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No municipality holds public pools and private/residential pools to the same compliance standards, which is a good thing. Holding pools in the public and residential domains to the same requirements would expose all pools to rules that lacked contextual validity. But one element of compliance that is ethically sensible for all pools is the provision of first aid at the pool site.

At public pools, first aid such as CPR and basic treatment of limb injuries are required skills for lifeguards, who certify in CPR and first aid to gain their official title. Residential pools lack the same requirements. But we contend that CPR skills and pool first aid are an ethical necessity for all pool owners.

As a pool owner, certifying can benefit more than pool occupants; it can be advantageous for homeowners, too. Let’s look at three compelling reasons to make it your “responsibility” to have CPR and first aid training under your belt if you own a residential pool.

1. Private Pools are not Inherently Less Injury-Related

Because public pools consistently host more guests than private pools, it’s not surprising to find that they experience a higher incidence of injuries that require CPR and other crucial types of aid. However, when the statistics are interpreted on a per capita basis, neither is it surprising to discover that, in any given location, a private pool is a stage for the same types of injuries, but on a scale that’s in keeping with the lower number of people who use the pool.

Misperception Due to Statistical Incidence

Overall, incidents that necessitate aid at public pools are largely the same as events that require it in private settings, including: limited swimming ability that leads to loss of consciousness due to submersion, slip and fall injuries due to running on slick surfaces near the pool, injuries due to improper use of pool implements (e.g., diving boards and ladders), and serious health events indirectly related to pool use, such as heart attacks and seizures.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), non-boat related drownings are the fifth-leading cause of unintentional death in the nation — a statistic that doesn’t delineate between unintentional drownings at public pools and private ones.

Misperception Due to Monitoring Capability

Owners of private pools can often monitor the small number of swimmers in their pools more easily than lifeguards can oversee the far greater number of swimmers who routinely crowd public pools. But it’s important to note that the actions of adult swimmers — not the degree to which a pool owner monitors the pool — is the main variable for injuries requiring pool first aid.

When proper monitoring fails to prevent injuries, responsive first aid may be all that prevents some injuries from becoming serious. As the homeowner, you could be held liable for a pool-related injury that occurs on your property. So it’s sensible to provide first aid and water safety measures to help deter injuries that require it, such as a residential pool safety barrier from A Safe Pool.

2. You Could be Held Liable for Injuries at Your Pool

Residential pool owners should implement a pool safety barrier for two reasons: to protect children and other individuals at high risk of drowning; and to protect themselves from legal liability for injuries to others who may use the pool without permission or use it carelessly. For the same reasons, it is advisable to take responsibility for offering pool first aid to injury victims.

With that said, you may be wondering: if a stranger trespasses into my pool and gets injured, should I really to rush to his aid, when his motives are uncertain, and he entered illegally to begin with?

Based on information freely offered on websites for law firms that defend homeowners against pool liability claims, the answer is no. When an injured trespasser is an adult, it is usually he — and not the pool owner — who faces an uphill legal battle, when he files a liability lawsuit.

But the same law firms often claim that, if the injured trespasser happens to be a child, the pool owner is almost certain to be held liable for the injury. Consequently, treating a child with pool first aid that saves his life could mean the difference between facing a wrongful death suit and facing a personal injury suit. Of the two, the latter generally requires a homeowner’s pool liability insurance to pay an appreciably lower settlement amount to the plaintiff.

Sometimes, first aid and the water safety it helps increase — a post-factum safety that mitigates the effects of an injury instead of preventing it — benefits both the homeowner and the injured. If you hold yourself responsible for personal finances, it’s sensible to assume responsibility for providing pool first aid to a child, whose injury results from trespassing.

However, as you would do if an adult trespassed, promptly notify police by calling 911. This won’t get the child into big trouble, but it will help invalidate any claim that you mistreated a minor. Because this accusation could be used to add an “egregious” legality to the child’s injury, which enriches the settlement, plaintiffs of poor character have been known to use it.

3. Injuries Can Become Fatal Before Paramedics Arrive

When a pool injury requires CPR, someone usually dials 911. While this should always be done, pool first aid that a homeowner provides, while paramedics are en route, could mean the difference between the injured recovering in the hospital and perishing at the pool site.

When a person has a life-threatening injury, “seconds count”, says the CDC. The Response Institute and CPR Consultants — an organization offering CPR training and consultation — elaborates on how those “seconds” are best spent: “Immediate, hands-on CPR performed by bystanders, until EMTs or other emergency personnel arrive to the scene, can make all the difference when it comes to preventing an unintentional death by drowning.”

The Simplicity of CPR as a Success Factor

When someone is pulled from a pool, just short of drowning, they are unconscious due to oxygen deprivation. This creates two critical deficits: a lack of conscious will to survive, and a lack of autonomic function to survive while unconscious. Being a property owner and defacto host of pool activities, the pool owner is responsible for providing aid, in the form of CPR.

If the situation has a silver lining, besides the lifesaving result CPR can provide, it lies within the CPR process itself. A highly finite process of repetition, which humans can perform with machine-like accuracy and efficiency, it’s simplicity is ideally suited to the main challenges posed by the urgency of the situation in which it’s performed: a narrow timeframe for success, no tolerance for error, and a potential deficit in focus that stress from these challenges can create.

Yet, despite the challenges, the success rate of CPR for “drowning survival” victims appears to be high. Some water safety consultancies report success rates of over 90% for victims, who received CPR from bystanders shortly after removal from the water.

Conclusion

First aid and water safety should be priorities for every pool owner, and to consider them your “responsibility” is the best way to provide them as responsively and thoroughly as possible. Because the ultimate goal of pool first aid is preventing fatalities, it’s also important to take proactive measures that deter injuries, in addition to taking reactive measures that help prevent injuries from becoming fatal.

