Swimming pool and domestic heating and heat pumps

We are very proud to announce that the Calyenty.com swimming pool heat pump and swimming pool equipment manufacture and supplier website is in the top 12% most visited sites on the internet. That’s the whole of the internet, i.e. for all of the sites covering everything that there is, not just in our rather narrow niche swimming pool heated pools and swimming pool furniture market.

Google announced on 7/25/2008 that it had indexed over 1 trillion unique URL’s. That is 1,000,000,000,000. So we are in the top 120 000 000 000, which doesn’t look so good, but when you consider that there are now 880 000 000 000 websites less used, it makes the warm feeling return.

We used the independent analyzer offered by Hubspot which is a great tool to see how your website stacks up, but also identifies areas where you can improve the structure and content of your site to get you up the search engine rankings and onto page one where you really need to be.

It can also be used to check out how well or badly your competitors are doing in the online arena. Please see our website to see for yourselves how we got such a great grade, you may even like to email us with your comments, good or bad!

To celebrate the fact that our website is doing rather well we are going to make the following unbeatable announcements, so if you have a swimming pool, and you live in either Spain, Portugal, France, any of the Costas or even the UK keep reading.

Swimming Pool Heat pumps: For heated pools in Spain, Portugal, France and the UK. Costa del Sol, Costa Brava, Murcia, Malaga, Marbella, Costa Brava, Costa De Luz, Majorca, Moraira, Costa Blanca, Canary islands etc.

Swimming pool heat pumps are inexpensive.
Swimming pool heat pumps are quiet.
Swimming pool heat pumps are small and unobtrusive.
Swimming pool heat pumps are inexpensive to run.
Swimming pool heat pumps are inexpensive to install.
Swimming pool heat pumps are environmentally acceptable.
Swimming pool heat pumps deliver lots of heat into your swimming pool.
Swimming pool heat pumps are flexible in how and when you use them, we even have sms control so you can control them from wherever you are
Swimming pool heat pumps are durable and will last for a long time if you buy the correct model and look after it. (Calyenty offer a full and comprehensive maintenance package with our excellent range of swimming pool heat pumps.

We also offer a massive range of swimming pool equipment. Contact us for: Fully automatic retractable laminated pool cover for both inside and above the swimming pool. Come in White, sand, blue and solar enhancing laminas.

Summer and winter covers with or without rollers.

LED lights, our LEDS are the most powerful, using a fraction of the energy you would use in a traditional halogen swimming pool PAR 56 bulb. Both flat mounted and niche replacement options are available from Calyenty. The colour changing functionality is fantastic and can be operated by remote controller if there are just a few bulbs in your pool, or synchronized controller if you have a very large or commercial pool. We can supply these LED PAR 56 swimming pool bulbs at an unbeatable price and we will beat any comparable price you may have.

Also: swimming pool filter pumps and filters, salt water systems, solar showers, pool robots, astralpool products, stainless steel ladders and much much more.

As part of our celebration we will beat any price given with a pool in Spain, Portugal, France or the UK with any swimming pool product, swimming pool heat pump heaters, and automatic covers.

Please contact us today for this unbeatable price offer, we carry massive levels of stock and can offer immediate delivery.

Call us on 0034972660467 email us info@calyenty.com or visit the website

One of the challenges for Cayenty to supply their range of swimming pool heat pumps over a large geographical area, i.e. the whole of Europe has been the installations. We have gradually developed a network of dealers in many areas but the reality is that if we have a dealer for example in Malaga and our customer wants his heat pump installing in Granada the distance for our dealer to travel to install the heat pump is either too great, even though this roughly the same area of Spain or the cost for the client for the dealer to travel and install is to much.

It is also challenging for us to find decent dealers who have the right balance of commercial resource to sell the units and the right technical standard and indeed qualifications to offer a full installation service at the right level.

The answer for us has ben to develop the Easy Install Power Box and the Quick Fit By-Pass.

The power box is almost a plug and play, where the client needs to supply the same cable as the tails supplied with the box, to the length required and connect to the terminals on the heat pump and circulation pump and the other end to his power supply.

We also supply a lovely little made up compact water by-pass to simplify the water connections.

Consequently , self install of our heat pumps is now within the capability of anyone with a hacksaw and a screwdriver.

Below are some extracts from our marketing literature:

For the connection of Any heat pump up to a power consumption rating of 2.6kW – If your heat pump is of a greater rating than this please contact our technical department to verify the components are of the correct rating.

Calyenty have developed the easy install power box to enable owners of heat pumps to connect their new heater to the electricity supply quickly and simply, and minimizing on the need to employ the services of expensive qualified electrical engineers. This box is tough and waterproof.

The Calyenty Easy Install Power contains a differential for total peace of mind and safety when operating an electrical Heat Pump, for example in a swimming pool environment. This device detects any tiny change in current which may indicate danger and will cut the power immediately

The box also contains all the other automatic breaker components and devices necessary for the safe and reliable installation of a swimming pool heat pump or any other heat pump or air conditioning unit.

Preferably mount inside.This power box is configured to comply by European safety standards.

Also Ask about our Easy Install water By-Pass

Well we tried to pursuade him to do it otherwise, but being a stubborn Brisbanite he insisted, and hey, the client is always right, right?

A swimming pool heat pump is a bit like a fridge or an air conditioning unit, only in reverse, well when you want to heat the water they are anyway. This technology has been around for years, I had a comment left on one of my first blogs from an American who had had a heat pump for over 50 years! The great thing is that this technology has improved significantly recently which has made them perfect for pool heating, and indeed house and domestic hot water, although that’s a blog subject for another day.

The challenge is this: an 8m x 5m pool, which is about as small as they get in these parts, contains on average about 50 tonnes of water. Most people like to swim at temperatures of between 27 and 30 degrees C, and at this time of year at night it often drops to freezing and below.

Achieving this with gas, oil, or standard direct induction electrical heating is expensive, well if your budget dictates that over 300 euros a week is expensive it is anyway. So roll out the heat pump.

Calyenty heat pumps can reach efficiencies of up to 1:7. This means that for every unit of electricity that the unit consumes it can produce seven times the equivalent in joules of heat. We recommend for most regions of Spain and Portugal, where we have most of our customers that if you heat your pool between April and the middle of November you will keep a comfortable swimming temperature for roughly the equivalent running costs as one week using traditional fuel types!

How does it do that?

Well the energy consumption goes into running a fan and a compressor. The compressor compresses refrigerant gas that runs through a series of tubes that are built into the sides of the heat pump, this part of the unit is called the condenser. The fan draws ambient air across these tubes and the energy that is present in the air passes into the gas where it becomes very hot. This heat passes into the swimming pool water where the two meet in a chamber called a heat exchanger.

Simple. Well it works fine as long as there is plenty of ambient air to pass through the vanes of the unit, which is why we normally insist that they are positioned outside. But Australians being Australians like to give us poms a challenge now and again and we recently had just that when our valued customer insisted that his shiny new heat pump must be positioned inside a small machine room near the pool.

Well we’ve done it. As you can see from the pictures there is a large barred entry point for the air to enter the room and a big galvanised duct to exhaust the air out, so hopefully the heat pump isn’t going to recycle already cooled air - it goes live very soon, so we’ll soon find out.

Please customers, take our advise, Calyenty pool heaters are extremely quiet and very beautiful so really don’t need to be hidden away, put them somewhere where they can be admired, coveted even, and where they will work to the maximum of their potential efficiency!!

29 01 2009

By Oliver Reavey

Oliver Reavey is the Commercial Director of Calyenty SC. Calyenty is Europe’s premier pool heating supplier, Calyenty installed over 300 heat pumps across Europe in 2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
All About Swimming Pool Heaters

To extend the swimming season after summer has come and gone, many people are turning to swimming pool heaters. A heater is great to have, especially with colder days. If you’ve thought about buying a heater for your swimming pool, there are probably a lot of things that you’ve found yourself wondering.

