Hear from Our Customers
You bring in a water sample. We run it through professional testing equipment that reads what home test strips can’t – total alkalinity, calcium hardness, stabilizer levels, metals, and more. You get a printout with exact numbers and step-by-step instructions on what to add and how much.
No more dumping chemicals in and hoping it works. No more cloudy water two days after you thought you fixed it. You’ll know if your pH is climbing because of the heat, if your chlorine is getting eaten up faster than it should, or if there’s something else throwing your water off.
This isn’t about selling you a bucket of shock. It’s about giving you the actual information you need to keep your pool safe and clear. Most people test at home and still end up with problems because those strips don’t catch everything. We test for free because we’d rather you get it right the first time.
We’ve been serving families across South Georgia since 2014, built on over 30 years of hands-on pool construction and maintenance experience. We’re not a franchise following a script. We’re local, licensed, and we’ve seen what happens when pool chemistry gets ignored or handled wrong.
Pridgen pool owners deal with the same challenges as the rest of Coffee County – hard water, summer heat that throws pH levels off, and water that looks fine but isn’t. We understand how Georgia water behaves, what contaminants show up in this area, and how to keep your pool balanced through the seasons.
We offer free water testing because it’s the right way to build trust. You’re not walking into a sales pitch. You’re getting real answers from people who know pools inside and out.
Grab a clean plastic bottle and fill it with water from about elbow-deep in your pool – not from the surface, not from the skimmer. Bring it to us at our Douglas location. If you’ve recently added chemicals, wait at least 24 hours before collecting your sample so we get an accurate read.
We run your sample through our computerized testing system. It measures pH, chlorine, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, and checks for metals and other minerals that throw water balance off. The whole process takes just a few minutes.
You’ll get a printout that shows every reading and tells you exactly what your pool needs. If your pH is high, we’ll tell you how much acid to add. If your calcium is low, you’ll know how to fix it. If everything looks good, we’ll tell you that too. No upselling, no pressure – just the facts about your water and what to do next.
Bring samples weekly during the summer when you’re using the pool heavily. That’s when chemical levels shift fastest and when you need to stay on top of things to avoid algae, cloudy water, or irritation.
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Our residential water test covers everything that matters for pool safety and clarity. We test pH levels, which affect how well your chlorine works and whether your water will damage pool surfaces or equipment. We measure free and total chlorine to make sure you have enough sanitizer actually working in the water.
Total alkalinity gets tested because it’s what keeps your pH stable. Calcium hardness matters because too little causes etching and too much causes scaling. We check cyanuric acid levels since that’s what protects your chlorine from the sun – but too much makes your chlorine ineffective.
We also screen for metals like copper and iron that stain pool surfaces and turn water green or brown. These are things you can’t see until they’ve already caused a problem, and home test strips don’t catch them.
This is the same professional pool water analysis we’d run for our own pools. Pridgen sits in an area where well water and city water both have their quirks, and agricultural runoff can affect water chemistry. We know what to look for and how to read the results in context of what’s normal for South Georgia.
The testing is free. The advice is free. You’re not required to buy anything from us. We do this because informed pool owners have fewer problems, and that’s better for everyone.
Bring in a sample at least once a week during summer when you’re swimming regularly and the heat is affecting your chemistry. That’s when pH rises, chlorine burns off faster, and you’re adding more chemicals to compensate. Weekly testing helps you catch problems before they turn into algae blooms or cloudy water.
In spring and fall when the pool isn’t getting heavy use, every two weeks is usually enough. If you’re closing your pool for winter, get it tested before you cover it so you’re not dealing with a swamp when you open it back up.
If something looks off – water’s cloudy, it smells like chlorine but your test strips say it’s low, or you’re seeing staining – bring a sample in right away. Don’t keep throwing chemicals at a problem you haven’t properly diagnosed. That’s how you end up with a bigger mess and a lighter wallet.
