Pool Math by TroubleFreePool Reviews

by WardNH

I've been using the TFP system for 5 years, and subscribed to PoolMath 2 years ago after the old website calculator started to lose some functionality. PoolMath does all the math as advertised, and the log tracking and periodic maintenance reminders are great for a pool owner that wants to minimize daily maintenance.

My only gripe has been PoolMath seems to have lost the ability to change your 'Target Values' and keep those custom values each time you revisit. For example, I prefer to have my FC levels at the top end of the recommended range so I don't have to top up my chlorine levels very day. I can change the value from 6 to 8 as I'm entering the test results to get my value, but when I close the results, that 'preferred level' resets to 6 (middle of the range) every time. PoolMath seems to do this for all values! FC,Ph, TA, CYA, Etc… I thought when I had first subscribed to PoolMath two years ago, my preferences were being retained, but I may be imagining it, all season this year so far PoolMath resets my preferred target values every time. It's a minor inconvenience, but having to remember to change values each time mes it difficult to maintain a consistent level which is what I'm after.

by Movefaster

I have been taking care of pools since I was a lifeguard over 30 years ago. TFP is a great forum and resource for people who are trying to get their brain around how to easily keep you pool under control.

I really enjoy using PoolMath to record my measurements. It saves me a lot of time and I got rid of my waterproof log book. The chemical correction calculations are tremendously helpful, especially if this world is foreign to you.

Now that I have said all that great stuff, maybe I can slip a request in here. I would love to see my data graphed. I currently export it to excel(export is awesome) and then mess around with it and graph it. Then I export that to an image and put it in drop box so I can see it by the pool. It would save me even more time if this beautiful app had some internal graphing with a drill down interface.

So best pool app out there. Fair price. Good upgrades and they continue to develop it. Probably deserves 4.5 stars.

by DAF6730

I used PoolMath for the 2021 pool season in New England & really found it spot-on in terms of chemicals to add, subtract, etc., but there were a few things I found frustrating such as not sharing data across platforms and not saving or logging data. Come to find out, I needed to upgrade to the $8 per year premium version. It’s still not intuitive, but I’ve solved my cockpit errors now in year #2, and I’m now quite happy with it. I don’t mind the $8 annual subscription because it more than earns it with the simplicity it allows for maintaining the pool. 💦☀️💧

by TheSilkyShadow

Really great app overall, I really like it. One thing I will say is that when I tried to set up my pool and enter the amount of pounds of chlorine my salt cell was able to produce in one day, when I typed the dot (since my value is 1.4) it froze the whole app. I had to force quit PoolMath and restart it, and there does appear to be a way to fix that, so that value is off in my settings. Other than that, great app!

by AntiAdJB

This is the only app I’ve ever bought! Pool Math makes it so simple to track and maintain my salt water pool! The history is extremely helpful as I use notes to include replacement equipment dates etc. and other relevant facts I’d certainly not recall - all in one place. My test results are entered and easily computes any additions needed. Trouble Free Pool methodology is simply a perfect solution for pool care. Each year I gain more knowledge and receive excellent advice from the amazing folks at TFP. I now open my pool each year to quite clear water and within a few days, have my chlorine levels balanced. No green swamp for me! Basically I purchase nothing but chlorine and bags of salt for my SWG system. Period - end of story. My first year I bought endless amounts of crap to open the swamp of a pool, maintain it, and close. I’d guesstimate easily $500 + dollars 6 years ago. I was taken for a deep dive that’s for sure. Now, it’s several jugs of chlorine bleach to open and close and viola - it’s done for $75 (well before bleach increased to almost $5). Follow the methodology exactly (especially the SLAM procedure) and you will reap the rewards for years to come. TFP and the Pool Math app are 5 stars of pure gold for pool owners!

by Optimus329

I have a pool and spa and have tried numerous pool maintenance apps. This is the best of them all. Their methods are simple, and nailed the pH product add calcs (some other apps don’t). One minor feature suggestion - add a notes field to the chemical add page. That lets us jot down what we were targeting when we did the chemical add. I know I can separately hit the add note button after (and do today) but having it on the same page would be super helpful.

by Hcm426

I have had a pool for nearly twenty-five years and recently switched to TFP after years of pool-store abuse. PoolMath is a dream and is so easy to use.

It records everything I need to keep my pool in pristine condition (if you ever see my pool green it’s because of ME, not the METHOD).

The only thing I would add is to the “Purchases” section is a field for where the purchase was made. Makes it easier to compare prices between different stores. I know I can add a note but I like when all the pertinent info is in the same place.

by BSwink

Converting over to a SWG and implementing the TFP philosophy has significantly reduced my maintenance and improved the clarity and feel of my pool water.

