The Best Pool Accessories

Now that summer has rolled around, every family needs a certain number of pool accessories to turn a backyard pool or the neighborhood pool into the funnest spot to be.  Swimming pool accessories are either practical or simply enjoyable; all are designed to accommodate swimmers in quantity or quality.  The two basic types of accessories are in water and out of water.

In water swimming pool accessories are meant to help kids swim and parents relax.  Inflatable plastic rafts are a great way to leisurely float about, working on a tan or reading a book while enjoying the cool air coming across the water’s edge.  Inflatable rafts take only about a minute to fully pump up and are fairly cheap, coming in at only ten to twenty dollars at any retail store.  Some rafts are simple planks, others are far more complex, boasting cup holders, double seats, back rests, cushions, and even foot powered wheels for locomotion.  Parents enjoy taking it easy on rafts, while kids mostly enjoy tipping them over and into the water!

Inflatable tubes are a great way to assist poor swimmers or just take a load off while you paddle about.  The quintessential swimming pool accessory is the inflatable waist ring, designed to keep anyone of any age afloat.  This is a great safety tool for younger kids or even babies — with proper supervision, naturally — who could not swim otherwise, allowing them to paddle about to their hearts’ content.  Inflatable tubes cost about the same as inflatable rafts.

Pool noodles need not be blown up, as the synthetic material traps air and makes it far too light to sink under water.  Pool noodles are just as often used to buoy a child as they are for a match of pretend sword fighting, and some parents have to be careful that the noodles are not used too rashly.  Noodles are extremely cheap, often as low as five dollars, so it is not uncommon for families to take as many as a dozen at a time.

Not all accessories need be taken into the water, some help make it more intriguing from the outside.  Slides and diving boards allow anyone to jump straight on in with a fun twist; case in point, the number of kids waiting in line for their turn!  Diving boards can be set up at heights just a few feet off the water, or to Olympic sized heights of three dozen feet.  Similarly, a slide can be a simple forty five degree angle plastic chute, or can curl around and around before depositing the inhabitant into the water.  Slides and diving boards are more expensive than simple float toys, and may cost as much as a thousand dollars for purchase and installation.

Above ground pool accessories may be the costliest of all, as many above ground pools are designed for heating or even hot tubs.  Custom heaters cost several thousand dollars, but many customers claim the feeling of the hot water is well worth the investment.  Have professional plumbers install any heating apparatus to an above ground pool for proper effect.
photo credit: cdsessums

The Quickest Ways to Ruin Your Pool Accessories

You have a great above ground swimming pool and you take care of it. But what about your pool accessories?  You pay good money to get a typical swimming pool accessory. If you want to find out what the quickest ways to ruin them are, then you’ll want to read this article. Specifically we’ll discuss how not to care for them, improper storage methods and negative effects of dirty pool accessories on your pool.

After reading this article, you should be able to see why you should take care of your accessories.

How Not to Care for Above Ground Pool Accessories
One of the worst things that you can do to your accessories is to leave them floating in the pool when you’re done swimming. This leaves them exposed to the negative effects of both your pool chemicals, while also leaving them unprotected from the harmful effects of UV rays from the sun. Only slightly better is to remove them from the pool but still leaving them out. This at least gets them out of the active effects of the pool chemicals.

What Not to Do When You Store Your Pool Accessory

When you do go to putting your pool accessories away, whether at the end of the day or the end of the season, if you haven’t cleaned them off with clean water, and then dried them off, you’re simply asking for mold and mildew to form on them. This is especially true at the end of the season. They’ll stay wet longer which gives mildew that much more opportunity to grow.

What Dirty Swimming Pool Accessories Do to Your Pool

If you didn’t take the time to clean your accessories at the end of the season, and then the next season rolls around, imagine what will be going into your pool if you don’t take the time to clean them. All the mold and mildew that built up over the cold season will go straight into the pool. Obviously the pool chemicals will handle this, but it will use them up faster. This will cost more money to replace the chemicals sooner.

Conclusion

Take the time to look at your pool accessories’ manufacturers recommended cleaning methods. By not taking the time to properly care for your pool accessories, you’ll shorten their useful time, and cost yourself more money replacing them sooner.

photo credit: jessicafm

How to Maintain Your Swimming Pool Accessories

Overview
If you are looking for a good way to keep your swimming pool accessories maintained, then this article should help you. The best way to keep your swimming pools accessories in good shape is to have an effective way to clean and store them when they’re not in use.

Cleaning your Swimming Pool Accessory
When you’re not using your swimming pool accessories, it’s important to keep them clean. Cleaning them will have several important benefits. First and foremost is that this will help to extend their useful lifetime so that you will be able to get the most enjoyment from them.

Just as your above ground swimming pool has a liner that has been treated to withstand the effects of pool chemicals, your pool accessories will also be affected by those chemicals. So when you know that they won’t be in use for an extended period, be sure to rinse them off and make sure that they’re dry before being put away.

Cleaning them off before storage for the night or the week or the off season will also benefit you and your pool. When you go to use then the next time, they will still be clean, and so should introduce the minimum of foreign particles and bacteria to your pool, which will help keep the pool clean as well.

Storing Your Swimming Pool Accessory
The next best thing to do to help maintain your swimming pool accessories is to make sure that you have a covered storage area for them. When you’re not using them, if they’re not baking out in the sun, they will last much longer if they are not exposed unnecessarily to extra UV rays.

Plus as mentioned above, if you store them in a cabinet or locker, they will have less dirt and dust collecting on them when they are not in use. And having a place to keep your swimming pool accessories will help to keep the pool area looking clean and inviting, so that when you come home after a hard day at work, you will know where your favorite pool accessory is and you can jump right in.

Reaping the Benefits
Keeping your swimming pool accessories clean takes a bit of effort, but the benefits are definitely worth it. You keep your accessories in good shape longer. Your pool stays cleaner. And your pool area is more inviting.  Doing the maintenance regularly will keep your enjoyment level of your above ground swimming pool high.

photo credit: Stig Nygaard