General Pool Maintenance
Changing the water in the pool
For a busy float centre, we advise changing the water in the pools approximately once a year. If the pool has not been used much, a longer period, perhaps as much as every two years, is fine. The salts do not evaporate with the water. We strongly advise purchasing your salt from us as some salt manufacturers provide technical or fertiliser grade salts which are totally unsuitable for a float pod and will cause the water in your pool to turn dark brown or black!
When to add more Epsom salt
300 kgs/660 lbs of Epsom salts are provided with our single-floater pools upon installation and is included in the price of the pool. Our large float pools (that can be used for couple floating) take exactly double that amount, i.e. 600kgs/ 1320lbs. This is enough salt for approximately 300 to 400 float sessions. This means that you will only need to add more salt after around 300 people have floated.
How to clean the pools
All our float pools have an excellent filtration system which cleans the water between each float session - a very powerful magnetic drive pump runs all the water through the filter for 15-20 minutes after each float session - and chlorine or some other form of disinfection (hydrogen peroxide or bromine) must be added every day. Most people add the disinfectant by hand from a bottle, but an automatic chemical doser can be added on when ordering the float pool. With this system, 1.5 litres of either 2% sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) or 8% hydrogen peroxide is added to the auto-doser at one time and only needs to be refilled about once a week.
We advise using disposable filters (as opposed to washable filters) which last for 30 float sessions. We provide 4 disposable filters, plus one washable and one carbon filter for serious contamination with our commercial float pools. In addition to the filtering and adding the disinfectant daily, someone must physically get into the float pool at least once a week to clean all the inside surfaces both above and below the waterline with one capful of chlorine or peroxide in a bucket of hot water for the areas above the waterline. A soft cloth or a sponge can be used to do this.
In addition to our detail Operator’s Manual which tells you everything you need to know about maintaining the float pool, we provide a one-page check list to remind you of everything which needs to be done at the start of each day, after each float session, at the end of each day, once a week, and once a month.
It is our belief that a spotlessly clean float centre is essential. The float pool, the shower and the float room in general must look like no one has ever floated in the float room before! A great deal of attention must be given to the amount of chlorine or peroxide used in the water to kill bacteria and to keep the pool looking and smelling fresh. An entire section of the Operator’s Manual is dedicated to water maintenance.
Maintenance costs
Maintenance costs do vary quite a bit from country to country because of the cost of electricity and water. If you are providing towels for your floaters, laundering can be a significant cost as well. Some centres provide slippers and an extra towel for hair, so giving an exact cost per float session is impossible. As a ball park figure, you can calculate £1.50 to £2.00 per float session which includes everything: ear plugs, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, filters, pool chemicals, salts, electricity and water.