Monthly Archives: February 2012

Hot Tub Safety

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The cool outside temperatures mean a soak in the hot water of your hot tub or spa is a must… well, at least in my family.  Using your spa can be relaxing, fun and enjoyable… but just like any body of water, spas have a high risk from moving from fun to dangerous.

HERE ARE TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR HOT TUB SAFE AND SOUND!

Control Creepy Crawlees

Make sure the sanitizer level is adequate to keep the water healthy and free of harmful microorganisms.  Maintain the Total Alkalinity (TA) and pH for proper water balance and regularly shock the water to make your sanitizer much more effective in controlling bacteria.  Creepy crawlees in the water is unhealthy for our bodies.

Don’t Drink and Drive – or Drink and Soak

Hot water amplifies the effects of alcohol and certain drugs, and the result can be dangerous. Consult your doctor regarding the use of prescription drugs and hot tubs.

Don’t Overcook

Soaking for too long in elevated water temperatures can raise body heat to hazardous levels. The National Spa and Pool Institute considers 104° F to be the maximum safe water temperature for adults.  Soaking times should not exceed 15 minutes. If you have heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure issues, or any other serious illness, you should consult with your doctor before using a hot tub.

Babies and children are more sensitive to heat and should not be exposed to water above 95° F and soaking times for them should not exceed 10 minutes. You should consult with your family doctor for their recommendations for your family.  Use a floating thermometer if your heater doesn’t have a digital temperature read out.

Keeping Kids Safe

Children and babies should be introduced to the hot tub slowly to give them time to adjust to the change in temperature and to alleviate fear or discomfort.  NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES leave children unattended in hot tubs, spas, pools or any body of water. Even shallow ones pose a drowning hazard, and even a few moments alone is too long.  Most child drownings are not “accidents”… they are caused by caregivers not paying attention.  Better safe than sorry is a good rule to tub by!

A Bun in the Oven

Because of the high temperatures, pregnant women should not enter a hot tub or spa without first consulting with their doctor.  Soaking in hot water can make pregnant women overheat, which raises the heart rate and reduces blood flow to the uterus, potentially putting the baby under stress or interfering with normal development. And because pregnant women have a hard time cooling down, they’re more likely to pass out if they get overheated.

Hair Entanglement

Never allow children (or anyone) to play with heads underwater in a spa.  A drowning risk can occur when a person’s hair becomes entangled in a drain cover and pulled into the drain.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission helped develop a standard requiring dome-shaped drain outlets and two outlets for each pump, which reduces the powerful suction if one drain is blocked. If you own an older hot tub, you should have new drain covers installed and may want to consider getting a spa with two drains to help prevent entrapment.  If you have a swimming pool, have it checked as well.

Electricity and Water Don’t Mix

The National Electrical Code requires the installation of a manual disconnect device be located at least 5 feet away, and within sight of the spa for safety. Make sure that your hot tub’s electrical system is properly wired, grounded, and protected by a GFCI.

NEVER handle a corded phone, radio, TV, hair dryer or any other electrical device while you are around spas or pools, in contact with water, when hands or feet are wet, or when barefoot, as electrocution could result.

Covered and Locked

Always use a locked safety cover when the spa is not in use.  Keep young children away from spas unless there is constant adult supervision.  Small children are curious, and unsupervised hot tubs can be an attraction to them.  Make sure that the spa cover straps are tight enough to prevent a child from slipping under. Make sure your spa cover is in good condition and replace it if necessary.  Do not allow children or pets to stand, crawl or sit on top of a spa cover.

Tub Together

It is always wiser (and a lot more fun, I might add!) for adults to soak together. With two or more persons soaking, someone will be there to help if the other person has a problem.  Always accompany children at all times.

 

So let’s keep it safe, keep it fun and keep it relaxing!  Hot Tub Safety is important!