Home test strips give you a basic reading on pH and chlorine, and that’s useful for daily monitoring. But they’re not precise, they expire quickly, they’re hard to read accurately, and they don’t test for several things that matter – like calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, or metals.
Our computerized testing system measures exact levels of everything in your water. It catches the stuff that test strips miss entirely. You’ll know if your stabilizer is too high, which makes your chlorine stop working even though your strips say you have plenty. You’ll see if you have copper in your water before it stains your pool walls.
The readings are consistent and accurate, and you get a printed report with specific instructions. Test strips give you a color that might mean your pH is “somewhere between 7.2 and 7.8” – we’ll tell you it’s exactly 7.6 and whether that needs adjusting based on your other levels.
Use strips at home to keep an eye on things between professional tests. But don’t rely on them to tell you the full story about your water chemistry. They’re not built for that.
Because bad information leads to bad decisions, and bad decisions cost you money. If your home test says your chlorine is low and you dump more in, but the real problem is that your cyanuric acid is too high and your chlorine isn’t working – you just wasted money on chlorine that won’t help.
If you don’t know your calcium hardness is low, you might be slowly etching your pool surface and shortening the life of your equipment. If you don’t catch metals in your water, you’ll wake up to stains that are expensive to remove.
Free professional testing gives you the full picture. You make smarter choices about what chemicals to buy and how much to use. You avoid problems that cost hundreds or thousands to fix. You don’t waste money on chemicals you don’t actually need.
We’ve been doing this for over 30 years. We’ve seen what happens when people guess at their pool chemistry. The testing is free because we’d rather help you get it right than watch you struggle with problems that could’ve been prevented.
Wait at least 24 hours after adding any chemicals to your pool. If you just shocked it or adjusted the pH, your sample won’t reflect what’s actually happening in the water once things settle. You’ll get inaccurate results and recommendations that don’t match what your pool needs.
Use a clean plastic bottle – a water bottle or old chemical container that’s been rinsed thoroughly works fine. Don’t use glass. Reach down about elbow-deep into the pool, away from returns and skimmers, and fill the bottle. Surface water and water right at the skimmer don’t represent what’s happening in the bulk of your pool.
Bring the sample to us as soon as you can. Water chemistry can shift if the sample sits around for days, especially in heat. The fresher the sample, the more accurate the test.
That’s it. No appointment needed. Just bring the sample in and we’ll test it while you wait.
Absolutely. Clear water doesn’t mean safe water or properly balanced water. You can have pH levels that are slowly damaging your pool surface and you’d never know by looking at it. You can have chlorine that’s too low to kill bacteria, but the water still looks fine – until someone gets an ear infection.
Metals like copper can be dissolved in perfectly clear water, then suddenly precipitate out and stain your entire pool green or brown when the pH shifts. High cyanuric acid makes your water look great but renders your chlorine almost useless against algae and bacteria.
Some of the most expensive pool problems we’ve seen started with water that looked completely normal. By the time you can see the problem, it’s often already done damage. That’s why testing matters even when everything seems fine.
Your eyes and nose can’t measure calcium hardness or total alkalinity. They can’t tell you if your stabilizer is too high or if you have metals building up. Professional water testing catches these things before they become visible, expensive problems.
No. The testing is completely free with no purchase required and no obligation. We’ll give you the results and recommendations, and what you do with that information is up to you.
If you want to buy what you need from us, we carry quality chemicals and we’re happy to help. If you’d rather pick things up somewhere else, that’s fine too. We’re not testing your water to trap you into a sale – we’re doing it because it’s useful information that every pool owner should have access to.
Some companies only offer free testing if you buy from them. We don’t operate that way. We’ve built our reputation in South Georgia by being straight with people and helping them make informed decisions about their pools.
Bring your sample in. Get your results. Make whatever choice makes sense for you. We’ll be here when you need us, whether that’s for chemicals, maintenance, or just another free water test next week.
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