When choosing the best pool alarm for your backyard oasis, there’s a lot to consider. You want to make sure your family is protected, but you also don’t want to waste money. The good news is that pool alarms can help save lives, but you need to ensure you’re getting the right pool or gate alarm for your swimming area. Here’s how to make sure your bases are covered when it comes to swimming pool safety.
The best pool alarm is one that works with your safety barriers to help prevent unsupervised swimming pool access. Accidental drowning injuries cost around 4000 lives annually, with many more victims needing emergency and ongoing medical care to treat injuries resulting from the drowning event. Alarms tell you when something has gone wrong and an unsupervised person or animal may be in danger in your swimming pool area.
While pool alarms help prevent unsupervised access to the swimming area, they’re not a replacement for safety barriers, such as a removable mesh pool fence, swimming pool safety cover, or swimming pool safety net. Some alert systems, like gate alarms, require barriers for installation, but while others may be independent of barriers, that doesn’t mean they can stop unsupervised access or accidental immersion themselves. At best, they can only let you know there isn’t a moment to spare.
When creating a safer swimming pool area, layers of protection that offer overlapping security are the surest path to saving lives. The best pool alarms provide the ever-present attention and peace of mind you need when you can’t watch your swimming pool 24 hours a day. Whether you have a single barrier installed or a pool fence with a safety cover or net inside it, pool alarms provide the supplemental assurance you need for increased peace of mind.
There are plenty of options when it comes to choosing the best pool alarm for your backyard oasis. Manufacturers are constantly improving the underlying technology, efficiency, and reliability to make sure pools are protected by pool alarms you can count on. They’re also always looking for new ways to help you keep an eye on your pool. These are the top categories of pool alarms and how they work to keep swimmers safer.
Gate alarms may be the most common alert system on the market. In their simplest form, a gate left ajar or opened without disarming the alarm causes an audible notification sound loud enough to be heard indoors. More advanced models may also be connected to the internet to send alerts to connected devices. In terms of user-friendly installation and function, these are some of the best alarms around, but they only work if the gate is used for entry by someone who doesn’t know or can’t reach the disarming mechanism.
Another type of alarm that can either have an audible alarm sound or send alerts to connected devices, these pool alarms use sensors to determine when something enters or disturbs the water. This can be a pet, child, or wind-blown lawn chair–anything large enough that disrupts your water with enough force to create a current that trips the sensor. This alarm needs to have its sensitivity properly adjusted, and you’ll want to make sure any pool cover or safety net is well-tensioned. Otherwise, you may miss a real alert among all the false alarms.
Unlike the other alarms we’re discussing, which are installed in or around the pool, these alarms are installed on the loved ones you want to protect the most. These small electronic sensors, about the size of an AirTag, have sensors that detect immersion, whether in a bathtub or swimming pool. They’re available in watch-like bracelets for children, adults, and seniors or as collars for pets. When the sensor is triggered, it transmits an alert via Bluetooth that is sent to connected smart devices, letting you know the wearer is in danger. While it provides targeted protection to those who may be most at risk, it does nothing to protect a non-wearer and won’t function without connectivity.
The latest development in pool alarms puts AI to work for your pool safety needs. Cameras above and underneath the water constantly monitor the action both in and around the pool. The presence, position, and movements of swimmers are compared to the AI’s algorithm to detect unsupervised access, dangerous behavior, and swimmers who may be in distress. This is the best pool alarm for monitoring both access to the pool and behavior around it. It is also the most complex and expensive option available, and it relies on cutting-edge technology that will “learn” your family’s usual pool behavior when evaluating risks–including both good and bad habits.
You have to understand what functions will best support your pool safety when picking the right pool alarm for you. Just because a system is rated the best pool alarm for some pools, that doesn’t make it right for your pool. Too often, when we hear “pool alarms just aren’t effective,” it’s an anecdote about a pool owner trusting the wrong type of alarm for their safety situation.
Ask yourself where potential risks still exist in your swimming pool safety coverage. Who are you protecting, and how would they try to get around your safety barriers and pool security measures? Adding a gate alarm and calling it a day may not make your loved ones any safer if you have an athletic dog or determined climber to keep safe.
We offer some of the top swimming pool alarm systems directly and through our local independent pool safety experts. Contact a local installer for a free pool safety quote or to get their pool alarm recommendation. Choose the best pool alarm for your peace of mind from All-Safe Pool today.
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