Within the last few years pool technologies have exploded. New pool automation products are being released almost monthly that make pool maintainance that much easier. With their ease of use and minimal input effort, it is easy to figure out why these products are here to stay. Automatic pool cleaners have been around for a long time while pool cleaning robots are a fairly new technology for residential pools. There are robots that you do not have to plug into your skimmer, but instead work off 120v power. They have their own cartridge filter and an onboard microprocessor that remembers where it has been and cleans an entire pool in 3 hours all by itself. You put the robot in the pool, press the on button and 3-4 hours later its done. Thats it, no more hand vacuuming.
For the tech savvy pool owners, there are pool control panels that intergrate with the iphone and ipad that make pool operations easy to control from your phone. You can program pool temperatures, lighting, freeze protection, pump operation and about almost any other thing that has an electrical switch or setting on it.
Pool cleaning and chemicals are usually the most time consuming chores in winnipeg when it comes to pool ownership. Cutting down on chemicals and using an automatic chlorine/ph tester and injector make testing your water manually a thing of the past. Basically the unit tests the water and adds the proper amount of chemicals to keep your pool water balanced.
On new pool installations UV sanitation and cleaner systems almost make adding any chemicals a thing of the past. You can now cut down on chemicals by 75% by adding a UV sanitizer. The ultraviolet light kills 99.99% of bacteria. A residual amount of chlorine is recommmended because your pool can have dead spots where the water is not circulated as well.
Underwater pool lights are now LED (which use 75% less power) and almost any colour or colour combination is now possible. Coloured lights of 10 years ago used a conventional style halgon bulb and a colour wheel (mechanical wheel that looked like a pizza with each piece being a different colour) that rotated changing the colour of the light. With LED there are no moving parts and the light lasts thousands of hours!