[PSA] Pool water chemistry & sanitation apps for mobile phone users
<https://i.postimg.cc/5tsFyWtZ/pool01.jpg> Pool water chemistry apps

If you know of better free ad free gsf free pool water apps, please advise.

For those of you who maintain your own pool chemistry, of all the free apps
out there, I've personally found this one app to be the best (IMHO) for
calculating the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) water quality metric.

Android:
*Orenda* by Pure Planet Science & Technology, Inc.
free, ad free, requires GSF, 4.0 star out of 284 reviews, 10K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elitecrest.orenda>

iOS:
<https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orenda/id1171005221>

Bear in mind most of what you'll hear at a pool store is dead wrong about
pool chemistry, e.g., pool store personnel are sort of like Apple store
employees (or like Russian citizens) who only know the propaganda of the
mother country (and worse, they don't even question their pseudo science).

Mainly, what you need to 'sanitize' and 'balance' your pool water is:
a. Chlorine (& cyanuric acid) to "sanitize", and,
b. The Langelier Saturation Index calculation to "balance" the chemistry.
Comprised of temperature, pH (incl. pH ceiling), total alkalinity
(incl. carbonate alkalinity), calcium, cya, and tds/salt levels.

That's it (essentially).
Just those two things... (a) sanitation, and (b) balance.

But you'll likely never hear that advice from the pool store blue shirts.
They try to sell you algaecides, clarifiers, chelators, flocculants, etc.

You don't need to add that crap into your pool.
a. Just chlorine (i.e., free chlorine kept at least 7.5% of the CYA levels)
(for outdoor pools)
b. And the half dozen indices forming the basis of the etching/scaling LSI
(e.g., for plaster/gunite pools)

Sanitation:
For example, the Orenda folks have a blog which explains that you do not
need to even care about chasing pH ranges (for the most part) for
sanitation of outdoor pools (which mine is) - which is good because adding
a dozen gallons of muriatic acid at today's horribly covid-related inflated
prices would break the bank when it's not even needed to _care_ (all that
much) about the pH!

Etching/Scaling:
The Orenda folks also explain how pool water is like a hibernating bear,
where it gets "hungry for calcium" more so in the winter than in the summer
(depending on the LSI calculation of course), where you need to feed the
pool calcium even though our well water is already hard (at 200 ppm
calcium) for house standards (where it scales at the hot portions of the
pipes such as the shower head or the teapot) - but for gunnite/plaster pool
standards, that's on the low end of the need for calcium that water will
equilibrate to.

Note this is NOT the normal pool-store-advice you'll get from the blue
shirts, where the truth is you want to add as _few_ chemicals as you can to
pool water for the reason that everything you add contributes to the total
dissolved solids, which never leave the pool (except by flushing), where,
in addition, here in California we don't want to waste any more water than
we have to - especially since we're all on our own wells.

In summary, IMHO, this Orenda pool calculator is GREAT for the LSI which
covers the need of the water for calcium (and other things) better than
EVERY other pool app I've ever tested.

No other app (that I know of) covers the LSI as well as the Orenda app!

For how much chlorine or muriatic acid (or cyanuric acid) to dose the pool,
there are other pool apps which do the same job with a better GUI (IMHO).

*Pool Kit* by Smart apps
free, ad free, gsf free, +inapp$, rated 4.6, 106 reviews, 10K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dsmartapps.dev.poolkit>

*Pool Pal* by Pirates Love Bacon
free, ad free, gsf free, rated 4.0, 519 reviews, 100K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plb.pool>

*AquaChek Smart* by AquaChek.social
free, ad free, gsf free, rated 2.8, 147 reviews, 50K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hach.aquacheksmart>

*Pool Manager* by RCDevelopment
free, ad free, gsf free, in-app free, unrated, 1K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplepoolmanagerbyrcdevelopment.poolmanager>

If you know of _better_ free, ad free, google free apps for home pool water
chemistry calculations (both sanitation & water quality), please improve.
<https://i.postimg.cc/5tsFyWtZ/pool01.jpg> Pool water chemistry apps
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information.

Note: The iOS app says it's "designed for iPad" while both apps "claim" to
be free of overt ads, which they are, but they also recommend their own
fancy products but tht's not done in advertising format and besides, the
daily chemicals you need to keep pool water sanitary & non-damaging to the
pool, they don't sell.

BTW, while I think this is the single best free ad free pool app
Android:
*Orenda* by Pure Planet Science & Technology, Inc.
free, ad free, requires GSF, 4.0 star out of 284 reviews, 10K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elitecrest.orenda>
iOS:
<https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orenda/id1171005221>

There are others which calculate pool chemistry saturation & sanitation.
But I think I will shill these Orenda folks like Steve shills Verizon.

Because I love what they do for residential pool owners.

Did you ever notice I try to _understand_ how Apple & Google work?
I mean really understand their underlying marketing chemistry?

Well, it's the same for pool-water chemistry.
Which you can take at the simplistic view and 'chase ranges', which is
pretty much what most people do, even pros who maintain commercial pools.

But I like to _know_ why I'm doing anything and how to make the decision.
These Orenda folks give you the background to make those key decisions.

Take this blog, for example, which is just one page out of many:
<https://blog.orendatech.com/what-causes-a-high-ph-in-a-swimming-pool>

Now, as you know, I have lots of chemistry (yes, I know, the books); but in
all my chem classes they didn't specifically cover pool water chemistry.
<https://ask.orendatech.com/knowledge/what-is-ph>

These Orenda guys cover _every_ question you could possibly ask them to.
<https://ask.orendatech.com/knowledge/can-high-ta-and-low-ch-be-lsi-balanced>

Most of the chemistry questions have both a blog and a podcast/youtube too.
<https://blog.orendatech.com/the-ideal-calcium-to-alkalinity-ratio>

In summary, not only do I recommend the Orenda free ad free pool-water
chemistry app, but I recommend the Orenda blogs too.

Those blogs help you understand, at the adult level of cognition, exactly
why you're pouring hundreds of dollars via gallons of acid and chlorine and
hundreds of pounds of calcium and cyanuric acid into your pool.

Hell, you could buy an iPhone or an S22 with the money you save by making
good choices. But that would be yet another "good choice" to be made. :)