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Ready, Set, Open Your Pool – Tips from the Pros!

Greetings pool people! It’s that time of year again where we peel back those winter covers to reveal whether or not Mother Nature and Father Winter were nice to our pools this off season. With the nice weather we’ve been receiving, we’d like to remind you to start tackling your pool maintenance soon to prevent an algae bloom! Here are some tips to help make your pool season get started off on the right foot.

Tip 1 – Pool Cover Removal

 Remove as much excess water from the cover as possible, and use a broom or leave blower to clear off the rest of the debris. When pulling off those winter covers or safety covers, have some Stow Away on hand to clean them off before storage. This product not only cleans, it also helps prevent mildew and other nastiness from growing while your cover takes its summer nap.

Tip 2 – Surface Maintenance

Jeff Adams, one of our many fine maintenance techs, says that brushing your pool is not only good for your pool, but it’s also a great workout for your triceps. Two birds, one stone! Now if brushing isn’t for you, see my previous blog about our fine automatic pool cleaners.

Tip 3 – Filter Care

Another long time and awesome maintenance tech, Jason Markham, would like to remind you to chemically clean your filter for the beginning of the season. A clean filter makes a happy pool. If you have a sand filter and the sand is older than 5 years, it’s time to change it out! Make sure to ask us about the VitroClean Glass difference!

Tip 4 – Water Balancing

Once the cover is off and the pool has been circulating for at least 24hrs, take a sample of water into your nearest Aqua Quip so we can give you a recipe to successfully balance the pool water. Making sure your Alkalinity, Ph, Calcium, Sanitizer, and Algaecide levels are at their proper levels is crucial to ensuring a stress-free swim season.

Tip 5 – Enjoy

Once your pool is brushed and balanced, and your filter is clean, you can grab your nearest floatation device, sit back, and enjoy!

If this all sounds like more than you’d care to tackle, ask us about our Pool Opening Special! We’ll come out and do the dirty work for you.

How To Clean Your Hot Tub Filter

A properly operating filter helps keep your hot tub water clear and clean by capturing the hair, oils and cosmetics that wash off when people use the spa. When the filter is dirty however, all that debris remains in the water. It is advised to clean your filter every 4-6 weeks with frequent use. Follow these easy steps to clean your filter:

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  1. Remove the cartridge.
  2. Rinse with a garden hose to remove loose debris.
  3. Use SpaGuard Filter Cleaner and Degreaser and follow the instructions on the label. This will dissolve and loosen built up oil and dirt.
  4. Thoroughly rinse the cartridge again.
  5. Let the cartridge dry.
  6. Return the cartridge to the filter housing.

That’s it! You are ready to enjoy your hot tub for another 4-6 weeks.

You should keep an eye on your filter for wear and tear and replace it if it is not functioning properly even after cleaning. Remember, Aqua Quip has an annual filter cleaning day where we clean your filter for free while you wait – any of our store representatives can at the same time let you know what kind of shape your filter is in and if it should be replaced.

Sign up to our email list to be reminded of Filter Cleaning Day!

Heart Healthy Rockfish

In a region rich on fish and sea-life like the Puget Sound Area, this is a great way to get an early barbecue going and get a head start on summer without adding to your waistline.

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For seasoning sauce, in a small bowl whisk together the following:

  • Juice from 1 fresh lime
  • 3 tablespoons of light olive oil
  • ½ tablespoon of chopped cilantro (1/8th inch pieces)
  • Pinch of white pepper
  • Pinch of sea salt

Heat your grill to medium high, spray with olive oil. Brush sauce on one side of 4 ¼ lb fresh rockfish filets (do not use previously frozen filets). Place brushed side down on grill, brush topside with sauce. Turn once after 3 ½ to 4 minutes, grill another 3 ½ -4 minutes

Serve with:

  • a side of pico de gallo
  • steamed white rice
  • sliced cucumbers drizzled with balsamic vinegar and light olive oil

Makes a nice low calorie and tasteful meal!

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How to get your Barbecue ready for summer!

The sun is emerging here in the great northwest and while we are busy looking for the sunglasses we haven’t used since last year, we dream of all the delicious food we are going to cook on our barbecues this year.

Did you stash away your barbecue like you did your sunglasses? Then it’s probably time to give it a thorough tune up and spring cleaning.

Safety

If you have a gas barbecue you want to make sure it is safe before standing in front of it for a full day.

  1. If your barbecue uses a propane tank, take off the tank, clean it and look for any signs of damage or wear.
  2. Check the valve and hose for leaks by sloshing – cover the valve with soapy water while it is on and look for bubbles. If bubbles appear, immediately get the valve or hose replaced.
  3. Check the ignition switch to be sure the grill is lighting properly.

Functionality

An even flame is important for the barbecue experience. If you want to check whether or not your grill burns evenly, cover the grates with slices of white bread and run burners on high for a few minutes. Cut the flame and flip the bread and you will see which areas of your grill get the most heat and where the cool spots are. Knowing your grill you can utilize the cooler areas for indirect-heat food.

