NEHA
Swimming Pool Technologies_Are These the Answer
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the presentation Swimming Pool Technologies: Are These the Answer?To ask questions about this presentation, please join the presenter in the Networking Lounge at the designated time listed on the Agenda.
I would now like to introduce Kevin Post, principal and Studio Director at Counsilman-Hunsaker.
Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Swimming Pool Technologies, Are These the Answer?
I want to start by giving just a brief background about why I developed this presentation.And as a consultant and as a past pool operator, I always found that I was learning new information about new products, new trends from the person who was trying to sell me that.And so of course they’re always going to tell you honest information, but they’re also always telling you honest information about the good.They’re not always telling you about the challenges you may face or maybe some of the bad side.So this presentation was put together to be a nonbiased approach to looking at different trends in the industry as well as new equipment that’s available, and just giving my personal opinion as well as the opinions of operators and other professionals in the industry that I’ve talked to.
So I want to make it clear that while we may present some specific products and pieces of equipment, we don’t represent – I personally don’t represent – any of these.They’re really just meant to be my nonbiased approach, nonbiased opinion about what I’ve seen.
So in the session today we’re going to talk about why we continually see advancement in pool technology as well as the trends.Then we’re going to go into some of those technologies looking at things that we see in the pool systems, mechanical systems.What we’ve seen from the competitive swimming side.Trends that we’re seeing in the recreational swimming side.We’ll end with some of the technologies in the wellness swimming.And also just a little talk on natural pools because that’s been a hot topic in recent months.
So we talk about why we need continual advancement.You know, we have to recognize that while pools are fun and exciting and provide so many benefits, they are hazardous.We have both physical, microbiological, as well as chemical hazards all available at swimming pools.
When we look at the physical hazards, the most common, the most recent one that everyone’s familiar with is our entrapments.So thanks to the Virginia Graeme Baker Act we now have legislation in place to help minimize and prevent those entrapments in swimming pools.However, prior to that we knew that there were 80 reports of entrapments resulting in serious injury.And of those about 74% really were resulting from children under the age of 14.So while the Virginia Graeme Baker Act really only applies to commercial pools, we know that it is a good start and making sure that it makes its way down across the entire industry.
The other thing that we’re becoming more and more aware of is the spread of RWIs, or Recreational Water Illnesses.And these are illnesses, whether it’s bacteria, viruses, protozoa, that can be spread through pools, through other recreational waters.And of course we know how to prevent them, we have means to prevent them, but we need to stay on top of it.And obviously looking at new and better ways to stay on top of it is (inaudible).
And the last issue, we looked chemicals.One of the biggest challenges we’re facing today, especially for indoor pools, is combined chlorine or chloramines.A recent study from the Health Council showed that 17% of bathers urinate in swimming pools.Of course, not all are quite as obvious as the young man in the video, so we actually believe that that number is probably much higher when you take into account people that won’t admit to it.
Additionally, in theUnited States 83% of bathers do not shower before swimming.Where we go into Europe, it’s pretty much a common acceptance that everyone is going to shower before getting in.They view it as a bathtub, and they don’t want to be swimming in everyone else’s bath water where in the States we view it and say hey, there’s chlorine in the water so we’re good, we’ll let the chlorine take care of that.And as we do more and more research, we’re realizing that that is really not true and really probably one of the biggest challenges that we’re facing.
So what are some of the solutions that we’ve seen to help solve those problems?
One of the biggest areas of advancements over the past five to ten years has been in filtration.The biggest area has obviously been in the incorporation and use of regenerative media filtration.Regenerative media filters have been around for a long time, but they’ve really become prevalent probably in the past five to ten years.And in today’s world, I would say that every new project at least has the discussion whether regenerative media filters are appropriate.Now the biggest challenge is the cost associated with that.
So what we’re expecting to see, and we know that there is some research going on, is enhancing the use of high rate sand filters and basically trying to keep up with the benefits of regenerative media but maybe on a lower cost.One of the things that we’re looking at is the air assisting backwash.This is actually old technology that was used back with gravity fan beds.You would inject air along with the water to help agitate the sand.The goal would be to see – you need about 20% of the water used today in a traditional high rate sand filter with air assisted backwash.
