Pool safety gates, alarms,etc. ...please read!

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

I have a bit of a problem keeping me from making a decision and I need help! Of all of the townhouses at WH that we have looked at, all have the child safety gate and alot also have the door alarm. I would prefer to have both in place just for peace of mind. The thing is that one of the townhouses I am considering only has the door alarm because the owner says that two year olds can open those gate easily anyway. I have only stayed in the condos and have never even seen the gates, so could someone please give me some opinions please. The difference in this townhouse and another I am considering is almost $500!, but of course safety is more important than any amount of money!!

 

[bszoo]

You might want to consider the plastic wire ties to keep the pool gate closed. These are cheap and should work well - anything for peace of mind.

 

[Emma1]

Iám going through the same thing. Our youngest is four, and although we really want a splash pool for our older children, Iám considering staying in a condo instead. Not everyone has the pool gate and alarm. It's my understanding that some units have both, or only some have the alarm or just the gate. This is a concern for me as well. Iám too having a hard time deciding. There are a couple of homes that I really like, but I like the idea of having an alarm in place.

 

[TC1026]

My house has both pool alarms on the doors that go out to the pool deck and a child safety fence that goes in front of the pool. The fence can be opened in one location with a latch. Not sure if they are all the same, but mine is hard to open!! Maybe it's just adult proof... I am also real clear with the "Rules" for my boys...6.5, 4.5 and 1...the one year old is easy cause we don't let him out with out one of us.

 

[KayR]

The rules are that a pool vacation home in FL has to have one safety device. (Gate/alarms/?). On the fences/gate systems I have seen, if they are fastened correctly a 2 year old is going to have to be tall and strong to open one (I have trouble sometimes!).

No one system is perfect. As long as you have one of the safety features, you should be OK. The alarm buttons are up high and to be honest, most adults forget to activate the alarm bypass (its quite funny sometimes when you are sitting in a vacation home, listening to the alarm going off in the home next door to you all the time - those alarms are LOUD!).

I have taken my son to FL since he was two and my dd since she was 5 weeks old. I have no qualms about them being at a home with a pool. The biggest safety feature is adult supervision. Yes the alarms and fences help, but at the end of the day, direct adult supervision is the key to preventing the unthinkable!

There are some alarm systems where a child wears an part of the alarm on his/her wrist and if the child ends up in the pool, the alarm sounds. If you wanted extra peace of mind, I would look into getting one of those.

Hope that helps,

-Kay

p.s. I do prefer having the two preventive measures, however if I has to make a choice, I personally would rather have the alarm than a pool fence (if the fence is left open, it is basically not worth having).

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Well I am actually the type of worry wort that can think up any scenario and worry about it. I watch my kids like hawks, but I even worry about things like them getting up at night and me not hearing them or something..that's probably why my 3yr. old still sleeps in my room right now!!LOL But, I wanted to be able to let him(he will be 4.5 then) sleep in the twin bedroom with his sister or brother on the trip and have all the safety devices possible to ease my mind! I realize I worry too much, but I suppose that is better than not enough! My dh even thinks I am a worrying nut! Thanks for the info so far!

 

[Emma1]

Welcome to the club. Iám the same way. Iám trying to give myself a deadline of when I have to have my reservation booked by.

Thank you everyone who has given us information about the alarm/gate. How deep are the pools? I thought I read about three feet.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Hi Emma1, I am glad there are others like me that even though we watch our kids like hawks, we still worry every second of the day!! As far as the pools, actually I believe they can be up to 5 foot deep in the middle..this is what I have been told or read on all of the townhouses that I am considering in Windsor Hills. The last time we went my youngest ds was 18months old, and I couldn't even bear the idea of a pool! I even found an owner that time that had everything totally childproofed in his condo and I made sure to have carpet instead of that dangerous ceramic tile!!LOL!! I guess I should just make sure my ds has had swimming lessons and stay at the place that has the most locks/alarms and gates possible!!It's tough to be such a worrying parent!