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Cleaning

Most experts agree that your barbecue should be thoroughly cleaned once a year, aside from your regular cleaning after each use. Here are some tips for the tougher areas:

Baking Soda: Make a paste of ¼ cup of baking soda and ¼ cup of water. Use a wire brush to apply the paste to the grates. Let it dry for 15 minutes and wipe it down with a dry cloth. Make sure you burn the grill on high for at least 15 minutes to get rid of any residue before placing your food on the barbecue.

Plastic Bags: If your grill is a big mess after a big barbecue, take the racks off and spray them with oven cleaner. Then place them in garbage bags over night. The following day the goo should wipe right off – just make sure you keep your head out of the fumes when you open the bag!

WD-40: WD-40 is good for just about anything, even to make your barbecue look like new again. On a cool grill generously spray it with WD-40, wait a few seconds and then scrub it down with a wire brush.

Make good use of your barbecue this season!

Source: http://barbequelovers.com/grills/how-to-get-your-bbq-grill-ready-for-summer

Source: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20597598,00.html

Source: http://www.rd.com/home/clean-a-dirty-barbecue-grill-rack/

Automatic Pool Cleaners – Saves time, money, and your sanity!

Spring is in the air and that means it’s time for a little spring cleaning! Now for those of you who have followed some of my previous posts, you know I’m all about making life easier. If there’s a quicker way for me to get something done, I’ll find it! Just ask my boss.

With that said, nothing says quick and easy like our automatic pool vacuums. Gone are the days where you have to battle the vacuum hose monster. Put that relic away and leave it for future civilizations to decipher its purpose. Aqua Quip has scoured the industry for the best automatic pool cleaners. We put them through the ringer in our employees’ pools and two emerged victorious.

dolphinDolphin DX4 – The most advanced automatic pool cleaner on the market. It plugs into a standard wall outlet, comes equipped with a 60’ cord, and even has a built in timer. This puppy maps your pools X and Y axis every time you turn it on to figure out the most efficient way to clean. It comes complete with its own reusable micro filtration bag that picks up particles even smaller than your sand or cartridge filter can! That means it saves you money on water and chemicals by reducing how often you need to backwash and clean your pool filter. It has a swivel cord so it doesn’t get tangled, a remote control to guide it into those tough to reach spaces, and it will even tell you when the bag is full and needs to be cleaned! It climbs the walls, scrubs the water line and does your dishes. Okay, maybe it doesn’t do your dishes, but you get the idea. Complete with a 24 month warranty, we’ve carried the Dolphin DX4 pool vacuum for over 5 years and recommend it as a must have for any pool owner! Check out the video below with some sweet action music in the background.

t-jetAquabot Turbo T-Jet – This nifty guy also works off a standard wall outlet, has its own reusable micro filtration bag and climbs the walls! It offers a unique water jet scrubbing feature that blasts those pesky leafs right off the floor. It has an extra wheel system located on its undercarriage so it doesn’t get stuck on raised floor drains or your son’s Mega Man action figure (Is he still relevant?). It also comes with a built in programmable timer so you can set it and forget about it. Lastly, the Turbo T-Jet pool cleaner rolls with a 2 year warranty. Here’s a good video that shows the details.

Excitement over Charity at the Seattle Home Show!

What an amazing second weekend we had for Swim for Charity!! We started the weekend by still riding on our excitement from the first weekend and the huge success we had. The stories, fundraising and home show attendant excitement was more than we could have ever expected. The second weekend was no let down.

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Some highlights of this past weekend was an amazing 86 year old man who has been swimming for 75 years and swam for the COMPLETE hour!! We then met a woman with a great sense of humor who has been working with Habitat for Humanity for years and even build a house in Thailand, where she was born! Before her swim she decided she needed to relax a bit and walked over to see our guys in the hot tub booth where she hopped in our tub and took a soak before completing her hour of swimming! Can you imagine walking thought the home show and seeing someone soaking in a hot tub?

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We wrapped the whole thing up Saturday with a couple of amazing gentlemen swimming. One of these men swims in an open water group and he had just swam in Puget Sound that morning and get this…no wetsuit!!

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Our last swimmer on Saturday was a swim coach, instructor and life guard and had one of the most beautiful back strokes we had ever seen. His story is amazing because not only did he backstroke for a complete hour but he raised over $660 in additional fundraising! One of his sponsors decided to change her per minute donation to match ours once she found out how much fun he had.  What a dedication!

After the two weekends the total donation (pledged and otherwise collected) totaled $14,688! Thank you to everyone who participated in our event! We had an absolute blast and are so thrilled to have raised so much for Habitat for Humanity!

Swim for Charity – Everyone Contributes!

The first weekend of Swim for Charity is well over with. On Sunday the swimmers managed to raise $2,730 which puts us at a total of $6,818 for the entire event so far.

Another amazing story were these two ladies. One of these amazing women who is deaf and legally blind and wanted to give her time to this cause. With the help of translation and her cute little service dog, Phoebe, together they managed to raise $310! What a determination! And we all had a great time as well.

