatic professionals like you can learn about the show. 00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:04.320 We appreciate it, and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Let's Talk About Pools Podcast.