The Perfect Pool Temperature

When it’s super hot outside, I like to jump into a cold or cool pool. When it’s a little chilly, I like to be in a pool that feels like bath water.

These are my pool temperature preferences.

To each his own though. The perfect pool temperature really depends on your personal liking. Do you like hot water or cold water? Does it depend on the mood or the type of day it is? These are questions only you can answer, but if you need some help figuring out what you SHOULD like, we are here to help (of course).

The American Red Cross suggests that your swimming pool be at 78 degrees if you are a competitive swimmer. That doesn’t mean you’re extremely talented at Marco Polo or Cannonballs, it means you do laps and lots of them…Micheal Phelps style.

Intense swimmers generate a ton of body heat. When you’re outside the water, body heat is corrected when you sweat, and if you’re anything like me, you don’t need a pool to be soaked (ew, gross). When your sweat evaporates it’s your body’s cooling system in action. It’s science. It is there to control the body temperature at 98.6° F.

In a swimming pool, your body creates the same exact heat, but because you are in water that sweat doesn’t get its chance to evaporate into the air. Instead, the cooling comes from the water, which is why it should be at 78°. This is roughly proportional to the temperature difference between your body and the water. The warmer the water the less heat is relieved.

Again, this ideal pool temperature is for the intense and competitive swimmer. So, if you’re not Johnny ‘Tarzan’ Weissmuller, Mark Spitz or Flipper, you can swim in any temperature you’d like. Except 54 degrees. That’s too cold, you should know better .