I work for a health club and we keep our lap pool temperature between 78-80 degrees. Recently, my boss requested some sort of article or authoritative piece justifying the temperature. I know I have seen articles in the past on 78-80 degrees being the best temperatures for lap swimming, but it was several years ago.
Does anyone know of an article they have read commenting on this? Any help or direction would be fantastic. Thanks!
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Former Member
Everyone has their opinion, unfortunately as being from the management side of things - numbers and dollars are the the issues I have to look at. Sure I'll admit I would rather swim in a pool closer to 80 degrees (as most, but not all competitive swimmers would). If the only people using my facility were of the same mindset, then there wouldn't be an issue -unfortunately I don't have that luxury in two ways. First off the competitive/lap swimmers can't even agree on a good water temp - we keep ours right about 83 degrees (plus/minus a degree depending on weather, pool maintenance and where in the pool you take the temp). About 1/3 of the lap swimmers think its too warm, about 1/3 think its just right and 1/3 think its too cold. The other issue is the lap swimmers only make up about 1/3 my facility users (depending on the day 1/2 to 1/3) so the other portion of my daily patrons (aqua exercise, swim lessons, rec swim, aqua joggers, sports rehab, scuba, etc.) tend to think the pool is either just right or too cold (a few think its too warm - a very very very minute percentage). We could drop the pool temp to 81 and about 1/6 of our patrons would be happy (the other 5/6 would think it too cold) or I could raise it to 85/86 and have about close to 1/2 happy and the other 1/2 too hot (of course that would drive up my heating bill). So we strive for a comfortable medium, which allows everyone to use the pool with it being not to unbearable.
Everyone has their opinion, unfortunately as being from the management side of things - numbers and dollars are the the issues I have to look at. Sure I'll admit I would rather swim in a pool closer to 80 degrees (as most, but not all competitive swimmers would). If the only people using my facility were of the same mindset, then there wouldn't be an issue -unfortunately I don't have that luxury in two ways. First off the competitive/lap swimmers can't even agree on a good water temp - we keep ours right about 83 degrees (plus/minus a degree depending on weather, pool maintenance and where in the pool you take the temp). About 1/3 of the lap swimmers think its too warm, about 1/3 think its just right and 1/3 think its too cold. The other issue is the lap swimmers only make up about 1/3 my facility users (depending on the day 1/2 to 1/3) so the other portion of my daily patrons (aqua exercise, swim lessons, rec swim, aqua joggers, sports rehab, scuba, etc.) tend to think the pool is either just right or too cold (a few think its too warm - a very very very minute percentage). We could drop the pool temp to 81 and about 1/6 of our patrons would be happy (the other 5/6 would think it too cold) or I could raise it to 85/86 and have about close to 1/2 happy and the other 1/2 too hot (of course that would drive up my heating bill). So we strive for a comfortable medium, which allows everyone to use the pool with it being not to unbearable.