PoolMath makes it simple to manage my pool! When only updating a metric or two (chlorine/PH) it uses the previous values for all other metrics to calculate CSI. It logs all test results, chemical adds, and personal notes for easy tracking. It also tells you exactly how much of each chemical to add to reach a target value. It is by far the best app I have used to manage my pool.

by Top_shot56

I’ve been using the TFP method since building our pool almost a year ago. It’s been exactly as the name implies, trouble free. With the addition of the robust and friendly app, it’s even more trouble free. Now I can log my tests, see chemical additions, and view past logs and chemical usage from my pool. I no longer need to test, run to my computer, use pool math, then go back to my pool and remember how much acid was I to add again? It’s a must have app for any pool owner, expert or novice alike, who wants to spend more time enjoying a sparkling pool that’s really trouble free.

by Txdiver

There are multiple sides to PoolMath. One is tracking your test results and providing recommendations to adjust water chemistry. The second is the technical side which allows you to see how each chemical affects various parameters of your pool water chemistry based on different volumes that you may wish to add. The third side tracks your overall usage of chemical volumes, chemical costs, and general expenses for the year, for last year or compare 1 timeframe to another.
Overall a very useful app with no ads.

by MBSC4life

I’ve used PoolMath for 3 years now and it does a great job advising what I need to do to maintain a chemically balance pool.
I use a Taylor FAS-DPD test kit and the suggestions by PoolMath closely match Taylor recommendations. The only exception is Calcium hardness where PoolMath “Ideal Range” is slightly higher than Taylor advises. It is easy to adjust your ideal range in PoolMath and the values remain.
The recommendations for chemical additions to achieve balanced water are always on the mark.
It’s also nice to be to go back and see what I’ve done in the past.

by Weather Guy2

First off, as a new pool owner, I cannot thank TFP enough for the incredible website and awesome folks who run it! As a person who HATES to rely on others to get jobs done, the knowledge and insights on your site allowed me to not need our “pool boy” contractor who screwed things up from the start! PoolMath is awesome! Yeah it has a couple bugs but what in this world is perfect anyway? Last summer it was pen and paper and ciphering out the numbers...this summer it’s phone, test kit and adult beverage and what do you know, a sparkling, clear blue pool!!! Now if only TFP could come up with a tree frog solution, those little gust love to night swim!! Thank you TFP!!

by Norbx

For 7 years I have been our “pool boy”. Things started a bit bumpy using the Pool supply stores testing and recommendations. Waisted a ton of money on useless chemicals and drastic swings in water quality as a result. Now I’m a one man pool guru thanks to TFP forum and this easy to use App. Have such a better understanding of the entire process and love being able to track my successes (and stumbles). Those that aren’t happy with the annual fee need to understand how much they save if they just have some patience and try to learn. Trouble Free does not mean you don't have to apply a little bit of effort!

by Moss Van Stooidle

I’ve relied on the TFP forums for a while with great results and had downloaded some other folks spreadsheets for test logging. Then I came across PoolMath and love it. Now I take my readings, use my paper log for the results so my iPad doesn’t end up at the bottom of the pool and enter into PoolMath along with treatment plan. Super easy for a person who’s a bit scattered.

Overall, navigation is fine with a few quirks. Always asking me to discard changes when I bring older log entries up but didn’t change anything is odd.

I’m not arguing but can’t understand why folks would balk at $8 yearly for a subscription.

by Mystic1492

We just installed our first pool, and had no idea what we were doing. Before they even started digging, I scoured the Internet looking for advice. Everything I read seemed to eventually lead me back to Trouble Free Pool - so that’s when I decided I would follow the TFP system. I bought a test kit, and after the pool was up and running, immediately started testing. I followed all of the advice in Pool Math, got everything in spec, and now I have crystal clear water and a Trouble Free Pool of my own. Thanks!

I do have a couple of feature requests for PoolMath though:
• It would be nice if “Cleaned pump strainer basket” was an option under maintenance
• I would love to be able to see charts of all of my test results

by SDapple

Finally found a tool that makes balancing my pool SO much easier. I especially like the ability to log test values and chemical additions. On that feature I’ve hit a couple of small bug in the Summary page: the’This Month’ view is missing any chemical addition I add today. I don’t know if that’s in any way related to this being the last day of the month (possibly some local time vs GMT issue??) If I choose the ‘This Year’ view it does include today’s chemical additions. However if I switch from the This Year view to the This Month view, the all the chemical additions are blank. I know these are minor issues, I just didn’t see another way to provide this info to the developer. Thanks for all your work.

by JoyfulNoise47

UPDATE 2018

PoolMath gets better with every release. Now a user can track multiple different items with separate log types (test results, maintenance, chemical addition, expense/purchases, etc). Also, the “Effects of Adding Chemicals” makes it easier to see how much additions of a specific chemical will change your water chemistry. The weather tracking API is also a nice touch for automatically logging weather data.