One of the most effective proactive measures against unintentional drowning — especially for small children — is implementing a pool safety barrier from A Safe Pool. Take a look at our gallery of safety barriers, and consider which product would look and work the best at your pool site. Then, contact us to schedule a free estimate.

A Safe Pool knows that pool safety is a weighty responsibility for any homeowner to bear. That’s why we’re here to share it with you by providing solutions that reduce drowning risk.

In most of the country, July and August are the best times of year to enjoy swimming pools. Unfortunately, this two-month stretch is also when algae blooms most frequently. Higher temperatures, combined with inconsistent sanitizer levels, can cause serious algae problems. New pool owners especially can be blindsided by problems they didn’t anticipate.

Algae is a single-celled plant that uses photosynthesis to create its own food, and can be adaptable to almost any body of water.

It’s microscopic, and single cells can’t be seen by the naked eye. So when you see a mass of green, black, or yellow forming in your pool, that’s actually an accumulation of millions of individual algae!

Once it gets to this stage, cleaning a “green” pool can be costly and time-consuming. That’s why it’s always best to be prepared and proactive. Preventing algae from forming is much easier than cleaning up after it, so it’s best to keep a policy of keeping your pool clean with leaf covers and other products. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the common types of algae that can form in your pool and how you can treat and prevent them.

Types of Algae and What They Mean

While green algae is the type you’re most likely to see, there are other types of algae that can appear either black/blue or mustard yellow in color. The type of algae you’re seeing in your pool will determine how to treat and prevent it in the future.

Green Algae

Green is the most common type of swimming pool algae. It can spread fast, but fortunately it’s usually the easiest to treat and prevent against.

Green algae can appear blue-green, yellow-green, and even dark-green. It’s generally free floating, making it seem like the water itself is turning green. Or, it can cling to walls, creating distinct green patches.

How You Can Clean a ‘Green Pool’

Whether you’re cleaning a ‘green’ pool or you’re just trying to prevent algae from forming in the first place, the first thing you should always do is analyze the pool water’s pH level. This gauges how acidic the water is. A pool with an imbalanced pH level is vulnerable to algae. So it’s important to keep your pool’s water balanced.

How you clean green pools starts by applying algaecide, brushing physical patches of green algae, and “shocking” the water using chlorinated tablets.

Green algae can be treated fairly simply with the right amount of brushing, shocking, and algaecide. Just be sure to check the pool’s filtration system throughout the process to make sure water is flowing properly. You may have to repeat these steps a few times to ensure that the green algae is completely eradicated.

Black Algae

When you see “black algae,” this is actually blue-green swimming pool algae. However, it generally forms in cracks and crevices along pool surfaces. Black, or blue-green algae can usually be found in shadier parts of the pool and is partial to forming along concrete or plaster finishes.

Unlike true green algae, black algae has a distinctive heavy “slime” layer and skeletal-looking growths despite whatever chlorine levels are present in the pool. And because it’s more dense than green algae, it usually doesn’t change how clear the water looks. Instead, it just appears like black spots all along the surface.

How to Treat Black Algae in Your Swimming Pool

Treating black algae also starts by analyzing and balancing your water’s pH level. However, you’ll have to work a lot harder to break apart the slime layer. This will involve a lot of heavy brushing to disperse algae first. Then, you can shock the pool aggressively. Add Algaecide 60 as needed. Remember, you may have to repeat this process as many times as needed to get rid of all the algae.

Yellow or “Mustard” Algae

This type of algae typically looks “mustard yellow” to the naked eye. Yellow algae is chlorine-resistant and often looks like dirt or sand stuck on the pool surfaces.

How to Clean and Prevent Yellow Algae

Like treating black algae, cleaning yellow swimming pool algae involves a lot of heavy brushing to break up the patches along floors and pool walls. However, unlike cleaning a black or green pool, you may need to vacuum this type of algae directly out of the pool. To do this, you’ll have to add a ‘floc’ to the pool water, coagulating it first and letting it settle. Then, you can vacuum the algae right out of the pool.

Keeping Your Pool Water Balanced

Shocking your pool with added chlorine will help prevent algae from forming. You’ll know when your pool water is balanced when:

• The Combined Chlorine reading is 0.5ppm or less
• Your pool water is clear
• If those requirements aren’t met, you’ll need to keep shocking the water.

Each day, you should run your pump at all times and do the following:

• Vacuum debris from pool floor (to waste)
• Brush pool walls
• Test FC level (at least 2 times per day, but 3-4 times is ideal)
• Backwash/clean your filter

Cleaning a “Green Pool” and Preventing Algae is Easy

Cleaning a “green” pool is never fun and it can put a damper on what should be the best times of the year to enjoy your pool. However, owning a pool also comes with its fair share of responsibility. To keep your pool clean and safe, make sure you follow these steps. Be proactive whenever you suspect your pool water may be imbalanced. And be sure to get in the best pool safety and maintenance products out there.

Backyard pools can be great for kids of all ages. Swimming is a fun Summer activity that also gives kids the opportunity to exercise and spend some quality time with their families and friends. But it’s important to stay safe any time your kids or their friends enjoy your pool.

Throughout the country, hundreds of children under 5 years old drown in pools each year, many in pools that their families own. That is why many neighborhoods and communities have comprehensive safety regulations that govern how aboveground and inground pools can be laid out and secured with gates and fencing.

Of all the top swimming safety tips for kids out there, proper supervision is the key to keeping kids safe. Other than that, let’s take a look at some ways pool owners can keep their pools kid-friendly.

