Archive for General

So - we’ve hit that point in the year where our outdoor swimming pools have been tucked up in bed for the last couple of months and your thinking about just taking a peep under the cover to see how it’s getting on?

Swimming pools do need checking at about the mid-point (now) just to ensure all is well - the last thing you need… read the rest of “Swimming Pool Chemicals”

Over the next coming week 1st-Direct will be bringing you some exclusive special offers for you to take advantage of before all our prices rise in the new year.

Please remember to order before Christmas to ensure you don’t get stung by big increases on your swimming pool products.

If you require any information or help with swimming pools, spas or products please do let us know and our team will be… read the rest of “Swimming Pool Christmas Specials”

We would like to let you know that our last day of taking orders for delivery this year will be Friday 19th December at 12:00pm.

If you would like to buy anything in the new year please be aware we are expecting anywhere from 10-20% increases across all swimming pool products.

To take advantage of this years prices please ensure that you get your order into us for delivery prior to Christmas.

Even… read the rest of “Swimming Pool price increases are approaching FAST!!”

1st Direct have recently been aproached about a fantastic new swimming pool products which offers grants from the government. Very few people actually realise that the government is making it a legal requirement in the next few years for all inground swimming pools to be insulated to ensure maximum efficientcies.

The new product reduces your heating bill massively and costs as little as £1,200 after the grant is awarded.

We hope to… read the rest of “Swimming Pool Insulation Grant”

As most people know this morning our new VAT rate of 15% has come into action. This should in theory reduce the cost of items for customer by 2.5%.

As you will have heard from previous posts the costs of swimming pool products have dramatically increased this year due to economic pressures and so far we have stomached nearly a 10% rise in our costs of swimming pool products without passing… read the rest of “VAT change in the Swimming Pool World”

This year 1st-direct have been offering free solar covers with any swimming pool liner order. We are pleased to announce that we are going to continue this offer through into the 2009 season.

What this means is that if you buy any swimming pool liner (excluding above ground pool and splasher pools) which is made to size then we will give you a bubble… read the rest of “Free Swimming Pool Solar Covers”

I just read an artcile of a new website which really made me sit back and wonder what is happening to the world.

Apparently swimming pool floats used widely by many people to learn to swim have now been branded a health and safety risk as they have potential to spread disease and infection.

Despite a parent point out that its surely more risky for a… read the rest of “Mad about Swimming Pools”

With the ever decreasing economic market we currently live in we’re noticing a big shift in the way our customers buy from us at the moment. Historically there’s been a nice spread between online and shop sales when it comes to our swimming pool product lines but we now seem to be seeing a steady shift towards online as people tighten their purse… read the rest of “Swimming Pool Customers Plunge into Online”

Every year the swimming pool industry has its exhibitions for the trade all over the world. Usually the main events are the American show and the European show which are around this time of year.

This year however the two events are clashing so we’re left facing a choice between Lyon in France and the bright lights of Las Vegas.

1st-Direct is taking six key members of its team out to the… read the rest of “Viva Las Vegas”

The Daily Mail have today released an article about how Heather Mills is fighting to keep her £1million swimming pool at her residence in Robertsbridge, East Sussex.

Apparently the star decided to have her extrememly expensive new swimming pool built without the thought for planning permission. At 40ft x 22ft it’s a fair size swimming pool which attracted the attention of the local authorities who came around to check she’d taken… read the rest of “Heather Mills Puts Out Fires With Her Swimming Pool!”

Safety pool covers are becoming every more popular at the moment especially with Europe making law about the requirements which will surely following through to the UK swimming pool market soon.

There are many different swimming pool covers out there claiming to be safety covers but few actually can be classed as truely safe to prevent drowning if fallen upon.

Certikins chairman Mr Patrick Thorpe recently laid his seal of approval down… read the rest of “Walu Safety Covers”

An artist has taken swimming pools into a form of art and interest using so very basic acrylic plates.

By simply using two clear acrylic plates around 1 ft apart and filled with water the artist has created the illusion that you are walking under the water or ontop of the water. This pool has astonished onlookers who come across it… read the rest of “Walking all over your swimming pool”

EGFM or Eco Glass Filter Media as it stands for is one of the latest products to hit the UK swimming pool market.

For many years there have been different types of filter media for use in swimming pool sand filters ranging from volcanic rock to simple silica sand.

EGFM is simply made from reclycled glass and was brought to us about a year ago. It has massive benefits over silica sand… read the rest of “EGFM - Eco Glass Filter Media”

We spent some time this morning reviewing our traffic statistics for the website using our google analytics tool. We’ve had this tool now installed on our website for the past 3 years to do the day and I managed to pull out some interesting information.

In the space of the past 3 years 1st-direct has displayed over 2,000,000 pages about swimming pools

In and around our area there are a fair few schools with swimming pools. Inevitably we supply them with a lot of their chemicals. Recently we were called out to a local primary school to drop off some chlorine and when we got there we were amazed at what we found.

The school had just laid out over £150,000 on a brand new swimming pool for their children. This initially sounded expensive… read the rest of “Pool company takes school for a ride.”

Everyone loves the word ‘free’ and now the government is pushing for free swimming to the under-16s and over 60s population. Led by Worchester’s Labour MP Mike Foster the governement has pledged £140million earlier this summer giving local authorities until mid-september to decide if they want to drop the charges for young and old at their local swimming pools in exchange for tens of thousands of pounds in governement grants.

Initial… read the rest of “Free Swimming”

The Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre now has a swimming pool with a 50m long floor which moves in height! The swimming pool can be adjusted in depth to suit both international elite event pool purposes and that of a community leisure swimming pool.

At a cost of AUS$4million this is no cheap project but one that puts them at the forefront of swimming pool technology.

The pool is adjustable from 0m down… read the rest of “50m Swimming Pool has Adjustable Floor!”

The swimming pool industry is entering very difficult times across the board. With pool companies going bust left, right and centre at the moment the main pool product suppliers such as Certikin, SCP and Plastica and trying to manage the increasing amounts of bad debts they are being left with.

The current economic climate combined… read the rest of “Swimming pool prices set to rocket!”

We’ve come across this crazy man from America who’s decided he wants to spend his days diving into just 12 inches of water - that’s a paddling pool!!

He is now the world record holder for the highest shallow dive into 12 inches of water. I can’t imagine there’s much competition to try and take it away from him. His record now sits at a massive 35 feet!

Where do they find… read the rest of “Shallow Pool Water - Please dive?!”

Swimming pools come in all different shapes and sizes but this latest pool in Chile exceeds them all! Officially the largest swimming pool in the world as verified by the Guinness Book of Records it is over 1km long and allows people to both swim in the pool as well as use boats and kayaks. The… read the rest of “Worlds Largest Swimming Pool”

We were called to a customer this week who had a slight problem with their swimming pool……… it had burnt down!

Potentially put down to a wiring issue the entire swimming pool, plantroom and equipment are now all completely ruined. You can see from these pictures the mess it left and how quickly and easily it all seems to have burnt.

This customer is now looking at a massive cost for all… read the rest of “Swimming Pool Burnout”

As the British weather never ceases to suprise us we seem faced with what has already been a bit of a wash out of a summer!

Speaking to our swimming pool customers we seem to be getting the picture that due to the bad weather many have not been using their swimming pool much or even not opened… read the rest of “Great weather for ducks!”