The Best Pool Alarms For Keeping Kids Safe

Why are swimming pool alarms such an important purchase? Sadly, ten people die every day from unintentional drowning, according to the CDC. Of those daily accidents, 2 of them are children.

The statistics are sobering, but we all hopefully know how serious to take water safety, especially when it comes to kids.

With backyard pools, there is no such thing as too careful. You can’t keep an eye on your pool at all times. It’s frightening how quickly a child can sneak away and get poolside before anyone notices.

Pool alarms offer some peace of mind for pool owners. These security devices alert for any unexpected disruption. In some areas, an alarm may be legally required.

If you’re wondering what are the best swimming pool alarm systems to purchase, read on.

Types of Pool Safety Alarms

There are four types of pool alarms. They differ by how and where they detect a disruption. The right monitor for you is the one that suits your type of pool and your family’s needs.

Below are the four types of alarms and what to expect with each.

Gate or Door Alarms

This type of alarm is outfitted to a pool’s gate or to a house’s door with pool access. If any of the children make an unexpected break for the backyard, an alarm will ring out when the door or gate is opened.

For an alarm like this, you don’t even need to buy one specifically intended for pool safety. Anything that arms a door or gate, including smart home sensors, will work.

Surface Wave Sensor Alarms

Surface wave sensor alarms float on the surface of the pool water. When something makes an impact with the water’s surface, it sends out ripples. When the surface wave sensor detects this motion, it sounds an alarm.

This type works for both above ground and in-ground pools and is easy to install and remove for swim time.

Subsurface Disturbance Sensor Alarms

While the previous alarms detect motion on the surface of the water, these alarms have sensors down below. They monitor water pressure and alert when there is a change.

These tend to be more permanent and usually need to be attached to your pool. This usually involves drilling holes in your pool deck. You also can’t remove the device and will have to disarm it for swimming.

Pool Immersion Alarms

An immersion alarm typically involves some type of wearable device. Some manufacturers put the alarm in a wristband while others hide it in a clip or similar. When the wearable monitor senses immersion in water, it sends an alarm to its base which rings out in the home.

Top Alarm Picks

Best Gate Alarm -Poolguard DAPT-2 Water Hazard Pool Door Alarm

This Poolguard gate alarm offers continuous gate monitoring so you can rest easy. Although it’s called a gate alarm, it can be installed on any door or screen with access to the pool.

Once a child opens the armed gate or door, a loud alarm will sound after 7 seconds. The alarm will still go even if the child immediately closes the gate and doesn’t go through it. It will also alert you if the pool gate is left open.

To avoid triggering the alarm yourself, you can use the adult pass that allows you to pass through without an ear-piercing alert.

Best Surface Wave Sensor -Pool Patrol PA-30 Pool Alarm

The Pool Patrol PA-30 Pool Alarm is your best defense in surface sensing. Appearance-wise, it’s pretty unassuming. In fact, it just looks like a chlorine dispenser.

While it can’t chlorinate anything, it can protect your child. If the worst would ever happen, an alarm would sound at both the floating device and the indoor base unit.

If you find you’re being alerted to small disturbances, like leaves hitting the water, this alarm’s sensitivity is adjustable. Phew!

Surface wave sensors are easy to disarm for swim time. It’s just a matter of taking it out of the pool!

Install is incredibly easy. Take note: the 9-volt battery required does not come with the product.

Best Subsurface Disturbance Sensor Alarm -Poolguard In-Ground Pool Alarm

Right off the bat, you can probably tell this isn’t an option for above ground pools. Such pools don’t have the deck necessary for this.

While the so-called “sensing throat” goes into the water, the top half of the alarm does require a hole drilled into the pool deck to stabilize it. It also needs to be centrally located in your pool for the best results.

This monitor doesn’t give a thousand false alarms. Due to its specialized sensing technology, its sensors can differentiate between a child and a strong breeze and some leaves.

The always vigilant Poolguard can’t be turned off, but you can activate the sleep mode when it’s time to swim.

But does it work? It sure does. The Good Housekeeping Institute tested different pool alarms. The test involved dropping an 18-pound weight into the armed pool from different distances. This experiment determined the Poolguard alarmwas 100% reliable.

The Best Pool Immersion Alarm -The Safety Turtle 2.0

The Safety Turtle is one of the few immersion alarms available. As the product’s website claims, it’s a pool safety device that watches your child, not the water.

The main component of this alarm is the turtle wristband. On your child’s wrist is an “always ready” monitor that will alert if it gets wet. If the little turtle is immersed in water, a 100 decibel sounds throughout the entire house.

Once the base is purchased, it can work with an unlimited number of monitors, making it easy to add more child wristbands to the device.

The major downside, of course, is that the child must be wearing the wristband. For vacation homes or pool parties, this is the perfect solution. However, if you’re more concerned with your child sneaking out of your home and into the backyard pool sans wristband, you might need to consider another option.

Wrapping It Up

While there are many pool alarm options, only you can decide which one best suits your family’s needs. Before committing to an alarm, you should ask yourself what kind of protection you need. Different pools and homes need different alarms.

After you make the choice though, you’ll be glad you did. As it turns out, peace of mind is priceless.

In addition to a pool safety alarm, children should start swimming lessons at a young age as swimming lessons have been shown to reduce the rate of drowning by 88% in children aged 1-4. At Sunsational Swim School, we bring the swim school to your pool and even guarantee kids 3 and older will learn how to swim back to the wall after a simulated fall into the pool.Learn more about our private at-home swimming lessons for all ages and ensure your children are even safer around the pool today!

Sarah Sebe

Founder, Sunsational Swim School