I’ve had a lot of people contact me in 2019 via email, social media and on forums. From these conversations there will often come a great idea directly or indirectly on how to make our products better. Most of the time what happens next is I think “what an excellent idea!” and sadly almost immediately have to put it aside to keep working on the business of making and shipping these wonderful test kits of ours.

Thankfully 2019 has been a year of great conversations, getting the business side of things running smoothly, and almost figuring out what I’m doing. If you’ve ever run a small business you’ll know that you never 100% figure out what you’re doing – it’s way too busy for that!

So what happened behind the scenes in 2019 and what is coming to light in 2020?

5ml bottles are becoming 10ml. Salt Detection Reagent 5ml and Total Alkalinity Buffer 5ml are both going to 10ml sizes. This is a result of a combination of delivering better value, standardising sizes, and making bottling and labelling easier to automate. This won’t effect the price of the Total kits.

Labels are being made easier to read. Some people have mentioned that the box sides on our small kits have been tricky to read in some lighting conditions, we worked out this is due to the font and printing we use. This has been upgraded, enlarged, improved and all sorts of other words. These new labels will be phased in over the course of the year.

New Product Photos! I’ve been meaning to take new product photos for about 3 years, ever since the last product photos were taken 3.1 years ago. At some point in 2020 there will be new photos or I’ll never hear the end of it – from myself!

Magnetic Stirrer developments? Rumour has it that an affordable magnetic stirrer has been sourced and is currently being tested here in the labs. If it passes our strict quality control procedures (which may or may not include a hammer) we’ll have some availabilities. It will be after February at the earliest, so not for this summer unfortunately.

Website shuffle. I don’t have plans to change the shop layout, but the site frontpage needs a reshuffle to make news and updates easier to see. Got to make it easier for you all to see when these changes and product improvements are announced!

Better Bench Protectors are live. Many of you with salt kits will have noticed our new bench protector sheets – the same quality of protection but these new ones are larger and in lab approved fashion colours. We have a good supplier for these and they are here to stay.

2019 saw some improvements and 2020 will bring even more. Can’t wait to get some of this exciting stuff out into the field and into your hands!

Thanks again for the support, it makes this job easier knowing I’ve got the best customers in the business :)

–Brett

Because Christmas and Boxing Day are pretty much right on top of us, deliveries for the next 10 day period will be done as and when the post office is open. Any orders that come in from now until Monday 30th December will be done asap, and then it’s up to Australia Post and your local service. Same for New Years day and surrounds.

Thanks thanks and thanks again for your support and orders in 2019, here’s to another year of great pools and clear water!

Brett

What does this mean for you?

December 7th to 22nd – Kit and Total Kit Orders will be filled as normal. Kits in particular (These kits!) are good to go!

Individual Reagents, refills, and accessories – we intend to ship them as usual. However, the Elf is not as highly trained in Pool Kit technology so it may take a few extra days to get everything together. Please allow some extra days for these to arrive.

December 23rd – I will be back on deck to ship any outstanding orders. My local Post Office is open 23rd and 24th, so deliveries will be as quick as AusPost can do them over the Christmas/New Year period.

December 30th onward – Normal shipping and postal service returns.

So the only possible delay and really worst case scenario is you may order an individual reagent etc, and if there’s a total Elf Meltdown (Melfdown?) or a system failure, it won’t be in the post until December 23rd. As I said, we’re hoping to ship as normal so I doubt this delay will occur. I appreciate your patience though if it happens.

2019 has been absolutely huge, and I cannot thank all of you enough for your support. I’ve had such wonderful emails and feedback from clients and 2020 promises to be even bigger.

I hope you all have an amazing December, Christmas, holiday, break and whatever else you have planned. Summer decided to start months ago so lets get out into the water!

Thanks for a brilliant year!