When using a pool heater, you can adjust the temperature of your pool water to virtually any level that you are comfortable with. The recommended temperature for a pool is 78 degrees, although most people prefer to have their water just a bit warmer, around 80 degrees. The choice is up to you, as you can’t really go wrong with either of the two.

During the year, the sun can only get your pool water so hot for a somewhat brief period of time. When summer ends and things start to cool off, your heater can help you make swimming last longer. If you live in the north of Spain, such as the Costa Brava, Portugal, France or even the UK you can actually treble your swimming season. Those living in warmer climates, such as the Costa del Sol or the Costa Blanca Canaries or Balearic islands and other European Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and Italy can actually target the whole year swimming by using a heater with their pool, without it costing a fortune.

Even though you may be using a swimming pool heater, you should still invest in a swimming pool cover as well. A cover can help to protect against loss of heat from the pool, holding the heat of water inside the pool instead of letting it out. The fact is, a good cover that has plenty of insulation can actually reduce the amount of heat loss you experience with your water.

There are a few different types of heaters available, including propane or mains gas, direct induction electicity and oil. Direct induction electric heaters such as this are easily the least expensive to buy, but by far the most expensive to run over time. Oil is another way to heat your pool, and it is common in areas that you are unable to buy gas fired heaters, oil is also extremely expensive in Europe. Other pools choose to run off electricity. Electricity is a great way to heat your pool, although it can easily be the most expensive to run and take the most amount of time to properly maintain, unless you use an electrically powered heat pump which can convert each unit of electricity it consumes to over six times the calorific energy output utilised to heat the pool water.

Last but not least, there’s the solar pool heater. Solar heaters may sound like the ideal way to heat a pool for some, simply because it uses the sun to heat, helping to save money. Even though it may sound like the ideal way to heat a pool, it actually has quite a few disadvantages when you compare it to other types of heaters. You’ll discover one flaw when you go to purchase one - you’ll see that they cost nearly half the amount of your swimming pool!

Even though solar powered heaters sound the best, they truly aren’t. To get the most out of a solar powered heater you’ll need to have large electric pump, which can cost you quite a bit of money. The pump delivers the water from your pool to the solar panels, which will in turn heat up the water. Once you have finished setting up a solar powered heater, you’ll have invested thousands in it - which makes it something you should really try to avoid. They are also ineffective when the temperature starts to drop, can be hard to install, high costs to maintain and difficult to position in an effective place, and even if a suitable place can be found, often a roof, they are ugly and can ruin the appearance of your property.

In the world of swimming pool heaters, heat pumps remain the best and most cost efficient ways to heat a swimming pool. They won’t cost you a lot of money to purchase, and they are very user friendly and if used sensibly are inexpensive to run.

By Lorna Reid

Tuesday December 30 2008

PLANS for a heated indoor swimming pool and squash court at Aras an Uachtarain were hatched early in the presidency of Erskine Childers.

Two months after his inauguration in June 1973, the president inquired about getting the sports facilities installed.

And, a month later, he asked Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave about having the use of a IR£16,000 Daimler with a retractable roof as his official car.

But it was his inquiry about a heated swimming pool which sent various departmental officials into a spin in the summer of 1973.

An estimate from the Office of Public Works, which was responsible for the Aras, quoted IR£100,000 for a large swimming pool, with running costs of IR£5,000 a year. The cost of a squash court was put at IR£8,000, but an internal memo from the Office of Public Works (OPW) to the Taoiseach’s department noted both the swimming pool and the squash court were outside the normal range of improvements for Aras an Uachtarain.

The OPW said the finance minister would have to sanction such amounts which had not been budgeted for in the OPW estimates for 1974 or 1975.

Although President Childers had the use of a Mercedes as a state car, he had noticed a review of a IR£16,000 Daimler in Autocar magazine and didn’t think it would be “a super expensive vehicle” for use as a presidential car.

He suggested to the Taoiseach that a car with a retractable roof, like the Daimler, would be suitable for him as he would have more visual contact with the people who came out to greet him on the streets.

But Mr Cosgrave told him a car with a retractable roof would cost IR£20,000, an expense which could not be justified, so he had to settle for a Mercedes.

- Lorna Reid

Swimming pool ban stays for child porn man

Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 07:20 - thisisnottingham.co.uk

A JUDGE has refused to lift a ban on visiting swimming pools for a man who downloaded child pornography.

Ian Hancock, 42, was given a sexual offences prevention order for seven years after admitting making indecent images of children.

But he asked Judge Dudley Bennett, sitting at Nottingham Crown Court, not to include a clause banning him from swimming pools – as it was his “own leisure activity”.

But the judge refused, telling Hancock’s barrister: “I’ve tried cases before where paedophiles go to swimming pools.”

Judge Bennett told Hancock that he must accept the order, but could come back and ask again in the future if he can prove he has become less of a risk to children.

Hancock was arrested after police traced several nicknames being used in an internet chatroom to him. Police then found ten indecent images of children on his computer.

Pornographic images of children are rated in severity from level one to level five, and Hancock had images from all levels, the court was told.

“Analysis showed he was sophisticated in his use of software,” said prosecutor Jonathan Dee. “He had set up a programme to search for certain terms.”

When interviewed by police, Hancock admitted possessing the images and said he had a sexual interest in young girls aged from ten to 14.

Hancock, of Fylingdale Way, Wollaton, was given a three-year community order with supervision by the probation service, as well as the sexual offences prevention order.

The order bans him from having unsupervised contact with children or working with them, loitering near schools, going to playgrounds, leisure centres and swimming pools, and using the internet for anything other than work or study. DVT

It also bans him from owning a mobile phone with access to the internet. “If you breach this order you will undoubtedly get an immediate term of imprisonment,” added the judge.

kate.skelton@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk
*
He was looking at (”making”) ten images of children. There is no actual proof that he is likely to hurt a child, but rather that he has feelings that he is controlling by viewing images that may or may not involve illegal activity *a jury said that they were “indecent”.
Jim Burton, Bournemouth

commented on 01-Jan-2009 19:29

These types should have their nuts cut off. I can’t feel awful enough for the poor kids in those pictures and what they must have endured. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Elaine, Beeston

*
For me these types should have the key thrown away, why should parents and kids have to worry about what lurks behind every corner.
Mark, Mapperley

*
how can he avoid prison ? surely at least 2 years ?
Peter, Red Deer AB

*
No doubt a long line of do-gooding lawyers will be lining up to help this pervert get compensation for having his human rights breached.

He’ll probably win too !
andy, lace market

*
The judge did the right thing to ban this monster from swimming baths , it should be for life. dirty b*$@rd.
kevin, nottingham

*
I’d let him use the swimming baths. On condition that he wears concrete swimming gear.
Mike, Nottm

*
Another sick **** that should be nulified.
Mark, Mapperley

commented on 30-Dec-2008 11:43

Sarah Vogler

December 14, 2008 12:00am Sunday Mail Australia

A statewide fencing standard for all pools, irrespective of a pool’s age and location, and the requirement of a pool safety certificate as part of a property sale where applicable, also will be investigated under proposed new legislation to be outlined by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh today.

It will be the biggest overhaul of the state’s pool safety laws in 20 years.

The move, which will affect all above-ground and inground pool owners across the state, comes as alarming statistics show existing laws have failed to significantly reduce the number of child drownings in Queensland pools.

Katherine and Andrew Plint, whose daughter Hannah drowned in their family pool last year, welcomed the new rules.

”This change will stop people losing loved ones to drownings,” Mr Plint said.

