Paddling pool

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Ecosse
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Paddling pool

Post by Ecosse »

Sorry if this sounds like a daft question... or doesn't have an answer other than the obvious 'drain it' but I thought I would ask in case anyone has any bright ideas /experience:

We acquired a lovely large paddling pool from a departing family - one if those metal framed canvas sided hexagonal ones, approx 3m across. It's primarily for our kids, but sits on our terrasse and, of course, guest's children are welcome to use it, too.

We've only used it once so far, but, it being so hot here at the minute, we left the water in (even though it's not deep, it does take quite a bit of filling) but within 3 days, it was obvious the water was no longer nice (green slime forming on the canvas) and a spectacular array of water creatures had colonised... from interesting water boatmen to less desirable mozzy larvae.

So my question is, does anyone know of a way to keep the water fresh, or do we just have to keep emptying it and refilling it every couple of days? It's empty for the moment.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I got some advice from a pool company. It's a long time ago now, but I was advised to purchase some chlorine and possibly something else, dose the water and this basically extended the length of time we could leave the water in.
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bornintheuk
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Post by bornintheuk »

Just pour in some bleach (chlorine) and mix it up.
What would Plato do ?
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

bornintheuk wrote:Just pour in some bleach (chlorine) and mix it up.
I think unless you want sued for burning the skin off your guests, you may need to be a little more scientific that this.

You can use chlorine tablets on a small pool and 1 tablet is good for about 1000l. I'd also be testing the chlorine level with some strips as overdosing would be way too easy on such a small volume of water. The water will last longer but without pumping and filtering, it will no doubt go cloudy eventually and need replacing.

I'm sure teapot will be along to give you a more accurate answer.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

There are several over the counter options I see. Argos sell a kit and here's a product from Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chlorine-Dosing ... B002AAQZ2U
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bornintheuk
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Post by bornintheuk »

kevsboredagain wrote:
bornintheuk wrote:Just pour in some bleach (chlorine) and mix it up.
I think unless you want sued for burning the skin off your guests, you may need to be a little more scientific that this.

You can use chlorine tablets on a small pool and 1 tablet is good for about 1000l. I'd also be testing the chlorine level with some strips as overdosing would be way too easy on such a small volume of water. The water will last longer but without pumping and filtering, it will no doubt go cloudy eventually and need replacing.

I'm sure teapot will be along to give you a more accurate answer.
I was assuming that some level of common sense would be available, perhaps wrongly.
If and when "teapot" comes along I am sure he will tell you that test strips are not accurate and that for chlorine tablets you will need some form of dispenser.
Without any circulation a little "javel" mixed with water in a bucket and added to the paddling pool water will last for a few days but the water will need replacing regularly. Calculations can be done to get to 0,6 ppm based on known volume of water and strength of the "javel" used, but if its old stock it will not be the advertised strength on the packaging, so accuracy is desired but not always possible.
You could always buy an expensive test kit, but for a paddling pool a little OTT
What would Plato do ?
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teapot
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Post by teapot »

It's too hot to raise an argument and it's only a small paddling pool. If the depth of water is 300mm that's around 16m3?

Bleach, javel is cheap but it will get burned up by the sun reasonably quickly if the pool is in the sunshine so you'll need to add a little bleach every four-six daylight hours about 160ml of brico eau de javel 9.6%

It maybe easier to get a flying saucer shaped dispenser from a supermarket for a couple of euros, they usually have smaller ones rather than the full sized pool ones and these could take the smaller multi action or lent 20gram pastilles rather than the larger galets. These will dissolve slowly over a few days and have a stabiliser added that will help slow down the chlorine loss to the suns UV.

I hate dip strips as everyone knows but in this case they would fit the bill but a DPD and Phenol red tester would be my choice for not much more and you can always buy the refills.

The advantage using the pastilles is they are made to adjust the pH as well so it should remain in range better than with javel, obviously depending on the water in the area.

Happy paddling!
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Ecosse
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Post by Ecosse »

Thanks everyone - I'll have a look in the supermarket for a dispenser as it's due to be hot here for another couple of weeks at least and I would prefer not to burn anyone's kids, least of all my own.

Being Scottish, I don't have much experience of paddling pools... or indeed, hot weather :lol:
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