Liquid Assets

A plainspoken money manual for pool owners

Keep the pool. Keep the money.

If somebody else takes care of your pool, you pay for it four times: the service company, the pool store counter, the power company, and the crew that opens and closes it. Liquid Assets shows you how to do the job yourself, with the arithmetic showing, so most of that money stays with you.

  • Test your own water and buy only what it needs, not what the printout sells you
  • Run the pump the hours your water needs, and watch the power bill drop
  • Clear a green pool for under $40, and check the $20 part before anyone sells you a $1,300 pump
See the money math
Cover of Liquid Assets: The Pool Man's Savings Manual by Ray Halvorsen, showing a white-haired man in a denim shirt holding a water test kit beside a clear blue pool
188pages
18money-saving chapters
7bonus charts to print
31photos and diagrams
30day refund promise

Nobody handed you instructions

Everybody handed you a bill.

You closed on the house in the spring. Now it's July, and there's a folder on the kitchen counter: a service invoice, two pool store receipts, a power bill that jumped, and a note from the last owner that says "opening in May, closing in October, call Duane."

Or maybe the pool was somebody else's job for twenty years, a spouse's or a parent's, and now it's yours. You don't need a chemistry degree. You need a test kit, a tape measure, the right jug, and somebody who will tell you plainly what things cost.

"The owners who spent the most were rarely the ones with the biggest pools. They were the ones who didn't know what they had."

That's what this book is for. It starts with the one number every dose and every dollar depends on, your real gallons, and goes from there.

A folder of pool service invoices, store receipts and an electric bill on a kitchen counter, with a calculator, a pencil and a mug of coffee, and a pool visible through the window
Chapter 1 starts here: write down what you pay now, so you can see what you keep.

Where the money goes

You pay for your pool four times.

Here are the bills that show up on kitchen counters, priced at the painful end, because that's where a lot of owners live. Each one has a chapter that takes it back.

A man skimming leaves from a clear pool with a long net at sunrise

The service company

$260 a month

A May to October season is $1,560. In Florida it runs all twelve months: $3,120. The weekly routine that replaces it takes about fifteen minutes.

Chapters 1, 9 and 18

A white bucket, a box of baking soda and a measuring scoop on a workbench

The pool store counter

$1,200 a year

You carry in a jar for the free test and carry out $79.96 of bags and a jug. Most of what you pay for is the label, not the chemical.

Chapters 2, 3 and 4

A pool pump and sand filter beside a mechanical timer dial on the equipment pad

The power company

$519 to $865

Pool pumps use 3,000 to more than 5,000 kWh a year at the average home rate. Most run hours the water never asked for.

Chapter 5

A man in a jacket pulling a winter cover over a pool in autumn, with a cover pump and hose beside him

The opening and closing crew

$500 + $650

$500 in spring, $650 in fall, every year. One afternoon, a shop vac and a few dollars of chemicals do the same job.

Chapters 15, 16 and 17

A sparkling clear backyard pool at golden hour with two navy lounge chairs and a skimmer net by the fence

Clear water isn't a mystery. It's a test, a dose, and the nerve to say no thanks at the counter.

The money math, worked out in the book

About $4,000 a year, before anything breaks.

Here's a cold-state owner, the usual way and the book's way. Every line is worked out in its own chapter, arithmetic showing, so you can redo it with your own numbers.

Where it comes from The usual way The book's way You keep
Weekly service, May to October
Chapters 1 and 9 		$1,560 About $50of test reagents About $1,510
Pool store chemicals
Chapters 2 and 4 		$1,200 About $682liquid chlorine plus grocery and hardware store balancers About $518
Professional opening
Chapter 17 		$500 About $10in plugs About $490
Professional closing
Chapter 15 		$650 About $68in chemicals About $582
Pump, 6 hours a day instead of 12
Chapters 1 and 5 		$747 $374 About $374
One year $4,657 Under $1,200 About $3,470
About $3,470kept in a quiet year in a cold state. The first year costs a little more: a drop test kit, reusable closing parts and opening supplies.
About $3,070kept on the Florida service bill alone, which runs all twelve months at $3,120.
More than $4,800kept in a bad year, when you clear a green pool yourself and fix a humming pump with a capacitor instead of replacing it.
Your numbers will differ. The book shows every step so you can work out your own.

Three quotes you can stop paying

Somebody looks for ninety seconds and names a price.

The book shows you what to check first, what it really costs, and the question to ask before money changes hands.

Side-by-side view of the same pool, swampy green on the left and clear blue on the right

"Drain it and start over."

$350 to $800Under $40

Brush, clean the filter, raise chlorine to the level your stabilizer reading calls for, and hold it there until a simple overnight test passes. No draining, no shelf of bottles.

Chapter 6: Green to Blue for Under $40

A pool pump with its clear strainer lid off, a new lid O-ring and a tube of lubricant laid out on a towel

"You need a new pump."

