Swimming pool service technician

Within the swimming pool and spa industry, these tradespeople are also known as "pool and spa service professionals" and have three national trade associations that offer membership, PHTA, the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, IPSSA, the Independent Pool And Spa Service Association, Inc.[1] and UPA, the United Pool Association.[2] Certification can be obtained through various organizations, including the NSPF and APSA.

There are as many as 15,000,000 residential pools and spas in the United States and about 400,000 "commercial" or "public" swimming pools.[3][4] The two service industry trade organizations boast of having about 15,000 members, tops which means that each such professional who is a member would have 1,000 pools each to clean. Obviously there are many pool service professionals who are not members of these organizations and millions of pool owners clean their own pools.[5]

According to the National Swimming Pool Foundation,[6] which has certified hundreds of thousands of pool service operators with its CPO or Certified Pool Operators course,[7] only 26 states require that operators of public or commercial pools require that they be properly trained and certified. But there is a move afoot by the Center of Disease Control on a grant provided by the NSPF to create the first ever uniform aquatic health code.[8] These servicemen generally clean either residential or commercial swimming pools.[9]

To properly clean a swimming pool, residential or commercial, a service professional, a residential pool owner or an employee of a commercial pool owner has a choice of manually cleaning the pool or using an automated pool cleaner if speed and efficiency is preferred.

A swimming pool service technician is the title character of the Seinfeld episode The Pool Guy.

• Swimming pool sanitation
• Automated pool cleaner
• Bather load
• Pool fence
• Urine-indicator dye