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New York State Swimming Pool Alarm Law Now Permanent

July 24th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

The state of New York (USA) now requires all pools installed or modified after 2006 to have a swimming pool alarm installed, making permanent a two-year-old emergency ruling. The new law applies to temporary inflatable pools as well as permanent inground or above-ground pools. Those caught without an alarm will be given a warning first time; but after that one can be fined up to $1000 a day until the alarm is installed. So if you have a pool and live in New York state, you’ve been informed.

Via NY Injury Law Blog

Swimming Pool Pump Motors: At the Heart of Your Pool’s Cleanliness

June 17th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

What happens when your swimming pool pump motor dies? Well, I found out a little over three weeks ago. Truth be told, it was on death watch for weeks before that. A bad storm came through months ago, blew lots of tree branches and debris into the yard and pool and produced massive lightning that shorted the pump. As it was way past pool season, hubby and I didn’t really care much at the time. It worked, but made terrible screeching and rattling sounds - “the death rattle”, we’d joke, as we fished for limbs in the pool’s deep end.

Well, opening the pool this year has been h*ll.  There’s new construction in back of the house, and dust and new debris constantly blows through the yard and, of course, into the pool. Wanna manually vacuum Georgia red clay out of your swimming pool? It ain’t fun. My cartridge filters are begging for mercy. The pool pump got slower and harder to start until it finally quit. We were gone for a weekend, and came back to a ominously cloudy pool. We’ve decided to replace it with the same model swimming pool pump. Of course, no one has that pump in stock, it has to be special ordered, and there’s a three week wait for service thanks to pool opening season being in full swing. No, not even the local Leslie’s Pool Supply had it (!). Seems it’s a pretty fancy model I inherited - a 2.5 HP Hayward Super II two-speed pump - that I understand isn’t usually stocked in the back room.

So I’ve been manually adding chlorine shock to my swimming pool these past weeks in a slowly failing effort to keep 30,000 gallons of clay laden H2O from turning green under 90+ degree heat. These woes, plus a bout of ill health, make for a lousy start to summer.  As swimming pool pump motors and researching them are at the top of my mind, thought I’d post a bit about them.

The swimming pool pump motor can be considered as the beating heart of your pool’s filtration and sanitization system.  As I can personally attest, any still body of water sitting outdoors in hot weather becomes a steaming soup of algae PDQ. The pump is necessary to move your pool’s water through the filters to sift out debris (like bugs and clay silt) and in my pool’s case through the salt system cell that converts the salt in my water to chlorine and through the gas heater for cooler fall evenings. My auto pool cleaner also runs off the pool pump motor (happy, happy joy…) so if the pump is out, my beautiful salt water swimming pool is effectively DOA.

Swimming Pool Pump Sizing
When it comes to choosing a pool pump, bigger is NOT necessarily better and horsepower is not always what it’s hyped up to be. When replacing a swimming pool pump motor a real constraint is the size of your filter system and the pipes. A pump that is too big and powerful can blow out your pipes and damage your filter and heater with the force of the water. It’s safe, and generally recommended, to match what you already have; which is what I’m doing.

If you’re replacing your filter system along with your pump, by all means look into a different size. There’s no way to know if the builder sized the pool pump properly from the beginning. Oversized swimming pool pumps can consume lots of electricity needlessly; too-small pumps won’t keep your water as sparkling as it should be. So it may pay to question if you need to change pump sizes.

First, you want a pump that can circulate all the water in the pool through the filters within 8 - 12 hours. This is called the “turnover time”. The more use your pool gets, the shorter the turnover time needs to be. For Read the rest of this entry »

Salt Water Swimming Pools - A Popular Choice

January 22nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Salt water swimming pools have been growing in popularity over the last 3 - 4 years.  It’s reported that they account for approximately 40% of the pool sanitizing systems installed in the US. A saltwater pool has a special generator cell that converts salt to chlorine for the pool’s sanitization.  The system is self-regenerating - salt used in the process is returned to the pool after sanitization is complete.

Salt Water Swimming Pools DO Have Chlorine…Water Just Feels Nicer

Many people mistakenly think that a salt water swimming pool does not use chlorine.  While it’s true that one doesn’t have to buy chlorine to add to the pool water, the salt water pool is a chlorine sanitization system.  Salt is added to the pool water and dissolved.  The salt water runs over the special generator cell plates and is converted into chlorine.  The converted chlorine sanitizes the water, oxidizing bacteria and algae which is filtered out by your sand or cartridge filter. At the end of the process the chlorine is regenerated back to the pool as salt that can be used again.  You save a great deal of money and aggravation by not constantly having to purchase, measure and handle chlorine.  And because the salt is recycled into the water, one doesn’t even have to add salt very often.  I personally own a salt water pool and I only have to add salt one or two times a year.  You’ll add salt as the salinity of the water becomes diluted over time because of rains and having to add water when the pool levels are low.  When saline levels are too low, the generators cannot create the needed chlorine. You can easily know when salt is too low because the generators have a digital control panel that constantly monitors salt and chlorine levels and tells you. Fairly idiot-proof. Salt water swimming pools can save their owners as much as 35% per year in chemical operating costs.  Total alkalinity and pH seem to be easier to maintain in a saltwater pool; I find that the salt doesn’t radically throw off the water’s chemical balance.

A salt system is initially more expensive than a conventional chlorine system, but you recoup the upfront installation costs in about 4 - 5 years with what you save on chemicals.  The technology is becoming more affordable and is considered eco-friendly; so more and more people will likely be buying these systems.  Popular salt water chlorine generators include Goldline Aqua Rite (I own this one, pictured at top) and Chloramatic. Goldline is a Hayward company. Hayward makes many fine pool products. There are generators for above ground pools as well as in-ground pools (picture link at left above). The digital control panels for these systems should be installed by a licensed electrician. I love my pool; and overall, I think you’ll be very pleased with this type. If you are thinking about building a swimming pool, consider a salt water swimming pool.

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