$1,300$15 to $25 part

A pump that hums but won't spin often needs a capacitor. One that won't prime often needs a $10 to $14 lid O-ring. The book gives you the order to check, and which repairs belong to a licensed electrician.

Chapter 12: Before You Replace It

Diagram of the bucket test: a bucket of pool water on the pool step, with water lines marked on the bucket and the pool wall, and the same lines 24 hours later

"Sounds like a leak."

$400 visitA bucket and a pencil

A free two-day test tells you whether your pool is leaking or just losing water to the summer air, before you pay anyone to come look.

Chapter 13: Is It a Leak or Just Evaporation?

A pool water test kit with yellow and pink test tubes, a clipboard, reading glasses and a glass of lemonade on a patio table beside a clear pool

By the last page

What you'll be able to do

Not a pile of products. A routine you trust, your own numbers, and the confidence to say no thanks at the counter.

  • Measure your pool's real gallons, so every dose and every dollar is right
  • Test your own water with a drop kit and trust the reading
  • Read the active ingredient and buy the same chemical for less at the grocery or hardware store
  • Buy chlorine by its cost per ppm, and add it at dusk so the sun doesn't eat it
  • Set the pump timer for the hours your water needs, and know what each hour costs
  • Take a green pool to blue without draining it or calling a crew
  • Clean the filter when the gauge says so, not every Saturday
  • Check the cheap part before you pay for a new pump, filter or heater
  • Heat for less with a cover first, and open and close the pool yourself
  • Know which jobs still belong to a licensed pro, and how to hire one fairly

What's inside

Eighteen chapters, each one a bill you take back.

Every chapter opens with a familiar scene, settles one question, gives you the rule and the test, and ends with Ray's Extra Money Savers: five or six more tips, most with a dollar figure.

  1. Start Here: Where Your Pool Money GoesThe money map, and the one number every dose depends on
  2. What's Really in the BucketThe pool store label versus what's inside, and safe storage
  3. The Free Water Test That Costs You $80Testing at home, the five numbers that matter, the order to fix them
  4. Stop Feeding Your Chlorine to the SunWhich chlorine, its cost per ppm, stabilizer and tablets
  5. The Pump Bill Nobody ExplainsThe hours your pump needs, and when a new one pays for itself
  6. Green to Blue for Under $40Clearing a green pool without draining it or paying a crew
  7. Cloudy Water: The 5 Causes and the Cheap Fix for EachFind the cause before you buy a bottle
  8. Clean Your Filter Less, Not MoreThe one gauge reading that says when
  9. The 15-Minute WeekThe weekly routine for inground and above-ground pools
  10. Salt Pools: The Machine Isn't MagicRun it for the price of salt and acid, and make the cell last
  11. Stains, Scale and the WaterlineTwo free tests that tell you the cheap fix
  12. Before You Replace ItThe cheap checks and parts for pumps, filters and heaters
  13. Is It a Leak or Just Evaporation?The two-day bucket test
  14. Heat Your Pool for LessCover first, setpoint second, heater last
  15. Close Your Own Pool for $40One afternoon, a shop vac and a few dollars of chemicals
  16. Keeping It Open All WinterRunning lean in a warm state, and what to do on a freeze night
  17. Open Your Own Pool for $10The spring opening in the right order
  18. When a Pro Is Worth Every PennyWhich jobs to hire out, and how to get a fair quote
Quick Answers for the pool store counter Every red line on one page 7 printable bonus charts Sources by chapter
Diagram of a rectangular pool from above and in cross section, showing length, width, shallow depth, deep depth and average depth
Measure your real gallons
Diagram comparing chlorine breaking apart in sunlight with no stabilizer and staying whole with stabilizer at 30 to 50
Why the sun eats your chlorine
Labeled diagram of a pool pump showing the strainer lid, lid O-ring, strainer basket, motor and the rear cover where the capacitor sits
Know the parts before anyone quotes you
Chart of six pool water colors from clear blue to yellow dust, each with its first move: routine, filter, shock or brush
What color is your water?

Look inside

Real pages from the book.

Three pages from the book: the Green to Blue chapter opener, a chlorine target table by stabilizer level with costs, and the pump troubleshooting page with a labeled pump diagram
Two opening pages: what the pool is really costing you, and the table of money you're about to keep
The money math, from the opening pages
Three bonus chart pages: the dosing chart, the water color chart and the weekly checklist
Bonus charts with blanks for your own pool

Checked, not guessed

Every price and rule comes from a source you can check.

The book cites government guides, the equipment makers' own manuals, water testing companies and current store prices, listed chapter by chapter at the back. Prices move, so it tells you the date each one was checked.

U.S. Department of EnergyEnergy StarEIACDCEPAPentairHaywardIntexTaylor TechnologiesSwim UniversityTrouble Free Pool

A home pool needs about one turnover every 24 hours, not a number a neighbor told you.