Vital Swimming Safety Tips for Kids

• Use the Buddy System: Kids are always safer in pairs or groups.
• Don’t Leave Young Kids Unattended: Never leave young children unattended or unsupervised in a pool area.
• Stay Focused When Supervising Kids: Don’t turn your back, even for a second. Don’t leave the pool area even if you know you’ll be back in a hurry.
• Always Know How Deep a Pool Is: Don’t allow kids in the deeper end of the pool.
• No Running: Pool areas can be pretty slippery when wet. Don’t let kids run around the pool.
• Watch for Safety Risks or Faulty Equipment: Keep kids far away from the pool if there are problems with electrical components or underwater lighting systems.

Supervision is Key

Constant supervision is vital to keeping kids safe. Even if you yourself aren’t watching the kids while they swim, ensure a neighbor, a family friend, or babysitter knows how to use all of the protective devices and barriers you’ve set up.

Remember, the main swimming safety tip for kids: Never leave them unsupervised! If you’re having a barbeque or summer party, always ensure someone is assigned to watch any kid swimming.

Every couple minutes, just do a quick scan to see if all kids are present and accounted for. If there are any missing and you know they haven’t left the pool area, check the pool water immediately. Every second counts when it comes to saving a life or keeping kids safe from injury. Always check the walls, bottoms, and pool surfaces. And even if the kids you’re watching have had swimming lessons, remember that they still need to be supervised.

CPR and Emergency Services

Parents, babysitters, and other caretakers such as grandparents and older siblings should take CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). This is most often observed through timed chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. For more help with this, reach out to your town or city’s public health department. Most communities hold regular classes on CPR. Take advantage of any and all local resources that can keep you prepared and vigilant when it comes to kids and pool safety.

Aside from CPR, always ensure there’s at least one mobile phone in the pool area so that you can call emergency services if needed.

Use Proper Pool Barriers & Fences

Many states, counties, and towns have ordinances for residential pool fences and barriers. These are fundamental to keeping outdoor spaces safe for your entire family.

While they’re not entirely childproof, pool fences and barriers provide several layers of protection, especially if kids like to roam around on their own. Generally, pool barriers include fences, door alarms, and power safety covers. These can also be used to prevent kids from reaching hot tubs and spas.

Fences and Gates

Install a wood, wire, or cement fence that completely surrounds the pool. If the house itself opens up the pool area, any doors leading in and out should be protected with a motion-sensing alarm.

When it comes to vertical fences, wooden slats should be fewer than 4 inches apart so that kids can’t squeeze through. For chain links, ensure the diamond-shaped openings are no larger than 1.75 inches. However, wooden and chain-link fences can be pretty costly.

Self-latching gates are effective safety devices as long as their specs are in-line with keeping kids away from an unsupervised pool area. Generally, the release mechanism for your pool gate should be 3 inches below the top of the gate on the side facing your pool. The gate and barrier should not have any openings greater than half an inch, within 18 inches of the latch release. The goal here is preventing young kids from reaching through your gate and releasing the latch themselves.

If you’re put off by the cost of permanent fences, consider removable pool fences. These are versatile upright barriers that feature self-closing, self-latching, key-locked gates. They’re also made to be used no matter the weather.

Pool Safety Covers

Invest in an ASTM standard pool safety cover that’s durable enough to practically walk across. When it comes to safety covers, you’ll want to get one that’s fitted perfectly, with no gaps so that children and small animals can’t slip under.

Door Alarms

Let’s say your house directly opens onto a patio or backyard with a pool. If this is the case, then doors leading to this outdoor space should have alarms triggered by the motion of the doors opening.

This alarm should ideally be something that only an adult can disarm, with a keypad or switch that’s installed tall enough to be out of a young child’s reach.

Keep Your Family Safe

A Safe Pool has decades of experience keeping families safe through installing custom pool safety and maintenance products, all backed by long-lasting quality and strong warranties.

We specialize in the following:

• Pool Safety Fences (with Self-Closing, Self-Latching, Lockable Gates)
• Pool Safety Nets
• Pool Safety Mesh Covers
• Automatic Pool Covers
• Leaf Pool Covers
• Pool Alarms

We’re proud of our professional knowledge and insights, and we’re confident that we can be the pool safety experts who can help you and your family. Your pool should be a calm, safe place where you can relax and unwind, and all that starts by investing in the best pool safety equipment.

Read our blog for even more swimming safety tips for kids and families and explore our great pool safety products today.

We all like to think the best of people we love. Sometimes, this can make us a bit too confident in their ability to do something with ease. Take our kids’ swimming ability, for example. To swim well, they need children’s swimming lessons from experienced instructors, who teach swimming strokes in a way that improves water safety for kids.

Parents know this, but the pride we take in our kids’ talent makes it easy to think they already possess what amounts to a child’s version of swimming mastery. This is a dangerous assumption that can increase their risk of drowning, if they happen to encounter swimming situations that they aren’t ready to handle yet — or at least not as well as we might think.

5 Reasons Why Swim Lessons are Essential

With summer in the air, many families will spend time in sun-warmed swimming pools, and exploring vacation destinations that have scenic shorelines. It’s also a season when kids of all ages tend to be invited to pool parties.. Have your kids taken children’s swimming lessons that help to ensure their safety in these situations?

If not, here are five reasons why well-taught swimming lessons are essential for the water safety of kids, including your own kids — even if they are truly more talented than most other children at nearly everything they do.

1. Drowning is a Leading Cause of Death Among Children

When we think of human mortality, we typically think of adults, who die from advanced age or something primarily related to adults, such as car accidents. But, when it comes to drowning, children are a major risk group. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “About one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger.”