–Brett

Many many apologies but we’re having a shortage of stock. Well I say stock, I mean bottles and boxes. I have every chemical, mixture, concoction, potion and tincture (sorry, Halloween is coming) but we were shipped the wrong bottles. Not once, but twice. So whilst all that was happening we’ve run out of our current stock of bottles and boxes.

Everything should be here this week (ending October 11th) but in the meantime please be aware there may be a delay in shipping. Orders currently in the system will be sent out asap, but any orders from October 8th onwards may have longer delays until the correct bottles arrive.

Last year we managed to lock in sources for all of our chemicals and reagents from reliable local and overseas companies, so I was very optimistic about this Summer season. Once I find a consistent bottle manufacturer maybe it’ll be all smooth sailing? Just kidding, as a small business owner I know a funny joke when I see one :D

Here’s hoping your pool is treating you well, and don’t worry we’ll have the best test kits in Australia out to you as soon as humanly possible!

–Brett

Probably the biggest change is the free shipping amount has been changed to $60. If you buy a Chlorine kit and any other kit, you will reach this amount and as many of our customers buy 2-3 small kits at a time we thought this would be a good compromise. This allows us to keep offering free shipping and as it is Express Shipping with Australia Post and parcel tracking, we definitely wanted to be able to continue it.

Australia Post is an amazing service, and one I personally support 100%. For anywhere between $9 and $15 I can ship a decent sized parcel into even the most remote parts of Australia. And we all know Australia’s a very big place, so that’s good value. We have had to raise the price of shipping by $1 to $8, but if you buy above a certain amount it’s still FREE. We send over 98% of our parcels by Express post, and the vast majority of people receive them within 48 hours of placing an order especially on the East Coast.

Over the next few days prices will increase on some products in store, but these will be minor increases at best, no more than a couple percent. From a price point alone I still believe we offer the best value kit in Australia by a significant margin. From a quality, service and good looks perspective we are naturally unbeatable!

Looking forward to the 2019-2020 Summer season with all of you wonderful people and your amazing pools!

–Brett

Can I use Clear Choice Labs test kits with a ‘mineral pool’?
The short answer is maybe.
The long answer is it depends.

Our kits are designed to be incredibly accurate at testing freshwater and salt water pools that use traditional chlorine based methods. Because these pools are the most common, our kits test for specific chemicals found in these pools. When other chemicals are introduced in unknown quantities, such as in mineral pools, our tests may react differently.

If you do have a mineral pool and want to try our kits, we suggest buying one of our smaller kits for testing to start with – we have numerous clients using our products to test for specific chemicals in their mineral pools. We also suggest recording the current range of the chemical you’re testing for, say CYA, and then check using our kit to see if it gives you the same reading. Unfortunately, we simply can’t know if the chemicals used in every style of mineral pool will work with our tests.

So why is a mineral pool different?
At a very non-scientific level, almost every pool uses chlorine to keep it clean. Whilst this can be added to the pool manually, most pools create their own to make life that little bit easier. Mineral and magnesium pools also use chlorine, they simply get it from a different parent chemical to start with.

How does Chlorine get into my pool?
1) Most commonly? Salt (sodium chloride) water chlorinators. They cycle the salt water in your pool, do something magic (chemistry magic!) to it, and the sodium chloride gives off chlorine. These are the most common pool types, and certainly the benchmark and standard for the industry.

2) You put chlorine in the pool. This is usually from a container labelled Chlorine (or a clever variant) in some way, and you hopefully do some magic maths to know how much to add. You can use our kits to test you’re adding the right amount.

3) Mineral pool systems. These often use a different chloride than sodium chloride or salt – often Magnesium Chloride. Sometimes it’ll be a mix of chemicals, or another metal/mineral/chemical entirely. Then this runs through a magic (chemistry magic!) system and a chloride in the water gives off chlorine.

Essentially, mineral pools generate chlorine. The industry standard Australian pool using a salt water chlorinator generates chlorine. Mineral pools merely change the initial chemical they use to get their chlorine from.

