kiddie pool problems/sprayground conversion?

Started by TinaB • 9 replies • 2716 views

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TinaB (Texas)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Our neighborhood of 252 homes has a community pool with a kiddie pool for use of the residents. The pools get very heavy usage, almost non-stop from open to close. We have had a lot of problems with keeping the kiddie pool chlorinated. Changing pool companies several times over the years and upgrading our system has not helped much. As the pool committee chairman, I personally take a water chemical reading several times per week just to ensure the safety of the pools, but this is getting quite tiring. The pool service as well as the city safety inspectors just say that kiddie pools are notoriously difficult to maintain, but they have no real solutions for the problem. Has anyone else had this problem?

The Board is very seriously considering filling in the wading pool with cement. I hate to see this happen, so I am looking for alternatives. Does anyone know about the feasibility of converting the kiddie pool to a splash pad/sprayground? Thanks for the help!

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Tina:

As a certified pool operator I can tell you that it would be difficult to maintain the right chlorine level in the pool without the right equipment. Do you have automatic cholorine feeders, or is it done manually by hand? Does your city require health department inspections on a regular basis?

What is in your contract with the pool company, are they supposed to maintain chlorine levels or are they just checking on and maintaining equipment. If the pool has that heavy of a usage you should be having the chlorine levels checked three times per day and logged into a log book.

Before you fill it up with cement check with the residents to see if anyone is willing to help you maintain the level. If you have a simple pool kit almost anyone with a little help and practice can check and add chlorine as needed.

Brad

TinaB (Texas)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Thanks, Brad, for your reply. The pool has an automatic dispensing system for the chlorine, but it is a constant feed. It doesn't take a reading and dispense accordingly, but delivers a constant amount of chlorine. We currently have the pool serviced 4 days a week, and it is cleaned, backwashed, and the chemicals are adjusted. We do have a few people to help take readings, but even so, it seems that this should not be necessary. The city inspects once a year, unless there are complaints against the pool.

I have asked that the board consider approving an upgrade on the filter in the hopes that that will solve our problem. We currently have a cartridge filter, and I would like to replace that with a sand filter like we have on the big pool. Each pool is on a completely separate system, which the city inspector said was a good thing, but the pool service said that it makes it more difficult to maintain, since it is such a small body of water. Would you suggest tying them in together?

We also seem to have a problem with our Stingl switch. It is too sensative and trips everyday, resulting in the pump to be turned off. It was installed last year to comply with new safety code. Our pool company says that they turned out to be a bad product, and he wants to replace it with a vac-alert. Have you found this to be the case?

Or, we could scrap the whole thing and try to put in a splashy area for the tots instead. Any thoughts?

Thanks again!

Tina

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Hi Tina:

You would have to weigh the cost of converting it to a splash area with the cost of upgrading your equipment. The splash idea is a good idea and would probably be less expensive to operate.

You should check into getting some chemical sensors that read the amount of chlorine and the ph level in the water and dispense chlorine and acid as needed. Are you finding with the constant feed that you don't have enough chlorine or too much? If you aren't getting enough then you can step up your chemical feeder to deliver more, but I would strongly suggest checking into some sensors that automatically record the chemical levels. You would still need to manually monitor it.

I really don't think the filter is the issue, cartridge filters are easier to maintain, having a sand filter may help a little but isn't the answer. Do you know how many gallons the kiddie pool is? The problem with smaller bodies of water and heavy usage is they are extremely difficult to maintain, especially the higher the temperature the pool is heated to. The key is finding the right chemical feeder for your pool, and constant monitoring. The other question I would have is how often is the kiddie pool drained? I need to check to see if I can find the formula that tells you how often it should be drained, but the pool company should have that.

Tieing the kiddie pool into the bigger pool I think would help the chlorine problem, but I don't think it is a good idea. If you have an equipment problem with one, then everything is down. To me it makes more sense to have everything separate.

