So do you all shower before entering your pool?

[titaniummd]

I heard on the news that the biggest contaminant to be concerned about is E. coli. So showering, if properly done, should take care of most of that, right?

I shower, personally, but my daughter and her friends laughed when I made that request. So what's the consensus?

 

[jblizzle]

Ideally everyone would shower ... in reality no one does. I am bad sometimes and jump right in after getting all dirty and sweaty working outside

Keep proper FC levels based on your CYA and you will be fine.

 

[Isaac-1]

Same here

Ike

 

[Shane1]

I remember as a kid at swim lessons we would have to shower but it was not the type of shower that would remove any type of e-coli. It was more like...stand under this cold A?? water while you watch your friends jump in the pool. Sometimes the pool is the only shower I get....

 

[jblizzle]

I have a nephew that used to not shower all summer ... he figured that he swam enough to not need too :lol:

 

[techguy]

I thought the pool was to wash off the stuff you pick up while mowing the lawn and picking up dog "dirt". LOL

That's my favorite time to get in the pool. It cools me off like nothing else.

 

[Charlie_R]

So I'm not the only one on "poop patrol"? That is a daily chore with our small yard.

While it's not a proper shower, I do try to at least run a wet washcloth over the more "contaminated areas" before getting into the pool.

 

[Patrick_B]

Charlie, you are a dignified man I must say.

You can come swim in my pool anytime, but bring your own wash cloth. :lol:

 

[mcaswell]

I remember as a kid at swim lessons we would have to shower but it was not the type of shower that would remove any type of e-coli. It was more like...stand under this cold A?? water while you watch your friends jump in the pool. Sometimes the pool is the only shower I get....

When I was a kid, the neighborhood pool had a "shower before you get in" policy, but it was loosely enforced... all you needed to do was duck through the shower for a second or two so that your hair got a little wet, and they'd be ok with it.

--Michael

 

[titaniummd]

Ideally everyone would shower ... in reality no one does. I am bad sometimes and jump right in after getting all dirty and sweaty working outside

Keep proper FC levels based on your CYA and you will be fine.

I worked on the hard today and I was so tempted. But, I was working on my pond and who knows what mess is growing in it.

 

[rodmitch]

That's my favorite time to get in the pool. It cools me off like nothing else.

Yup. This right here.

 

[Seanhan]

I rember going to Germany in 1977 and staying at a Holiday Inn , they had a big indoor pool in the basement.
And there was a attendant that watched you take a shower and put on a bathing cap.. What a drag!!!!
When we wipped out a frisby they went ballastic !!!
Kicked us out of the pool !!!!

 

[duraleigh]

My dog, despite repeated requests, never showers before entering the pool. If she ain't doin' it, I ain't doin' it.

 

[dtlight]

I understand some northern European countries are pretty militant about showering before you get in the pool and spread around the e. coli love. I just use the hose if I've been working in the yard.

 

[titaniummd]

My dog, despite repeated requests, never showers before entering the pool. If she ain't doin' it, I ain't doin' it.

I actually gave my dog a bath before he went in.

 

[duraleigh]

I actually gave my dog a bath before he went in.

My dog would bite me if I tried that.

 

[peterdaly]

I have never seen anyone shower before getting into a privately owned pool. Ever.

 

[titaniummd]

I actually gave my dog a bath before he went in.

My dog would bite me if I tried that.

The bath or the swim? Hahahaha

 

[mariane]

When I was a kid we had to shower before swim lessons at the public pool. The lifeguard would rub the inside of your elbow with his/her thumb. If she rubbed off dirt, we were sent back to the shower. ugh.

 

[chem geek]

The need for showering is mostly for higher bather-load commercial/public pools. It's not about the E.coli since the bacteria is killed very quickly by chlorine. The issue is all the sweat, fecal matter and dirt contamination that creates chlorine demand and creates chlorinated disinfection by-products. A clean person going into a pool may require around 4 grams of chlorine for every person-hour they are in the pool. Someone who has not showered could require double that amount of chlorine or even more and if they bring in dirt then that creates more trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs) and MX. So not showering increases the amount of chlorine needed and its associated cost and increases the disinfection by-products. There is also the increased risk of transmitting protozoan oocysts for Giardia if one does not wipe oneself well so has fecal matter (Cryptosporidium is more associated with diarrhea).

For residential pools, the bather-load is typically very low so the dilution effect from the relatively large volume of water per person makes the difference between showering and not showering less noticeable. It's probably wise to at least rinse off one's feet to prevent bringing in dirt into the water since that is the greatest source of the most mutagenic disinfection by-products (such as MX).