10 Most Popular Pool Ideas
 
Swimming pool design, from simple to elaborate, has pool companies overflowing with new ideas for your home. The basic rectangle and kidney shape designs have evolved into themed multi-tiered dams, desert oases, tropical ponds and meadow lakes. Today, your pool can become a wall-less wonder, reaching out to the view beyond.

The variety of new products for cleaning, sanitizing and heating pools is endless. Psychedelic robots and automatic chlorinators are but two popular innovations. Energy efficiency is also on many pool-owners minds and luckily the industry has responded.Whether you are considering putting in a new pool or looking for new maintenance options, this list is for you.

Cool Pool Features
The Infinity Edge: The edge of these pools seems to disappear, to blend into the landscape beyond. This design concept treats the pool as an extension of the home's natural surroundings. It is ideal for a backyard with unobstructed sweeping city or country views because it draws your vision toward the "invisible" edge and the view beyond. At the pool's edge, water flows gently and evenly over a ledge into a catch trough so that the pool appears to have no walls.
Unspoiled Spillways: Provide new avenues for water to flow from its source or when it leaves the pool. Choices for faux stream and spillways vary from the slick architectural look of tile and concrete to pastoral scenes of water gently splashing over rocks.
Spectacular Waterfalls: Showering swimmers under the sun, swimming pool waterfalls range from no splash falls with smooth linear designs to small-scale simulations of Niagara Falls. Some waterfalls are built to pour off the edge of a platform extending over the pool, providing that shampoo-commercial experience and a secluded spot under which a swimmer can seek refuge or privacy.
Fantasy Fountains: Bubbling fountains splashing into the air not only create a sound shield for your pool area, but also keep your pool cleaner. The water's purr depends on your choice of nozzle-from tight lipped, letting water slip out like glass, to wide mouthed, letting it splash.
Smooth Pools: In-ground or above-ground, vinyl-lined or fiberglass, they give the same slick surface usually associated with a spain other words, no more scraped knees and elbows from rough plaster. The vinyl-lined variety comes in a kit for both in-ground and above-ground, perfect for do-it-yourselfers; and the in-ground fiberglass, while a bit more expensive than concrete, is factory-made, comes in one piece and requires fewer chemicals to maintain.

Keep Your Pool Sparkling
Magnetic Water Conditioner System: The thin film of oil on your pool's surface and the mineral deposits on tile that pool filters often miss disappear with this device. It turns these substances into larger particles so that the filter can pick them up. Simply strap it to the return line before the water enters the pool and your chlorine applications will be more efficient and unsightly scale and scum will be gone.

Meet Ultrabot, it's self-contained and requires no installation ¨C just plug it in.
Automatic Pool Cleaners: Self-propelling and able to slide up a pool's side, these dirt removers offer pool owners more time to sit and dip. Models vary from using oscillating brushes to pleated seals that scour up, down and all around. Sta-Rite, Polaris and Kreepy Krauly are popular models and Aqua Products makes psychedelic Aquabot Bravo in bright blue and yellow that lights up as it cleans.
Salt Chlorinators: Pool supply companies offer a machine that changes salt to chlorine automatically. Select a model according to pool size, install, fill with salt and, presto, your pool is automatically chlorinated. This machine produces small amounts of ozone that keep your pool's water sparkling clean. Plus, there's no more storing of hazardous chemicalsthe salt comes in sealed paper bags that can fit snuggly anywhere.
Energy-Efficient Motors: Switching to a pump that uses less power conserves energy. Although more expensive than a standard pump, energy-efficient models will pay for themselves in the long run. Some power companies offer rebates that make the cost of changing a motor no more than running the existing one. Contact your power company for the names and brands of pumps that are energy efficient.
Solar Heating: Heat your pool using the sun's energy. Water is pumped through solar collectors and deposited into your pool. Thermostats regulate the temperature making your pool comfortable all year round. Most systems come with a back-up heater and solar equipment for roof-top installation.