PoolMath is jam-packed with great features. Many thanks to the developers for remaining so dedicated to this critical piece of pool care technology.

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ORIGINAL REVIEW
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TFP is a site dedicated to helping every residential pool owner take control of their pools and have the very best pools possible. I have used and support TFP for many years now.

PoolMath is a culmination of over a years worth of work and it finally gives smartphone owners pool side access to the chemical calculator, aka Pool Math, that TFP bases its methodology on.

PoolMath is a fantastic addition to TFP and well worth the price. Anyone who owns a pool and wishes to get rid of their lousy pool service and ditch the poor advice given at pool stores should get PoolMath and then head over to TFP to learn the simplest and easiest approach to pool care!!

by Corleone087

Worth the subscription. This has made managing and balancing my pool so much easier. Easily calculates for you any chemical additions. Use with a FAS-DPD test kit and you’ll never have to bother with pool store tests that are most likely inaccurate. Check out the trouble free website for great tips in the forums.

One suggestion to developers, it would be great if there was a way in the log what the effect of the chemical you’re logging should do to your reading. For example, FC tests at 3ppm, I add 3ppm worth for chlorine, it would be helpful to show where it essentially should be at now (6). Maybe on the entry that says what you are adding it could also show what the new reading would be. It’s a bit of a pain to go back to my last entry and calculate out what my FC should be at based on my prior addition. Just a suggestion to think about, thanks!

by Matasoj

I installed PoolMath about 1 month after I had our new above ground pool installed this summer. Not understanding how pool chemistry works as well as hearing differing advice from my friend at the pool store cause me to hedge and not fully trust the results.

I kept testing though, using a Taylor K2006 kit, and kept recording the results in PoolMath . As I more and more fully understood how pool chemistry works, and using the advice from the troublefreepool forum as well as the advice from PoolMath on how to keep the water balanced, I have maintained a crystal clear pool throughout the summer, and can now definitively see where the local pool store sold me a bill of goods in the stuff they sold me.

I am now confidently managing the pool with PoolMath, and highly recommend it to anyone else who wants to keep an accurate tab on what their pool is doing chemistry-wise.

by TSG NJ

I love PoolMath to track my pool. It’s simple and flexible. I allows me to select what chemicals I use, what strength, and what size or how many ounces. I can go in and log just the tests I do each day and the overview tells me what the latest reading is for each test and the last time I tested each item. One click on each item and it tells me what to do; E.g. it tells me exactly how much liquid bleach to add based on whether I use 6%, 10%, etc liquid chlorine. It tracks your test results, chemicals added, maintenance done, and even custom notes in a simple to use log (it even automatically adds my local weather information to each log item.)

by Farf0

On my iPhone, app always refreshes to default page even if you leave for just a moment. So if you are reading a pool school thread and change apps or even want to use your calculator for a quick calculation it does not save your place. You now need to go back and search for the relevant pool school thread again. Wastes time.

Also, the default for the Summary should be the current pool year. Wastes time to constantly have to slide and press the current year button which would be the most used time period for the average user.

by Sneaky D 360

PoolMath is empowering, with just a little bit of learning, test kit, basic pool chemicals and a few pieces of equipment you too can take care of your own pool. I can’t imagine paying someone $100 a month or more to take care of my pool and that’s just basic services.

PoolMath really takes all the guesswork about how much chemical to add, tracks it, and makes figuring things out cake!

Two suggestions.

There should be a place to enter the pump schedule any flow rate to calculate turnover.

Also would like to see a duty cycle % for SWG pools to track chlorine output. Would make it easier to see how that needs to be adjusted with the seasons. If this was linked to the pump schedule you could figure out daily chlorine output as well.

Also get on the troublefreepool forum if you download PoolMath as well.

Thanks Guys!

by JeffDC47

Sure, you can figure all this out on your own. But PoolMath makes it so easy. Tell PoolMath your pool size and other info, and enter your test results. Is your pH 8.2 and you have 37.5% muriatic acid? Bang, you need 16 oz of acid to get it in range.

I'm not a huge fan of the $7.99 subscription for an app that is not regularly updated, however. Should be a single purchase unless they can justify continued development or new features.