When you’re building a safer swimming pool area, pool safety alarms give you an additional layer of protection tailored to meet your pool’s unique layout and needs. Alarms themselves rarely prevent unsafe situations. They alert you to unsafe situations so you can take action. From pool gate alarms to immersion detection, let’s talk about what may be missing from your customized swimming pool safety build.
The Importance of Drowning Prevention
Accidental drowning injuries take thousands of lives annually, and they remain a leading cause of death for children. While that is horrific enough, tens of thousands of victims of all ages seek medical care as a result of non-fatal drownings. An accident on your property could also open you up to lawsuits for negligence, fines for failing to maintain a safe pool area, and higher insurance premiums. As a pool owner, doing everything you can to prevent tragedy is not just your responsibility but also a smart decision that protects your friends, family, and finances from pool-related jeopardy.
The Need for A Secondary Layer of Protection
Limiting unsupervised access to your swimming pool helps keep it a safer backyard oasis, but there are limitations to relying on safety barriers alone.
- They’re Only Effective When Used Properly – Whether you’re using a removable mesh pool fence, pool safety net, or have an external home door securing your pool area, they only protect your pool if they’re secured properly. Covers don’t stop access when removed for pool cleaning, and fences and doors left ajar are an all-too-familiar source of pool-related tragedy. Alarms can warn you of dangerous situations in and around your pool, even if your area is inadvertently left unsecured.
- Damage Can Happen – Safety barriers need to be in good repair. A loose latch might allow someone to enter the pool area, but a pool gate alarm will still sound, alerting you to the breach.
- Some Children And Adults Are Very Determined – It’s not called the well-behaved 2’s. Some kids (of all ages) show a certain knack for creativity and determination when confronted with a closed pool area. From digging under to climbing over, even the best security barriers can be defeated if someone is industrious and dedicated enough to find a way around them. Pool safety alarms give you one more layer of safety to warn you before a tragedy can occur.
Types of Pool Safety Alarms
There’s no single perfect path to pool safety, so there’s no single alarm solution. Every pool is unique. Consider the safety equipment already in place around your pool and the protocols you use every day to try to prevent unsupervised access, then find the best alarms to support a safer pool on your property.
- Pool Gate Alarms – These alarms alert you when the gate to your pool area is opened without the alarm being disarmed first. Whether a family member, guest, or particularly adroit pet, this can give you the warning you need to check on your pool area. These can be built into your gate latch, like the D&D MagnaLatch Alert, or rely on magnetic sensors that sound when the gate itself is opened.
- Door and Window Alarms – If you have doors and windows that open directly into the pool area, they need just as much protection as a pool gate. While standard security system alarms may signal to the alarm company’s control center, by the time they respond and call you, your child may already be in the pool area. A supplemental audio alarm that sounds when these portals are open or left ajar gives you immediate warning of a dangerous situation.
- Surface Alarms – These swimming pool alarms monitor the surface of your water for disturbances that could mean a person or pet is using the pool. While small ripples from the wind won’t set it off, the disturbances of swimming or splashing will.
- Immersion Alarms – Similar to surface alarms, these systems monitor the currents under the surface of the water for signs of immersion or disturbance, such as if a victim falls into the pool and becomes submerged.
- Water Detectors – Perfect for households with high-risk individuals or pets, these aren’t swimming pool alarms as much as they are personal alarms. Available in a wristwatch-type housing for humans or collar clip-ons for pets, these systems detect when the wearer enters the water and either emit an audible alarm or send a notification to a connected device. These not only help prevent accidental immersion in your pool but also in other bodies of water, including bathtubs and spas.
Choosing the Right Protection for Your Property
When it comes to protecting your swimming pool, think in terms of layers of protection. While you may have an existing fence around your property line, it may not meet the safety requirements of your city, state, HOA, or insurance carrier. Effective safety barriers are always your first line of defense, and a lack of safety barriers is a contributing cause in most accidental drowning deaths.
- Swimming Pool Safety Fence– This modern pool fencing is made with user-friendly mesh stretched between strong poles anchored in deck sleeves around your pool area. It’s rip-resistant, deters climbing, and features a self-closing and latching gate to secure your pool area.
- Swimming Pool Safety Net – Using strong cording and twine tensioned by steel springs, this net is anchored around your pool area and provides a barrier to water entry that holds potential drowning victims up and out of the water near the edge of the pool for easier rescue.
- Pool Safety Covers – This safety barrier uses strong mesh anchored to your pool deck to help prevent accidental drownings while also keeping out trash, leaves, and other debris.
Swimming pool alarms augment this protection by giving you the added warning you need to avert tragedy. There are a wide range of professionally-installed alarm systems available to help keep your family safer.
When you request your free quote, your local installer will talk to you about your pool safety needs, take measurements, and tailor a written estimate for your property that lays out the options available to protect your family. Once you’re ready, we’ll get to work creating a safer swimming pool area with custom fencing, pool gate alarms, or any other safety features you need for security, safety, and peace of mind. Call and schedule your free quote from Lifeguard on Duty today.
