Know before the pump quits. Budget before the board asks.
HydroPM, predictive maintenance for commercial pools, watches the equipment in your plant room, tells you what is heading toward failure, and turns that record into a five-year capital plan you can defend to a board, a council or an owner.
- 10 weeks
- the extra closure one city pool took while waiting on a pump motor
- 14 to 16 weeks
- lead time on a replacement commercial heater, unbudgeted
- 1 in 8
- routine pool inspections that ended in an immediate closure
Most pools are run break and fix, and budgeted from the nameplate.
The heater everyone could see was tired still fails in July, at emergency pricing, with a part that takes a season to arrive. The reserve study carries a fixed ten-year life from a visit three years ago. The board hears a number it cannot check, and the people who use the pool hear it is closed.
The information to prevent all of that exists. It is just split between the technician who knows the equipment and the person who holds the budget, and nobody has it on one page.
Three jobs, one record.
Every unit, its condition, what needs attention and what the next five years will cost, on one screen. The same screens work on a phone in the pump room.
Near real-time monitoring
Connected controllers, pumps, drives and filters report in. Readings and run-hours are tracked over time, so a change in how a unit behaves is seen while it is still a repair, not a closure.
Predictive maintenance
Age, condition, run-hours and repair history move each unit’s remaining life. The platform tells you which heaters, pumps and filters are coming due, and when to order the part with a ten-week lead time.
Capital and reserve planning
Twelve-month, three-year and five-year replacement forecasts by pool and by property, an annual reserve figure, and a report in the format your reserve analyst, council or asset manager already expects. This is the part nobody else does.
A number your board can defend.
Twelve states, Virginia and Maryland among them, require associations to hold reserve studies, and the pool line in most of them is an estimate written from the parking lot. Cities carry millions in deferred maintenance per pool and find out about it in an emergency council vote. Universities cut the natatorium first.
HydroPM replaces the guess with a record: every asset, its real install date, its rated condition, a replacement window and a cost range, rolled up into the reserve contribution that funds replacement at end of life. Hand it to your reserve firm, attach it to the CIP, or take it to the owner.
| Year | What comes due | Planning range |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | Pool 2 heater, UV lamps, feeder rebuild | $34,000 to $48,000 |
| 2028 | Main circulation pump and drive, Pool 1 | $18,500 to $26,000 |
| 2029 to 2031 | Filters (both), chemistry controllers, deck drains | $96,000 to $142,000 |
| Annual reserve contribution to fund the plan | $31,400 | |
“Filters, heaters and surfaces are simultaneously approaching end of life. A capital replacement plan is essential to avoid emergency closures.”
“The heater is not budgeted. Unrepairable failure could occur at any time.”
Built for the owner, in the owner’s language.
Hotels and resorts
Guests choose by the pool and review by the pool. Keep it open, and keep pool capex inside the FF&E reserve instead of on top of it.
Budget word: FF&E reserveCities, counties and parks
No more emergency votes in July. A defensible replacement schedule for the CIP, and the parts ordered before the season, not during it.
Budget word: CIP, deferred maintenanceHomeowner and condo associations
The reserve study’s pool line, written from inside the equipment room and kept current between the five-year visits. A special assessment the board can explain.
Budget word: reserve studyUniversities and schools
The natatorium stops being the line nobody can justify. Real ages, real conditions, and a backlog figure that stands up to the facilities office.
Budget word: deferred maintenance backlogHealth clubs and YMCAs
Members forgive a closure once. A plan that sees the pump coming keeps the second one from happening.
Budget word: capital planWater parks and private operators
Peak-day revenue depends on a pump with a four-week lead time. Know its condition in March.
Budget word: capexOne afternoon in the plant room.
Every nameplate photographed, every unit rated, and the facility checklist completed: pool equipment, water and supplies, structural, cosmetic.
The inventory, the five-year forecast and the reserve figure as a report suitable for a board, a council or a reserve firm.
Where the controllers and drives support it, a small read-only connector lets them report in from that point on.
Scheduled inspections re-rate condition. Monitoring runs between visits. The plan stays honest and the surprises stop.
Start with one plant room.
Virginia, Maryland and the District on site. Remote setup elsewhere. Tell us how many bodies of water you have and we will come back with a date.
Request a facility assessment
Figures on this page: Yakima Lions Pool closure extension (city of Yakima); Sebastopol Ives Pool heater budget amendment (city of Sebastopol); CDC 2016 public pool inspection study; Rapid City aquatics master plan 2026; CAI summary of state reserve fund laws. Illustrative plan figures are examples, not a quote.