Aren’t mineral pools better for my skin, health, pool, etc?
Unfortunately mineral pools aren’t standardised, as different manufacturers sell their own systems and chemical solutions. Without some level of standardisation, we wouldn’t even consider commenting on the chemistry and any pro’s and cons of mineral pools.

However, mineral and traditional pool types both generate chlorine, and the water in both pools should contain similar levels of chlorine in order to keep your pool clean. Chlorine works, and traditional pool chemistry to keep it at the perfect levels for swimming and keeping your pool crystal clear is incredibly simple. That’s where we come in!

What’s definitely best for you and your pool?
Accurate testing. Simple. Accurate. Fast.
All pools use chemicals. But the best pools use only the right amount of the right chemicals.
Clear Choice Labs test kits let you know what your pool levels are with industry leading accuracy. So you can add the right amount of chemicals, and no more, to your pool. Buy one now and get started on the best pool you’ve ever had!

Thanks for reading, don’t hesitate to email if you have any questions!
-Brett

2019 is shaping up to be another big year in the Labs backend. We have already tested new suppliers and made a couple of formula improvements to help our reagents survive Australias unpredictable temperatures. This year we’re also working with a great group for website improvements to make purchasing and after-sales customer service faster and easier. More on that during winter.

As 2019-2020 approaches we will most likely have price changes on some lines after we’ve managed to hold the price of kits and postage steady for 2 years. Unfortunately shipping to and from the labs is a cost that increases outside our control every year. Naturally we’ll keep changes as low as possible to continue our commitment to being not only the best kits in Australia, but also the most affordable!

The only thing that never changes around here is how great our customers are to work for. I’ve had hundreds of questions, suggestions and just plain thanks come in via email and social media this year. Every one of them has been a great reminder of how much fun it is to work for you all. I am super excited for the next year and all the years after that.

Thanks everyone, and keep enjoying the water!
Brett

Shipping Dates. 
Ordered by end of Dec 19th – Shipped on Dec 20th.
Dec 20th – 26th – Shipped on Dec 27th/28th depending on the Post Office opening days.
Dec 27th onwards – Shipped as normal.

For New Years, I think our local post offices close only on New Years day, so any orders shouldn’t be delayed by more than a day or two during that period.

This year has been pretty hectic with the shortage of chlorine reagents (which I’ve since found out is impacting US stores as well, with Taylor having manufacturing issues and delays themselves!) so I can’t thank you all enough for your support in 2018.

2019 promises to be very exciting and I can’t wait to continue bringing you all the best pool testing kits in the country!  Keep up to date with us here or on our facebook page

–Brett

If you order by Wednesday December 19th we will get your parcel out by Express Post and it should arrive by Christmas (AusPost and Santa willing of course!).

Any orders placed from the 20th to 26th we won’t mail until the 27th of December because it’ll just sit in a warm sorting shed somewhere and that’s no good for your kits. Even though we’re not shipping we’re still working, so contact us via email any time over the Christmas period and we’ll help you out with your pool test questions anyway we can.

You can still order over the break as well because we don’t give our poor webserver computer any time off! So be sure to tell Santa about our kits if he misses putting one in your stocking.

Thank you for all of your support and kind words this year, and here’s to another summer of clear water and great pools!

–Brett

We currently have three orders on their way, from three different suppliers. This is done to ensure that hold ups in delivery or customs don’t effect our full stock replacement.

Our largest shipment is delayed and was due to arrive by the start of December. At this stage we don’t have an ETA for our reagents other than December.

Apologies to all our very understanding clients and I really do wish we had the reagents to provide you all with perfect pools. We are doing everything we can to get these very niche chemicals into the country and into your pool kits.

We will update our facebook page and this blog the moment we have more Chlorine kit stock for sale.

As always, all of our other reagents and tests for pH, Calcium Hardness, Alkalinity, Salt and CYA are available in the shop and we look forward to providing you with the best customer service in Australia!

Thanks
-Brett