ASK AL

BY ALVARO G. MENDOZA COMMERCIAL ENERGY SPECIALISTS, INC.

WE HAVE A GROWING SWIM SCHOOL BUSINESS AND WE’RE READY ADD NEW FACILITIES. WE’RE EVALUATING WHETHER RENOVATING AN EXISTING POOL OR BUILDING FROM SCRATCH IS THE BEST WAY TO GO. THERE ARE SEVERAL DEFUNCT POOLS IN OUR AREA THAT WE COULD POSSIBLY GET A GOOD DEAL ON. WHAT SHOULD WE LOOK FOR?

Welcome back to our “Ask the Expert” feature, designed to assist you with issues related to swimming pool water, mechanical equipment, space conditioning, and code compliance. Ask a question, and we will try to answer to the best of our ability.

There are many positive and negatives to each strategy, and there have been many successful examples of each – but equally as many disaster stories of how “not to do it”. The concepts here are pertinent for either a new facility or a makeover.

TARGET NUMBER OF WEEKLY LESSONS IS THE KEY!

The number 1 parameter is by far the weekly lesson count. Not only when you open, but when you reach your target growth goals. Why? All pool systems have a finite capacity to process swimmers, depending on pool volume (gallons), turnover rate, pipe size, etc.

If your goal is 500 lessons a week, there will be a much broader range of facilities you could build or move into, including some defunct health clubs, etc. (See more below) But, if your goal is 1,500-2,000 lessons a week, this will require a much more specialized facility with piping and mechanical systems not found in many existing pools.

TURNOVER RATE IS #1

Over the past 30 years of working with swim schools, we have seen a pattern between how many lessons you can (effectively) process and the turnover rate. The turnover rate, or the hours needed to filter & treat the complete volume of the pool one time is a key factor in how many lessons per week you can adequately process. You merely calculate pool volume (gallons) / GPM (gallons per minute) of filter flow and come up with a number normally between 6-hr and 2-hr. So a 6-hr turnover rate (360-minutes) on a 25,000 gallon pool is achieved if your filter flow rate is 69 GPM.

If you are going to offer 300-500 lessons a week, we have found that a 4-hour turnover rate is a good minimum target. However if you are going to offer 1,500-2,000 lessons a week, a 2-hour turnover rate has shown a much higher success rate. Some of the leading swim schools prefer 1.5-hour (90 minute). The problem lies if you set up your pool for 300-500 lessons, and suddenly get more successful, then you might find that your pool will no longer “keep up” with your desired water quality.

Existing Pipe Size Limiting Factor

Next, in both new and retrofit applications you will need to assure that the pipes in the ground will support the flow rate, and the target number of lessons per week. Why? As soon as you start having to bust up concrete to replace pipes, a “good deal on a long term pool lease” doesn’t look so good anymore. Pipes have a finite capacity to carry water depending on the size, and DOH codes also prohibit moving water too quickly. It turns out a 2-inch suction pipe has a maximum flow rate of about 55 GPM in most codes, so using a system with this size pipe to give 500 lessons a week would be a borderline no-go (69 GPM target). But, taking over the same facility and wanting to schedule 1,500-2,000 lessons a week (277 GPM) to achieve your business target is completely impossible.

DON’T PLAN ON REUSING TOO MUCH OF ANY EXISTING EQUIPMENT

Regardless of what type of pool you are planning, Swim Schools are very specialized applications, and are considered “critical water” in some national codes. So, you will need special equipment. A cartridge filter that works just great for a defunct health club or little-used hotel pool often becomes a maintenance nightmare for a heavily used swim school pool. Also minute-byminute control of chemistry and upsized chemical feeders are a real must. Indoor pools should seriously plan on using a NSF-approved UV system, and heating is much more critical to a swim school so you may want to take a good look at when heating system that are about to inherit, and see if it will meet your needs.

In any event, the typical swim school pioneer is normally not versed enough in these types of things, so the moral of the story is to partner up with someone who can help navigate the landmines.

Other Considerations

Whether you are renovating or building a new facility, additional equipment means more space, so you will also want to look at the equipment room (or area) to see if it is adequate, or if there is room for expansion.

If the pool is indoors, you will also want to closely review the dehumidification (or ventilation) system to see if it will help you process the heat and humidity from the more demanding swim school application.

CONCLUSION:

So, if the perfect facility becomes available at the right price and is “mechanically desirable” per above then you’ll probably live longer by not building a bunch of new facilities. But, one really needs to be careful when taking over a defunct swim facility, hoping to turn it into a top flight swim school… as the systems may not be well aligned with your goals.

These same variables above (lessons/ week, pipe sizing, equipment selection, etc) also pertain to building a new swim school as well. The new facility construction process is a long and sometimes very painful one. The most successful swim school operations that we have been involved with have set up good teams of folks (architect, engineer, consultant, supplier, contractor, etc.) and put together enough time and resources up front to make sure they end up with the facility THEY want, not the one that was convenient for pool builder or contractor. Sometimes it meant that the swim school owner had to stand their ground on an issue, and that can be tough…. but operating a swim school is tough too and gets much tougher if your pool isn’t up to your customers’ standards.

Please feel free to forward your questions and comments through the USSSA office, or directly to me via email at amendoza@ceswaterquality.com.

Best Regards,

Alvaro G. Mendoza