Today’s potentially life-saving announcement comes four days after what would have been the toddler’s fourth birthday.

The Plints launched Hannah’s Foundation in their daughter’s memory and have been campaigning for the changes since losing their two-year-old on October 4 last year.

”(But) this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Mrs Plint said.

”We would also like to see compulsory CPR.”

Mr Plint said he wanted insurance companies to look at giving discounts to homeowners who have their pools checked regularly.

Twenty-three children have drowned in domestic pools across the state in the past three years – two in the past seven days.

On Friday, Liam Allen, 3, drowned in a friend’s pool at Ipswich, while last Sunday, Townsville toddler Holly Roberts, also 3, used a plastic table to climb over the family’s pool fence and toppled into the water to her death.

Ms Bligh will today announce the formation of a pool safety taskforce of key stakeholders, including child safety and local government representatives, who will formulate revised pool safety policies to be put before State Parliament when it returns in the New Year.

Organisations including the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia, Kidsafe Australia, the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors and the Swimming Pool and Spa Association of Queensland, also will be invited to take part.

“We will be asking the committee a series of hard questions and their answers will lead to improved pool safety laws and new pool fencing standards that will be the best in the world,” Ms Bligh said.

Royal Lifesaving Society Queensland executive director Michael Darben praised the review as “a step forward.”

Keith Tognola, of Townsville, whose son Philip drowned in 2003, said he was glad the State Government had finally taken notice of the recommendation of the coroner investigating his son’s death.

“It’s a relief. It’s good to see they are doing something,” Mr Tognola said.

“There are just too many kids dying in pools.

”This (the review) has been a long time coming.”

The Premier’s announcement to toughen pool safety laws and clamp down on those who wilfully and accidentally violate them follows The Sunday Mail’s Safe Summer campaign over the past three months, calling for improved pool safety standards and increased awareness of the need for constant vigilance when children are near water.

Our Safe Summer investigations and reports put the spotlight on alarming levels of non-compliance of existing safety standards among pool owners around Queensland.

The campaign found as many as 40 per cent of the state’s 300,000 backyard swimming pools would likely fail a routine safety inspection, including thousands that have no working safety enclosure at all.

Ms Bligh said the pool safety advisory committee would be given a wide brief to examine all issues relating to pool safety, including the many confusing and conflicting laws across various councils.

Currently, there are more than 11 different standards in place for backyard pools in Queensland.

“The review will also address concerns that pool laws are not being adequately policed by local councils,” she said.

The committee’s report will be released for public comment before legislation is drafted, Ms Bligh said.

Swimming pool plea (Somerset County Gazette - By Lloyd Vaughan )

WEST Somerset lacks suitable facilities for local schoolchildren to learn how to swim, it was claimed this week.

Liz Stewart, who runs Otters Swim School out of Knights Templar First School, Watchet, said the area urgently needed a 25-metre pool with the required depth so youngsters could learn how to swim safely.

Provision for young swimmers has worsened in recent weeks following the shock announcement that Quantock Lodge swimming pool at Over Stowey was also set to close.

Mrs Stewart said she already had nearly 250 children in her ‘learn to swim’ programme but the latest casualty meant the number of children on her books looked set to rise further.

She said parents had already called her expressing an interest in her swimming group and was making arrangements to accommodate them.

Just last week the County Gazette printed pictures of the on-going demolition of Minehead’s Aquasplash swimming pool.

The Seaward Way facility closed in October 2007 after it sprang a leak and failed to reopen because the cash-strapped council could not afford running costs.

Mrs Stewart said pools at St Audries Bay Holiday Club and Knights Templar School where she teaches were ‘fabulous’ but lacked the size and depth needed to provide children with the highest level of tuition.

She added: “In West Somerset we are surrounded by water with numerous children and adults who don’t know how to swim safely.

“Knights Templar’s pool is fabulous but it needs a lot of work and funding, and then there’s St Audries pool which is only 12 ½m x 7m.

“We should spend all our energy and time trying to secure a 25-metre swimming pool here in West Somerset.”

Rebecca Adlington (We love her cos she’s a Derby fan!!!) says ‘I want to win’

Rebecca Adlington rips open a packet of cheese puffs and, with a blissful sigh, crunches her way towards a much darker and more interesting place. She talks quickly as she eats, paying homage to Strictly Come Dancing and her Jimmy Choo shoes before admitting how she would love to win tomorrow evening’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Adlington is funny and charming but, down in the cheese puff dregs, as words like “sacrifice” and “pain” start to crowd out the chitchat, it becomes possible to understand how a seemingly ordinary 19 year-old transformed herself into a sporting superstar by winning two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

Her anecdotes, drifting from the “lovely Gordon and Sarah [Brown]” to “beating my mum and Aldo Zilli on Ready Steady Cook”, are told with riotous good humour. But Adlington is far more interesting when she moves on to her real life, her swimming life.

“That’s why I would really, really love to win [tomorrow],” she says, “because I’m a swimmer. We all talk about the shoes and TV shows but it’s actually got nothing to do with that. It’s all about me and the pool. I think most people don’t understand what you have to do to swim at Olympic level. You can’t expect people to really ‘get’ it because they don’t see me in pieces just minutes before the biggest race of my life. They don’t see me when I drag myself up six mornings a week at 5am so that I can train so hard that I can’t even lift myself out of the pool.”

Adlington laughs, but her eyes glaze with concentration. “I’m a bit of a masochist,” she says. “I love the pain. As an athlete I feel guilty if I don’t push myself in the pool. That’s why I get such satisfaction after a fantastically hard training set. There’s such purity in swimming. None of us are doing this for the money, and before Beijing I was trying to live off £12,000 a year and pay for all my training expenses. You can’t do that so you go,” she puts on a girly voice, “‘Daddy - can you help me!’”

She now shares a flat in Nottingham with her boyfriend, the Scottish swimmer Andrew Mayor, but she and her father still argue over money. “We had another little thing last Saturday,” she says. “I went back to my parents to watch Strictly and I love Austin Healey. He’s brilliant. My sister phoned in a couple of votes for him and I said, ‘Go on, give me four votes for Austin.’ My mobile won’t let me call that number so my sister phoned in four more votes on dad’s phone. He got really stroppy. He said, ‘You’re costing me money, making all these silly calls!’ I took out £2 and said, ‘OK, dad, here you are! Get over it!’ I really went mad then. I voted 12 times for Austin - but he still got voted off.”

Adlington looks genuinely pained. “I love them to bits, these shows, but they’re all the same,” she says. “The favourite never wins. Everyone keeps telling me that I’m the favourite [in the BBC awards tomorrow] but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m not saying that to get the sympathy vote, but the favourite never wins; and can you actually imagine a swimmer getting it?”

In sporting terms it’s absurd to try and decide whether Adlington deserves tomorrow’s award more than the astonishingly gifted Lewis Hamilton, or than Chris Hoy, who won three Olympic golds as a sprint cyclist. But the BBC gong is ultimately a popularity contest, which is why the odds have narrowed in her favour at the expense of Hamilton, who lives as a tax exile in Switzerland with his pop-star girlfriend.

Adlington, by contrast, lives in Nottinghamshire. “We should get Lewis to come up to Mansfield,” Adlington says, grinning, “I’ll show him the sights.”

Of course, Hamilton dragged himself from a similarly unglamorous backdrop in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, to become formula one’s newest world champion. Hoy also laboured in obscurity for years before Beijing.

“I love Chris,” Adlington says, “and look at Ben Ainslie - who just won’t allow himself to be beaten in an Olympic boat. I sat next to him on the plane back and he was lovely. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Hmmm, Ben, you’re all man!

