A 26-minute pool and the 6 minutes to the next one
Of the example's 26 minutes, 19 are the service itself: skim and empty baskets, brush the walls and tile line, vacuum when it needs it, test and dose, and look over the pump and filter pressure. The other 7 go on things nobody counts, like the gate and the dog, extra skimming under the trees and a share of the chemical pickups and the paperwork.
Then the drive. Six minutes at $42 an hour is $4.20 of every visit before profit. Put the same pool 15 minutes off the route and it becomes $43.72 a visit, which is why tight streets matter more on a pool route than almost anything else on the price.
Trees, screens and size: what moves a pool's minutes
Gallons matter less than what falls into the water. A screened pool with no trees can be a 20-minute stop, which the calculator prices at $31.12. A big pool under oaks with no screen can run 35 minutes, and that comes to $43.72 at the same rate.
Time each new pool on its second or third visit, once the first clean-up is done. The first visit to a neglected pool is an hour or more of work and belongs in a separate start-up price, not in the weekly rate.
Every 2 weeks costs more per visit than weekly
Monthly price is the visit price times the visits in a month: 4.33 for weekly, 2.17 for every 2 weeks and 8.66 for twice a week. At the example's $36.16 that is $156.56, $78.46 and $313.11.
Do not just switch the schedule and keep the minutes. Two weeks of leaves, debris and chlorine loss mean more brushing, more vacuuming and a bigger dose. If the example pool takes 32 minutes every 2 weeks, the visit becomes $41.20 and the month $89.40. Charging $36.16 for that visit hands 6 minutes away every time you open the gate.
The chemical swings and costs the quick price skips
The calculator puts routine chemicals in every visit: $4.15 of chlorine, acid and a full test, with a 20% markup. Summer heat, rain dilution and algae blooms can double that in a week, so the spreadsheet tracks chemical use and prices algae and filter work separately.
The $42 break-even rate is the example route's. Yours comes from your truck, insurance, test equipment and how many hours a week you are actually at pools. The pool service hourly rate page shows how the example gets there, and the free true hourly rate calculator does it with your numbers.
The spreadsheet also adds a safety cushion, prices the poles, nets and test kit by their running cost and prints a customer quote with three schedules. Its version of this pool is $38.23 a visit. The pool service pricing guide walks through it.