It's that time of year. I have my first baby pool for my son. How do I keep it clean? Even if I dump the water every night and fill it early in the am , it takes a long time for the eater to get warm enough. The bottom and sides seem to get slippery (a little slimy) if I leave the water in for two days.

I don't want to use chlorine. Is there a way to keep the water fresh for a few days?

If not, what can I clean the inside with when the pool is empty to get rid of the slimy-ness?

Thanks,
Ame

By Tink on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 06:32 pm:

I dump mine every evening and refill in the morning. I scrub ours out with dish soap and the carwash brush. That way I don't have to bend over or try to hold the pool up and scrub it. You could use a (new) toilet brush. Same idea.

By Colette on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 07:21 pm:

I used to change the water every day and start with warm water so it wasn't to cold.

By Amecmom on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 07:59 pm:

This is a little too big to carry warm water to and fill with a bucket. It has a waterslide and an arch.

Is there anything I can treat the water with that will keep it for a few days, but will not be as harsh as chlorine?

Would a small amount of bleach - and I mean like 1/4 cup added to the water be too much? Would white vinegar work?

Ame

By Mrse on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 08:50 pm:

I would just call your nearest hot tub / pool people and find out from them, what you should use. I would not put in bleach. I am sure their is something that the pool people can sell you, that would be safe.
I was just doing testing on bleach, I needed to find out how much bleach to use to put in a sink, for when you rinse the dishes, and I had chlorine strips, it turned out to be only 1 cap full, which suprised me, I thought it would be alot more.

By Kate on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 08:52 pm:

I tried bleach last year. I ended up being too paranoid about them drinking it and it getting in their eyes, even though real pools have chlorine. Some chemical maker has come up with a non chlorine chemical for pools. I don't know the name, I just saw it advertised in the K Mart flier.

I went to a hardware store and bought a faucet thingy. Tell them you want something to put on your kitchen faucet so you can connect your garden hose to it. They'll take it from there. I don't know if you can stretch a hose thru your kitchen window out to the pool, but that's what we do. I unscrew our faucet aerator and apply this faucet to garden hose adapter thingy and screw the hose onto that. Then I put both hot and cold on full force and fill the pools. My window is right at the kitchen sink and I put the pools out several feet beyond that. It would work though, with any distance, as long as you have a long enough hose. This way I dump the pools each night and refill each day.

By Conni on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 08:31 am:

You can add a little bleach to it. My sister had a larger kiddie pool on her patio one yr and a pool guy told her to add 1/4 cup of bleach about once a week at night (when no one was going to be in the pool). So I would call a pool place and tell them what size pool you have and see what they say to do to the water. A very small amount of bleach will not harm your ds if it has all night to sit in the pool and dilute. IMO

We have a large above ground pool in our back yard and I use the Baquicil chemicals (suppose to be all natural and less harmful than chlorine). It is so expensive I am ready to switch to chlorine-- I dont care if our swimsuits fade and our eyes get bloodshot! lol

By Nicosmom on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 02:03 pm:

This is a good question. I have yet to set up my ds's pool. It also has lots of different parts and inflatables so it will be somewhat of a hassle. I don't even know if I will be able to dump it over. And when I first fill it up the water is SO cold, it takes all day for it to be warm enough.

By Truestori on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 02:06 pm:

They sell tablets at Walmart especially for little pools. They are there along with all of the other pool supplies.

By Yjja123 on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 03:55 pm:

Just be careful because most of the pools made for little kids are not going to last using bleach or chlorine. It will eat through the thin vinyl. I bought one that sounds like yours. It had a slide, a wading part and a little spray section. My mother-in-law put a little chlorine in it and that was the end of the pool. It had a ton of little holes all over it and when I called the company they said it was because the pools are not made to hold chemicals.

By Amecmom on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 04:44 pm:

Yes, Yvonne, it sounds like what we have. You gave me an idea, though. I will call the manufacturer and ask what they recommend that I put in the water to keep it clean for a few days.
I don't mind changing the water every 4 or 5 days, but every day - and emptying this monstrosity every night - I just can't do.

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll check out the non chlorine stuff and also the stuff that Walmart sells if the manufacturer can't give me a lead.

Ame

By Coopaveryben on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 05:54 pm:

There are drops you can get at Wal-mart for Kiddie Pools. It is in the swimming pool chemicals.