good points, carl. to your point about experience.yep, pretty easy to tell who's been around the block or not. the guy i know best who is a spa pool installer is amazing..he's not often around, but happened to be yesterday when i picked up my supplies to replumb..he hasn't been to my pool in 2 years but remembered the exact setup, that one of the valves i was replacing was a blade type, the other ball and he said it would cost me about $80 canadian to replace the parts. the owner sent him off to box it up, the guy brought them back and the bill came to $77...had the stuff in 5 minutes and was on my way.(it took longer for my visa approval for the purchase then to talk to the guy and box the parts!)