Pool & Spa Safety Act Falls Short of Safety In 2002 young Virginia Graeme Baker, granddaughter of Secretary of State James Baker was held underwater by suction in a spa and drowned. In NC at a homeowner’s association pool another young girl was eviscerated by a suction line back in 1993 but was making news currently with her attorney John Edwards. Nancy Baker and Safe Kids Worldwide worked tirelessly to get Congress to enact laws for pool and spa safety. Representative Debbie Wasserman of Florida got the bill signed by President Bush known as the Pool and Spa Safety Act 2007. There was no doubt that even one accident is too many and a change needed to be made. Our industry was to learn so much more about hydraulics and entrapment. This newfound knowledge has caused many professionals to have issues and wonder why common sense and proven scientific studies have been ignored.First the Consumer Protection Safety Commission…See More

Total Dynamic Head and Why It’$ ImportantTotal Dynamic Head is the resistance that your pool water has to overcome to circulate and move within the pool hydraulic system.  The flow of the water (hydraulics) is dependent on how easily it can move through the pipes, equipment, and pool fittings.In our pool system we have a suction side and a return or pressure side.  We can take gauge readings to determine what each is on our pool.  But to calculate the entire system we must convert the suction and return readings to a common unit of measurement. We use the measurement of “feet of head” for this purpose.  The pumps we use have charts supplied to us that show the “pump curve” or what flow the pump is capable of producing given a certain “feet of head” or “total dynamic head in feet” or with the resistance and friction loss.…See More

Do You Know How Many Gallons Are In Your Recipe?     The above is a question I find myself asking customers in our store many times a day. When they answer that they do not know, I find these questions running through my mind:1)  How do you know how much chemicals to add to your pool?2)  How do you know how many hours a day to run your pool pump?3)  Do you know if you are spending more than you should on energy and chemicals?Likewise, the reason I am asking them in the first place how many gallons (or the size of their pool) is because they are asking me the following:1)  Why is my motor running hot?2)  I need to replace my pump what size do I need?3)  I want better flow (they mean pressure usually which should not be confused with flow), can I increase the size of my pump?4)  I want a new filter but don’t need to…See More

Many heroes will be coming home soon.  Many of our heroes gave a part of themselves for our freedom but it also took away some of their personal freedom to move about freely.  We all know how therapeutic water therapy can be for the disabled, the elderly and anyone with impaired movement. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) has imposed rules regarding barrier removal for the disabled in regards to swimming pools specifically for primary and secondary access. There are five acceptable means of access. This rule is interpreted by each state in addition to the Justice Department.  A state may have clauses in their building code which may be stricter than that of the Federal Department of…See More

Many heroes will be coming home soon.  Many of our heroes gave a part of themselves for our freedom but it also took away some of their personal freedom to move about freely.  We all know how therapeutic water therapy can be for the disabled, the elderly and anyone with impaired movement. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) has imposed rules regarding barrier removal for the disabled in regards to swimming pools specifically for primary and secondary access. There are five acceptable means of access. This rule is interpreted by each state in addition to the Justice Department.  A state may have clauses in their building code which may be stricter than that of the Federal Department of…See More

 Better Control, Less Work, Less Worries With new advances in technology and research available in our industry, we are now able to automate our pool controls and ensure better water quality.  Automation of controls minimizes operator error and can adjust water chemistry to maximize our sanitation control.  This is especially helpful in a managed aquatic facility or large pool setting.Sanitation of the pool water is the most important task for a pool operator.  A trained pool operator also knows that just adding chlorine is not enough to accomplish the job of disinfection.  The operator must know what the demand on the sanitation is according…See More

 Better Control, Less Work, Less Worries With new advances in technology and research available in our industry, we are now able to automate our pool controls and ensure better water quality.  Automation of controls minimizes operator error and can adjust water chemistry to maximize our sanitation control.  This is especially helpful in a managed aquatic facility or large pool setting.Sanitation of the pool water is the most important task for a pool operator.  A trained pool operator also knows that just adding chlorine is not enough to accomplish the job of disinfection.  The operator must know what the demand on the sanitation is according…See More

Why Use Ozone in Spas and Hot  Tubs? Simply put, Ozone is a  natural oxidizer of wastes in water that could be harmful or cause unpleasant  smells and cloudy water.  The makeup of ozone is 3 Oxygen molecules that have a  strong potential to change micro organisms such as germs and virus, into a state  that is not harmful to bathers otherwise known as oxidation.  Air is drawn by one of  two different types of ozonators (corona discharge or UV light) and becomes  ozone.  This is a process that duplicates the ozone being manufactured in our  upper atmosphere by the sun.   However we are controlling the process of ozone  manufacture in our vessel.  Without control of the ozone process there can be  negative effects associated with too much ozone gas which is not healthy.   However being controlled in process for our water and not combined with diesel  fuel by products there is no…See More

As I was doing research recently on vinyl liner fungus I came across the International Code Council (ICC) Acceptance Criteria for Vinyl-Lined Residential Swimming Pools (AC279). I found some of the information very interesting. This is not information that most builders, retailers or customers ever see but I find some of it very important. Of special interest to me is section 5.2 which states:5.2Pools and spas may be installed without a soilinvestigation by a registered design professional (RDP),subject to the code official’s approval, provided none ofthe following conditions is encountered at the site:(In most states a Registered Design Professional is an engineer or architect that has been certified and licensed by the state)5.2.1The existence of groundwater within the depthof the pool or spa excavation.(This would lead us to believe and we would be correct in assuming that once you excavate and find there is groundwater then an RDP needs to do a soil investigation to see that your…See More

Biofilm: The Hidden Accomplice     So many times when I hear the word biofilm all I can conjure is the movie BioDome and how much the two are alike.  They are two protective enclosures with living organisms that can contain within themselves one or many different types of living organisms.  But they are also different in that BioDome was many organisms working for a common good and being self sufficient where as biofilm is a nuisance due to its ability to harbor bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa.  Of course the movie did portray Pauley Shore to be a nuisance and example of what can go wrong.  The same is true of the hidden accomplice of biofilm.     Biofilm is formed by the combination of water, a surface to grow on, and microorganisms. The water needed can be as little as high humidity and can be fresh or salt water. …See More