Lost Dutchman Pools & Spas

Lost Dutchman Pools and Spa is an excellent company! I recently purchased a home with a pool. Unfortunately, the previous owners did nothing to maintain the pool and its equipment. I had never owned a pool before so I contacted Leslie’s and hired a guy to come check out the the equipment and service the pool.
All the Leslie’s guy did was try to sell me as much stuff as possibly. It was a service call and he did absolutely nothing for the $ 115 I spent but tell me all the equipment I needed to replace and how much he charged would charge. He did nothing to troubleshoot anything!
That’s when I contacted Duke from The Lost Dutchman Pools. Duke was a lifesaver. He is an expert with pools and was able to repair my pool at a fraction of the price Leslie’s quoted me. I am truly impressed with Duke and his company. He is friendly, knowledgeable, efficient and most importantly honest. He will not take your money and run like some contractors I have encountered. I highly recommend him to everyone for all their pool and spa needs.

Showed up at my house unannounced and then sent an invoice to AHS and now I’m getting a bill for $ 75 for you to stand at my door and do nothing. You’ve got to be crazy to think you’re going to get anything from them or myself for doing this. A phone call, actually getting in touch with someone, is what a decent company does. If you don’t get a hold of someone you don’t have the right to just show up at their house.

Hired to connect a spa and put in a 110v outlet. It took over a month to connect the spa. He was constantly late or just didn’t show up. Always on the phone telling someone he was on the way (always a lie) and never put in the 110v outlet. He agreed to be paid when the work was completed, but he has sent us 2 bills to date. He has some of my personal property which I want back. Next stop is the State Contractors License Board. DO NOT USED THIS FRAUD!

Very professional service. Duke was on time, charged me exactly the quote given over the phone. Found my pools problem, little rocks had gotten trapped from construction. Fixed problem and my pool looks great.
Wish I called him first. I was sold a new motor, $ 350. told it was a leak in line. Paid to have line cleared $ 100. Bought a new vacuum $ 250. Finally a honest company. $ 75 charge and my pool looks great!

What a shameful experience we had with this, what then seemed to be, very nice man… In April, we tried to refinish our swimming pool and needed to do work on a pump as well as repouring concrete after moving the pump. Duke seemed to have it all nailed and confidentiality explained that this wouldn’t be an issue as he has done it multiple times. I reiterated that I found him on Unilocal and I would leave a good review if he did a good job… little I knew about this man’s work ethic. He was dragging with the job, showing up for a hour, unprepared… leave while saying he would come back and he wouldn’t show up. He was like that for 5 weeks. He moved the pump with poor engineering (bad access to open the filter etc) so my husband had to draw it to him and Duke had rework. Then he poured the concrete badly as it had low spots and wasn’t leveled. My husband told him it was unacceptable, so the guy instead of breaking it and repouring, he poured more concrete on the top of it which cracked. This was unacceptable as well. When my husband took a picture with a level and showed him hollow spots via phone we got the attached text message (supposedly from Dukes wife).
At first we didn’t know what to think of it as we don’t believe people would be joking about heart attack… but little we knew. I asked my friend the next day to call his number and ask about services and Duke picked up the phone with his friendly and enthusiastic pitch… this is when we decided to respond to his text (in attachment). Its a shame he walked off the job… oh…and we had more problems because of his poor coordination with contractors and resurfacing of the pool, but that would be too much to write. This guy is nice and sweet with BAD underlying form or desire to provide good customer service so FORGET ABOUT HIM.
One thing I will add that he practically walked off the job he was contracted to do probably because he couldn’t handle it and should have simply correct it by hiring someone else as he proved not to have experience. In CA contractor can loose his license for walking off the job site, but I didn’t report him to the licensing board. It was a disappointing experience considering he seemed to be such a nice man.

Wow is all I can say! Pool is always a mess and I am always calling to fix. Has damaged the equipment and was it would be fixed Months ago. I was told tonight it the busy season why don’t I find someone else. Too much. Is there a 0 stars?
Now I have to pay for damage done. Lawsuit over pool service unreal!

Duke started a job to replace our solar panels over a month ago. He just came by today and abandoned this job. Took the pannels that he had installed and were leaking down my roof and the back side of my house and gave me back my money.
I insisted on cash because of the trust that was broken in this job.
Said this job was too much for him.
Now I have a non-​working pool and I am scrambling to find a contractor to clean up his mess. I will be reporting this to the CA Contractors Licensing Board, if he even has a License.
He is a nice guy, but ened up being very unprofessional and really screwed me over.
Do not use him and if you do, be warned. What a headache!!!

We had major pool problems (green, vacuum/​pump issues) that three service companies told me would be costly to fix. Duke came and figured out lower-​cost, effective solutions and also went above and beyond in helping me get the pool running again.
Highly recommended!

Duke was unable to maintain our pool. He had only worked for us for about two months before our pool turned green. Unfortunately this coincided with our 4^th of July party. Although we called him several days before hand, our pool was still green on the day of the party. I took a sample of our pool water to Leslie’s pool supplies. They tested the water and told me how to fix it. I had it fixed in two days. Once Duke began to maintain the pool, the water turned green again. I had another party planned at the end of July and called him 5 days in advance to fix the green in the pool.
Not only was he unable to fix it, but complained about how much money he had spent trying to get the green out. He then proceeded to tell me that our pool was not worth his time and quit. I have attached a picture of the pool the way he left it. Notice the goggles and toys at the bottom of the pool. His cleaning and maintenance does not include removal of those items. We had to manually take those out ourselves.
I have hired a new pool service that knew what the problem was immediately.

