One tap from readings to a dose plan
Pool Founder does recommend which chemicals to add and how much. A technician enters the current water chemistry on the mobile app (or scans a test strip), taps a button, and gets an ordered Treatment Plan — the specific products to add, the amounts, and why — scaled to your pool's volume and to the actual strength of the chemicals on the truck. Getting a recommendation is a mobile-app feature; the web dashboard does not generate recommendations. Both mobile and web have the "Confirm dosing chemicals" setup that makes the amounts strength-accurate, covered below.
The dose numbers come from a built-in calculator that uses validated dosing formulas, not from the AI guessing. The AI writes the plan in plain language, orders the steps, and picks which of your products to use — it never invents or changes an amount. If the AI is unavailable, the calculator still returns the numbers.
Get a recommendation on a stop
- 1Open a stop's job detail in the mobile app. If the pool has a body of water on file, you'll see a Chemical Recommendation card — "Enter readings or scan a test strip for a dosing plan." Tap it.
- 2Enter the current readings. Fields are grouped into Required and Optional cards and follow your water chemistry settings — typically Free Chlorine, pH, Total Alkalinity, Combined Chlorine, CYA (Stabilizer), Calcium Hardness, Temperature, TDS, Salt, Phosphates, and Bromine. Use the +/- steppers or type each value.
- 3Prefer to scan? Tap Take Photo or Upload to attach a test-strip photo. The app reads the strip automatically (it shows "Analyzing Strip…") and fills the values in — check them before continuing. Scanning needs an internet connection.
- 4Once readings are in, the LSI (Langelier Saturation Index) gauge appears. Tap Save Reading to record the reading (it shows a "Reading Saved" badge).
- 5Tap Get AI Recommendation. It shows "Generating…" and then an AI Recommendation card.
If the property has more than one pool or spa, a pill selector at the top of the chemistry screen lets you pick which body of water the reading and recommendation are for.
What the recommendation shows
- An urgency badge summarizing the water: Balanced, Routine, Attention, or Urgent.
- A plain-language summary of what's off and what to do about it.
- A Treatment Plan list — each line names a chemical, the amount to add, and its purpose (for example, which parameter it corrects).
When it can, the plan picks products from your own chemicals list and doses them at the strength you've mapped for them (see the next section). Recording the chemicals you actually added is still done in the normal completion flow — the recommendation tells you what to add; it doesn't log the usage for you.
Salt pools, contraindications, and safe ordering
- The calculator accounts for the sanitizer type on the body of water, so a salt pool and a traditional chlorine pool aren't treated the same. Salt is one of the dosing types, so salt additions are dosed like any other chemical when needed.
- It won't recommend a chemical that would make the water worse. For example, it steers away from cal-hypo when calcium hardness is already high, and away from CYA-bearing chlorine (trichlor/dichlor) when CYA is already elevated — those options are flagged as excluded with the reason.
- When CYA is very high, the plan can recommend draining and refilling to bring it down rather than adding more chemical, using your pool's fill-water chemistry for the drain math when it's on file.
When pool data is missing
The recommendation never hard-blocks on missing data. If something that would change the math isn't on file, it makes a clearly-labeled assumption and tells you, so you know what to double-check:
- No pool volume → it assumes a default gallonage and says so. Setting the real volume (web dashboard → the customer's service location → the body of water → Gallonage) makes every amount exact.
- No surface material → it assumes plaster.
- No sanitizer type → it notes the sanitizer type isn't set.
- No fill-water (tap water) chemistry and a drain is recommended → the drain math assumes typical fill-water chemistry.
The assumptions are listed with the recommendation and saved alongside it. The most reliable way to remove them is to fill in the pool's volume, surface, sanitizer, and tap-water profile on its body-of-water record.
Confirm your dosing chemicals (so amounts use the right strength)
Dosing math depends on how strong each product is — liquid chlorine at 12.5% and cal-hypo at 65% dose very differently. Pool Founder lets an owner or manager map each catalog chemical to a dosing type and a strength (active %) so the calculator uses the right chemistry. This is gated by the Manage chemicals permission (<code>chemicals:manage</code>).
On the mobile app: open the Account tab and tap Confirm Dosing Chemicals ("Map each product to a dosing type & strength"). On the web dashboard: open the Chemicals page and click Confirm dosing to open the "Confirm your dosing chemicals" panel.
- Each product is auto-classified first, so the list comes pre-filled. Rows the app is unsure about are grouped under Needs attention (mobile) / Needs review (web) — with an Auto or Auto · Low confidence / Auto-guess badge — and the rest sit under Looks good (mobile) / Confirmed & confident (web).
- For each product, pick the Dosing type from the canonical list — the chlorine you carry (liquid chlorine, cal-hypo, dichlor, or trichlor), your pH-down and pH-up products, a calcium or stabilizer product, salt, a phosphate remover, a chlorine neutralizer, or Not a dosing chemical for test kits and equipment — then enter its Strength / active % (labeled Strength % on web).
- Products set to Not a dosing chemical (test kits, equipment, and the like) hide the strength field and are left out of dosing.
- Tap Confirm to save (the button reads Update on web once a row is already confirmed). A confirmed row shows a green Confirmed badge.
Without the Manage chemicals permission, the mobile screen shows "You need the Manage chemicals permission to confirm dosing chemicals." The recommendation itself still works — this screen is only the owner/manager setup that makes the amounts strength-accurate.
Frequently asked questions
Does Pool Founder tell technicians how much of each chemical to add?
Yes. On the mobile app, enter (or scan) the water chemistry readings for a pool and tap Get AI Recommendation. You get a Treatment Plan listing which chemicals to add and how much, scaled to the pool's volume and the strength you mapped for each product.
Where do the dose amounts come from — is the AI just guessing?
No. The amounts come from a built-in calculator that uses validated dosing formulas and the strength you've mapped for each product. The AI phrases the plan, orders the steps, and picks which product to use, but it never invents or changes a dose number. If the AI call fails, the calculator still returns the amounts.
Does it handle salt pools differently from chlorine pools?
Yes. The calculator uses the body of water's sanitizer type, so salt and traditional chlorine pools aren't dosed the same, and Salt is one of the dosing types. If the sanitizer type isn't set on the pool, the recommendation notes that as an assumption.
What if the pool's volume or surface isn't on file?
The recommendation still runs — it makes a labeled assumption (a default gallonage when volume is missing, plaster when surface is missing) and lists it so you know what to verify. Filling in the body of water's real volume, surface, sanitizer, and tap-water chemistry makes the amounts exact.
Why does a recommendation skip a chemical I carry?
The calculator won't recommend a product that would push the water further out of balance — for example cal-hypo when calcium hardness is already high, or trichlor/dichlor when CYA is already elevated. Those options are flagged as excluded with the reason.
How do I make the amounts use my product's real strength?
Confirm your dosing chemicals: on mobile, Account tab → Confirm Dosing Chemicals; on web, the Chemicals page → Confirm dosing. Map each product to a dosing type and enter its strength (active %). It needs the Manage chemicals permission.