Safety first! That should always be your mantra around the pool, but what steps should you take to make sure your pool is safe for everyone this summer?
“There’s a wide variety of safety equipment out there,” says Jason Ori of Rosebrook Custom Inground Pools. “The pool industry now has a tremendous amount of products that are available to make sure everybody’s safe and healthy.”
Dive into a few with these five home pool safety tips for summer below!
Tip #1 – Use a pool safety alarm
One of the best water safety features you can use in your backyard pool is safety sonar.
“The technology comes from the submarines,” says Jason. “Swimming pool safety sonar is designed for young children or kids around the pool who can’t swim. If they were to fall into the pool, it creates a loud alarm.”
The alarm blares through the house and property, alerting homeowners or anyone close that someone fell into the pool. However, pool alarm systems are not a replacement for adult supervision.
If you know people are in your pool, always ensure you have an adult watching the pool area to make sure everyone stays safe.
Tip #2 – Install a pool safety fence
Many townships require owners to install a safety fence around their pools, and if you have young children, one of the best swimming pool fence ideas is installing safety latches.
“There are safety door latches that are designed specifically for swimming pools, where kids just can’t open up the doors on their own,” says Jason. “The parents have to reach up to a certain height to unlatch that lock in order to access the backyard or pool.”
Many swimming pool fences also have closing or self-latching doors, so if you forget to pull the door shut, it automatically does it for you.
Before installing a pool, you should check your local municipality to find out what the pool fence requirements are for your specific area. While most municipalities require pool fences, you may also need to install other safety features as well.
“Some townships require you to have sound signals on your doors, like an alarm system,” says Jason, “so every time you open the door, it beeps.”
Tip #3 – Get smart pool safety features
“You can control your entire pool system from an app on your phone,” says Jason.
Rosebrook Pools uses Jandy Florida Company, which offers technology for “everything but the covers.”
This includes the chemistry of the pool, which is perfect for homeowners who use their swimming pool daily. The app can also regulate a chlorine generator that will dispense sanitizer from the swimming pool system, but those are only for professional home use.
“It’s really hard to control the chemistry of a chlorine generator because it’s constantly producing,” says Jason, “so you have to constantly monitor the situation with those.”
But why can’t covers be connected to an app? “Covers have to be opened manually,” says Jason, “and you need to have a straight line of vision to the swimming pool. Otherwise, you could close the pool up, and there could be people in it.”
Tip #4 – Always get a second set of eyes
Make sure to call your maintenance professional before hosting a pool party.
“When a homeowner is throwing a party, they’re thinking about how much food and how many coolers of drinks, and is the band going to have enough room over there,” says Jason. “When the pool professional comes in, they just see it through a different set of eyes.”
Your pool professional will check that the lights are properly working, your pool is debris-free, and there aren’t hoses sitting on the pool deck that guests can trip over.
“Having that open line of communication is extremely important,” says Jason. “We send a service technician out there and rebalance the chemistry, fix whatever problems they have or repair their pool or spa for whatever parties are going to happen.”
Tip # 5 – Get a professional to install your pool
It may sound like common sense, but if you’re looking to install a pool, you need to hire a pool professional.
“People sometimes go down the wrong path and think that they could hire the guy who did their sidewalk to do their swimming pool,” says Jason. “Then they realize on the back end that there was a tremendous amount of things that were forgotten or the person they hired just didn’t know about.”
This is particularly important with the new smart features. Technicians need to be trained in swimming pool chemistry, but now they also need to troubleshoot apps, Wi-Fi, and computer systems.
“Hiring the proper pool professional to design and deliver the pool or hot tub, and show you how to run it – it’s really a big deal,” says Jason.
Get maintenance pool tips from Jason in Summer Tips: Keeping Your Backyard Pool Healthy & Clean.
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