Not all of the deaths result from lack of swimming ability. However, considering that many children drown in swimming pools, swimming ability — which is often revealed by a lack of swimming pool safety that puts kids in dangerous situations — is a common variable.

The sooner your kids receive children’s swimming lessons, the safer they will be in outdoor pools this summer, as well as indoor swimming pools that they enjoy during the cold season.

2. Swimming is a Notable Cause of Injury Among Children

In addition to helping prevent unintentional drownings, children’s swimming lessons help deter non-fatal, water-related injuries that send kids to the emergency room. According to the CDC, “For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.”

The CDC also specifies the nature and complications of “submersion injuries”, explaining that, “These nonfatal drowning injuries can cause severe brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities, such as memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning (e.g., permanent vegetative state).”

While strong swimming ability is not a cure all for water-related injuries, it helps deter them. If your kids haven’t received swim lessons, summer is a perfect time to sign them up. The availability of outdoor pools, where lessons can be taught, means children’s swimming lessons are typically the most available in summer.

3. Swimming can Enable Us to Save the Lives of Others

The main reason to have kids take children’s swimming lessons is to help them save their own lives, in case they encounter a situation where swimming ability is a predictor of survival. However, the same swimming knowledge that can save children’s lives can also help them save the lives of others, at some point in the future.

There have been plenty of situations where a person saw that someone was in danger of drowning, then entered the water to save the individual, and ended up drowning, too. Attempting to save others’ lives is something we tend to do instinctively. When the situation involves rescuing someone from drowning, knowing how to swim well helps ensure that no one dies, preventing the occurrence of a double tragedy where both people perish.

4. Swimming Promotes a Lifetime of Health and Fitness

The most essential reasons for investing in children’s swimming lessons is increasing water safety for kids to deter drowning and serious injuries. But swim lessons are also essential for promoting kids’ health and fitness by encouraging them to adopt swimming as a fitness activity.

Organizations that focus on health and fitness often consider swimming one of the healthiest fitness activities. The YMCA explains, “Swimming is one of the absolute best forms of exercise, as it works every muscle group in the body without putting stress on bones and joints. Especially for children, it is a great way to burn off pent-up energy.”

As an exercise, swimming is unique. Because it involves the relaxing pleasure of being in water, it’s not a “no pain, no gain” type of exercise. This increases the likelihood of people adopting it as lifelong exercise routine that helps sustain good health. The healthy habit starts with learning to swim, which ideally begins with receiving children’s swimming lessons.

In addition to increasing water safety for kids, swim lessons help prepare them for a life of health and fitness, which can begin in childhood and extend throughout adulthood.

5. Promotes Social Enrichment Through Water Activities

Humans are more than “social animals” by preference, who crave positive interaction with others. We actually need this type of interaction to sustain peak health. By learning how to swim, we increase opportunities to experience it by being able to safely, confidently participate in a variety of socially enriching water activities.

Citing “life skill” as a “swim lesson benefit”, the YMCA says, “Swimming is an important skill that will bring a lifetime of enjoyable experiences. From boat trips, to beaches, to pools … these experiences require the ability to swim … as your child gets older, they could find themselves excluded from such activities if they are unable to swim.”

Because social enrichment is essential for health, and because water activities can facilitate it, children’s swimming lessons can be considered “essential” within this context. If you need a place that offers well-taught swim lessons for kids, the YMCA offers them year round.

Conclusion

At what point does the confidence we have in our kids become “overconfidence” that puts them in danger by expecting them to do too much? When it comes to water safety for kids, at least one of the answers is clear: overconfidence arrives at the point of believing children can swim like “pros”, so to speak, when they haven’t received swim lessons to justify the belief.

As a business that cares deeply about the safety of kids, A Safe Pool encourages you to have your children take swimming lessons. If you have small children, and your home has a pool, we also encourage you to increase their water safety by implementing one of our pool safety barriers, which reduces drowning risk for small children. Contact us today to schedule a free estimate.

When the location of a home daycare or other business is a residence that includes swimming pool ownership, the pool can raise safety and liability concerns. Many factors affect the level of risk, but almost any pool at a home daycare that is readily accessible from the residence, and ready to use, poses a risk that can be reduced to increase the children’s safety.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists drowning as the primary cause of unintentional death for children 1-4 years old. A residential swimming pool is a common site for these drownings.

Pool Safety Tips for Home Daycares

A simple twofold strategy can reduce drowning risk: adopting safer pool practices, combined with implementing pool safety products. This is an ideal strategy for a daycare located in a residence, where residential pool ownership can be a potential issue. If you own a home daycare that has a pool, the pool safety tips below could help prevent a drowning that is tragic for everyone involved.

1. When the Pool is Not In Use, Apply a Pool Safety Barrier

A pool safety barrier blocks pool access with a physical barrier that requires considerable diligence to remove. This level of deterrence makes using the barrier one of the most important pool safety tips for protecting everyone. A Safe Pool offers three types of barriers, with custom measurements:

Removable Pool Fencing

Our removable pool fencing is made from durable, lightweight panels with aluminum frames and synthetic mesh. The mesh is transparent, allowing you to maintain a clear view of the pool when the fence is up. The fence takes only a few minutes to raise or remove. It can also contain a self-closing, locking gate that lets you leave the fence in place, and uses a gate to access your pool at any time.

Pool Safety Nets

Made from strong, synthetic mesh, our pool safety nets contain holes that are too small for the head of an infant to fit through. Pool water is visible through the net, but the net forms a web of safety that prevents children from entering and being submerged. Because the holes are small, using the net is also one of our pool safety tips for protecting many types of pets.

