There’s no denying it – Orlando loves Food Trucks, and Lake Nona is no exception. If you haven’t experienced the Lake Nona Food Truck Bazaar yet, clear your calendar every 4th Sunday, and head to CrossPointe Church (11002 Lake Hart Dr.). The bazaar is an amazing way for Lake Nona residents to come together and enjoy a unique meal (or with others in the area, all while walking around outside in the incredible weather we’ve been having lately. Cubans, Lobsta Rolls, and Prime Rib are all on the menu.

Our friends at The Daily City and Tasty Chomps both have write ups on the events, so be sure to click the links to see pictures, and read more about them.

We will be at the next one, and hope to see everyone there!

Today’s from the pool truck is from a pool in Eagle Creek in Orlando.

This is a really basic post, but it’s something that gets overlooked all too often.

When adding chemicals to your pool – any chemicals – you need to change the place that you add them. In other words, don’t go to the same spot in your pool and pour chlorine or acid in each week….change it up. Pouring chemicals in the same spot will damage the shell of the pool. It doesn’t happen right away, but trust us, it will happen. We make it a habit to pour from the deep end one week, a side the next week, shallow end the next week, and the other side the week after that.

Again, this is a very simple concept, but it will help ensure a linger life out of the surface of your pool.

If you have any questions, ask us in the comments.

If you live in Orlando and own a swimming pool…GO TURN YOUR POOL ON – NOW!

It will be dropping into the upper 20s tonight, and could stay below freezing for over 6 hours. If you own a swimming pool, do yourself a favor and turn your pump on. It should run overnight tonight to avoid water freezing in the pump.

If we service your pool, and you live out of state, fear not! We are running out now to turn pools on…and yours will be one of them.

If you have any questions, call us, or let us know in the comments.

Today’s pool is located in Saint Cloud, near Steven’s Plantation.

You might not know it by going outside today, but it’s starting to get cooler in Orlando, and your swimming pool water’s temperature  has dropped considerably in the past month. Because of the warm-ish weather we’re still having, people want to swim, but most pools are just damn cold right now.

One very simple, and extremely affordable solution to this is using a solar pool cover.

The pool cover helps attract the heat from the sun, and keep that heat energy trapped by reducing heat loss due to wind shear. It all sounds very technical, but it simply attracts heat, and keeps it trapped in the pool.

Most pool stores carry these covers (we have them too!), and it’s probably an hour project.

We’ve seen pretty good results with these, but with everything, your mileage may vary.

If you’ve used a solar cover, we’d love to hear what you thought if it in the comments below.

Today’s pool is in NorthLake Park in Lake Nona.

“How high should my pool water be?”

We get asked this weekly, and lucky, there’s a pretty simple answer: Your water should be halfway up your Skimmer entrance.

If you aren’t sure what a Skimmer is, just look at the picture above…..it’s the white square with the flap.

The Skimmer helps keep the surface of your pool clean, but if the water goes below the Skimmer, your pump will start sucking in air and could burn out – causing you to have to have a new motor installed (not fun).

With the cooler temperatures upon us, you might not think to check the water level of your pool, but it’s one of the most important things you should be doing.

As always, if you have questions, ask us in the comments below.

There’s no denying…we, at Lake Nona Pools, love Google+. One of our favorite features of Google+ is the ability to have a “Hangout.” Hangouts are a way for us to have a live video chat with anyone. We will be available to answer your pool questions live every Monday morning from 10am to 11am. All you need to do is have a Google+ account, and visit our Lake Nona Pools page on Google+ during 10am-11am any Monday morning, and you can jump in and hangout with us. We’ll be able to discuss pool problems, swimming pool questions, water chemistry questions, give advice on swimming topics, discuss pool products, or answer billing questions. You don’t even need to be a client to join us. If you have a question, give us a try.

We’re hoping to figure out bigger and better things to offer on our Google+ page, but for now, we’re hoping our customer service hour will be a success.

We’ve already emailed everyone,  but we want to remind you that we’ll be off next week to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday (we’re also off the week of Christmas), but if you need us for anything, our phones are always on.

In today’s “From the Pool Truck,” I want to talk about dogs in swimming pools. It might be fun to watch Fido swim around, but have you ever thought about what having a dog swimming in the poll does to your pool water?

The simple answer is, it does a lot! Dog hair is very absorbent. Having a dog in the pool for 10 minutes removes as much chlorine from the water as having 25 people in the pool for an hour. Chlorine literally sticks to the dog’s coat, and leaves the water with the pooch, leaving your pool partially (or totally) stripped of the water’s sanitizer.

If your pool goes too long without chlorine, it could become a very unsafe to swim, as well as start to develop an algae bloom.

Next time Fido takes a swim, you may want to consider shocking the pool after he’s out.

Today’s “From the Pool Truck” was done in East Lake Reserve off of Narcoossee Rd in Saint Cloud.

As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask us in the comments below.

We’re starting a new series here where we hope to provide very timely information about things we’re seeing in the field…while we’re cleaning pools.

All of these posts will be typed on my phone, so they will be short, precise, and possibly filled with Grammatical errors.

I plan on sharing my location that inspired the post, as well as a picture of the inspiration. Hopefully the information will be helpful!

Today I’m in the Vista Lakes subdivision, and I came to a pool with mustard algae growing in it. The reason for the algae was because the screen doors to access the pool have been locked for 3 weeks, and we have not been able to service it.

It’s very important for us to be able to access a pool weekly. Orlando has a very tropical climate, and even though it’s cooling down, a pool needs to be serviced weekly….otherwise things like mustard algae pop up.

Luckily, there’s a simple fix for mustard algae. I brushed and shocked the pool and cleaned the filter.

If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments section below.