Alicia Champine is the Marketing Director at PoolHeatPumps.com.  Alicia, termed “water baby” by her parents at a young age, has enjoyed using her love for swimming and her 14 years of marketing experience together at PoolHeatPumps.com.  Alicia enjoys spending her free time with her husband and 2 young kiddos, camping, internet-crawling, and organizing just about anything.
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Analog vs Digital Displays… Which one is for you?

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In this modern world we accept digital displays as a necessary option when it comes to residential electronics and appliances and when it comes to choosing the right pool heat pump for your home. It seems just as natural to accept a digital thermostat instead of considering a much more simple alternative: an analog thermostat. That is one that has a simple rotary knob like most stoves.

Digital displays offer the convenience of exactly displaying the pool or spa temperature, error codes, some programming for temperature choices, pool/spa settings and maybe more. They are certainly an advantage if you want to monitor your pool heat pump closely. 90% of people choose the digital option. If you have a spa you really should as if you want exactly 102 degrees you should get that with out jumping out of the water adjusting a knob. If you don’t have an overflow spa then you don’t have to have digital. The disadvantage is that they are after all, computers, and computers do break eventually (usually after your warranty wears off). The sun, snow and other outdoor weather elements will get to them too as it’s not as easy to protect something so sensitive outdoors year round.

Analog thermostats, for a change, are just a rotary knob with different settings. The disadvantage is that you will miss the benefits that a digital display will offer. You will not be able to read the temperature on the water, much less do any programming. The advantage will be durability. Once you had found the setting that you like for your heat pump you don’t need to touch your analog thermostat anymore. The heat pump will come on and off when needed and you don’t even need to remember that you own a pool heat pump. It can perfectly stand bad weather and no storm surge will hurt the electronics. After your warranty ends and if you need service any HVAC technician will easily repair your heat pump with regular “off the shelf” parts and there will be no need to look for a “factory trained” technician for maintenance.

Keeping that in mind we are not having any issues with digital heaters and digital displays from the manufacturers that we love. They are doing their job well but if something is going to need service first; a digital heater or a non digital heater it will be the digital one. Finally, at the end of the day if you can’t make up your mind on which way to go, there is a well known pool heat pump manufacturer in the US that offers analog heat pump models with a “digital ready” option in case you ever change your mind and decide to go in that direction. This could be the best of both worlds as if that digital displays happens to fail, just uninstall it and go back to the analog thermostat while you wait for your new part to arrive…with out missing any family fun swimming days! :)

So analog vs digital displays… which one is for you?

 

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37% of American’s Can’t Swim & Other Swimming Fun Facts

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When I read the statistic that 37% of American’s couldn’t swim, I was a little shocked.  So I started wondering if there were other mammals that couldn’t swim… learned that gorillas and orangutans were also in the no-swimming-category! So my internet-searching-happy-self starting reading about swimming and animals…  Wanted to share some swimming fun facts!

  • Elephants are capable of swimming twenty miles a day, using their trunks as natural snorkels. (too bad our noses are too short for that)
  • Tuna swim at a steady speed of nine mph and they never stop. That means a 15-year-old tuna may have traveled 1,000,000 miles.
  • Kangaroos are great swimmers.
  • Polar bears have been known to swim 100 miles (161 kilometers) at a stretch.
  • Dolphins, the fastest mammal, can swim up to 35 miles per hour. (my old clunker car could barely drive that fast)
  • Despite all their adaptations for life in the water, hippos can’t swim! They can’t even float! Their bodies are far too dense to float, so they move around by pushing off from the bottom of the river or simply walking along the riverbed in a slow-motion gallop, lightly touching the bottom with their toes like aquatic ballet dancers.

Don’t you feel much smarter now, learning all these fun facts?!?!  :)  I know I do!

Alicia Champine is the Marketing Director at PoolHeatPumps.com.  Alicia, termed “water baby” by her parents at a young age, has enjoyed using her love for swimming and her 14 years of marketing experience together at PoolHeatPumps.com.  Alicia enjoys spending her free time with her husband and 2 young kiddos, camping, internet-crawling, and organizing just about anything.
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