{"id":13192,"date":"2026-08-16T09:29:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/?p=13192"},"modified":"2026-08-16T09:29:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:29:01","slug":"unbalanced-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/unbalanced-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbalanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a slight problem with foaming in the spa pool.
\n\"\"It\u2019s no big deal except when it\u2019s windy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Some quick research on Google revealed that it\u2019s probably nothing important but could be a sign of something going majorly wrong with the water chemistry (which is pretty much par for the course for any problem I look up online, to be fair.)<\/p>\n

So, with some spare time on my hands yesterday, I took a sample to the local pool shop. I did this with some trepidation, as the owner is quite scary and has lambasted me in the past for various spa pool crimes and misdemeanors. Luckily, he wasn\u2019t there (I don\u2019t want to sound uncaring, but he may have died: he doesn\u2019t look like someone who takes great care of himself and he wasn\u2019t looking too well the last time I saw him.) His replacement on this freakishly warm Saturday was a young man, but if I was expecting kinder treatment, I was sadly mistaken. He took a sample of my spa water with his small glass dropper, placed it on the testing panel, looked on his computer at the results, and started shaking his head. Everything was out of wack, apparently. I could try to save it by adding loads of different chemicals, but I\u2019d be better off emptying it and starting again. It needed ten caps of this, two cups of that, and a whole bottle of something else.<\/p>\n

\"\"I was dismayed. The water had really seemed absolutely fine, and the flash inbuilt diagnostic system hadn\u2019t picked up anything like this number of issues. I think the young man sensed my turmoil, and he tried to be a little gentler on me as he accepted my payment for the exorbitantly overpriced product I had decided to buy to avoid the cost of water testing. ($60 for a bag of pool salt! What a muggins!)<\/p>\n

When I got home, I emailed the above photo to the man who sold me the spa in the first place. Within minutes he was phoning and texting.<\/p>\n

\"\"It turns out, the testing results were completely wrong. As I understand it, the young man in the shop had \u201cinadvertently\u201d inputted the spa as a swimming pool. \u00a0Why would he do that? To sell you more chemicals, muttered my spa man, darkly. Apparently also, the foam is no big deal. I should encourage guests to shower before getting in the spa, not wash my togs with detergent, and clean the filters more often. If it really annoys me, I can buy an anti foam agent, but I\u2019ll keep the nuclear option up my sleeve for the future. In any event, I won\u2019t be going back to the local dodgy pool shop. A close escape!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a slight problem with foaming in the spa pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3qM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11168,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/29\/zen-and-the-art-of-swimming-pool-maintenance\/","url_meta":{"origin":13192,"position":0},"title":"Zen and the art of swimming pool maintenance","author":"Interloper11","date":"November 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"We were on our way to my fortnightly haranguing at the spa pool shop when the radio station volume started playing up. I looked over at my daughter\u2019s hands on the complicated modern steering wheel, and said she must be touching a knob somewhere. \u201cThat\u2019s what she said!\u201d Was her\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/IMG_0376-200x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10297,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/06\/twisting-by-the-pool\/","url_meta":{"origin":13192,"position":1},"title":"Twisting by the pool","author":"Interloper11","date":"July 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I hopped into the spa pool the other day to find that it was full of little slimy floaty bits. I opened up the filter compartment and pulled out the filters, and it was disgusting. (Ooh a clickbait idea for another day: \u201cShe opened up the filter compartment, and what\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/IMG_0139-226x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4033,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/11\/risky-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":13192,"position":2},"title":"Risky business","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I am about to have a gin and tonic in the spa pool. I have requested it weak but am still nervous that the curse of the spa pool\/cocktail combo may still get me. Wish me luck. Cheers. ..... Well that went fine! On to number two.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7360,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/31\/the-demon-drink\/","url_meta":{"origin":13192,"position":3},"title":"The Demon Drink","author":"Interloper11","date":"December 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Hear to you all and yes, I have another woe-is-me alcohol story. Woke up with a hangover this morning which was particularly disappointing as I\u2019ve spent the last week accumulating low alcohol drinking options in the house for our New Years party. I spent the entire evening virtue\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/5718F998-1F13-4ABC-9918-1691B2D667FA-243x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3954,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/01\/upheaval\/","url_meta":{"origin":13192,"position":4},"title":"Upheaval","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Abby, Some friends of mine had a raucous New Years Eve party that ended up with a night of unexpected guests and strong cocktails in the spa pool. Today there are lots of small unidentifiable chunky bits in the spa water. Should my friend be worried? ps. All the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5490,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/26\/tempestuous\/","url_meta":{"origin":13192,"position":5},"title":"Tempestuous","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Is hoping into a spa pool a\u00a0bad\u00a0thing to do when there\u2019s thunder and lightning? Asking for a friend.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}