Pool Safety Covers

Our pool safety covers are made from a resilient, synthetic weave that is strong enough to support the weight of an average adult. Also serving as leaf pool covers, they completely occlude a view of the water. This makes using our pool safety covers one of the top pool safety tips for protecting kids; the cover keeps the water out of children’s sight, which helps keep it out of mind.

2. Apply Door Alarms to Doors that Access the Pool Area

When a home business residence includes pool ownership, applying aftermarket, battery-powered alarms to doors that access the pool area is a cheap, easy way to deter drowning risk. Home improvement stores carry effective alarms that start at under $20.

Strong adhesive backing is used to mount the compact units in place. When an alarm-equipped door is opened, it breaks connection signal within the alarm, instantly triggering a loud, high-pitched alert. The adhesive backing makes it easy to apply the alarm near the top of a door, far from a child’s reach. With no screws to apply, the door suffers no damage.

As long as you replace the batteries in your door alarms on schedule, and you’re within hearing distance of the alarm sound, you should always be aware when a child opens a door that leads to the pool. Applying door alarms is perhaps the least expensive of all pool safety tips.

3. Avoid Using the Pool for Playtime

Most children unintentionally drown in a swimming pool due to accessing the pool on their own. This condition, under which most drownings occur, is the greatest predictor of fatality. However, even when adult supervision reduces the threat, the periodic frequency at which a child enters a pool can also heighten drowning risk, depending on the level of supervision.

When a pool at a home daycare is used for playtime, children typically enter the pool as a group, bristling with excitement that leads to frenetic activity in the pool. The behavior can diminish the quality of supervision. Each child needs to be constantly monitored for safety. However, in a home daycare setting, two adults often monitor a group of at least ten kids.

As also happens in drownings at public pools that swash with active bodies, a swimmer can slide beneath the water’s crowded, splashing surface, and go unnoticed for minutes. Will CPR jolt responsiveness into the body retrieved from the bottom of the pool? If so, will the person suffer brain damage?

The questions are too serious — and the answers too uncertain — to be a potential result of playtime in the pool. When you’re caring for someone else’s children, safety is indeed the best policy. For home daycares, one of the most risk-reductive pool safety tips is also one of the simplest: keep playtime on dry ground.

4. Avoid Using the Pool Patio for Playtime

One of the pleasures of pool ownership is relaxing on the patio that surrounds a pool. If the area is used to let a group of daycare children play, chairs and other nice accessories must be pushed aside to prevent trip-and-fall injuries, — and a rule of “no running” to prevent kids from tripping and falling on the hard patio surface will be tough to enforce, as it always is for youngsters at play.

The hassle alone is reason enough to avoid using the area for play. However an elusive , more serious danger exists: being in such close proximity to the pool stimulates kids’ interest in entering the water, and emboldens them to do so. Because toddlers instinctively perceive adult authority, they also realize that absence of an adult presence gives them greater autonomy.

This perception, combined with a heightened interest that playtime in the pool area can create, promotes the one “intentional” aspect of unintentional child drownings: a child purposefully wandering to a pool, when no adults are around. Of the pool safety tips here, this one may be the most subjective, but its importance is clear: not using the pool area for playtime deters children’s interest in the pool, which deters them from pursuing the pool on their own.

Safe Kids Equal Successful Businesses

The main job of any daycare is to provide safe care for children. Offering safe care is critical to both children’s safety and the success of daycares. For home daycares and businesses that include pool ownership, practicing the safety tips above helps provide quality care that’s good for everyone involved.

If your daycare has a swimming pool that needs a pool safety barrier to reduce child drowning risk, contact A Safe Pool today to schedule a free estimate.

When the sun is high and the weather is hot, what able-bodied swimmer wouldn’t like to have residential pools in the back of their homes, so they could take a relaxing plunge? If they could snap their fingers and make a swimming pool suddenly appear, many people would probably do it, especially in Southern and Western U.S. states that tend to stay hot or relatively warm throughout the year.

That said, having a property with a swimming pool isn’t like owning a home that has a natural lake or pond on the back property, which no one uses for swimming, and doesn’t require upkeep. If you’re currently in the home buying market, and you’re only interested in properties that have residential pools, there are some pool facts to be aware of that may guide your purchase. Before you invest in a home with a pool, here are three things to know:

1. Residential Pools are High-Maintenance Property Assets

When you tour a residential property that’s on the market, it often looks better than it has in years. Bathroom and kitchen fixtures are likely to look shiny and new. If there’s an unfinished basement in the home, it’s often spruced up to suggest extended living space. And, if there’s a pool in back, its water is likely ultra clear, and the pool site is often flanked with new pieces of hip decor that make it appear luxuriously inviting.

That’s all fine and well, but the image of the pool you’re likely to see may belie the regularity of maintenance the pool requires to stay looking as if it’s worthy of one of Rock Hudson’s legendary Hollywood pool parties. You can hire a third-party swimming pool maintenance company to handle the pool’s upkeep, but here’s a conservative list of what you’ll be paying for, or what you’ll receive without the cost of labor if you decide to maintain the pool yourself:

• Adjust PH, Calcium, and Sanitizer – $80 / month
• Adjust water temperature – $75 – $250 / month, with heat pump
• Adjust water levels – $60 / year
• Vacuum the pool – $200 / month
• Apply algaecide – $30 / month
• Clean pool filter – $200 / month
• Lubricate fittings and valves – $20 / month

Cost of maintenance for residential swimming pools depends on a range of factors, such as the rate at which leaves and other debris accumulate in the water, the types of equipment that serves the pool, the maintenance schedule for each piece of hardware, and a constant supply of additives to keep the water clear and in ideal condition.

