swimming pools...regularly cleaned?

does anyone know the frequency with which gym pools are cleaned? i was going to ask at the gym by my house, but i was unsure if they would answer me truthfully. i have a real phobia about "sharing" a pool. i know this is a hangup and have really tried to blow off my apprehensive feelings, but it doesn't work. i just can't stop thinking that the pool is rarely cleaned and that just more chemicals are added....please tell me otherwise!

Thu. Dec 7, 11:29am

i would go by how often you see cleaning people attending to cleaning the rest of the facility. if you never see a cleaning person around ever, then something is wrong. i would like to think that if you do see cleaning going on, then they will be taking care of the pool also.

i've belonged to a couple of different gyms and while other gyms caught my attention/loyalty because of certain classes they offered or type of atmosphere, the thing my current gym has going on that the others didn't is that there is always someone cleaning the bathrooms, or the equipment, or vacuuming the floors. it doesn't matter what time of day i'm there, i'm almost guaranteed to run into someone scrubbing toilets. that makes me feel pretty good/safe.

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 12:21 PM

If by cleaned, you mean emptied and re-filled, I don't think that's done very often. To much water involved!

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 2:52 PM

The water is continually run through filters and "cleaned". The chemicals are checked 2-3 times per day to make sure that the levels are right. If the levels are off, they will usually clear the pool and add whatever they need to get it balanced again. Most facilities clean the deck and the scum line once per day. I have worked at several pools, and have found that they all tend to do things the same way. Pools are probably not as dirty as you imagine.

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 2:59 PM

if a pool is not maintained on a pretty strict schedule it will be visible in the color of the water and very quickly you will notice 'slime' on the bottom.

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 3:02 PM

I think this is a really good question, and I've thought of it often. Does anyone know the cleaning policy of the most popular gyms for pools? Say, the YMCA, Princeton Club, Bally's Fitness, etc? Also, is there a way to find out what kind of chemicals are put in the pools? Sometimes I worry that all those chemicals could cause the same health problems I'm exercising to alleviate!

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 8:55 PM

Chlorine is one of the most corrosive, deadly chemicals on the face of the planet and it is the primary means of keeping water clean. And not just pool water, but drinking water as well. Nasty little microbes love to live in your water, so we add some very toxic substances in very tiny amounts to kill off those ppulations, but hopefully not enough to affect something as large as you or I.

I used to house-sit for people who had a pool and I had to monitor the Ph levels twice a day. Whether or not I scooped out any dirt or leaves was irrelevant - you may get grossed out by that stuff, but it's relatively harmless as is urine (although too much urine can also change the ph level of a pool because it's main component is amonia which reacts with chlorine). I also used to work at a manufacturing facility where we used a chlorine compound to dissolve glass off of metal, so I have a good idea how corrosive it is - also it evaporates quickly and can damage the lungs if inhaled in too high a concentration.

Including a link on chlorine and pool cleaning that really describes pretty well what goes on with the chemicals in your pool.

Link

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 9:48 PM

A lot of places have automatic cleaners...they look like little ATVs on the bottom of the pool. I think they are called squids. Also, most places clean when the pool is closed. When people are in the water, they can get tangled up in hoses and the general motion keeps the crud suspended in the water (to be sucked by the filters) rather than sucked through the hose and then through the filter. That's how we did it at my high school. If your fear is germs, there's plenty of chlorine in the pool to kill almost everything. Usually public pools have a lot more chlorine than home pools because of more people. Sunlight degrades chlorine, so there is usually a strong chlorine smell around a public pool outside. My thoughts, if you can smell the chlorine, and the area is pretty clean, you will be fine. The only time they would shut down the community pool is when someone had a baby in the pool who pooped. I guess there's more than chlorine that needs to happen to clean that mess.

Friday, December 8, 2006, 7:21 AM

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