“I really think an Olympic athlete should win it this year, but when I first said that all the papers wrote that I hate Lewis Hamilton. I was, like, ‘What?’ I totally respect Lewis and he has had an amazing year. But the Olympics only come round once every four years and there’s no way Chris or me will be on next year’s shortlist. And you can bet that Lewis is going to win another world championship next year or the year after that.”

The bookies believe Adlington has inched ahead of Hamilton and Hoy - who will compete against each other tomorrow afternoon at Wembley in a gimmicky event titled the Race of Champions before being flown up to Liverpool by helicopter. Adlington is full of mock indignation when hearing that, in the event, Hoy will be on his bike and Hamilton in a speeding car as they “race” each other. “Why didn’t they build a swimming pool for me to bomb up and down while they’re on their bike and in the car? Hang on! What if they put me in a sidecar with Lewis? I’ll give that gorgeous girlfriend of his from the Pussycat Dolls a wave as we flash past.”

For all her easy humour, Adlington will face some of her own insecurities tomorrow evening. Even in the beautiful red dress she and her mum brought in Spain, and the gold Jimmy Choos the mayor of Mansfield gave her, “it will feel daunting. I’ll look a bit ‘minging’ next to Lewis’s Pussycat Doll. But I do love their new single.”

That very human vulnerability is different to the sickening doubts which engulfed her in Beijing. After Adlington had stunned everyone by winning gold in the 400m freestyle she endured a four-day wait before the 800m final - for which she had long harboured serious ambitions. Bill Furness, her gruff coach from Nottingham, told Adlington after the 800m heats that she would smash the longest-standing world record in swimming, which Janet Evans had set almost 19 years earlier.

Adlington shudders. “I told Bill not to say that. With 10 minutes left before the final I wanted to burst into tears. Then I thought I was going to be sick, or faint. I lay down, and Bill knows I never lie down. He says, ‘You all right, chick?’ He always calls me ‘chick’ and pats me on the head. ‘Bill,’ I say, ‘I’m gonna be sick.’ He says, ‘No, chick, it’s just your body getting ready to race.’”

Then, she says, with a little smile, “Something extraordinary happened. We were told to get to the call room, me and the other finalists, and up on the TV screen we watched Michael Phelps race that incredible 100m fly - where he won by the tip of his nail to get all eight golds. I forgot everything else as I watched him. I walked out afterwards and this calm came over me.”

As soon as she dived into the water, her nervousness turned to confidence. “I said to myself, ‘Let’s go for it - even if I end up dying in the pool.’ All the time, during racing, I’m thinking constantly, remembering what Bill shouts at me at 5.30 every morning: ‘Bring your right elbow up, keep kicking, focus on the turns!’ In the final I actually could see Bill. He had come down to the edge of the pool. Normally he’s churning his arms to encourage me and screaming, but this time, in the most important race of my life, he’s standing dead still. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God! What does that mean?”

Furness was simply transfixed, watching a performance from his protege that he would later compare to some of the epic Olympic swims by Phelps or Mark Spitz. “Oh God,” Adlington says, blushing, when I mention their names, “I don’t know about that. But I’ve never swum as well as I did that day. After 400m Bill threw away the split times he had been writing on a scrap of paper. He said, ‘She’s got it!’”

That “it” was her second Olympic gold and a staggering new world record, two seconds faster than Evans’s time. So even if Hamilton or Hoy beat her tomorrow she will survive the fleeting heartache because this has been a year like no other for Adlington. Five months ago few of us had even heard of her and yet now, on every trip to the shops, she is besieged by people who think that they actually know her. “We went to buy our Christmas tree at B&Q this week and you would’ve thought I was bumping into my best friends. I don’t know a soul but they’re shouting, ‘Hiya, Becky, how’s the training?’ Weird.”

It’s easy to warm to Adlington and her stream of anecdotes, in which she relates how she button-holed the beleaguered Brown at No 10 and grilled him on the best method of insuring her gold medals, and how it was suggested that the soon-to-be renamed Becky Adlington Swimming Centre in Mansfield might be called “Becky Baths” instead. “I turned down ‘Becky Baths’,” she says. “It’s not got quite the right ring, has it?”

She is at her most effusive when describing how, on a dreamy day a couple of months ago, on October 7, she and Mayor moved into a flat in Nottingham together. “I live with a boy!” she yelps. Adlington and Mayor sound lost in both the first flush of love and the brutal realities of Olympic training. Getting up together every morning at 5am, to be flogged by the decidedly unromantic Furness, might sound an unusual way of cementing a 10-month-old relationship. But having missed out on Olympic qualification in Beijing by a second, Mayor has moved down from Newcastle upon Tyne to live with Adlington and train with Furness.

“Andy might be 22 but he complains that he looks like he’s 12,” she says. “He doesn’t. He’s lovely and he’s working incredibly hard, just like me. We both can’t wait for the London Olympics. We’re swimmers after all.”

Adlington might be a celebrity now but, above all else, she remains a supreme athlete. For that reason alone, Healey owes his greatest fan at least 12 votes tomorrow night.
Life and times of an Olympian

• Born in Mansfield on February 17 1989, Rebecca Adlington is the youngest of three daughters of Kay and Steve

• At four she shocks her parents by jumping into a pool on holiday and, despite never having swum before, paddling safely to the side.

• Adlington and her sisters, Chloe and Laura, swim together at the Sherwood Colliery Pool in Mansfield

• The three girls are good enough to swim at national level but they all badly affected by glandular fever - with Laura ending up on in intensive care. Adlington’s sisters never swim competitively again, she recovers but fails to qualify for the 2006 Commonwealth games

• Further disappointment occurs when she suffers “a psychological meltdown” at the 2007 world championships

• In Beijing Adlington becomes the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908

• The Yates Bar in Mansfield briefly renames itself as The Adlington Arms. In September 2009, the Sherwood Pool will be reopened as the Becky Adlington Swimming Centre.

Boy drowns in swimming pool - New Straights Times - Adib Povera - 2008/12/13

LANGKAWI: What was supposed to have been a family vacation turned into a tragedy when a five-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool at a rented apartment at Kelibang here on Thursday.
In the 6.30pm incident, the body of Ahmad A’fif Iskandar Zulkarnine from Taman Seaview, Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan, was found floating in the pool.

The victim’s grandfather, 74-year-old Norehzan Maah, said his grandson and 10 other family members had earlier gone swimming in the pool.

“I was standing far from the pool when I saw my grandson floating. I immediately alerted my family members.

“A few workers of the apartment performed a cardiopulmonary resuscitation on my grandson, but it was to no avail,” Norehzan said.
He said his grandson was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after arriving at the Langkawi Hospital here.

Making Use Of Robotlike Swimming Pool Cleaners - December 13th, 2008 by Ada Denis

n the first place, note that in spite of how well you presume its possible to clean your pool physically, there are numerous things swimming pool cleaners get rid of when sanitizing swimming pools that you cant when you clean your swimming pools physically.

If you are anyone that does not always like sanitizing your swimming pool, whether physically or making use of robotlike swimming pool cleaners, then procure a swimming pool cover which you can utilize to cover your swimming pool, therefore cutting short the time you ought to clean your swimming pool.

I wonder why lots of folks still hire professional pool cleaners to clean their swimming pools when there are robotlike pool cleaners nowadays which they can utilize to attain similar quality sanitizing that swimming pool cleaners will achieve.

One of the fine things about Internet discussion groups where owners of swimming pools share thoughts concerning how care for their swimming pools is this - it is likely to come upon a pool owner there who might perhaps need to sell his or her pool cleaner at less expensive price; move and shop from such individuals, but see to it that the cleaner is compatible with your swimming pool. The very best method to do your own independent investigation on the particular kind of swimming pool cleaner to procure would involve visiting as many swimming pool cleaner review web pages as possible; from these kinds of review web pages its possible to learn a lot about what other people who have used these swimming pool cleaners have to say.

