Pool Chasers Podcast · Greg & Justin, Swimming Pool

Inside Hayward: Innovation, Support, and the Future of Pool Equipment with Monica Archibald

·1 hr 19 min·5 clips

Monica turns Hayward's old EcoStar problem into a question about what the company fixed next.

Greg and Justin welcome Monica Archibald, District Sales Manager at Hayward Pool Products. They open with a Costco-at-three-in-the-afternoon call story that instantly feels familiar to people in the trade. Monica explains why picking up matters when someone calls, especially when a tech is standing in front of equipment that is failing and working through the checklist with nobody picking up. Greg gets into Monica's background and jokes about doing the LinkedIn homework, and the hosts trade a little banter about USC and UCLA before settling back into the conversation. From there, Monica talks about how much the pool industry has changed over the last five to seven years. She says there is constant product change, with companies rolling out new ways to control, monitor, and run equipment from a phone, and she frames that pace as a basic requirement if a company wants to stay relevant. Greg pushes back a little on the sameness of many pools and equipment sets they see, and Monica answers that there is still room for the wild commercial and high-end jobs that keep the work interesting. The discussion then gets technical around larger pumps and cases where the strainer and motor are sold separately. Monica explains that some of that gear comes from large-scale industrial uses like mining and water processing, and that the pool industry adapts it for pool applications by adding pieces like a strainer. The hosts note how some of those bigger pumps are hard to identify at first glance. The episode wraps with appreciation for a backyard that looks clean, straight, and coordinated with the house rather than overloaded with ornament, and the conversation ends with thanks and a promise to do it again sooner next time.

As heard by us

A practical look at support, adaptation, and what pool innovation means on the ground.

This episode stays grounded in the practical side of pool work: someone is standing in front of equipment that is not behaving, and the value comes from the quick back-and-forth around what to do next.

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Why you'd press play

Get Monica Archibald's Hayward side of pool tech, from answering support questions to the bigger gear behind commercial jobs.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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