Why Connecticut pool owners stay with The Swimming Pool Store for decades

The Swimming Pool Store’s phone, (860) 673-6118, is answered at our Burlington counter during store hours by the same staff who schedule service and sell parts. Long-time customers describe us as quick to follow up, and that reputation rests on a simple structure: a family-owned store where the person taking your message is the person who can act on it, with no dispatch center in between.

We keep it that way in the off-season too. After the first week of November, the showroom moves to appointments, but the phone, email, and website chat stay open for questions, parts, and scheduling for the spring. If you leave a message, you hear back within one business day. Customers who have been with us for 15 years tell new customers this is the reason they stayed. It also shapes how we hire: counter staff learn scheduling and parts together, so the answer to “when can someone come out” and “do you have the part” comes from one conversation instead of two calls and a wait.

Some do, which is why the question comes up. The Swimming Pool Store has operated from the same Burlington address under the same family since 1969, through more than 55 pool seasons. Joseph Ashner founded the company, and his son James has owned it since 2019. Our senior sales manager has been here since 2008, and our service manager came up through our own crews.

Continuity like that is the practical answer to the fear behind the question. A company that has opened and closed the same pools for two decades has every reason to be there in August, because those customers are the business. Our customers with 15- and 17-year histories are quoted on this page for that reason, and we’d rather show the record than make a promise. The other half of the answer is the off-season: we don’t shut the phone off in November. The showroom moves to appointments, and the phone, email, and chat stay open, so a customer with a question in January reaches the same people who will open the pool in April.

Openings and closings are fixed-scope services with a set price that is published before you book, so the quote does not move. Crews test your equipment for basic operation, and if they find a problem, you get a description and a separate quote before any repair happens. Customers have described us as sticking to the original estimate in reviews going back more than a decade.

On timing, we are direct about Connecticut spring. We ask for two to three weeks of notice on openings in peak season, and we’d rather tell you a date is full than overbook and miss it. We confirm every appointment by email, and you get either First Call, a 9 to 9:30 a.m. arrival, or a morning or afternoon window. When weather moves a day, we reach out the day before or the morning of the appointment. The other thing that keeps us on schedule is you: a cover full of standing water or a pool with the water level below the skimmer cannot be opened that day, so we list what to do before the visit on the service page and repeat it when you book. The crews that arrive on time are the ones that did not lose the previous hour to a pool that was not ready.

The fastest fix for a failed pump in midsummer is to bring it to The Swimming Pool Store in Burlington, where a pump repaired in our shop is usually ready in one business day. If the problem needs a service call, call (860) 673-6118; in peak season, an appointment can take up to two weeks. Because we stock pumps and the parts for them in Burlington, a diagnosis and a repair or replacement can often happen on the same visit rather than waiting on a parts order.

Existing service customers often get priority when equipment fails mid-season, and we do our best to fit new customers in quickly. Whatever the window, you get it on the phone, and the technician who comes is one of our own crew, trained by our service manager to diagnose before replacing. One customer of more than 20 years describes losing a pump motor on Memorial Day weekend, with family due that afternoon, and having a technician at the house the next morning; his review is quoted on this page. If the pump is old enough that a replacement makes more sense than a repair, you get both numbers and choose; if the pump is under a manufacturer warranty we sold and installed, we handle that conversation rather than a call center.

Yes. During an opening or closing, our crews do not perform diagnostics or repairs on the spot. They test the pump, filter, and heater for basic operation, and if something isn’t right, you receive a description of the problem and a quote for the fix. The repair is a separate decision that you make, which means a routine visit can’t turn into an unexpected repair charge.

That practice comes from the way the company was founded: honest work for honest money, and no chemicals or equipment sold for a problem we have not diagnosed. Our technicians always photograph the problem so you can see it for yourself, and your invoice lists the services performed and any recommendations. For long-time customers, this is the part of the relationship that keeps them from getting a second opinion elsewhere. It also applies at the counter. Bring a water sample and the free test tells you what the water needs, and if the answer is nothing, that’s the answer you get. A customer who has been told “you don’t need anything this week” a few times tends to believe us when we say a heater needs replacing.

Our service crews are led by a service manager who came up through them, and our sales counter has had the same senior manager since 2008, so the faces at the store and on the truck change less than they do at most pool companies. Customers who have been with us for a decade or more often know the crew by name, and reviews on this page name technicians who found and fixed leaks.

Customers are often served by the same crew each season, though not always, and the field team is led by lead service technicians Michael Lamarre and Zack Monge. We add crew members in the spring, as every pool company does, and we train each one on our diagnostic approach before they work on a customer’s equipment pad without a lead technician. The training matters more than the name on the shirt. A new assistant trained by Michael Stagis learns to check the obvious causes first, to explain what was found in plain language, and to list every replaced part on the invoice. Customers notice the consistency in how the visit goes, even in years when the crew has a new face on it.

Yes. A one-time maintenance visit resets a pool that has drifted, and weekly maintenance service covers brushing, vacuuming, water-level and basket checks, filter cleaning as needed, and a full water analysis at the store with the balancing chemicals the results call for. Between visits, our free in-store water test tells you what your water needs, if anything, and the printout is explained to you.

Catching a small problem early is the main reason our long-term customers have so few emergencies. A filter pressure that climbs in June, a water level that drops faster than evaporation explains, or a heater that short-cycles are all things a mid-season visit finds while the fix is still small. If you’d rather handle the routine and call us for the equipment, that arrangement is fine too, and many of our customers run it that way. Weekly maintenance is arranged by phone with the store, and the water sample from each visit comes back to the store so the next visit’s chemicals are based on a lab result rather than a guess.

Our commitment is stated on our homepage: if you’re not fully satisfied with the result and our work, we will do what it takes to make sure you are. The practical version is a phone call with James Ashner, the owner, and a fix. Prepaid services that have not started can be canceled for a refund by calling the store during business hours.

We answer every public review, including critical ones, and one local business posted a review of us based only on how we handled a difficult one. Long-time customers stay partly because a problem gets a person and an answer. In more than 55 years we have had no complaint filed against our licenses and no lawsuit brought against the company, and that record is the result of resolving problems directly with the customer rather than letting them go unanswered. If you’ve had a bad experience with another company, tell us what happened when you call. Knowing what went wrong last time is the fastest way for us to show you how the visit will go this time.