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Chemical Settings Explained
Chemical Settings Explained

Set up the chemicals used by your pool company

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Written by Support
Updated over 8 months ago

Configuring chemical settings is important to make sure the following features work properly in Pool Brain:

  • Readings displayed in app

  • Auto-Dosing in app

  • Automatic "swim wait" notifications to customers

  • Auto-Charging customers for chems used on Route Stops

  • Chemical use and cost tracking


Edit Existing Chemicals

Chemical settings are displayed in a pool company software platform

Choose which chlorine and acid chemical to set as the "dosing default"

CHLORINE DOSING DEFAULT =

What you want technicians to add to the pool to raise chlorine to the dose target (adjustable) if it is clear and blue with no algae growth when they test the water. The default selection is Liquid Chlorine but this can be changed to Cal-Hypo, Trichlor or Dichlor.

Whichever chemical you set as the "dosing default" is what will be auto-dosed in the app for chlorine.

ACID DOSING DEFAULT =
What you want technicians to add to the pool to lower pH & Alkalinity to the dose target (adjustable). The default is Muriatic Acid but this can be changed to Dry Acid or Sulfuric Acid.

To change a "dosing default" setting, hover over the chemical name and click "set as dosing default" when it appears as shown below.




Other Auto-dosing information:
All the chemicals displayed in the top section of "Chemical Settings" can be auto-dosed in the app using Orenda's formulas or can be manually calculated in the app using Orenda's calculator. Tabs and custom chemicals you add are not auto-dosed... yet 😏

For each chemical, you can set the following options:

  • Price
    The amount system will charge per unit selected if you are billing extra for chems on monthly invoices. If price is $0.00, system will not charge anything even if that chemical is used on a Route Stop.

  • Cost
    The amount you pay to purchase the chemical per unit selected. This is used to track your cost/expenses in reports throughout Pool Brain. For example, $5.89 per gallon of Liquid Chlorine.

  • Unit
    Unit of measurement used for cost, price and auto-dosing amounts (if applicable). You can change the unit and still auto-dose correctly in the app as long as you enter the correct amount of the new unit that was in the default unit when prompted. For example, if you changed the unit for Trichlor Shock from "ounce" to "bag" and you told the system there were 10 ounces in a bag, the app would tell the technician to put in half a bag of Trichlor Shock instead of 5 ounces of Trichlor Shock. This may be easier for the technician to understand and is still accurate.

  • Display Name
    Don't like the chemical name shown? Enter a custom display name and that is what will appear in the technician app. For example, "Stabilizer" is commonly changed to "CYA", "Cyanuric Acid" or "Conditioner" depending on the terminology each company uses. You can also dummy proof chemical names such as changing "Trichlor Shock" to the brand name of the shock you use that appears on the bag/container, etc so new technicians know what to use without training.

  • Swim Wait
    If "YES" is displayed for a chemical, a custom "wait to swim" message will automatically be included in the customer email if that chemical was used on the route stop. Simply click the blue text that says "NO" or "YES" to switch to the other option.

    You can edit the "Swim Wait Message" field to control what message the customer sees when a swim wait chemical is used. If more than one swim wait chemical is used on a route stop, the message will not duplicate in the customer email.

Pool Company Software - Swim Wait Message - Pool Brain

  • Chemical Product Association (Link)
    Click the box icon to view the associated (linked) product for that chemical.


    This allows you to precisely control which product you want the system to add to monthly invoices when that chemical is used on route stops. This only applies if you charge extra for chemicals, there is an amount in the "Price" field greater than $0.00 and you don't want to use the product associated with the chemical by default.

Pool Company Software - Chemical Product Association - Pool Brain

Add New Chemicals

You will want to add all chemicals that your technicians carry on their trucks if they are not already included in the default list. (clarifier, algaecide, phosphate remover, etc)

To add a new chemical, click (+) Add New

Pool Company Software - add new chemical - Pool Brain

A new chemical row will be added and you can fill in the following information:

  • Chemical Name (required)

  • Price and Cost

  • Unit of Measure (required)

  • If you want the Swim Wait Message to be automatically included in the route stop emails when this chemical is used, click to toggle No to Yes

Pool Company Software - add new chemical 2 - Pool Brain

Deleting / Deactivating Chemicals


If the chemical you added hasn't been used on a job, quote or invoice, you can click the red "X" icon to delete it at any time. If the chemical has already been used on an invoice, quote, job, etc.. the red X will instead appear as a toggle switch. You can deactivate the chemical in this case (will be removed from all lists) and can reactivate later if you change your mind.


Chemical Readings Displayed in Mobile App

You can optimize the technician's view in the mobile app by hiding readings that are not used by your company. Simply toggle off (click the toggle switch) any readings you don't want to use.

Pool Company Software - Chem readings displayed - Pool Brain

For example, in the image above, Bromine and Borates are toggled off and will not be displayed to technicians in the mobile app.


Adjust Dosing Targets

You can adjust which chemical readings you want to target by default for automatic dosing in the app. When these targets are set, the app will automatically provide dosing instructions to the technician on which chemical and amount to add to reach this target. The dosing calculation is done using Orenda's formulas and the technician can access Orenda's dosing calculator in the app to adjust desired targets and re-calculate at any time.

To adjust a dosing target, click on the "dose target" text below any reading as shown below.

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