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Controlling Humidity in Exercise and Endless Pool Rooms

Dehumidifier Corporation of America (DCA) is an industry-leading provider of indoor swimming pool room dehumidifiers, specializing in hydrotherapy rooms, endless pools, and exercise pools. Controlling humidity in these rooms is crucial, as excess moisture can lead to a variety of problems.

Compared to ordinary pools, endless and exercise pools often contain wave motion technology and/or water jets that can lead to extra moisture evaporation. Additionally, these pools are often situated in small-volume pool rooms that could experience issues when exposed to high moisture loads. These factors are important to consider when selecting and sizing the proper dehumidification system. At DCA, our pool room dehumidification systems feature reduced CFM with complete moisture removal capacity to accommodate unique pool room challenges. Endless Indoor Pool

Controlling Humidity

To prevent indoor pool room humidity issues, it is recommended to maintain a relative humidity of 50% to 60%. To properly control humidity in exercise and endless pool rooms, it is recommended to do the following:

  • Maintain proper room temperatures. Indoor pool dehumidifiers should maintain the room air temperature at two degrees higher than the pool water temperature, as this limits the amount of water vapor entering the room’s atmosphere. 
  • Perform the correct amount of air changes. For optimum circulation, you’ll need 4 to 6 air changes per hour in pool rooms with average amounts of window/door surface area and outside facing glass, whereas you may need 8 to 10 air changes in pool rooms with over 50% of wall/ceiling area or outside facing glass.
  • Have proper ducting. While the pool room dehumidifier itself is important, it’s only half the equation. The other half is having a duct system that controls condensation by distributing the dehumidified air over all outside facing glass surfaces. 
  • Include a room vapor barrier. An integral vapor barrier, normally visqueen plastic or equal, must be applied to the warm side of the walls and ceilings directly under the wall treatments, such as wood, green board, or other. All overlapping joints and penetrations, such as electrical wall outlets, light switches, windows, and doors must be taped to provide a non-permeable vapor barrier cell.  
  • Operate under a negative pressure vacuum. If your pool room is open to the public, you should operate under a negative pressure vacuum. This means that when a door is opened, air will move into the room rather than allowing wet air to escape. This can typically be achieved by adding a room exhaust fan. 

Consequences

By not controlling moisture build-up in your exercise and endless pool rooms, you’ll eventually encounter issues with corrosion formation, rusting, mold, and mildew. When pool water warms to swimming temperatures, excess moisture laden with bromine and chlorine disinfectants releases into the indoor pool room, attacking everything it comes in contact with. This can lead to problems such as:

  • Deterioration of the surrounding building
  • Health concerns related to mildew, mold, and other air quality issues
  • A burning eye sensation for swimmers, leading to an uncomfortable swimming environment

Factors that contribute to indoor pool room humidity issues include:

  • Inadequate ducting for your dehumidification system that doesn’t properly circulate dehumidified air throughout the pool room
  • Lack of a dedicated dehumidification system for your exercise or endless pool room
  • Improperly functioning or inadequate ventilation system
  • Improper building construction, such as a lack of a room vapor barrier or low-quality glass doors and windows

Swimming Pool Room Dehumidification Systems from DCA

Exercise and endless pool rooms pose various unique dehumidification challenges not seen in ordinary pool room installations. If these challenges are not addressed from the very beginning, it could lead to catastrophic and costly consequences. At DCA, our sales engineers are here to help you solve these problems and deliver the properly sized DCA dehumidification system for your indoor pool room project. 

For more information about our dehumidification systems, or for help finding the best solution for your exercise or endless pool room, contact us today or request a quote.

The Benefits of Indoor Pool Room Dehumidification

Residential swimming pool dehumidifersAn indoor pool, whether it’s at home or a hotel, spa, or gym, can be one of life’s greatest pleasures or your worst nightmare depending on how well you control the room’s humidity. Children and adults alike love to splash in the water and enjoy the security, comfort, and convenience of an indoor setting any time of the year. However, an indoor pool also comes with its share of challenges and responsibilities for the owner or operator, and one of those is ensuring proper pool water chemistry while maintaining a clean and inviting atmosphere.

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YMCA Dehumidification Equipment

Kakudmi unsplashCommercial swimming pools, such as those found in Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) facilities, serve as an excellent space to exercise and play. However, the high moisture levels often found in these areas necessitate the use of specialized dehumidification equipment to prevent excessive humidity, temperature levels, and mold development. By employing commercial dehumidification equipment, facility owners and managers can better stick to the strict air temperature, humidity, and quality standards required of their facilities.

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What to Consider When Heating Indoor Swimming Pool Water

Indoor pools add value and year-round enjoyment to your property, whether you have one in your hotel, gym, spa, or private residence. Maintaining appropriate water temperature is critical to continued pool satisfaction. Most indoor pool operators heat pool water 2–4°F below the pool room’s air temperature to minimize and control evaporation. They are increasingly using this to their advantage by installing commercial dehumidifiers that channel heat from the refrigeration cycle back into the pool room in the form of space heating or assist in pool water heating.

