Whether you’re a first-time pool owner or you’ve spent years enjoying your backyard oasis, it’s always a great time to make sure you know the pool safety tips that help you keep your pool healthy and your friends, family, and pets safe. The joy of owning a pool is balanced by the responsibilities it entails. As your local pool safety pros, we’re uniquely positioned to help our neighbors protect their properties and loved ones. From pool maintenance for beginners to how to deter unsupervised access, we’re always “right down the road” to help you make sure you’ve got a healthy, safe pool for everyone to enjoy.
Getting Off On The Right Foot
If you’re a first-time pool owner, it’s essential to understand that it’s far easier to prevent problems than to fix them once they’ve gotten out of hand and restore your pool to a healthy condition. When it comes to pool safety tips, learning and following them can far more than just leave you with a pleasant pool. They can help you save the lives of those who will use or be around your swimming pool. The best course of action is to meet your pool-owning responsibilities from day one, so it’s less likely you will end up being caught off-guard by a tragedy down the road.
Keeping Your Pool Clean
Cleaning your pool is important to creating a safe environment, which is why so many pool maintenance tips for beginners focus on proper cleaning techniques. That means vacuuming the floor, scrubbing the walls, and making sure skimmer baskets are emptied out. Regular cleaning keeps physical debris out of your water, and prompt cleaning lowers the risk that the debris you remove will introduce biological contaminants to your pool’s water.
Setting up a regular pool maintenance schedule helps beginners get used to the process of physically cleaning their swimming pool on a regular basis. You may need to clean it between these routine sessions if something unexpected happens, such as leaves or trash blowing into it. While this may sound like a lot of work, it will soon become a regular part of your ownership routine.
Maintaining Your Water Chemistry
Your pool water is maintained in a healthy condition by carefully balanced chemical additives added in precise amounts according to the needs you find when performing regular tests on your pool’s water. As a first-time pool owner, this can often be a crash course in applied chemistry to make sure you’re preventing biological contaminations, making the water more pleasant, and avoiding conditions that can stain your pool and leave it unsightly. Regular chemical treatments will use small amounts of these products, while initial set-up for first-time pool owners, seasonal changes, or after higher-risk events will use a larger chemical load to halt any issues before they have a chance to proliferate.
Test your water every few days when the pool is in use, and make adjustments as needed to keep your pH, alkalinity, and hardness within optimal levels. Checking and adjusting these levels regularly helps prevent the big concentration swings that open your pool up to microscopic risks and require greater and greater investments in time and chemicals to “chase” the right balance. One of the best pool maintenance tips for beginners is that small, regular adjustments are much more manageable. These protect your swimmers by giving them healthy water and your pool by mitigating the risks it faces from contaminants in the water.
Circulation And Filtration Are Key
Even first-time pool owners have often heard about the three C’s, and circulation is just as important as the first two we’ve already covered. Moving water is harder for many biological contaminants to proliferate in. Your circulation pump keeps the water moving and guides it through a filter medium that removes particulate from the water, further cleaning it. Even on days the pool isn’t in use, your pool should be circulated by the pump for at least eight hours a day. This ensures the entire volume is moved through the filter every 24 hours.
While you can cycle your filter pump manually, you may not always have the time to be available precisely when eight hours have passed. One way to make pool maintenance easier for beginners is to automate as many processes as possible. Timers are available that can turn your pump on and off at set intervals. Some pumps offer a variable-rate motor that lets you run it for extended periods without wasting money by over-circulating your pools.
Install Pool Safety Barriers
Thousands of lives are lost every year to accidental drownings, and preventing unsupervised access to your swimming pool can help prevent dangerous situations from putting your loved ones at risk. One of the most important safety tips for first-time pool owners is to learn the pool safety requirements affecting your pool and have compliant pool safety barriers professionally installed. Safety barriers save lives, period.
- Removable Mesh Pool Fencing – This modern pool fencing solution is easy-to-maintain, durable, and offers the flexibility to move it out of the way when more space is needed around the pool. Anchored by strong poles secured in sleeves sunk into the deck, mesh fencing is rip and tear-resistant. The pool area is secured by a self-closing, self-latching gate that helps prevent entry, even when your hands are full.
- Swimming Pool Safety Nets – Safety nets are anchored around your swimming pool and made with knotted twine that’s tensioned with metal springs. Safety nets work well on unusually shaped pools and pools with permanent accessory installations, and they can be secured over and around decorative features or structures to make sure your pool is protected. Pets, children, and other at-risk individuals are held up and out of the water until they can be helped to safety.
- Pool Safety Covers – Similar to pool safety nets, safety covers serve as a barrier to entry directly above your pool’s surface. Made with a durable mesh material anchored around the deck, safety covers can support the weight of a full-grown adult to help prevent accidental drownings. Winter pool covers are also available that provide additional protection to your pool during winter months from potential damage due to freezing temperatures.
As a first-time pool owner, you should contact a professional immediately if your pool does not have compliant safety barriers installed. As part of your regular beginner’s pool maintenance routine, inspect these safety barriers, looking for signs of wear or damage at seams, anchor points, tensioning mechanisms, and gates. Consider installing alarms as backup protection to alert you when gates are opened without permission or if immersion in the pool is detected.
Get Trained
Our pool safety tips can help create a safer environment, but you should also be ready to act when emergencies happen. Learning the skills needed to save a life is a good idea for everyone, not just first-time pool owners. Check the American Red Cross partners in your community for infant, child, and adult CPR, first aid, and water safety classes. These classes teach you how to manage real-life emergencies. Don’t forget to make sure the supplies you need are on hand near your pool and clearly marked. First aid kits, flotation devices, and rescue poles can all help you put your training to use.
Contract with Professionals
Many first-time pool owners find it far more efficient to contract with trained professionals that handle their beginner’s pool maintenance for them while also providing experienced guidance as they get used to their responsibilities. Pool services companies can help you keep your pool clean, safe, and healthy for a reasonable price that leaves you with more time to enjoy using the pool yourself. Cultivating these professional relationships also helps ensure there’s someone you can call for any help you need, whether it’s pool safety tips to help you get the most from your pool fence or help understanding how to test your pool water properly.
Get Your Free Pool Safety Estimate
There’s no cost or obligation when you schedule an estimate from your local Lifeguard on Duty professional. We have experience helping first-time pool owners meet their responsibilities to provide a safe swimming pool by guiding them through the process of choosing the custom safety barrier that’s right for their pool needs. We’ll take measurements, talk to you about your pool goals, and give you a written estimate that helps you see your pool’s protection options. Call and request your free quote today from Lifeguard on Duty.