It is certainly true that those folks who utilize swimming pool cleaners, specially those folks who take care of the germs in the pools, are bound to enjoy a lot better physical healthiness than those men or women who dont; this is because numerous germs in the swimming pools can affect folks making use of the swimming pool and make them unwell. I always love putting my robotic swimming pool cleaner to function then staying aside to view it do its wonders; at such moments I am filled with a type of awesome feeling of surprise and applaud the tremendous efforts of the creators that produced this.

If you are amazed about the requirements of any swimming pool cleaner before purchasing, take a long look at the manual (which you can read on the Internet from the makers site).

I prefer to procure the add-ons and also replacement parts for my swimming pool cleaner from the exact same dealer or source that I ordered the swimming pool cleaner from; this makes certain they give me the add-ons and even replacement parts which are compatible with the precise kind of swimming pool cleaner I have.

From all the foregone its clear that the very best swimming pool cleaner you will get depends upon you; if you certainly take the time to search you will uncover the very best swimming pool cleaner to utilize; dont be like those persons who just settle for and utilize any kind of swimming pool cleaner without doing numerous searches.

All About Swimming Pool Design Ideas - Pool Paradise - Sawan - Saturday, December 13, 2008

When it comes to deciding to bring a pool into your yard, there is no bigger decision to make then the design of it. The design of the pool not only affects the beauty of the entire pool but also how well it will work within the yard space that you have available. The first thing you want to do is to think about how much of your yard you want covered by a pool and then you can work from there. It is also a good idea to think about the swimming pool maintenance that will be involved with the pool you pick out.

The bigger the pool, the more work that you are going to have to put into it. This is another reason why it is so important to think over several swimming pool design ideas.

design ideas that you think of should be thought about carefully so that you do not make any snap decisions and then later on end up regretting your decision. Also make sure that you talk over any and all of your swimming pool design ideas with your family to get their input. Not only could they have personal opinions to share with you but also they may think of something about the design that you did not.

Where To Find New Ideas For Your Pool

If you at a complete loss for any swimming pool design ideas, it is important that you start to look around for a little help. If you have any neighbors or friends that have had to come up with their own swimming pool design ideas on their own before, you could always ask them for a little help. If they are not able to help you or your simply do not like their ideas, there are still other ways to come up with some excellent swimming pool design ideas.

There are a lot of books, magazine articles, and Internet web sites that could give you plenty of swimming pool design ideas that you could think over. Take a little bit of what you learn from those places and you could then create your very own swimming pool design ideas. You do not have to sue exactly what you see everywhere else but by taking a look at someone else’s swimming pool design ideas you could come up with some excellent ones of your own that you could put in your own backyard.

Swimming Pool Heating - Posted by admin On December - 13 - 2008 - Hi-Temp NZ blog.

The Hi Temp Solar Pool Heater works as follows: pool water is pumped from your existing pool pump to the solar panels. The sun’s rays heat the water in the panels, then the heated water is returned to your pool. Seems kind of simple, right?

And it is. Check out their website for more information or read further

When considering a heat source for your pool, you only have to look up to realize the primary benefit of solar heat - it’s free heat from the sun! With uncertainty and rising costs in the power markets, the price for solar will not change. It will be free for life. Using your existing pump and filter, our easy-to-install solar pool heater ensures warmer pool temperatures, no monthly heating bills, and is proven to be the most cost effective way to heat your pool. Get the most out of your pool by extending the swimming season and have more fun–courtesy of the sun!

Our solar pool heater is so versatile, it can be put anywhere the sun shines. The ‘do-it-yourself’ kit is easily installed on the roof of your home or pool change room, off the deck, beside the pool or on the ground. The most durable and longest lasting solar panels on the market, our Santoprene® rubber is completely resistant to pool chemicals, harsh U.V. rays, cold Free State winters and the hottest Northern Cape summers.

Pool water is pumped using your existing pool pump to the Hi Temp Solar Pool Heater panels. The sun’s rays heat the water in the panels, then the heated water is returned to your pool.

Hi Temp Solar Products Inc.’s exclusive ‘12 Year Extended Warranty’ against defects in the solar collector panels, assures you many years of worry-free, low maintenance pool heating. When compared to heat pump warranties, our solar warranty provides long term coverage and ultimately, peace of mind.

Is Your Dog Likely to Jump into Your New Swimming Pool? - Free Pet Care Advice, Tips and Information - 13 Dec, 2008 -

All breeds of dogs can swim, but that doesn’t address the dangers of pools. When the pool isn’t filled with people, the dog will very likely join them, muddy feet and all. When no one is in the yard, the dog may decide to go for a swim, and won’t be able to get out of the pool unless there are steps provided that it can handle. Empty pools are especially hacardous to dogs that may not realize the depth of the hole into which they might jump. If your pool doesn’t have a dog-proof security fence, make sure the pup is confined in its run or in the house when not on a least.

A shark managed to jump out of its aquarium on to a water slide at a hotel swimming pool used by guests.

The female reef shark, one of various exotic creatures in the popular Mayan Temple aquarium at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, tumbled down the slide – known as the Leap of Faith – after vaulting the one foot high and 18 in wide barrier around its pool.

Although the creature survived the journey its body could not cope with the chlorinated water in the swimming pool at the bottom of the slide. Rescuers managed to return the 12-year-old shark to its own pool but it died shortly after wards.

Staff at the Atlantis resort said that guests were never at risk as the water park had yet to open for the morning. The shark posed no threat to humans and regularly swam with guests in its aquarium

“the shark was startled by an unusual circumstance that we have no way of defining completely. In the over ten years guests have experienced the Leap of Faith, the reef shark itself, harmless to humans as it is fed regularly by our staff, had shown no previous incidences of leaping out of the water in the marine habitat,” the resort said in a statement to the TMZ website.

“Once the shark fell onto the slide and into the chlorinated water, it was in significant distress.

“The Marine Aquarium Operations team responded immediately and was able to retrieve the animal at the bottom of the slide and return the animal to the main marine habitat in an attempt to resuscitate her. Despite the team’s best efforts to recover the animal, it died shortly after the occurrence.

“The entire team at Atlantis is truly saddened by the loss of this animal who had resided in the Atlantis marine habitat for over ten years.”

The Atlantis resort describes itself as a “unique, ocean-themed destination”, with 20 million gallons of pools and lagoons, waterfalls, and a marine habitat filled with water filtered from the Atlantic Ocean.

Calyenty is a premium supplier of swimming pool heating systems based on heat pump technology. We manufacturer powerful whisper quiet, titanium heart, stainless steel cabinet heaters for distribution across Spain, and its islands (including Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Tenerife, Lanzerote, Palma etyc.) Portugal, France, UK and the rest of Europe.

There are several types of pool water options available to the pool owner. This article attempts to identify which is the most sensible option to choose

Types of pool water options to consider:

1. Fresh water, where you add granular or tablet chlorine to the water in order to keep it sanitized and clear.

2. Salt water, where you add salt to the pool water and an electrode array creates the sanitation.

3. Ozone pool, where sanitation is created by Ozone which is made from Oxygen or O2, which is converted through electricity to Ozone or O3. Ozone is a much more powerful oxidant than chlorine. Ozone dissipates very quickly. It must be manufactured and used on-site, and generators can now be purchased from specialist suppliers which can be fitted into an existing pool pipework without too much effort or cost. Ozone Generators convert the Oxygen in the air into Ozone.

4. Ultraviolet, where the pool water passes through a cylinder that contains an ultraviolet light tube, the ultraviolet rays kill the harmful organic elements suspended in the water

5. Swimming ponds where a selection of naturally growing plants create the sanitation. In warmer climate mosquito larvae eating fish must be present otherwise mosquitoes can become unbearable close to the pool.