A leaf pool cover that blocks windblown foliage from hitting the water is an investment that’s well worth the time you’d otherwise spend skimming out the debris with a pool rake. As for other costs, you’ll need to price them out based on the specific type of equipment that needs to be maintained, as well as whether you prefer to buy additives in bulk, which is the most economical option, or you want the financial flexibility of buying them per unit. Cost of maintenance isn’t exorbitant, but it’s definitely one of the financial pool facts to consider.

How to Address the Issue

Handling your own maintenance will save several hundreds of dollars a month. Because homeowners generally perceive residential pools as a luxury, applying your own elbow grease may not conform to how you envision enjoying the pool. Before you buy the home, price out the cost of third-party maintenance, if that’s the option you would prefer to take.

2. Upgrades to Residential Pools may not Help Home Value

Residential pools can provide a strong incentive for someone to purchase a property, and they do add to the sale price. After a pool is installed, however, upgrades such as a pool water heater, new tile around the pool perimeter, and installing a diving board likely won’t increase the value of the real estate on your end. If you happen to sell the property, prepare to swallow the costs of “value-added” upgrades you make to customize the pool site to your liking.

How to Address the Issue

The only way to address this issue is philosophically: be willing to make some expenditures for the pool that enhance the enjoyment of using it, and consider that enjoyment to be the return on your investment. When you consider that the next owner of the property is likely to do the same thing, it’s not one of the harder financial pool facts to swallow.

3. People Drown in Residential Pools with Tragic Regularity

According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, roughly 400 deaths a year occur from drowning in a swimming pool or spa. Not to belabor the gloom, but the organization also cites that nearly 5,000 people end up in the emergency room each year due to serious injuries suffered in swimming pools or spas.

Considering the many thousands of residential pools in the U.S., the statistics say that you’re unlikely to experience an event that contributes to them. However, the homeowners who experience these potentially tragic events are nearly always caught off guard.

This speaks to the most critical of the residential pool facts in our list: for the sake of you and/or your loved ones, you may need to outfit your pool with a resilient safety barrier that helps keep people from experiencing injury or death, especially children and the elderly.

How to Address the Issue

The best way to tackle this issue is to implement a pool safety barrier that keeps at-risk individuals out the water during hours when the swimming pool isn’t in use. This can be done with three types of products that are available from A Safe Pool: removable pool fencing, pool safety nets, and pool safety covers.

Our barriers feature different types of construction, but each of them is more than sufficient to help keep children and other high-risk individuals out of the water when you aren’t at the pool site to monitor their safety. Take a look at our pool safety solutions, and select the one that best accommodates the people you need to protect, as well as the option that you find most pleasing for the appearance of your pool.

Conclusion

At first glance, the pool facts in this list may seem like a cautionary trifecta that suggests not buying a home that is flanked by a pool, but that’s not the case. As a provider of safety solutions for residential pools, we naturally want people to enjoy the excitement and leisure of owning an inground pool. Our business depends on it. At the same time, we want homebuyers to be aware of what it takes — financially and otherwise — to keep a safe and well-maintained pool.

If you decide to own a home with a pool, keep our products in mind. After the transaction is complete, don’t hesitate to implement one of our pool safety barriers that keep your loved ones safe. We’ll inspect your pool area and create a pool fence, a safety net, or a safety cover that’s customized for the site. We also offer customized leaf pool covers. When you’re ready to move forward with the installation of a safety barrier, contact us to schedule a free estimate.

A solar pool heater keeps your swimming pool pleasantly warm, so you don’t have to enter it by taking a frigid plunge, or by edging into the water, inch by chilly inch. Pool heaters that are powered by electric, natural gas, or propane do the same, which begs the question: between solar-powered, utility-powered, and propane-powered pool heaters, which option is best?

Cost, Product Lifespan, and the Environment

In terms of cost, lifespan, and environmental impact, solar pool heaters are an optimal choice. When the expense of purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance is calculated, solar heaters routinely have the lowest cost of ownership. Their long lifespan of 20 years adds to the value. Pool heating options that use electric or gas can last 10-15 years. As they run, the form of energy they use — or how the energy is produced — gives rise to carbon pollution.

If Solar is Economical, Why the High Price Tag?

If you compare the cost of a solar pool heater to the price of a utility-powered or gas-powered heater of comparable quality and capacity, don’t be surprised to find that the solar model costs thousands of dollars more up front. The reason it ultimately costs less than the other pool heating options is simple: you never spend a dime to power it; the sun powers it long-term, for free.

Residential swimming pools commonly range in size from 10 x 20 ft. to 20 x 40 ft., with an average depth of five to six feet. In a humid subtropical climate, or a temperate climate with mild conditions, a pool of median dimensions costs roughly $2,000 a year to heat with gas. An electric heater can lower the annual cost to about $1,200. Even so, if the electric model lasted 12 years, that’s a $14,400 power supply expense that a solar pool heater would eliminate.

On the high end, solar pool heating options cost around $8,000 for a medium to large pool. The average price is around $5,500. Even if you spend high and buy the costliest brand and model, you stand to save thousands of dollars in ownership cost by using a solar pool heater.

Choosing A Solar Pool Heater: From Decision to Installation

Choosing solar power is a thrifty decision that gives the environment a leg up. But now there are other choices to make, most crucially: what type of equipment to use, the configuration of the installation, whether to DIY or use a contractor, and how to handle maintenance. Square away these four concerns, and you will be ready to kiss the jolt of cold pool water goodbye.

1. Choosing Equipment

As you shop, you’ll probably see small-scale heaters that cost a few hundred dollars, possibly less. Unless you to need heat a concise area, these products are not practical — and installing a fleet of them would be like using only space heaters to warm a spacious home. For maximum efficiency, focus on pool heating options that are scaled to the size of your pool.