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How to Extend the Life of Your Pool Room Dehumidifier

The pool room dehumidifier is the most crucial piece of HVAC equipment for protecting the integrity of the pool room structure from mold, mildew and corrosion.  It controls the relative humidity, room heating and cooling, and can also maintain the correct pool water temperature when equipped. Assuming that the correct capacity dehumidification system was selected initially, many long years of service can be expected as long as the owner adheres to a proper maintenance schedule.   

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Why You Shouldn’t Adjust a Pool Room Thermostat

Monitoring and managing indoor humidity levels can be challenging in any type of space, but indoor pool rooms present unique difficulties. Without careful attention and management, imbalanced room air temperature and pool water temperature relationships in these rooms can cause corrosion, condensation, mold, mildew and poor air quality affecting swimmers comfort and building integrity.

In commercial indoor pool rooms, trained employees are typically on hand to manage dehumidification processes, temperature monitoring, and pool water chemistry. However, residential pool rooms usually can’t rely on employees for upkeep, nor can most semi-commercial spaces in hotels and condos; service technicians are available, but their vists are usually infrequent. 

Partnering with knowledgeable HVAC professionals — ones that can provide useful feedback, recommend reliable technology, and suggest customized management plans for monitoring and controlling humidity levels — can allow for significant time and cost savings.

Pool Room Dehumidification Basics

To properly manage an ideal indoor pool space, structured dehumidification standards are essential to follow. One of the most important standards is to maintain pool room air temperature 2 to 4 degrees warmer than that of the pool water temperature.  This relationship allows minimal pool water evaporation into the air of the pool room. Having the pool room air temperature cooler than the water temperature encourages pool water evaporation into the air causing dehumidification systems to run longer than needed.

It may seem practical to alter a system’s dehumidifier set points during daily pool use, but this can be highly disruptive and not recommended.  Normally pool water temperature set points are constant and by extension the room air temperature will be constant as well.   Below are three common situations illustrating this.

  • In an attempt to save on energy and operating costs, some pool managers will cover a pool and then lower the room temperature during the time the pool is closed. This practice is not recommended but can be done if needed. Before the pool cover is retracted the room air temperature must be brought up to 2 – 4 degrees warmer than the pool water temperature or an instant fog will be released, covering the windows of the room with condensation.
  • When large groups of people gather in the pool room for a party or an event, the room temperature rises naturally and the guests may find the room air temperature uncomfortable. If the dehumidifier set point is dropped to accommodate the guests, the dehumidification system may not be able to keep up with the rising room air temperature and moisture output from the imbalance.
  • Pool managers looking for a way to accommodate a diverse swimming audience may want to quickly heat up or cool down the pool water by adjusting the temperature of the thermostat or the water heating source. However, this can quickly double the room’s moisture load, making it impossible for even an oversized dehumidifier to keep up.

Pool Room Dehumidifier Management Solutions from DCA

While adjusting a pool room’s dehumidifier’s controls set points may seem like a quick, practical way to save money, it can ultimately ruin a pool room. At DCA, our expert engineers create custom pool room dehumidification systems to perfectly suit clients’ unique applications. We provide fully automatic dehumidification systems, allowing for stress-free, reliable humidity management control.

One of DCA’s newer control systems, Honeywell Prestige, allows for remote viewing & adjustment of pool room temperature along with the relative humidity set point. This versatile solution also features a color touchscreen for optimal ease of use. Our team provides all initial setup services.

To learn more about the Honeywell Prestige or discuss how our dehumidification systems can help with your specific pool room application, reach out to the team today.

Creating a Maintenance Plan for Your Pool Room Dehumidification System

At the Dehumidifier Corporation of America (DCA), our engineers frequently come across pool room dehumidification systems that have not been consistently or effectively maintained.

High turnover is common among pool room maintenance personnel — particularly in hotels, motels, and other hospitality-industry facilities — but to ensure optimal safety, performance, and longevity, it’s essential to establish a comprehensive dehumidification system maintenance plan that adheres to manufacturer recommendations.

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An Inside Look at Pool Dehumidifier Replacement

In order to remain functional, comfortable, and safe, swimming pool areas must be equipped with high-quality, reliable dehumidification systems. As with any complex system, pool room dehumidification equipment requires regular maintenance and, periodically, replacement.

Determining whether replacement is the appropriate action, however, can be daunting or confusing, as diagnosing problems is often a complex process in itself. And once system issues have been identified, an operator must determine which course of action will best rectify them: repair, retrofit, or complete replacement.

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Want to learn more troubleshooting tips ?

We’ve only looked at three common problems here, but there are a host of other issues that can cause dehumidifier malfunctioning.

To read more about what can go wrong with dehumidifiers and learn how to fix problems quickly and efficiently, download our free dehumidifier troubleshooting guide today.

Download our Free Troubleshooting Guide
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