A lot of pool owners think that they should just toss the old floats and just buy a new one. While it might be tempting to jump into something right away, you should think about how to store your pool float correctly. What follows is a few suggestions for that.
You should have your old float in a bag in a corner of your pool, away from the walls and the pool’s water. Be sure that the bag doesn’t overhang the pool’s edges so that the bag does not tear. In fact, you want to allow enough space between the bag and the edges of the pool so that you can flip the bag around if you need to.
The next thing you should do is cover your old float with some type of material that allows water to get to it but blocks some of the moisture. You can use paper or plastic. You should put the paper or plastic over the top of the old float and then poke holes at intervals in the paper or plastic. For this job, you should use a sharp pair of pliers or a large drill bit.
After that, you should close the hole on the top of the paper or plastic to make it more secure against the edge of the old float. The last thing you want to do is make the float too moist by allowing water to soak into the paper or plastic. You can use a container to keep the water inside, but keep in mind that there is a limit to how much water will be able to go into the container, and your float is probably not that big.
You will find that you have enough room when you first put the old float in the container, but this will cause the liner of the container to be not quite as tight as it could be. So, you should just keep changing the water out of the container.
Be careful when using the container. When you are storing a large number of floats, you might want to try moving the container back and forth. This helps if the container becomes wet, but remember that it is OK if you pour water into the container.
If the container gets full, the way to store the old float properly is to take the container outside to the deck, or it can be tossed into the rain barrel and the container can be left under the rain there. This is a great tip for keeping the float dry if you have a patio, pool table, or other area where the sun gets too hot.
What you should do, however, is to leave the container under the umbrella in the shade, and the only way you should use the umbrella is to let the old float dry under the sun. Otherwise, it will stay a wet mess all summer long. This is just something to consider, but don’t be tempted to use a plastic bucket or bottle to put the float in.
A more recent development is the use of wind-up toys to float the water up onto the float. While this may be a neat idea for kids, it isn’t too practical. If you aren’t too attached to the idea of children floating your float, it can still be good to keep the container inside the pool.
When you are storing your pool floats, you should also consider protecting them from the elements. You can use plastic bags, or even a few layers of plastic sheeting.
A big tip that many people forget to mention is to clean the floats after every use. That means that you should clean the buckets every week or two to keep your float from becoming stained. For this reason, you should use the same containers that you use for your floats.
Storage in that way will also keep your floats dry. In fact, a little bit of dust is a good sign that the float should be stored, because there may be bacteria floating around.
