Each January brings a fresh start with new possibilities and a renewed focus on improving the quality of your life. You might pledge to save money, spend time with loved ones, or improve your mental and physical health, but have you considered how your pool and/or spa can play a role in your resolutions this year?
Setting small, tangible New Year’s resolutions for your pool or spa could make big improvements on your free time, health, spending and environmental footprint.
If you want to spend more time relaxing in healthy water and spend less time and money maintaining it, here are 5 New Year’s resolutions for your pool or spa in 2023.
1. Use Less Toxic Chemicals With Healthy Alternatives
As a pool and spa owner, you’re probably all too familiar with the chemical odor, red eyes, skin irritation and bathing suit damage from water that’s been over-treated with toxic chemicals. Not only are these symptoms uncomfortable, but they’re also indicators of harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs). In your pool or spa water, DBPs form when chlorine reacts with contaminants, like lotions, sweat and urine, in the water. Exposure to these DBPs can lead to health issues, like bronchitis, asthma, allergies or Lifeguard Lung.
If you’re looking to start 2023 off healthier with less toxic chemical exposure, your first resolution should be to add an alternative sanitation system to your pool or spa. However, when it comes to reducing chlorine and its inevitable DBPs, many alternatives fail to hit the mark. By choosing an alternative, like Clear Comfort’s AOP, that’s been awarded and proven to scale up to water parks, you can trust it to give your lasting healthy, fresh-feeling water quality.
For home pools and spas, Clear Comfort’s patent AOP sanitation systems only require drinking-water chlorine levels or less to deliver water that looks as good as it feels – without the harmful effects of DBPs. Especially during the continued chlorine shortages in 2023, you’ll be glad you dodged rising chlorine prices and opted for an available, reliable chlorine alternative, like Clear Comfort.
Want to know what to look for when choosing a chlorine alternative? Download our free Homeowner’s Alternative Sanitation Checklist.
2. Enjoy Your Pool or Spa More & Maintain Less
If you’ve already invested in your quality of life by having a home with a pool or spa, why wouldn’t you get the most out of it? Too many pool and spa owners spend too much time maintaining their water and not enough time enjoying it. But, to reduce your water maintenance, you need the habits and tools that allow you to maintain smarter, and not harder.
In terms of approaches, being proactive with your pool care (and not reactive) can help you save time and money in the long run. Examples of protective water care include, pre-scheduling your pool opening and closing procedures, balancing your water chemistry every week, algae prevention, regularly cleaning your pool surfaces, etc.
In terms of equipment, install automated in-floor pool cleaning systems or pool care automation systems that can measure, monitor and make recommendations for your water treatment. Additionally, many chlorine and salt water pool system owners have switched to easier chlorine alternatives, like Clear Comfort’s AOP pool treatment system. Since Clear Comfort’s patented AOP technology can keep water clean, clear and sanitized with drinking-water chlorine levels or less, pool owners can reduce handling, storing and dosing of heavy salt and toxic chemicals.
In addition, the only system maintenance needed for a Clear Comfort AOP pool system is one 5-minute cartridge exchange each year.
“There is very low maintenance,” Deanna, a Clear Comfort pool owner in Porter Ranch, California, explains. “All you have to do is watch for a light to change color and then you even have additional time after that to change the [cartridge]. It’s just plug-it-in and plug-it-out and you’ve got it. You don’t have to take the system apart or a call the pool guy you can do it yourself.”
3. Swim Sustainably With Energy-Efficient Upgrades
You may not realize it, but your pool pump can be the largest electricity consumer in your home. If you want to save money and make your home more sustainable, join today’s modern pool owners who have ditched noisy, inefficient pumps, and upgraded to efficient variable-speed pumps. Single-speed and dual-speed pool pumps can be big energy hogs and have become an outdated method. If you own a single-speed pump, trading it in for a more efficient variable-speed pump can make a huge difference in your energy bill.
An important thing to understand about pool pumps is that running at lower speeds for longer periods of time will cost much less than running it at high speeds for shorter periods of time. It might seem like if you run a pump at half the speed for twice the amount of time, the energy consumption would even out. However, because of a principle known as the Pump Affinity Law, the energy savings grow disproportionately larger the more you lower the speed of your pump. According to this principle, if you reduce your pump speed by 30% you will see a 70% reduction in power consumption. When you lower the motor speed by half, power consumption is reduced to 1/8th of the original draw. So this year, take a closer look at your pool’s pump to see if you could be saving money and improving your pools’ overall energy efficiency.
4. Turn Your Backyard Into a Relaxing Staycation Getaway
With so many of us spending more time at home, 2023 is the perfect time for you and your family to add more flare and functionality to your outdoor pool or spa with a lounge area, outdoor kitchen or fire pit. With endless designs and add-ons available through countless vendors, you can easily add small or large items to your pool or spa to turn it into the ultimate at-home getaway.
When you own a swimming pool or spa, your staycations now include a variety of additional fun activities and plenty of opportunity for relaxation. Forget traveling time or expenses, packing and unpacking when you can walk outside right to your backyard wonderland. Today’s outdoor residential pools have come a long way from simplified designs of the past. Extravagant details, water features, outdoor living environments, equipment technology and advanced water treatment systems provide top notch ambience and can be a safe place for entertaining family and friends.
Additionally, there are proven health and physical fitness benefits to swimming or spending time in a spa. Swimming can elevate your heart rate, build muscle strength and is great for cardiovascular fitness. Swimming reduces stress and does not have any negative effects on joints that running or jogging possibly can. Other health benefits include burning calories, weight loss, and increased energy levels. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your pool or spa in 2023 and taking advantage of all the benefits from a swim or a soak.
5. Get Your Pool Safety Covered
In addition to resolutions that make your swimming environment more enjoyable and beautiful, don’t forget about making it safe. A pool cover is the perfect safety accessory that can provide your home protection against accidents from an unguarded pool. Over the years, pool covers have made innovative strides and are not just used for annual pool closings. If you have children or pets, a pool cover could provide more safety protection than a fence around your pool.
Depending on your home’s environmental and personal needs, there are two main pool cover choices:
- Solar Pool Covers:
Perhaps the least expensive and easy to use pool cover, solar pool covers can be installed by the homeowner and is a bubble wrap blanket that is very light in weight. It absorbs the sun’s rays and heats the pool during the day along with keeping the heat from escaping the water at night. They are simple and only require one person to cover and uncover the pool. - Security Pool Cover:
Unlike some of the other covers, security pool covers are specifically designed for the protection of accidental drowning and extra protection for children and pets. Straps are secured by springs and anchors in the pool deck. They are available in mesh and solid vinyl materials. Check with a professional pool cover company on which one is right for you.
Whether you want to swim in a healthier swimming environment, be more energy-efficient or save money on rising chlorine prices, these new year’s resolutions will set your 2023 pool and spa season on track so you can enjoy the best possible swimming experience this year.
Want to start the New Year with the healthiest, freshest, easiest pool and spa water treatment available? To get a head of the chlorine shortage’s price increases and scarcity in 2023, learn more about Clear Comfort’s award-winning AOP systems. Click here for more information.