I don't have any experience with a vac-alert switch, but can tell you not having the pump working will only confound your problems.

TinaB (Texas)
Posts: 5

Posted:

I am checking with the pool service to see how many gallons the kiddie pool holds. The problem with the chlorine is that it is usually too low. I have shut it down a few times already this year because it was at 0. The pool is in full sun in Texas, so I know that the chlorine gets burned off quickly. The water gets evaporated at a high rate also. We currently don't have an autofill system to maintain water height. We manually refill with fresh water from the hose. Our pool service has suggested that we upgrade to an auto feature on this as well, with the idea being that when we refill, we dilute the chlorine too much at once. We usually top off the pool every 1-2 days. Do you think this would help as well? As for draining the pool, it was drained last year to install a dual drain system for a new safety code. But we generally don't drain the water any other time, to my knowledge.

I am having trouble figuring out just who can do a conversion to a splash pad. Any suggestions on where to start?

Thanks again!

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Tina:

I will have to bring out an old textbook tonight and find the formula for draining. I do know when I was dealing with hot tubs that were 500 gallons we drained every two weeks. Currently I deal with a 3,500 gallon therapy pool that is low use and we drain every three months.

The problem with a small body of water is you will build up combined chlorine which is basically body sweat, waste (especially with little kids and accidents), it basically renders chlorine useless. Two ways to get rid of it is to shock the pool or drain it. Shocking a small pool makes no sense, it is easier to drain and refill. Once I know the approximate gallons I could give you a good idea of how often it should be drained and refilled.

I do agree having an autofill feature would help a lot. IT also sounds like your chemical feeder is not able to keep up with the demand. There are several kinds of feeders that pump various amounts of chemicals, it sounds like you should step up to at least the next model.

As for the conversion, I would start with any competent pool company, they should be able to tell you where to go if they are not able to do it themselves. I haven't dealt with one of those so I don't know who would install them, but any pool company should know.

JohnM3 (Florida)
Posts: 288

Posted:

Tina:
We have a large community pool as well as a Tot Pool. It is 30 foot square with a depth of 18 to 24 inchs.
From the git go I had a de ( Diatanacious earth) type filter installed it is 18 years old no problems serviced 5 days a week open from noon to 8pm 7 days a week. We have a security guard there the entire time the rec area is open to prevent vandalism of the mens and ladies. In addition if foul language is used the party doing it is escorted out period. We have a basketball court in the same complex and it draws a unsaviory group of young folks so the guards ride herd on them.
Other than leaks at least 1 to twice a year no problems auto chlorinator and a de filter period

Before you even discuss ,"filling it in with concrete" you better not if the item is in your docs cause bubba next stop after the cement mixer is court for all the childrens parents draggin your self to court.

Personally I say fire the pool maint co if they are doing things to your satisfaction motion as comm chair to fire them to the board

Good luck
DE beats sand hands down. We fire our pool cos about twice a year for the past 15 years
bye

TinaB (Texas)
Posts: 5

Posted:

I got the specs on the pools, and the kiddie pool holds 1300 gallons. Our pool company said that the bather load on it is 12. Does that mean that there can be 12 people in it at once, per hour?

I have been able to talk to a few people about spash pads, and it looks like it will be too expensive. I was not aware that there needs to be a holding tank to treat the water before it is reused. The system also requires 2 pumps, one to pump to the toy and another to pump to the holding tank. It seems that there could easily be water safety issues with that as well.

We will most likely end up trying to fix the problems with the existing pool. I sure appreciate your help!

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Tina:

I will look up the formula, bather load is simply the maximum amount of people allowed at one time. I am guessing you get more children in it per day.

I am not real familiar with splash pads, but yes if you are reusing the water you would need a holding tank to treat it before it gets sent back out to the kids.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Tina:

formula is gallons of water divided by three, divided by the average number of users per day. That should give you the number of days before you need to drain.

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