The area that regenerative media filters have a big benefit is their ability to remove a very fine particulate.Obviously this is done through the filtration medium so there is research going on about can we use a sand filter with a different type of media and get similar reduction.And some of those may include flocculent additives that help improve what the pathogens the filter can remove.
And even with regenerative media where it’s probably the leading trend in filtration today, we’re still seeing continual advancements there, obviously trying to enhance the technologies, improving efficiencies with filtration, as well as understanding better the media that we’re using and maybe getting better filtration with better media.
And, of course, the ultimate goal is to try to make these filters more cost effective so that they can become the standard across the board.
Another area in filtration that we’ve seen, and this is relatively new to the pool market, it’s actually come from the fish hatchery market.So if you imagine a fish hatchery, there’s a lot of organic, inorganic waste being produced, and it’s on a regular basis, and trying to keep that clean and keep those fish healthy so they survive is critically important.So these drumfilters are used in fish hatcheries, and the reason is a traditional filter would get clogged so rapidly, just so quickly, that it just wouldn’t make sense.You’d be backwashing sand filters, you’d be backwashing regenerative media, it just didn’t make sense.
So with the drumfilter, it actually rotates the drum every 15 minutes, and it will actually go through a backwash expelling everything that it has collected every 15 minute.Whereas when we think about our traditional sand filters, you know, we may go several days, weeks, or in low-use pools maybe even months without a backwash.And that means all of the skin cells, all of the inorganics that have been grabbed by the filter end up sitting there, reacting with the chlorine, for several days, weeks, or months.With a drumfilter it’s expelled every 15 minutes and before a lot of those reactions can even happen it’s put out to waste.
Another nice thing about these is it’s not a recommended change in your typical filtration, it’s actually an enhancement.So this filter could go pre to your existing filter, basically be a pre-filter and then you would go through your traditional sand filter or your regenerative media filter where you would still see, obviously, extended filter cycles, and they wouldn’t load up quite as quickly.So there’s still a big benefit there.No change required to what you’re currently doing to certainly have some great advancement in cleaning outthat backwash and stopping the formation of chloramines before they ever happen.
Another trend that we’ve seen over the past couple of years is the use of Sphagnum Moss in swimming pools.Several years ago I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Knighton, and he shared the story of how he decided to bring Sphagnum Moss into the pool market.And it was really interesting.He was reading an article about World War I veterans, and depending on how their wounds were treated had very different outcomes in terms of the likelihood of having basically an infection.And what it was was some of the soldiers would use the Sphagnum Moss to treat their wounds.Some of them were using traditional cotton.What is found over and over again was that the individuals who used the Sphagnum Moss had a significantly less likelihood of getting any type of infection.And it was really attributed to that theSphagnum Moss must have some sort of antimicrobial activity happening.
So Dr. Knighton started to explore how this could work within swimming pools.And what he found was that essentially it works like a tea bag where it absorbs some of the bad things that are floating around in the pool and also excretes some other chemicals that help primarily with biofilm is what we’ve seen.
Again, so with all this information, we have seen that it’s very expensive.And so of the facilities that I’ve talked to, I seem to get about a 50-50 result.Fifty percent of them love it.I know we worked with the city of Denver and they use it for all their indoor pools.Another community that we’ve worked with in Texas tried it out for about a year, said yeah, they saw a lot of benefits but it just wasn’t worth the cost.
So I’ve seen that about 50-50.A lot of that is hearsay.But I followed up with a group who did a little bit of scientific research.And I’ll credit – this is the Foothills Recreation in Colorado.And their City Council is very strict in terms of spending money, and they want to make sure they have some sort of return on their investment.And so they allowed the aquatics professionals to test one of their bodies of water and spend the money on the Sphagnum Moss, and they did it with their leisure pool.
And this chart is really just a snapshot of several weeks of testing where they put the moss in, they took the moss out.They put the moss in, they took the moss out.And during those weeks they would test their chlorine usage, as well as their pH buffer, in this pool was CO2.And they looked at their monthly, weekly costs for chemicals with the moss in and with the moss out.And then they applied the cost of the moss.
