An inspection today, keeps the water slide closures away! 

Water slides are a great attraction to any indoor or outdoor pool and can provide hours of fun and excitement for children of all ages. Just the appearance of a twisty, colourful slide can bring multiple patrons into a facility to test it out.

Though a slide may seem like a simple piece of equipment, there are many aspects that need to be maintained and checked regularly to keep everything running smoothly and looking great. In addition to regular maintenance, and annual slide inspections by Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), a slide mechanic can be a great asset to keeping your slide running how it’s supposed to be. In fact, in most jurisdictions it is required by TSSA to ensure the slide is being properly maintained. Yearly inspections, along with regular repairs and maintenance are performed by a licenced slide mechanic to prolong the life of your slide and most importantly, keeping your patrons safe and sound.

Like our own health, we don’t just visit the doctor’s office when there is something critically wrong with us. We try to be proactive in order to prevent serious health issues by visiting our doctor for regular check-ups. Your facilities slide should be treated in the same way. Regular check-ups or inspections by a slide mechanic are critical in maintaining the overall health in a water slides life span. Here are a few items inspectors will look for during their visits:

The joints that hold your slide together receive the most wear and tear on the slide. The friction of swimmer, after swimmer, after swimmer continually sliding over the joints will wear down the caulking that fills them in, forming low areas or uneven surfaces. These low spots will create a “bump” feeling when sliding over and if left untreated will eventually become uncomfortable for riders. Caulking should be inspected regularly and when required your slide mechanic will bring the caulking back up to the proper level, eliminating any comfort issues riders may have been experiencing.

Stemming from low areas in the slide joints, leaks can also pose a regular issue for water slides. Once a joint's caulking gets worn down (or worn away completely), water will start to seep through the joints and slowly drip onto not only the deck below, but also the slides support structure. Water ponding on the deck, especially in the case of a tiled deck in an indoor facility, can cause a slip hazard for excited children who are in a hurry to get to the slide. Water dripping onto a slides support structure will not only create unsightly rusting of steel members, but over time can severely damage a slides structural integrity, resulting in very costly repairs. Annual visits by your slide mechanic will ensure that any leaks that may have developed are dealt with and eliminated before any serious damage can happen.

Hidden in the bowels of the pools mechanical room, and unseen to the public, as well as most of the staff is perhaps the most important part of a slide system. Operating daily, unheralded and often overlooked- though not as exciting in appearance as the slide itself, a slides pump and piping network provides the slide its life blood- water! A slide mechanic will ensure the heartbeat of the slide is working properly by checking for leaks, cracks, thumps and thuds that are not an element of a healthy system. Pressure and suction gauges are also checked to ensure that there are no issues internally.

* This is a guest blog post written by Lee Battams, President of Aqua Plans Aquatic Consultants Inc. The knowledge and experience Lee displays on routine site visits have ensured his clients, including Acapulco Pools, remain confident in his abilities in aquatic design.

Comparing James Bond to Pool Bonding may be farfetched, and when thinking about pools, these words would be near the bottom of the list of safety features people may think of. But, like a secret double agent, Pool Bonding acts like an invisible bodyguard, keeping unsuspecting swimmers safe from the hidden, evil Electrical Shock! And like any good superhero, a trusty side kick is needed, and that’s where “Grounding” comes in. Together, Bonding and Grounding form an invincible super duo, and act as one of the most important aspects to a safe swimming environment when designing and constructing a pool system, secretly keeping the people of the pool safe from the insidious dangers of Electrical Shock.

As mentioned, every Superhero needs a side kick, and when guarding from harmful electrical currents, this case is no different. “Bonding” and Grounding” each have their own jobs, and each are needed to keep the pool area safe.

BONDING. POOL BONDING.

Bonding’s superpower is an important one. It joins all electrical pool components and metal components within five feet of the pool together to a thick copper wire, whether it's a mechanical item such as a recirculation pump, simple deck items such as a grab rail or stanchion post, or even unseen items like reinforcing rod encased within the pools concrete walls, forming a safety loop. This safety loop ensures all items have the same voltage, eliminating the possibility of voltages being transferred from the pool to a swimmer, instead containing them within the safety loop, and directing them back to a panel. If needed, a breaker on the panel will trip, dissipating the harmful current within the loop. 

GROUNDING, THE TRUSTY SIDEKICK

Grounding, the trusty, yet just as important sidekick, is also silently keeping the patrons of the pool safe, day after day. Grounding power acts in conjunction with Bonding, using the safety loop created by the bonding process, and adds a connection to the ground. This ground connection ensures that any harmful current within the loop is directed away from the swimmers and into the ground, where it dissipates and disappears harmlessly. 

A POWERFUL SUPER DUO

Bonding and Grounding, when properly implemented into the design and construction of a pools system, will continue to act in conjunction with one another, forming one of the most powerful safety duo’s within the pools natatorium, keeping the evil Electrical Shock at bay. Next time you're in a pool, enjoying your swim, listen closely. If you hear a faint tune, it may just be the theme song to the undefeatable super duo of Bonding and Grounding, quietly and courageously continuing the never-ending fight with Electrical Shock, keeping the people of the pool safe for years to come!

* This is a guest blog post written by Lee Battams, President of Aqua Plans Aquatic Consultants Inc. The knowledge and experience Lee displays on routine site visits have ensured his clients, including Acapulco Pools, remain confident in his abilities in aquatic design.