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Large contributions for Charity at the Home Show

Today was the first day at the Seattle Home Show and the first experience we all had with Swimming for Charity. As explained in an earlier articleBECU, the Seattle Home Show and Aqua Quip teamed up with Habitat for Humanity and with Swim Spas from Hydropool we set up a booth at the Seattle Home Show where anyone could (and still can) sign up to swim for up to 60 minutes at a time. See more about the project here.

The first day was a huge success. Together we managed to raise $4,088 – thanks to the participants, their friends and families and all the generous attendees who all chipped in. This is much more than we anticipated. 6 participants signed up and every swimmer swam the full 60 minutes! What an incredible achievement! This is a hard workout and we want to thank every participant for their contribution and hard work.

We want to share just a few stories from today, hopefully inspiring even more participation for this exciting way of donating time and money to a charitable cause. Danielle, 13 years old and a supreme swimmer had gone out on her own prior to her appointment and gathered pledges for donations that added up to $300! This was on top of the $600 we would contribute on her behalf. Everyone at the show were so amazed at this girls dedication that they chipped in and made sure Danielle’s donation for swimming was rounded up to exactly $1,000.

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These two ladies stuck around all day so they could both swim! And it looks like they were so excited about the experience of swimming in a swim spa that they might get one of their own!

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We can’t wait for tomorrow and another day of swimming and donating. There are still slots left to fill – sign up now! Or if you want to donate to the cause you can do so on their website. Remember to note that you are donating to “Swim for Charity”.

Making Your Hot Tub Smell Good!

Do you suffer from dry or itchy skin from soaking in your hot tub? Does the scent of your hot tub water bother you? Well, you’re in luck! Aqua Quip wants to make sure you love getting in your hot tub and offers some great solutions to smelly water and itchy skin.

Gentle Spa:
Gentle Spa is an amazing water conditioner that leaves your skin feeling silky soft with a fresh, yet subtle, fragrance. It is a neutral scent that men love too! Some benefits of Gentle Spa besides the soft, fresh water, is that it has some additives to improve water clarity and reduces sanitizer consumption! Who doesn’t want to cut back on sanitizer in the process?

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inSPAration:
inSPAration is another great spa fragrance and skin moisturizer that we offer. We offer a selection of seven different inSPAration scents including:

  • Coconut Mango
  • Cucumber Melon
  • Eucalyptus Mint (Customer Favorite!)
  • Hawaiian Sunset (Customer Favorite!)
  • Lavender
  • Mangosteen & Goji
  • Rain (Customer Favorite!)

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The wonderful fragrances of inSPAration not only leave your skin and hot tub smelling amazing, but the formulated body moisturizer does not leave an oily residue on your skin.  You’ll get out of your tub with your skin feeling smooth and soft.

Many customers ask “does this effect or change my water’s chemistry?” All the fragrances in the inSPAration line and Gentle Spa are completely pH and chemically neutral. They also work with all lines of sanitizing including: Chlorine, Bromine and BaquaSpa and are approved to be used with your jets, pumps and motors.

So, next time you are in the store feel free to pop the top on any of our fragrances to see what your new favorite is! Or let us know on Facebook!

Swim for Charity at the Seattle Home Show

content_pic1Are you a swimmer? Want to try out a Hydropool swim spa? How about donating your time and sign up to swim for charity at the Seattle Home Show? Starting this Saturday, February 16th you can swim for charity and Aqua Quip, the Seattle Home Show and BECU donate $5 for every minute to Habitat for Humanity. If you can swim for 30 minutes or more – we double the donation!

The Hydropool AquaTrainer will be set up in booth #048 at the Seattle Home Show at Centurylink Field. An hour at a time (weekends only) each contestant gets to swim for as long as they can. If you can stay swimming, not touching the sides or bottom for more than 30 minutes, we double our donation! You can see the schedule here. Times are filling up fast so make sure you arrange for your slot today! We also encourage friends and family to step up and add to the donation, if they can’t swim themselves.

Rules:

  • Each participant will be allowed to swim continuously up to 1 hour in an AquaTrainer Swim Spa by Hydropool
  • While swimming the swimmer cannot touch any part of the SwimSpa, any person or thing
  • The swim time will end once the swimmer has touched any part of the spa, any person or thing or the 1 hr has been completed
  • Any participants must be 18 or older or have a parent or legal guardian sign.

Official description:

Aqua Quip and BECU are teaming up with Habitat for Humanity for a Swim for Charity Event at this year’s Seattle Home Show. Participants can sign up to swim for up to 1 hour in a Hydropool AquaTrainer Swim Spa. Seattle Home Show, BECU and Aqua Quip will make a combined donation of $5/min that each participant is able to swim for Habitat for Humanity. If a participant swims for more than 30 minutes – then the combined donation will be $10/min. Participants are also encouraged to ask family and friends to come down and cheer their swimmer on and sponsor them for an additional donation.