And what they found in their leisure pool was that even with the added cost of the moss, they were saving more money on chemicals from, again, that reduction of biofilm, reduction in the work the chlorine has to do, it was actually saving them money so there was going to be a return on their investment.
With this information, the City Council approved them to put it in all of their pools.The next pool they put it in was one of their therapy pools, so they did the same testing.Put the moss in, take the moss out, look at the chemical costs.And what they found here was that there was no savings for this particular body of water.In some months the chemical costs actually went up, some months the chemical costs went down, but in the instance, it was never enough to cover the cost of the purchase of the moss itself.
However, even though they weren’t saving money, they had numerous benefits from their clients.They did see benefits from their maintenance department, and they decided even with the added cost they were going to keep it in.
So that kind of backs up what I’ve heard from other people about the 50-50.Certain pools it seems to have a huge benefit.It even has a cost savings.Other pools it might be more expensive, but certainly people are still feeling beneficial about it.
The next area is probably one of the newer products that has come on the market, and we’re certainly doing a lot of research and following up on facilities.It’s called Clear Comfort.And this is an advanced oxidation process where basically it injects the pool with hydroxyl radicals as well as a secondary disinfectant which is hydrogen peroxide that’s created as a residual.
Again the benefit here is that it can have a reduction in the crypto, so helping with RWIs.It also can improve air quality.And because it’s supplementing what the chlorine is doing, it can help reduce the demand of chlorine.And even in some residential purposes they’ve done no chlorine pools.Obviously that would not be allowed for commercial applications, but certainly have seen the benefit that because it produces a residual, it can actually help eliminate the need for chlorine, at least at some level.
Of course the marketing claim is that they are less expensive than UV but do similar improvement in terms of the chloramine reduction, removal of crypto, as well as improvement in air quality.
Again the nice thing about this product is it’s just an enhancement to the current system.We don’t change the type of chlorine we’re using.We don’t change the pH buffer.We just add a side stream that would inject this product in there.So in the facilities I’ve seen that have tested it, again I have no concern because if it really isn’t working, if it’s really not doing everything it said, we can certainly remove it or turn it off and go back to operating our pool as is.
If you follow up with Clear Comfort as a company, again I’m not here to promote their product, but they’ve done a lot of scientific research and background, and they can certainly share all the wonderful things.As I mentioned earlier I don’t necessarily care about the sales pitch, I don’t necessarily care about all the – I’m sure this data is certainly critically important, but I wanted to know what the operator felt.You know, was it a benefit.And so I followed up with the operator for the facility that these tests were done, and this operator not only runs the pools, but also swims on a regular basis, actually gets in the water, teaches lessons as well as some of the water aerobics.So she’s in the water on a regular basis.And a couple things that she told me was one, she loves the product because it was installed for about a year and she had to do nothing with it.It basically just ran.At the end of the year they had to replace the cartridge.The company had come in and did it for them, but she said between that year, between replacement cartridges, there was just no maintenance, nothing that she had to do.
However she did comment that she could tell whenever they were doing testing, and that every time they turned the system off, similar to putting the moss in, taking the moss out, they would turn the system on, turn the system off.And the company was doing testing in terms of, you know, what they were finding in the pool and was it keeping chlorine balanced and settled out.But the interesting thing from the operator’s standpoint is every time they turned the system off, she could tell.And she would run up to them and say, what did you do to my pool today.And this was really impactful to me because it was not just the fact that it was yes, improving the water quality from a scientific standpoint, but it was actually improving the water quality from a point that an individual who used the pool on a regular basis could tell the difference, really in a matter of hours, the benefit that this product was having.
So the only challenge that I see right now is that it is new to the market, and so I have no answers of what this will look like in five to ten years.But in five to ten years I’m certainly interested to see what it looks like.
Another area of advancement from our mechanical rooms has been the advancement of chemical controllers.This slide is just meant to represent all the pieces of equipment that could be tied and controlled – either monitored or controlled – from your chemical controller.And at the end of the day it’s really – it’s everything.Everything from our chemical levels and actually monitoring how much chlorine we have in the tank where it can send alerts to your service company and have them bring a delivery.It can be pressure differentials for your filters and actually automate the backwash.It can control VFDs and pumps and not just doing your chemicals.Additionally it can be tied remotely to outside systems for remote monitoring.