They can be the perfect antidote for a hot summer day: super size inflatable pools, big enough for adults to swim in or even play water volleyball. They are cheap – just a couple hundred dollars for a pool that’s 12 feet in diameter, or $500 for a 12-by-20 pool that’s 4 feet deep. And they’re relatively easy to set up, taking less than an hour to get ready for water. No wonder such retailers as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target and Toys R Us have loaded their shelves with them.
But a growing number of safety experts say consumers are not factoring in the cost of keeping those grown-up kiddies pools safe. These soft-sided watering holes are no different than real pools and should be surrounded by a fence to keep young children away, safety experts say. And the water needs to be kept clean as well, necessitating pumps, filters and chemicals.” As a whole, these are an unsafe product,” said Donald Mays, senior director for product safety at Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports.
The magazine recently issued a safety alert about these pools, as did Good Housekeeping and the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group for the insurance industry.
Unlike kiddies pools, which are usually emptied after each use, super size pools – a 12-by-20 pool, 4 feet high, can hold as much as 4,313 gallons – would be inconvenient to drain between swims. Many come with filters to encourage water retention. Safety officials say a 4-foot fence with a self-closing gate should surround any pool not drained after each use – even those only 2 feet high -. However, that requirement would make these pools, which range in price from $50 to $750, cost-prohibitive.
“The inflatable pool has the same issue as any pool, and that is, it is an especially fatal attraction to young children,” said Mark Ross, a representative for the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This summer, at the request of safety-standard-setting organization ASTM International, the commission staff held a meeting with safety advocates and manufacturers to discuss concerns and possible solutions. Retailers invited but did not show up.
“No one came up with a viable solution,” said Mays, who is co-chairing an ASTM task force to see if voluntary industry safety standards can developed. As much as price, the manufacturers stress the ease of setup. One brand, for example, sold as the Family Quick Pool, another as Easy Set. No digging or sand is required, just level ground. Often sold with air pumps, these pools can inflate within minutes, the packages all say.
In most stores, there are few, if any, local laws may require cautionary notices that fences. The pool manufacturers note that they put such advice on their packages. However, a quick scan of several pool boxes shows that these warnings are typically at the bottom, in far smaller print than the promotional information.