Should you get your solar pool heater from the manufacturer or a third-party? Manufacturers generally have lower markups than middlemen, making their prices routinely lower, though not always by much. If an epic bargain awaits, a third-party that has a wide, deep, fast-moving inventory is likely to offer it. These merchants also specialize in offering a variety of brands.

Do Brands Matter?

Every manufacturer has technology that is original enough to be patented. Proprietary elements that enable the most customers to infer the highest level value are a heater’s unique selling points, whether they are the strongest reasons to buy it, or not. As you compare models, don’t confuse refinements with necessities. A great model is one that fits the size of your pool, looks great installed, and warms the water efficiently, thoroughly, and reliably.

The AC-to-DC power conversion ratio of solar power to electricity is more efficient in some models than others, but no brand dominates. Whether you choose a manufacturer or a third party, you’ll select an installation package, or build your own package. Products will indicate the pool dimensions they accommodate. They can also be matched to your pool’s capacity in gallons.

Glazed or Unglazed?

Solar collectors are the part of a solar pool heater installation that converts the sun’s energy into electricity. More commonly known as “solar panels”, the collectors come in two varieties: glazed and unglazed. Glazed collectors have a protective glass cover that overlays the photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert the energy. Unglazed collectors do not have a cover; Instead, they feature a highly durable surface that serves as a protective barrier.

Glazed and unglazed collectors work equally well, but unglazed models usually cost less. Because they absorb sunlight more effectively in cold weather, glazed collectors that feature heat exchangers are ideal for cold climates. Unless a unique aspect of your installation requires the use of glazed collectors, unglazed models are preferable for cost-effectiveness.

2. Installation Configuration

The solar collectors for a pool heater should be located in an area that receives direct sunlight throughout the day. Consequently, the roof of the home that adjoins the pool is an ideal spot. Regardless of where the collectors are placed, they will be wired to transfer electricity directly to the pool heater, which will likely sit in a discreet location near the pool. Alternatively, solar collectors can be mounted on a stand, in an area that’s consistently drenched with sunlight.

The installation consists of just a few elements that are easy to install, with the primary focus being the location of the solar collectors. This brings us to the next consideration for your solar pool heater: should you handle the installation on your own, or hire a contractor?

3. DIY or Contractor?

Because installation doesn’t require a great deal of technical skill, homeowners often decide to handle it on their own. However, elements of the installation that do require skill — such as electrical wiring and positioning the collectors in an ideal location — justify hiring a contractor. Using a contractor is also a good idea because the company will offer a workmanship guarantee, which ensures that installation errors are corrected at no cost to customers.

If you opt for DIY, be exceptionally diligent in following installation instructions, take all the time you need, and contact the manufacturer if you require technical assistance. The last thing you want is a botched job that ends up requiring the services of a contractor anyway.

4. Maintenance Plan

Some manufacturers offer scheduled maintenance, but third-party maintenance can cost quite a bit less. For technical expertise and customer care, manufacturers are the logical choice. However, most solar pool heating options are not high-maintenance installations, and many homeowners end up saving money by performing scheduled maintenance on their own.

Most of the maintenance is performed on the solar pool heater itself, and the maintenance procedures should be clearly outlined in the owner’s manual. If you take some time to become familiar with the operation of the heater, handling your own maintenance is relatively easy.

Conclusion

A solar pool heater is just as efficient as pool heating options than run on electric or gas, but it typically has a lower cost of ownership. Combine this benefit with the fact that solar heaters are the best choice for the environment, and it’s easy to see why many homeowners heat their pools with technology that taps the most dependable energy source of all: the sun.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths.” Annually, roughly 360,000 people die from various causes of drowning. Three groups have the highest risk: “children, males, and individuals with increased access to water.”

Globally, low- and middle-income countries have the most drownings — about 90%, to be exact. However, in the U.S., 45% of victims are from “the most economically active segment of the population”, the WHO reports. If enough water is present, drowning can happen anywhere, at any time, to anyone — and almost no one thinks it will be them, or someone they love. Proactive Drowning prevention measures help to ensure that they aren’t wrong.

Drowning Prevention: Causes of Drowning

Just as certain swaths of people drown with greater regularity, certain causes of drowning occur more frequently than others. More often than not, the victim perishes because they lack swimming ability, enter a swimming pool that should have had a safety barrier in place, or lack supervision while swimming or dwelling near water that could swallow them. Let’s take a look at these causes, and the types of drowning prevention measures they make cause worthy.

1. Lack of Swimming Ability

“Swimming ability” is a relative term, but a person’s proficiency at swimming is often the deciding factor in whether they end up exiting the water alive or dead. In fact, most people drown because they can’t swim themselves to safety, whereas a stronger swimmer could.

The average swimming ability people acquire from a full course of standard swimming lessons is usually enough to spare them from drowning in a swimming pool. Surviving a wide, roiling tide pool, on the other hand, can require advanced swimming skills that few possess. In such a situation, possessing average swimming ability can be like having almost none at all.

Prevention Measures

The most effective drowning prevention measure is for people to swim in water that doesn’t have conditions that could overwhelm their swimming skills. In turn, this means that swimmers need the ability to accurately predict the behavior of the water. In a swimming pool, it’s fairly straightforward; unless the pool is a “wave pool”, the water is calm. Swimming in a river or an ocean, where a sudden change of weather could quickly change water conditions, is different.

Some drownings occur in rough water because people know the risk and take it anyway. But far more drowning fatalities in rivers and seas result from victims underestimating the water conditions or overestimating their swimming ability. Before you enter a body of water you aren’t familiar with, be sure you know what the experience could require of you as a swimmer.