For the purposes of this article we are looking at the first two options, standard fresh water and salt water.

How do they work.

Traditionally, Europeans tend to opt for the standard fresh water option. This is where you fill your basin with standard mains water or can buy it in from a water supplier in a tanker. Whichever, this is basic drinking water.

The water has to be treated continuously for a pleasant bathing experience in clear water that is free from both water borne insects such as mosquito larvae or microscopic animals such as bacteria or plants such as algae. If left untreated the water will deteriorate quickly will become discolored and will be less than healthy or pleasant to swim in.

There are two things that your fresh water pool owner needs to continuously monitor, both of which are vital. Firstly pH. This is important for several reasons, but the main reason is that anything outside the recommended pH level of 7.4 will make any additional chlorine added to the water for sanitation less effective. So the number one operation is to check the pH level and to add pH plus or minus depending on the test result. Many pool owners skip this test believing it unimportant thinking as long as you throw plenty of chlorine at the pool everything else will be OK, this is far from the truth and will cost you significantly more as the available chlorine in an unbalanced pool will need to work much harder.

Usually the same tester kit has the facility for measuring the chlorine level. This is usually achieved by adding Chlorine tablets, this can be put in the skimmer pots or a purpose floating applicator. It is always best to buy the 4 action tablets as they contain the other additives generally required to maintain a good water balance and health, and saves having to purchase, store and handle these other chemicals individually.

There are other tests that can be done and some good swimming pool shops will offer a water testing service if you pool water has become a problem that is defeating you. But keep these two elements always correct and occasionally test for TOTAL pH and you should have trouble free bathing.

The mechanics behind a salt water pool is frequently misunderstood. For example I will share a conversation I had recently. I received a call from a pool owner who was having big algae problems with his saltwater pool . The first question I asked was “have you checked the salt level or added any salt recently” His reply was astonishing “My pool is a saltwater pool, it has a mechanism that makes salt that keeps the water clean and healthy.” He was astonished when I explained how his system actually worked, but his astonishment was nothing compared to mine when he told me he had had the system for almost fifteen years, and he admitted he had always been puzzled when previous pool companies had added sacks of salt to his pool when he had had problems before, but nobody had ever explained what he had, and he clearly had never bothered to find out.

Basically salt water pools work like this: You have to install a unit into your pool filter line which contains an array of titanium electrodes. You then add several sacks of raw rough salt granules into the fresh water in your pool. A 50m3 pool requires about 250kg of salt. The electrodes are activated by a low voltage power supply when the pool pump comes on and drives the now salted water through and over the electrode plates. The electrodes split the salt molecules from sodium chloride or NaCl into sodium and chlorine Na and Cl. There is a control module that comes with the kit which indicates the level of salt in the water, so you will know when to add more, and the chlorine production level.

So you can see you are still achieving the sanitation by using chlorine. But the chlorine is much healthier, in fact it is almost completely indiscernible in the water, and anyone that gets agitated by the fact that there is still chlorine in the water and therefore this is a flawed and less than environmental solution are misinformed. The environmental issues normally associated with Chlorine in its synthetic form come from its manufacture, health problems from its handling, and unpleasant side effects including skin irritation, sore eyes and horrible smell come from the stabilizers and the trichlorides that form with its usage. None of these apply in the Chloride made in a salt water pool system. This leads us neatly into the following considerations

The considerations when choosing your system are as follows: Swimming environment, health, Initial start-up costs, Ongoing costs, convenience of maintenance.

So lets make the first comparison based on the swimming environment. It appears that most people who have had the experience of bathing in both types of pool, i.e. fresh water sanitized with synthetic chlorine and a salt water pool, myself included, seem to prefer the salt water experience. As already discussed, freshwater pools where chlorine is added in a synthetic form of granules or tablets can cause irritation to skin and eyes, dry the skin when leaving the pool and leave your body and clothes smelling bad. It can also bleach your hair and clothes and shorten the life of your costume and pool toys significantly. One of the main reasons I personally looked into alternatives was that every time I handled the chlorine, I would usually get at least one big lungful of chlorine gas,usually when removing a tight lid, and would get infuriated when constantly spoiling decent trousers or shirts with white spots from the chlorine.

The salt water pool has salinity very similar to that that is contained in the human body, or about 1/10 of that that you find in the sea. Consequently you are swimming in almost fresh water. In fact there is no danger if swallowed, and it can even be put onto grass and plants without them suffering any harm at all. No stinging eyes, no bad smelling hair or skin and your body feels lovely cleansed and fresh when ever you get out of the pool.

So round one to the salt water pool.

The next consideration is health. Some of the statistics that are now available make some very interesting if not scary reading. Chlorine byproducts found in fresh water swimming pools are linked to higher incidences of asthma, lung damage, stillbirths, miscarriages and bladder cancer, according to credible research conducted in the U.S., Canada, Norway, Australia and Belgium.

One researcher noted that 10-year-old children spending an average of 1.8 hours per week in an indoor swimming pool environment suffered lung damage she would expect to see in an adult smoker.
The problem isn’t the chlorine, but what chlorine turns into when combined with organics. The organics are contributed by bathers in the pool in the form of sweat, dander, urine and other organics. The chlorine reacts with the organics and produces nitrogen trichloride, aldehydes, halogenated hydrocarbons, chloroform, trihalomethanes and chloramines. If these sound like dangerous chemicals, they are. During the Olympic Games held in Australia, it was reported that more than one-quarter of the American swim team suffered from some degree of asthma.

Investigators in Belgium presented research showing that exposure to such chloramines greatly increases permeability of the lung epithelium, a condition normally associated with smoking cigarettes.

In contrast a salt water pool which generates much lower levels of chlorine, which is much better distributed throughout the whole body of water by nature of the method of production, under these standards, the salt water swimming pool water is essentially treated to drinking water standards, and although not such a good solution from a health perspective as the ultraviolet or ozone options is significantly better than using synthetic chlorine pool products manually added to fresh water.

Round two, health, to the salt water option. Two nil.

Initial start up costs are marginal for a fresh water pool as no additional equipment is needed unless you invest in a tablet applicator, which are very inexpensive. Salt water pool equipment is now less expensive than it has been. For a 50m3 pool, which represents about 75% of the European pool install base, or a 8m x 4m by average 1.5m depth pool will cost about Euros 1000 for all the kit and a further euros 100.00 for the salt. They are quite simple to install and most people should be able to do this themselves.

Round three to the freshwater pool. Two – one.

Ongoing costs.

Many people just look at the costs of the chemicals that they have to put into a fresh water pool during the swimming season, which for a standard 50m3 pool will be in the region of about euros 300.00. For me this pales into insignificance when you add the costs of the numerous pairs of jeans and new shirts that have been ruined every year by handling pool chemicals. “I’ll just put some chlorine in the pool, I’ll be careful as I cant be bothered to change just for this quick simple job” only to regret it virtually every time when the tell tale white blotches and smears appear on that favorite piece of clothing.

One thing you will have to do with a salt water pool is install an automatic pH dosing unit. These basically monitor the pH very accurately and add pH minus, or acid, because the by product of the chlorinator is alkaline caused by sodium carbonate. Because the Chlorine dosage from the unit is so mild this is important otherwise you can quickly have problems if this falls out of line. I believe this would be a useful addition to any pool so will not count this as a cost against the salt system. If you use a diluted form of Salfumant (Hydrochloric acid) the ongoing costs here are marginal. To conclude on this point, a salt water pool hardly has any ongoing costs, whereas the cost of chemicals, time, and replacing clothing can be significant over the year,

Round four to the salt water pool. Three - one

Onto the final consideration, convenience. The time saved in not having to manually put chemicals into the water and test the levels constantly are significant. No shopping for chemicals, and no replacing of clothing - great.

