The best swimming pool alarms and swimming pool gates
30 Mar The best swimming pool alarms and swimming pool gates
The Best Pool Alarms and Pool Gates
Good Housekeeping tested alarms and gates to childproof your pool
Before uncovering your backyard pool, consider this: Drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for kids 14 and younger. An unsupervised child can slip into a pool without a sound or a splash, and in less than two minutes underwater, he can lose consciousness.
Alarms can alert parents to emergencies before it’s too late. In fact, some states even have legislation requiring them. (Learn more about pool safety legislation.) The Good Housekeeping Research Institute tested seven pool alarms (they tell you when the water is disturbed) and six gate alarms (installed on a barrier around your pool, they sound when the gate is opened).
“We recommend using both pool and gate alarms. The more layers of protection, the better,” says Todd Kent, GHRI’s senior test engineer. “Effective alarms are not lifesaving devices, but they can alert parents to an accident, giving them time to act.”
In addition to the pool and gate alarms, GHRI tested a personal immersion detector (i.e., wristband alarm). Here’s how all the alarms fared.