Chapter 5, from the Department of Energy's pool pump guide

Backwashing a sand filter too often actually causes poor filtration.

Chapter 8, from Pentair's sand filter manual

Intex cartridges bought in a six-pack run about $2.50 each, against $9.99 for a single.

Chapter 9, from current listings, October 2026

Is it for you?

Who it's for, and who should skip it.

It's for you if

  • You just bought a house with a pool, or inherited the job from a spouse or parent
  • You pay a service, a pool store and a power company and suspect you're overpaying
  • You have an inground, above-ground, Intex or salt pool at home
  • You'd rather spend fifteen minutes a week than $260 a month

Where the book says call a pro

  • Wiring, breakers, GFCIs, timers, motors and capacitors
  • Gas heaters and any smell of gas
  • Anything that sparks, smells hot or keeps tripping a breaker
A retired couple laughing with their feet in a clear backyard pool, holding glasses of iced tea

Fifteen minutes, once a week, before the day gets hot.

Buying it for a parent?

A pool is easier to keep when someone shows you the order.

Parents who downsized to a house with a pool, or who lost the person who always took care of it, often keep paying for a service they don't need because nobody showed them how simple the weekly job is. This book is written for exactly that reader: plain words, every step in order, and a clear line between the chores they can do and the jobs to hire out.

Ray Halvorsen, a white-haired man with a mustache in a denim work shirt, sitting on the tailgate of a white pickup with a pool pole, a skimmer net and a test kit case

Meet Ray

"A test, a dose, and the nerve to say no thanks at the counter."

Ray is the voice of this book: a pool man who spent his working life on routes in Ohio and then central Florida, and who will tell you plainly which invoices he earned and which ones were easy money. He still tests his own water every week.

Walt ran his pump around the clock because the builder said to. Ray set the timer to seven hours. In September Walt asked if he'd touched the meter. He'd touched the timer.

Earl paid for weekly service for years and never lifted the skimmer lid. One Saturday he watched the whole visit and said, "That's it?" It was.

Ray Halvorsen is a pen name, and the route stories in the book are illustrations based on common experiences. The numbers aren't stories: every price and rule comes from the sources listed at the back.

Liquid Assets

$37
  • The complete book, 188 pages, as a PDF
  • 18 chapters, each with a rule, a test and Ray's Extra Money Savers
  • Quick Answers for the pool store counter
  • A one-page Stop-If Summary of every red line
  • 7 printable bonus charts: receipt translator, dosing chart, water color chart, weekly checklist, opening and closing checklists, pump run-time worksheet and pool money map
  • Instant download; read it on a tablet, phone or computer, or print the charts

Less than one week of a $260-a-month pool service.

If this book doesn't save you money, email me within 30 days for a full refund.

Secure checkout and delivery through Gumroad.

Questions

Straight answers.

What exactly do I get?

A 188-page PDF: 18 chapters, Quick Answers to the questions owners ask most, a one-page Stop-If Summary, seven printable bonus charts with blanks for your own pool, and sources by chapter. You download it right after checkout.

I've never taken care of a pool. Is this too much for me?

No. Chapter 1 has you measure your gallons, write down what you pay now and buy a drop test kit. The weekly routine in Chapter 9 takes about fifteen minutes, in the same order every time.

Does it work for my kind of pool?

It covers inground pools, above-ground and Intex-style frame pools, and salt pools, with chapters for cold states that close for winter and warm states that stay open. It doesn't cover commercial pools, and hot tubs only in passing.

Will I really keep $3,470 a year?

That's the book's worked example for a cold-state owner paying for weekly service, pool store chemicals, a 12-hour pump schedule and an opening and closing. Your number depends on what you pay now. Chapter 1 has you fill in your own Pool Money Map so you can see it before and after.

Does it tell me how to fix electrical or gas problems?

No. It shows you the cheap checks you can do safely, like the breaker, the basket and the lid O-ring, and tells you plainly which repairs belong to a licensed electrician or pool technician, and what to ask them before you pay.

Who is Ray Halvorsen?

Ray Halvorsen is a pen name. The route stories are illustrations based on common experiences. The prices and rules come from government guides, equipment manuals and store listings, all named at the back so you can check them.

I'm not great with computers. Will I be able to get it?

After checkout you get an email with a download link. Open it on a computer or tablet, or ask someone to print the bonus charts for you; they're made to be filled in with a pencil and kept by the equipment pad.

Can I buy it for my mother or father?

Yes. Buy it, download the PDF, and send it to them or print it.

What if it doesn't help?

If this book doesn't save you money, email me within 30 days for a full refund.

A man pouring liquid chlorine into a pool at sunset

The pool is yours. So is the money.

Measure your gallons tonight, write down what you pay, and by the end of the season you'll know exactly how much you kept.

Liquid Assets · $37