Round five to the salt water pool. Four – one

In conclusion. I am happy to conclude and therefore recommend that based on the score four - one, a salt water pool is a better option. Even if you take the point conceded on capital costs, if you shop around you can buy these systems for less now. Also if you factor in the savings from the reduction to almost zero for ongoing costs the capital will be paid off very quickly, lets say two years, therefore in reality fresh water pools need to concede another point, five – one. Its a landslide!

I have had my salt water system for one season now having changed from a standard chemical devouring freshwater pool, and do I regret it? – not one bit, it does all the positive things mentioned in detail above, and everyone loves the water quality – it just feels so much healthier, probably because it is. I spend far less time on the pool now and I know I am saving money.

I will say though that you may need to run the filter pump for longer, which is an additional power cost. I have also found that it is a good idea to add 5l of liquid bleach to the pool a week. This can be bought from any supermarket for about one euro, the cheaper the better, and try and get the odorless type. This keeps everything A OK and the sparkliest water ever without compromising the ethics of your new system.

Statistics show that the Australians are far further advanced than we are in Europe regarding which type of pool we like to have, with the Aussies having over 75% of their pools as salt water systems. Current statistics on numbers of installed pools across Europe - and for the purposes of this study this includes, Spain and its islands (Canaries and Balearics) Portugal, France , Italy and the UK show that the number of adopters of salt water systems across this region to be less than 20%.

Calyenty is a premium supplier of swimming pool heating systems based on heat pump technology. We manufacturer powerful whisper quiet, titanium heart, stainless steel cabinet heaters for distribution across Spain, and its islands (including Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Tenerife, Lanzerote, Palma etyc.) Portugal, France, UK and the rest of Europe.

I like to think of myself as quite well informed when it comes to the care and maintenance of swimming pools, after all I am the director of one of Europe’s leading pool heating companies, Calyenty. However last year I had an attack of black algae which nearly defeated me. Beating the problem taught me a lot and I can share with you here the lessons.

Firstly I will make the point of how to try to keep the algae from forming which is really basic good housekeeping (or pool keeping in this case). But, as I have experienced sometimes even with the best intentions, events conspire against even the most diligent and attentive pool keepers and you get the dreaded attack.

Here they are anyway: Equilibrium is key. Correct levels of Chlorine and pH are the most important. Don’t just bung it in. Measure the levels constantly, or at least once a week and dose according to the volume of water in your particular pool. Check again soon afterwards, to check you have the dose correct. Also check total pH occasionally and add Bicarbonate soda if required. Remember it is always far easier to keep a clean pool clean than to clean a dirty pool and expect it to remain clean.

The other big factor is filtration. As a rule of thumb, all the water in your pool must pass throught the filter at least once per day. You can work out from this how long you need to run your filter pump for. In most cases, during the swimming season, I would recommend that for an 8m x 4m pool with a 1kW pump to run the filter pump for eight hours per day. Also it is important to run the filter pump during the day. Most people mistakenly break the timing up into chunks and run it stop start for 24 hours a day. You usually bath during the day and this is when the vast majority of debris will be entering the pool. Also wind movement is usually greater during daylight hpours, so filter it out during the day. You can put a half hour break in after say four hours if you want to give the pump a rest, but even this is really unnecessary.

Onto the Algae

There are almost 22,000 known varieties of algae, so you can probably roughly double that number for all living strains. But for reasons of understanding and control we can shrink this list down to manageable categories grouped by colour, see below.

As there are so many strains of algae and because their spores are almost permanently present in the air, there is nothing a pool owner can do from preventing the spores from entering the water. The presence of spores combined with out of balance water, warm temperatures, sunlight and presence of nitrates and/or carbon dioxide.can result in a bloom. But despite their presence, it is mainly good pool maintenance practice that prevebts the spores from developing into an algae problem

The pool must be kept in a constant state of correct equilibrium for preventing the spores taking hold and developing into a visual algae bloom, photosynthesizing on the sides and surfaces of your pool. Remember clean water is much easier to keep clean. Once you have had a bad case of algae or other water problem, the filters and other equipment are contaminated and its harder to get back to perfect conditions.

Firstly I’ll describe the four main types of problem algae presents, followed by the steps to cure a problem and how to take measures to ensure that you don’t have the problem again.

Different types of Algae,

Green Algae:

Green is probably the most common algae, certainly to be found in Spain, Portugal, France and the rest of Europe. It can quickly appear in your pool following the pool loosing clarity from a lack of proper filtration and, or poor sanitation due to chemical imbalance. It is frequently found free floating in the water, although it also will cling to the walls. Once it starts to form the water will remain cloudy and will get worse without proper treatment. This clouding distinguishes the problem as due to algae as apart form copper precipitation, which turns the water a clear green colour t. Varieties of green algae also appear as “spots” on surfaces, particularly rough areas, or places where circulation is low. They also show up as “sheets”, where large wall sections, or even the entire pool, is coated in green slime!

Yellow Algae:

Yellow algae usually clings to the walls of the pool and is a mustardy colour. This variety is usually found on the shady side of the pool. It forms large patches in sheets, and can be difficult to eradicate completely. If you get a bloom of yellow algae it can be tremendously difficvult to get rid of. Frequently a pool owner can spend the entire season fighting yellow algae, and re-infection is common, often just when you think it is beaten. You will need to scrub the infected areas thouroughly preferably with a steel bristle brush, shock with Chloro rapide then filter, filter, filter, backwashing frequently to waste to flush out the spores.

Black Algae:

Black algae will appear as dark black or dark blue/green spots, It is clearly raised like small bumps or buds from where it is rooted on the side of the pool. This is a horror if you get infected and is a little like herpes to get rid of as it keeps coming back. Sometimes you really need to resort to drastic measures to get rid of this one. The main reason this strain is so difficult to get rid of is because the plant puts down deep roots into the grout between the tiles and unless you kill the roots it will justy come back within a few days as bad as before.

Pools that are near the sea and frequented by bathers that like to have a dip in the sea then enter the pool without washing the swim suite between dips, are most susceptible to this form of algae bloom, but again, good water treatment levels and filtration usually keep it at bay.

Pink Algae:

Pink algae is actually a bacteria, however falls squarely into this category for treatment and even appears as though it is an algae. This tends to form in corners or dead spots where the water circulation is not what it should be and therefore the movement and changing of chemicals is not so great.

Where you get a mild bloom of the green algae you can use anitalgicides to solve the problem. The more you spend the better the product and less you will need to use in a dose, but these will have little or no effect on the other types of algae once you have the problem. It is good practice to put a small amount of algicide into your pool once a week when everything seems perfect, this will help prevent getting a bloom in the first place.

Below I list products on the market which are supposed to help to get rid of your algae bloom once you have it in my opinion, none of these products work on anything other than a mild attack of green algae, see later for the best eradication methods

Algicides:

Potassium Tetraborate:
When added to the pool water in proper dosage, prevents algae from converting carbon dioxide into the fuel it needs for growth.

Chitin:

Not an algaecide (meaning to kill algae) per se, but its properties might be called algaestatic (that is, to prevent algae growth). Chitin has the ability to coagulate and remove a wide variety of suspended materials and impurities from the water. This allows the sanitizer to more effectively kill contaminants unobstructed. It also improves the effectiveness of the filtration equipment.

Algaecides and Algaestats:

1. Quaternary Ammonium Compounds:
A low grade type of algaecide, Quats, as they are called, will usually have “10″ somewhere on the bottle, representing 10% active ingredient. Although available at a lower cost, quats tend to produce a small amount of surface foaming. They are most effective as an algaestat, that is, as a prevention, not a cure.