 

[TC1026]

My house is in Windsor Palms and the pool is about 3 feet on the right side ( looking at the pool from the house) attached to the Jacuzzi and goes up to about 6 feet on the left side. For the single houses our pool is average. Some of the larger houses may have a slightly large pool, but I doubt that they would be much deeper than 6 feet. Still, we always keep up the pool gate and the alarm can't be missed...it is a little loud. My older two have taken swimming lessons and are comfortable around the water, but we don't let them swim with out one of us near by!

 

[sympatico]

We had a hard time opening the latch on the pool fences at Windsor Hills. We've stayed in two different townhouses and a 6 br pool home and found all of the latches on the fences hard to open. No two year old will do it. The hook latch is at the top of the fence which is a good 4 1/2 to 5 ft high. It is difficult to open because the latch is on the inside toward the pool so you have reach over and try to do it. Besides that the sections are pulled very tight in order to fasten the top and those that we stayed at you had to squeeze the two poles together to get the latch clip to work.
We had 4 little ones with us at the 6 bedroom and was happy to have both the pool alarm and the fence. And as was said the button to push for the alarm is at the top of the door so hard to reach.
This the wristband alarms that Kay mentioned:
http://www.safetyturtle.com/products_child.html

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

SYMPATICO--Thanks so much for that description of the safety gates at Windsor Hills. I think as long as the townhouse has an alarm and a safety gate I will sleep okay at night! I just wanted some opinions since this owner told me her two year old could open the gate very easily and so they got rid of it and only have the alarm. I don't understand why they wouldn't have just kept it for extra security, but she told me she had no room to store it. I think I will just go with one of my other top choices and I will feel much better. Thanks everyone.

 

[gqchicago]

SYMPATICO--Thanks so much for that description of the safety gates at Windsor Hills. I think as long as the townhouse has an alarm and a safety gate I will sleep okay at night! I just wanted some opinions since this owner told me her two year old could open the gate very easily and so they got rid of it and only have the alarm. I don't understand why they wouldn't have just kept it for extra security, but she told me she had no room to store it. I think I will just go with one of my other top choices and I will feel much better. Thanks everyone.

That will be a problem for that owner then, as the builder installed the safety gates on EVERY home in Windsor Hills to be in compliance with local laws / safety codes. The HOA will also insist that the pool fence be present. They are not easy to open at all, you must be 4-5 feet tall and the hook latch is purposely designed to be difficult for kids to open.

I suspect that their fence perhaps broke or had another problem and they maybe didn't want to replace it? In any case, it's code that all the homes with a pool must have one, for any homes built after a certain date (which applies to all of Windsor Hills).

Personally, we have both.

 

[sympatico]

That will be a problem for that owner then, as the builder installed the safety gates on EVERY home in Windsor Hills to be in compliance with local laws / safety codes. The HOA will also insist that the pool fence be present. They are not easy to open at all, you must be 4-5 feet tall and the hook latch is purposely designed to be difficult for kids to open.

I suspect that their fence perhaps broke or had another problem and they maybe didn't want to replace it? In any case, it's code that all the homes with a pool must have one, for any homes built after a certain date (which applies to all of Windsor Hills).

Personally, we have both.

Hi, George, it's been a long time since I've heard from you.
Have you been on vacation all this long time.

 

[Chelley00]

The place we stay only has the alarm, but we set it off by accident and it is extremely loud and freaked our DS out so bad he didn't want to go near the pool for days If anyone goes out that door without turning off the alarm, you'll know it

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

I guess I just worry alot, and since it is a device that "could" malfunction I don't see why the owner I was speaking of took the gate away completely? I mean it was already there for extra peace of mind ya know.

 

[muffyn]

not sure I am following.

is it a worry the child will get out the back door into the pool?
as an adult I have a hard time opening those sliding glass doors , sometimes, but some homes have a bar you put in the track to keep it from being opened, or bring something (okk ,we drive, umm if you fly,, mmmm)

or for those doors that open regularly, they show on those infomercials those gizmos you put on the doors, that if you open them & break the connection the alarm goes off.. I'd look into that

hmm.. saw a door knob alarm on asseenontvguys.com

the door one is called first alert.

um maybe ask in the budget board how these work? I have seen various comments good & bad.