Special safety considerations for your Phoenix pool

While you've already taken precautions to ensure the safety of your pool for adults and children alike, it's important that your Phoenix pool service attends to potential safety issues on an ongoing basis.

First, do the basics
You have, in all likelihood, installed physical protection in your pool area, such as fences high enough to prevent curious children from taking a quick dip, gates with locks to keep out intruders and handrails to help prevent falls.

With the basics in place, it's time to look at other hazards, including one that can endanger even the best swimmers.

Entrapment – a hidden hazard
Although you may not have heard of it, suction outlet entrapment  can pose serious risks in a swimming pool – and for adults as well as children. What it can do is trap bathers in the suction of the pool's drain.

Here's how it works: A powerful force created by the suction of one or more pumps and the water's depth at a blocked suction outlet can together hold even strong adults at the bottom of the pool, with no chance to escape on their own. They face a real danger of drowning unless help is on hand.

What makes the situation even more treacherous is that these incidents are not confined to the deep end of the pool: It's just as likely to happen in shallow pools or even hot tubs under the right conditions. According to an NBC News report, there have been a number of deaths and near-drownings in hot tubs and kiddie pools.  

 " … any drain cover can become brittle and loose in the sun and chlorine. The danger is if the cover comes off," reported NBC's Tom Costello, adding a warning for homeowners to "update drain covers and check them seasonally."

Professionals can help
Though public pools are required by law to install new dome-shaped covers to prevent entrapment, private pools are not. 

Since the law took effect, the federal government has not received any reports of deaths in a public pool entrapment, according to NBC News, which would seem to validate the need for safety covers, however, and your Phoenix pool maintenance professional can make any safety enhancements you might need.

In addition to drain covers, the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals suggested private pool owners take basic safety precautions:

• Don't allow anyone to swim or pay around drains or suction fittings
• Close the pool if you notice a loose, broken or missing suction fitting or drain cover and have it replaced immediately.

The association also noted that there's another safety issue that requires professional expertise: Spas or pools with just a single main drain, unless it is unblockable, need added protection, which may include:

• Reversing the drain flow
• Adding a gravity drainage system 
• Setting up an automatic pump shut-off system

Other options include professional installation of a suction limiting vent system or a safety vacuum release system or adding another properly spaced outlet.

Call Poolman
With a history of satisfied customers in Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale for over 50 years, Poolman is ready to handle pool maintenance and safety issues, large or small. Go online today to get a quote.