2. Polymers:
Polymers are long, complicated chemical chains that behave in water both as an algaestat and an algaecide. They are available in percentage strength of 30 - 60%, are non foaming, and work well as general, all around algae treatments. Poly-Quats are a blended compound of polymer and quats.

3. Copper Based:
Copper is a proven algaecide and algaestat. Available in varying non foaming strength of 3 - 10%. It works very well on all types of algae, but it has the drawback of staining white plaster surfaces a light blue/green color if it precipitates out of solution. Most copper based algaecides are chelated, which means that agents have been added to prevent this, such as Lo-Chlor Algaecide.

4. Silver Based:
Silver has been shown to be an effective bacteriostat, which means that it works to prevent bacteria from reproducing. Non foaming and effective with pink algae. In high doses, reactions with sunlight can cause colloidal silver to deposit as black stains on white plaster. When using copper or silver algaecides, the use of a sequestering agent is recommended.

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU HAVE A SALT WATER POOL DO NOT USE ANY METAL BASED ALGICIDES.

Too late to prevent it…How do I kill algae?

For suspended green algae, shock the pool…hard. Put in as much hypochlorite as it takes to turn the pool a cloudy, bluish/gray color. Brush the walls and floors towards the main drain, with a wire brush head if possible – be careful using these you do not want to damage the grout or the finish on the tile surface, but these do shift the roots of the algae. Backwash the filter when the pressure gauge indicates the need (8 - 10 lbs. above clean reading, after backwashing.) Using a flocculent may be a good choice if the pool is extremely “swampy”. As you probably know floculant will clump all the suspended solids in the water and deposit it on the bottom. When you suck this up with the vacuum cleaner take the water directly to waste, do not make the mistake of false economy of trying to filter it out thgen backwash, just get rid of it all to drain.If you cannot see the bottom of the pool, and it is filled with leaves and debris, it may be wise to drain the pool, acid wash and refill it.

After the chlorine level has come down below 5 ppm, add an algaecide and brush the pool again. When it all settles, vacuum the pool (to waste, if possible). Check and re-balance the pool water if necessary.

For algae which is not suspended, but only clinging to the walls, follow the same advice above, first shock with brushing, then add an algaecide, brush again, vacuum to waste (preferred) or vacuum and then backwash the filter. Use of a steel bristled brush is recommended for algae on plaster pools (use nylon brush on vinyl). Filter, Filter, Filter!

For black algae, the brushing part is very important. You must tear through the protective layers so the chemicals can destroy the plant from the inside out. Pumice stones work well to knock off the heads of black algae. (Don’t forget to vacuum them up later, and vacuum clean to waste). Also effective on the black algae nodules is sprinkling granular trichlor over the spots (of course if they’re on the wall this is next to impossible). Rubbing the spots on the walls with a trichlor tablet or stick can also be effective to knock off the heads and get trichlor directly to the roots. Follow up with a dose of copper algaecide, or high strength polymers.

Having said all this, my experience was, once the black algae was there you will never isolate areas in the pool and shift it with brushing or concentrated treatments in localized spots. Basicallly you will need to empty the pool. When the pool is empty thoroughly wash all the surfaces with a jet washer. Next acid wash it completely then rest it for at least a week. You will also need to completely change the sand in the filter, and try and rinse all other pipework and filter equipment with acid (in Spain we are lucky to have the splendid product Salfumant which is great for these heavy jobs – just be careful how you handle it, because this is basically concentrated hydrochloric acid. ) Also respect your equipment with such chemicals as it is VERY corrosive and can damage things quickly. Remember you are only trying to harm the algae.

For good algae prevention, we need a combination of good filtration, sanitation and circulation. It may be time to consider changing the old pump and filter. It’s cheaper and easier to pay a little up front for more chemicals, electricity or better equipment than all the money and aggravation spent on fighting algae blooms.

Calyenty is one of Spain’s leading swimming pool heating specialists, remember heating your pool may increase the chance of algae blooms unless correct advice is taken, we are happy to advise you on any issues you may have with your pool, so do not hesitate to contact us. We have dealers working across Spain and its islands, Portugal, France, UK and most other parts of Europe.

Local authorities in Sweden are facing an interesting dilemma with how the managers of local public swimming pools deal with the bathing habits and wishes of their customers which vary wildly depending on which cultural/religious group they belong to.

On the one hand there was an outcry after some young Swedish girls were asked to leave their local swimming pool for removing their bikini tops after having entered the water. The manager gave reasons of hygiene, security and possible offense to others as the reasons for the ejection.

This action has fueled a group calling themselves the Bara Bröst network into further demonstrations of their wishes, and to make a number of statements in support of their cause. Bara Bröst translates into English as simply ‘bare breasts’ or ‘just breasts.’ Ragnhild Karlsson , 22, explained the womens’ motives for swimming without bikini tops:

“It’s a question of equality. I think it’s a problem that women are sexualized in this way. If women are forced to wear a top, shouldn’t men also have to?” Another member of the group went on to say “We want our breasts to be as ‘normal’ and desexualized as men’s, so that we too can pull off our shirts at football matches,”

Sweden’s bare breast network is gathering pace and incidents of breast revealing are increasing and ejections are being reported at many provincial public swimming pools across the liberated Scandinavian country. Ejections.

As if the topic wasn’t spicy and controversial enough, Sweden’s growing Muslim population is giving Sweden’s beleaguered public swimming pool managers another headache. It is a big part of Muslim culture that dictates that Muslim women are mostly covered at all times when in public. This must cause numerous problems for them when going about their everyday life, but snaps especially sharply into focus when they want to enjoy a dip at the local pool.

The problem starts when Fatima or Laila want to take a dip in the local public pool in their Burka or baggy body stocking. Again there are a number of reasons why Sweden’s pool managers have issues with this style of bathing. First of all there is the safety element, Burkas or indeed other forms of clothing can become very heavy when saturated in water and may pose a danger to the bather from sinking.

Then there is the hygiene issue, these heavy eastern fabrics can harbor germs or even parasites. Particles from the fabric can also come loose and make the pool initially look less inviting to other bathers and ultimately puts more strain on the pools filtration system. Also, the pool requires higher levels of chlorine, which is both expensive and less pleasant for the other bathers. Recently a pool manager in Malmo ejected two Muslim women for wearing a veil while swimming and this has caused a furore of a different kind.

The Swedish authorities are still fumbling with the breasts, and continue to search to find a solution for the growing band of liberated Swedes wishing to bare them. However, they have quickly come up with what they believe is the answer for our Muslim sisters dilemma - the Burkini.

For 30 krona, it is possible to now rent the all in one swimming burka from many of Swedens public baths, and if they prove popular there are plans to put them on sale.

However, things are never that simple, especially in Sweden’s multi-cultural public swimming bath community, and some Muslims are not sure that the burkini will be enough to make modest Muslim women comfortable with bathing in the presence of men.

“I’m not so sure. It’s pretty tight and still shows your body. Maybe it’s easier for some, but others can still probably not think of showing themselves in that way in front of men,” said Firouzfateh.

As you can see from the picture the burkini is ostensibly a rubber frogman suite. The author finds it quite extraordinary that anyone could feel exposed or un modest wearing such a thing, even in front of the friskiest male.

Maybe the solution to Sweden’s pool problem is to allow the plucky gals from the Bara Bröst network to bath alongside the sisters in the burkinis - any onlookers would be sufficiently distracted by Miss Karlsson and her band of bear breasted babes that Fatima and Laila can do their lengths in peace with no danger from their frogsuite’s potential power of arousal.

The author invites your comments.

Oliver Reavey is the Commercial Director of Calyenty SC, Spain’s leading Pool heating specialists.