Aussies cool in the pool

The Australian swimming team was undertaking preparatory training in Singapore. However, Swimming Australia (SA) investigated the training pool facilities and decided the ambient pool water temperature in the humid local conditions was too warm.

Consequently SA tried to find a way to reduce the water temperature by up to three degrees to create more swimmer-friendly water conditions. They approached Davey Water Products to investigate how that might be able to happen. This led to the production by Davey of two innovative Cool Pool pump systems. They tested them in Melbourne and shipped them to Singapore.

National Head Coach, Leigh Nugent, declared them an outstanding success.

“We’ve been running them for about eighteen hours a day and they have been effective at keeping the water temperature to 28.5 degrees Celsius,” he says. “Without them our swimmers would be in water of 31 degrees Celsius – effectively too hot to train in.

“Davey has supported the Australian Swimming Team significantly in its preparations for the 2011 World Championships and ultimately the London Olympics.”

Created as two self-contained packages, the Cool Pool units each employ a Davey Power Master 450 electric pool pump which recovers the pool water at a rate of 450 litres per minute, then distributes it across the pool surface through two Davey fire fighting nozzles.

Davey’s production co-ordinator Robert Hodder says that the water drawn out of the pool is recirculated as a fine mist through the air, cooling through evaporation, before being delivered back into the pool.

“The trajectory and water surface coverage obtained by the nozzles is also adjustable in accord with the size of the pool,” he says.

Each of the two Cool Pool units is fabricated as a self contained unit mounted on a 304 stainless steel base to give an easy means of lifting and handling.