2. Pools Without Safety Barriers

Among causes of drowning that involve swimming pools, pools that lack safety barriers during hours of non-use are one of the most common. In residential settings, small children, adults living with disabilities, and the elderly are the ones who need barriers in place the most.

Prevention Measures

Three basic safety barrier options prevent pool drownings: pool fencing, pool safety nets, and pool safety covers. Available as a barrier that can be raised or removed in under 10 minutes, pool fencing fully encloses a pool from the patio area, so no one can simply walk to the water. The fencing is available with semi-transparent, mesh sections that are strongly woven between metal poles. This type of fence lets you maintain a clear view of the water.

Safety nets and covers overlay the surface of swimming pools. Safety nets feature holes, which should be small enough to prevent the head of a toddler from slipping through. Safety covers don’t have openings and work well for protecting both people and pets. In either case, the effectiveness of a barrier depends on having it customized to fit the dimensions of the patio area and/or pool. Gaps at the sides of fencing, nets, or covers are potential safety risks.

3. Lack of Supervision

If only someone who could pull them from the water was around to help, many drowning victims would not sink into a watery grave. Although swimming pools typically have the most predictable water conditions, they are nonetheless the sites where most drownings occur due to lack of supervision. The most likely victims are naturally those who need to be monitored the closest: small children, adults living with disabilities, and elderly individuals in decline.

Prevention Measures

The best drowning prevention measure for avoiding fatalities due to lack of supervision is obvious: provide sufficient supervision — and “sufficient” is the keyword. If you are the only one who will supervise a high-risk individual when they enter the water, be absolutely certain of two things: you can swim well enough to reach the person, and you can swim well enough to reach dry ground again, while the person clings to your arm or shoulder.

Lack of supervision drownings also occur in congregated areas, where so many people are in the water that it’s impossible to monitor everyone individually. Crowded seafronts and public pools are prime examples. If someone needs to be monitored in a crowded swim zone, don’t assume that on-duty lifeguards eliminate the risk of drowning. They have far more people to watch than they can observe simultaneously. Watch over your friend or loved one at all times.

Does Your Pool Need a Safety Barrier?

If you have a swimming pool, preventing unsafe entry with a removable pool fence, a pool safety net, or a pool safety cover is one of the strongest drowning prevention measures you can take. If your pool lacks a safety barrier during hours of non-use, A Safe Pool can supply one that’s customized for the dimensions of your site. Contact us to schedule a free estimate.

Most people who have a swimming pool find it enjoyable enough to not need a special reason to dive in. The relaxation of basking in temperate water, or the invigoration of doing dives and laps, is enough to make the pool a prime domestic destination. But pulling off a pool cover in Phoenix and enjoying the water with your kids is more complicated than doing it on your own.

Ideas for Pool Time with Kids

Most parents spend pool time with their children for two related reasons: They love them immensely, and they want to help keep them safe once inside the pool’s perimeter safety fence. But when it comes to how pool time is spent, there are quite few other reasons for your kids to get excited about it. Here are five family pool time ideas for children of different ages:

1. Swimming Lessons from Mom and Dad

If you have a pool, there’s reason to think you’re a pretty good swimmer, probably one who took lessons on how to dive, tread water, and perform the classic strokes. So, why not teach your kids the basic elements of swimming, while enjoying a unique form of physical bonding? It will also help increase your children’s pool safety. They may not be ready to travel beyond the pool safety fence on their own, but the better they learn to swim, the safer they become.

2. Retrieve the Sunken Treasure of Coins

On a marvelously sunlit day, you raid your change jar, grab plenty of coins, and toss them into the pool. Then, your kids retrieve the currency, as it shimmers in the sunstruck water. The one who collects the most money wins — or there doesn’t have to be a winner. Either way, as long as enough quarters are involved, your kids should have a blast, and beg to do it again. If your children aren’t strong swimmers, it’s best to avoid playing this game in the deep end of a pool.

3. JAWS: Family-Friendly Pool Edition

If you enjoy cinematic creature features, you’ve probably seen the movie JAWS, in which a man-eating shark must be stopped before he turns the ocean red. Guess what? In this game, that shark is you. In the pool, you stay on a part of the wall that is parallel to a wall where your kids are. How close can they swim to you, and still make it back to their wall before you catch them? Part of the fun is getting caught, assuming they’re only devoured by a tickling session.

4. Pool Safety 101: Explaining the Pool

This activity isn’t what most kids call fun, but it can increase your children’s safety by making them more familiar with the pool. For example, your small children may notice the safety fence, drain, and water returns of your pool without knowing what they do. The deep end of the pool may also be a mystery. Giving kids a once over of highly visible pool parts, most of which don’t directly add to the pool experience, can help curb their curiosity in a healthy way.

5. Pool Basketball and Volleyball

Do your children enjoy classic sports? Some games are easy to translate to a swimming pool setting, particularly basketball and volleyball. Floating basketball hoops are usually a breeze to use; just inflate them if they need it, set them on the water, and pass the ball to your child for the first shot. Floating volleyball nets are just as easy to set in motion. To be enjoyed to the fullest, these games require advanced motor skills, making them great for kids 10 and older.

Pool Safety First, Funtime Second

Spending family time in the pool with the activities above reinforces to kids that the pool is a place where fun happens, which can lead small children to try to return to the water, whether parents are present or not. This is why it’s important to outfit a family pool setting with a safety fence barrier that helps keep kids from entering the water alone.

If you need a pool safety fence or protective pool cover in phoenix to help ensure that your pool remains the site of good memories and not unfortunate accidents, contact A Safe Pool today to schedule a free swimming pool inspection and price estimate.