New Pool Construction - Central Texas - Pool alarm question

[bbeckmann]

Hi everyone,

We've just kicked off construction on our pool, and my wife really wants a pool alarm in case someone falls into our pool when we're not watching. I don't know anything about these, but she mentioned that some pool alarms need to be installed as part of the build. So, here I am, asking for the guidance from the community.

My questions are:
1) Is this a good additional security measure for our pool?
2) Is there an opinion on which alarms work best, and will I need more than 1?

The pool is 36x20. Here's a pic of the design:

Finally, I've been lurking on this forum for quite awhile and it's definitely helped me when getting pool bids. I appreciate the guidance that's available here. After I post this, I'm off to be a TFP Supporter!

Thanks!

 

[JohnT]

Re: New Pool Construction - Central Texas - Pool alarm quest

Pool alarms are generally nuisances, tripping during storms or for no apparent reason, and they provide very little extra safety. A good fence with self-latching gates and door alarms is far more effdective and is most likely required by law anyway. The Safety Turtle is not bad if you have young children visiting or playing in the yard, but it doesn't help if a neighbor's child wanders into your yard.

 

[davelinde]

Re: New Pool Construction - Central Texas - Pool alarm quest

By local ordinance we had to install pool alarms on all the windows and doors leading from our house to the pool. They were so obnoxious that we've removed the alarms from the windows and disabled the alarm on the door. The problem is that the conforming alarms can only be disarmed for 15 seconds at a time - I suppose this is to stop people from disarming them and forgetting... in practice it makes them useless.