Pool water temperature

[Colliam7]

I know everyone has a personal cold resilience, but what interests me is, how different are pool temperatures? Every pool (closed) I encountered has pretty much the same temperature

We use 4 pools in our area, and the water temps vary from 78F to 82 F. I may be too sensitive, but I find the 78 degree pool to 'feel' MUCH colder than the 82 degree pool. But I personally think the ambient air temperature makes a very big difference in the feeling of comfort. The 78 degree pool is in a facility with huge overhead fans, that create a definite breeze, and I will no longer use that facility for teaching Confined Water (particularly Dives 1 and 2). where there is a lot of surface work, because students turn blue, start shivering and learning is impaired. In contrast, the facility housing the 82 degree pool keeps the air temperature much warmer, and that is my pool of choice (and the students' choice as well). My empirical conclusion: while water temperature matters, air temperature is probably of equivalent importance.

I always wear a full 1mm suit, and after a 3 hour session, even in the warm pool, I begin to feel chilled. The students are usually in a 3mm shorty and they get chilled much more quickly in the colder pool, and usually sooner than me in the warm pool.

I cannot imagine teaching Confined Water in a 68 degree pool. I guess it is a matter of what you get used to.

 

[Steve_C]

I swim some laps at a heated salt water pool. Swim about 45-60 minutes at a moderate pace. I am quite comfortable. My grandson takes swim lessons in the same pool. We will play for a half hour afterwards. A half hour or just standing there and watching him play and I am chilled.

 

[admikar]

OK, now I see how you could get cold in a pool. During my OW training it was 1-1 or 2-1, so no "lost" time, at least not much. All my sessions were up to 1 hour.
Thanks for your inputs.

 

[claymore]

Generally multi activity pools are kept at 80-84 degrees, competitive pools are 76-78 and pools with a lot of child or elderly or low activity use will be 86-90 degrees.
When we do the Weekend classes the DM will have a 1 hour snorkel, scuba review and a discover scuba in the morning and a OW I in the afternoon on Saturday. The pool is in the 86 degree area and all the DM and Instructors wear wetsuits to keep warm.

Six hours in the pool and you are cool/cold and tired.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

The pool I use is kept at 84-86 degrees. Pool is dedicated to scuba training and the owner has a 3 yr old and 6 yr old that love to swim so he keeps it warm for them. Even at those temps on Scuba 2-2 /2 hours and students just in swimsuits start to get chilled. Not all but some get downright cold. Especially younger ones with little to no body fat.

Last week we did swims and snorkeling/skin diving skills. This week will be scuba and students will be in suits. Either a shorty or a 3 mil as one of them is a 14 yr old boy that plays lacrosse and does martial arts. He is very lean and showed signs of getting chilled during the swims even though we kept moving.

The other factor that comes into play with pool temps is fatigue. I have found that after 2 hours or so people not used to this start to get tired. That leads to less resistance to cold, shorter attention spans, and less knowledge retention.

Heat loss is also cumulative so even with a warm up session pool days of 4 hours or more are not very effective at anything other than minimizing the costs for the instructor and shop. I don't see them doing much for the students.

 

[dmaziuk]

Our pool is usually in the high 80's. They start off in just their bathing suits.

They get a good lesson in heat transfer.

Fun exercise for those who have access to a proper sports swimming facility: spend some time swimming laps in the lap pool (76-82F) then jump into the diving well (not less than 79F, usually over 80). Then see how long it takes for the water to turn from "hot soup" to "comfortably cool".

 

[fjpatrum]

I got a lot of looks when I showed up to my OW pool sessions with a long sleeve shorty "spring suit". I was the only one who wasn't cold by the end of the first pool session, though. I was really surprised that the instructors gave me looks but I wasn't too concerned about it. I know my own (lack of) cold tolerance and I have no interest in being hypothermic again.

If it's less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit I simply won't get in a pool. Somewhere between 85 and 90 is my sweet spot. Then I can just wear a neoprene top, rather than a whole suit, but generally I wear a suit anyway.

 

[TMHeimer]

It seems our pool is very cold compared to all here. Perhaps we're just used to it? I noticed the chart lists 50-60F for loss of dexterity with no exposure protection. I was in for a 20 minute swim in the Gulf of Mex. Saturday and heard from a LDS water temp. was 58 (maybe that was at depth, I don't know). Felt a bit over 60 to me. But I had no loss of dexterity and could have probably stayed in a fair bit longer.

 

[RJP]

It seems our pool is very cold compared to all here. Perhaps we're just used to it? I noticed the chart lists 50-60F for loss of dexterity with no exposure protection. I was in for a 20 minute swim in the Gulf of Mex. Saturday and heard from a LDS water temp. was 58 (maybe that was at depth, I don't know). Felt a bit over 60 to me. But I had no loss of dexterity and could have probably stayed in a fair bit longer.

But...

A.) "Swimming" and "taking a scuba class" are two very different things
B.) What sort of manual dexterity or fine motor skills did you need/evaluate during your swim?

The biggest issue with students getting cold is the impact on the ability to learn. Cognitive function is one of the first things to go out the window when someone gets cold.

 

[macado]

The pools we use for training are around 79-82f. Even in this water I wear a full 5mm (probably more like a 3mm at this point). Standing around for 3 hours in 80f water will chill me significantly.

All of our students are provided with a full 3mm or old 5mm full wetsuits. Our pool sessions range from 2pm-6pm (4 hours) on Saturday and Sunday. The average student probably spends 2.5 hours in the pool each session. Our ratios are kept 4 to 1 so we try to minimize the time students are spent "waiting." Even still, it's very easy to get cold in 80f water. I feel getting students used to putting on a wetsuit is a good thing, especially if they're going to do their checkout dives with us in a full 7mm. I've even put some very thin people or young kids in old 7mm after first pool session..

Like anything your mileage will vary.