Duke is a great pool contractor. Super nice, super polite. He fixed and re-​tiled our lap pool. All the guys that worked for him were very good and nice. I highly recommend him. Kudos duke.

Duke is AMAZING! I thought my pool could not be saved, but he did it and for the price in town! If you need a great, friendly, and honest man to care for pool call Duke!

Duke is the man! He has provided us excellent service. We got the pool retiled and re-​finished and he busted his tail to make sure it was done in time for a big party we were having. Our pool is always clean and we couldn’t be happier with the service and price. Highly recommend.

We honestly gave Duke every opportunity to take our pool problems seriously (8 months). Duke seems very friendly and personable, and I think that is why we let our pain go on for so long. He sounded competent, but when DE started leaking back into the pool after the daily pump run shut off starting in late January, it didn’t get fixed until early June when we called in a second company for a second opinion. Yes, per my request, Duke finally installed a check valve (may 30) in the inlet to the filter to prevent DE backwash, but that was just a band-​aid for a long-​standing air leak in the system (pressure running at only 2 psi and air bubbles in the pool return). RTV was everywhere on the plumbing joints, and what should have happened is all gaskets changed, removal of the RTV and permanent repair to the inlet to the pump. The new company diagnosed the problem in 5 minutes and had it repaired within the week. Now the filter runs quietly at 12 psi and It’s a wonder the pump never burned/​seized up under Duke’s care.
The other problem we had is no show appointments for repair and never a phone call to explain or reschedule. My poor dog had been locked up in anticipation of these appointed visits because I didn’t want him getting in the way or into the DE dust (Duke had promised for several weeks to change the DE grid to troubleshoot the DE leak). The weekly maintenance at times consisted of leaf skimming and chemicals, while the DE sat on the pool floor for another week, and then another. I should not have had to request a vacuum. The pool was unusable for 5 months, and with each promise to make a repair or «try something,» it waited until his regular weekly maintenance day unless I prodded him to come sooner, in which case usually ended up in a no-​show anyway. It also took from Oct.-April before the the landlady’s pool crawler vacuum/​replacement showed back up after Duke had it «in the shop» for that long, «awaiting parts.» I read these other reviews and it appears that homeowners might get better treatment, which I hope isn’t the case. Just because we are renting the house does not mean our pool is a lower priority.
I do need to add that on the day he was told his services were no longer needed, he went into the back yard before the padlock was changed and retrieved the automatic pool vacuum without announcing his presence or discussing the ownership status of the vacuum.
Now after using another company for three weeks who repaired the air leaks to the system and has our pool sparking clean, I realized I should have seen the warning signs far earlier with Duke. I feel taken advantage of for giving him the benefit of a doubt time and time again and bending over backwards and waiting for months for the pool to be usable.
Also, readers can check current license status at
. Search for «Lost Dutchman Pools»

I was at a loss having not serviced the pool in a few months.
I looked on Unilocal and saw the Dutchman’s reviews and found out he was EC so I called and he was out the same day to diagnose my swampy pool.
He said he could have the pool up and running in 3 – 8 days depending on how long it took for the chemicals to clear up the pool. He was very nice and funny about it (amid my embarrassment about my pool science experiment in grime!) and even introduced himself to the family pets checkin him out.
He came out Monday, it’s Wednesday and it already looks 100x better! I took pics but I’m too horrified to show you!
The price quote was very reasonable and is a little cheaper than my last pool company!
THANKS DUKE THE DUTCHMAN!

Duke is GREAT. Last summer our pool was green, cloudy and we were unable to use it most of the time. We tried everything to get our chemicals right and could never figure it out. Duke saved our pool. Within 1 week the pool was clear and beautiful and we could swim again!!! I highly recommend Duke, he is timely and super cost efficient.

I highly recommend Lost Dutchman Pools for service and repairs. Duke provides excellent service, he promptly returns calls and answers any questions without delay — in other words, he does whatever it takes to resolve any issues/​repairs. Duke is always courteous and professional. I appreciate the fact that he is attentive to owning a service-​oriented business and actually services his customers.

***DO NOT USE!!!*** ***DO NOT USE!!!*** Hired this company to clean my pool on 7÷8÷2011 in the aftermath of the sandstorm. They didnt get the pool cleaned, they broke my pool pump, and then told me it was my fault and they wouldnt fix it. Now I am looking at $ 600 in repairs and a dirty pool. Small claims here we go, yay! ***DO NOT USE!!!*** ***DO NOT USE!!!***

Our new pool was completed in November 2008. Duke has been taking care of our pool since day one. He is very dependable and does a great job of keeping everything running correctly. Our pools is always sparkling clean.

Duke provides a great service and goes the extra mile to make sure that everything is working just right. We had some problems with our pool vacuum which he was able to take care of. By far the best Pool Service we have ever used, dependable, thorough and professional. We highly recommend his services to all Pool and Spa owners in the San Diego area.