Impact of a little beer in the pool???

[JPMorgan]

We have a rule at our HOA pool that drinks must be 4 feet from the edge of the pool. I'm not sure when this rule was established, but I am questioning it. It is an older crowd here.... no rowdy parties. Average age..... probably over 60. Is it really going to be a problem if someone is in the shallow end of the pool or sitting on the pool ledge having a beer if a little beer spills into the pool? It's unlikely to even happen, but let's say it was a really bad day and we had a younger crowd at the pool one evening and there were a few spills amounting to 1/2 can of beer (or other alcohol) in the pool. Is this going to have any impact on the water chemistry or be harmful to swimmers in any way? I'd like to see us loosen up the rules a bit and let people enjoy themselves.... as long as people are responsible.

 

[mknauss]

Unprocessed little effect. Processed - more effect.

 

[Leebo]

Sounds more like a legal issue to me. We all know there’s gonna be “that guy” who’s drinking more than he can handle who’s gonna end up getting “a little too close” and end up in a horrid situation. Easier to just say nope, no way than it is to deal with a legal situation.

To directly answer however, 1/2 a can won’t do squat to the chemistry.

 

[DrewLG]

We have a rule at our HOA pool that drinks must be 4 feet from the edge of the pool.

Maybe a dumb question, but does the HOA also have a "no glass anywhere in the pool area" rule, or are they relying on the 4-foot rule to prevent a broken-glass disaster?

 

[poolmagazine]

Spilling a little beer as a one time isolated incident in the pool isn't going to disrupt chemistry. Now if you had a raging kegger or tried to simulate a Las Vegas resort, I'd say that's a different story. I think the HOA is more concerned of the cumulative effects of allowing drinks in the pool. If everyone who takes a dip starts bringing drinks in the pool and each one spills a little something, it can cause issues. I know some HOA's have rules about glass around the pool, or drinking alcoholic beverages in general. These rules may seem like a real drag, but in most cases I've found they're just trying to mitigate any insurance issues and get ahead of as much nonsense as possible and keep the pool enjoyable for as many people as they can.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

It’s more than likely not an issue with beer but an issue with glass containers. Breaking glass in a pool is a nightmare. The broken shards of clear glass will be completely invisible under water which will result in the very real possibility of someone stepping on one and getting a very nasty laceration. Then you have blood in the pool, lawsuits, etc.

So the rule was probably put I place to avoid all that. In our own pool there is no glass allowed anywhere inside the pool fence. All drinks are either in red plastic SOLO cups or cans or juice boxes (yes, I still have little kids and, yes, I like to drink from juice boxes too).

 

[JamesW]

Once you allow drinks, people will start bringing in food and the next thing you know people are holding giant birthday cakes in the water as they swim around or maybe a bowl of chili, spaghetti, bananas, ice cream, potato salad, pizza, popcorn, cotton candy, Brussels sprouts etc. and then a food fight breaks out and it’s a disaster.

or juice boxes

Juice boxes are the most wasteful packaging ever.

You have a packaging weight to drink weight ratio of about 1,000 to 1.

You get about 0.10 ml of juice in a package that contains about 45 kilograms of plastic.

The juice is nothing more than water and a tiny bit of sugar and flavoring.

The juice box is empty before the juice can even completely fill the straw.

 

[duraleigh]

Breaking a glass bottle of beer into the pool seems fairly minor compared to wasting a perfectly good beer........my assumption is there is serious punishment for the spillage.

 

[poolmagazine]

Breaking a glass bottle of beer into the pool seems fairly minor compared to wasting a perfectly good beer........my assumption is there is serious punishment for the spillage.

I believe that's called "alcohol abuse".

 

[revitup]

If it’s a pool party, we’re spilling beer in the pool.

 

[mgtfp]

Quick glance back to the original post:

1/2 can of beer

As much as I agree that glass in a pool is a nightmare, but I am with Dave here and we need to focus on the real issue.

 

[JJ_Tex]

I would imagine that the ointments, adult swim diapers and denture cream would be more of an impact to water chemistry than 1/2 a beer.

 

[JPMorgan]

Maybe a dumb question, but does the HOA also have a "no glass anywhere in the pool area" rule, or are they relying on the 4-foot rule to prevent a broken-glass disaster?

Yep.... no glass anywhere in the pool area.

 

[JPMorgan]

Once you allow drinks, people will start bringing in food and the next thing you know people are holding giant birthday cakes in the water as they swim around or maybe a bowl of chili, spaghetti, bananas, ice cream, potato salad, pizza, popcorn, cotton candy, Brussels sprouts etc. and then a food fight breaks out and it’s a disaster.

We have a designated area with tables and chairs for food and people respect that. I just think it's a little over the top to prohibit people being in the shallow end of the pool or sitting on the edge of the pool and having a drink. 99% of the time it is very tame here.... no wild parties or people going crazy. Once in a while we get some younger folks out at the pool at night having some beers.... nothing very wild. In most cases no one is around to enforce the 4' rule in those situations anyway. It gets enforced during the day with the responsible 70 year-olds who would just like to be in the pool and have a drink once in a while. It really gets silly when they prohibit drinking even water in the pool (because we don't know if that's really water in that bottle). Sometimes these rules just go over the top!

 

[JPMorgan]

Just to clarify.... my question has nothing to do with glass around the pool. That is definitely a no-no.... no argument about that. I'm talking about people having drinks in plastic cups or cans, etc. We do also have a rule that drinks have to be covered, so... if you're standing in the pool with a covered drink, i.e. can of beer, it sounds to me like any spillage.... a little beer, a little juice, a little vodka tonic.... here and there is pretty negligible in terms of any impact on the 60,000 gallons of water that we are standing in. I'm guessing that a much bigger issue is when that sweating guy with suntan oil all over him jumps into the pool..... and we don't prohibit that!

I figure I'll probably get shot down, but I'm going to push to see if we can relax this rule a bit. They do regard me as the "pool expert" around here so if I can make the case that "other contaminants" are a lot worse than a little beer getting in the pool maybe they will listen.

 

[RLP]

If you let them have beer in the pool there will be a lot more urine in the pool...............

 

[woodyp]

My pool would go on strike if you cut its beer ration.

 

[JPMorgan]

Let me pose this question a little differently. First, it might be important to know that we drain, clean and re-fill the pool every year, so we are basically talking about the months of June July and August where people would be in the pool with covered drinks... assuming that's the new rule.

If the equivalent of a 12 pack of beer ended up in our 60,000 gallon pool over that time period (that's about an 1/8 of a can of beer per day on average), what would be the potential harm to swimmers in this scenario on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very serious potential harm)?

I'm guessing it's less than .1. That seem about right?

 

[Newdude]

0.0000000000000000000000000001.

Probably less.

I spilled a 12 pack in my HOT TUB in that time frame for crying out loud.

 

[PoolStored]

^^^^This.