one of the worst things you can drop in a swimming pool!!!!

a freaking razorblade..why would i drop a razorblade in my pool? cause i'm an idiot..was opening bags of water softening salt with a utility knife (type the blade can slide out from one end cause i was too lazy to get my good knife from the basement and i didn't realize that there is a perforated end so you don't need a knife) and the blade slid out on bag 3 into the pool..and the deep end of course. after i got all my salt dissolved..pondered how to get the blade out..i don't think a blade swimming around in a vinyl pool until it dissolves is a very good idea:) tried a pool pole end, a pool brush, a net..nothing would grab it enough without it sliding back down the side..my pool heater is inactive right now and the pool is a balmy 70 (and that's the warmer part where my thermostat reads..it's noticeably cooler deeper ..the solar cover keeps it warmer about a foot deep..i figure it was about 67) so, i stripped down before i thought too much about it to my skin and jumped in..man was that cold..i wear glasses so i can barely see a thing so picture a blind naked man using his foot to try to grab a razor blade and slide it up the side of the pool..fortunately, my wife isn't home or she would have died laughing at my stupidity et al:)

i'll probably get a cold...

If you really cannot jump in and carefully pick it up, why not try your pole again but this time put a magnet on it - most blades are carbon steel and are magnetic.

Wow, you're braver than me, I refuse to get in unless it's at least 80, for ANY reason...I would have gone the magnet route...did you get the razor blade out????

Janet

I thought you were a Canadian ? A little cold water shouldn't bother you.:D

yes, i left my igloo and hopped in my pool:) LOL..seriously, i tried to convince myself that it was likely no colder than the lake water at my cottage, but then again..i don't like swimming in there either..not a kid anymore i guess:) yes, i got the razor blade..with my foot..and no cuts ma:)! i thought about a magnet but didn't think that a magnet would stick to an aluminum pole? and the only magnet i had was a spare 16 ozer for my guitar speaker..still attached to the speaker cone:)

by the way, for anyone who doesn't /hasn't lived in a winter climate with snow and cold temps, it's absolutely true the older you get, the less tolerant you are to it...when i was a kid, we used to play soccer wearing joggers,jeans and a jean jacket for 2 or 3 hours in -20 celcius or colder temps..now, i'll be hard pressed to go shovel snow in a spacesuit when it's that cold:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tenax

but didn't think that a magnet would stick to an aluminum pole?

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Think like a sailor (and now apparently an astronaut as well), anytime a situation arises, first think how/if duct tape can help......

Dave

AAAH, a razor blade is not the worst thing you can drop in a pool - I wish we could see the video! Just think of how much money you saved by getting it out before it did any damage! Congrats.

i actually did think of duct tape david..first thing after trying the net and brush..but didn't think it would stick underwater..could have tried it i guess, anyhew:)

Forgive me Tenax but I can't imagine a pool being "cool" in August. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that. Please forgive my ignorance but how does one shoo polar bears off the ice in the winter?

Dave, I doubt a sailor would have used duct tape to tape the magnet onto the pole. Clearly the thing to do is spend all afternoon drinking rum and whipping the ends of some light gauge line. Then he would have needed to consider the best knot to tie the magnet to the end of the pole. Perhaps a bowline? Maybe a half hitch? After the preperations had been made he would have jumped into the pool and fished out the razor blade just as tenax did. However, he would have had the advantage of a pint or more of antifreeze in his blood. Unluckily, next morning he would have the new problem of how to get the pole, line and magnet off the bottom of the pool. I'm thinking a trip to the local chandlery for a boat hook would be necessary. Hopefully there's a liquor store nearby.

hey sailor..that doesn't sound very good, does it?:) anyhew...that's one thing i should have done..had a stiff drink first before i jumped in..knew i was missing a critical element as i contemplated how best to remove the foreign object of concern....

in regards to the temp...you're right..it does sound weird..august in alberta is desert like..by august, it still can get hot during the day (28C) but overnight can get as low as 5 or 10C. july is really the only month where it stays hot overnight..in july, without the pool heater running with the same temp as we had today, my pool would stay between 26 and 27C without running my heater, a comfortable temp. not so now! if you're wondering how it would get so cool in august, i'm saying that's the outside low overnight temp. at the start of august, in calgary, it went down to 3C on a cloudy overnight..and that's just freaking sad. checked my dig thermometer outside..it's 18C right now..pretty warm night but nothing like back in july where it was 27, 28 all night!

Tenax, I gather you dropped the whole utility knife in the pool and not just the blade. In either case I'd take the vacuum head off the pole, tape the hose to the pole, then approach the knife from the handle end and the suction should suck it right up the hose into the skimmer. It should fit inside a typical 1.25" diameter hose. Assumes your vacuum hooks to a skimmer. Also, a good source of strong magnets are old hard drives.
Al

Thanks for the info Tenax, it hand't occured to me how dry it would be up north. Down here it's almost always better than 80% relative humidity in the morning all year round.

I keep forgetting about the motor magnets in hard drives. I've got a few that are ready for scrap. Maybe I'll string a few magnets together and sell them on eBay as some kind of techno-voodoo bracelet.

actually, poco, i dropped just the blade..don't know how well it would have vacuumed up. i'll keep your tip in mind if i ever am stupid enough to have a knife near pool again!

sailor- yeah, we have pretty low humidity in alberta..furniture can crack..you always have to keep antiques well oiled and such or splitsville can happen. it's 10am mst right now, 15C outside (average for this time of day year) and the RH is currently 55%

The worst thing to drop into a pool would be clear broken glass.

The worst thing to drop in a pool would be a glass bottle of fine single malt whiskey.

The glass comes up with a vaccuum and crossed fingers, but I've never figured out how to get the "nose of ancient peat" out of my filter and back in the bottle.

They had just finished the pool and my kid picked up one of the screws the installers had dropped on the ground. I was mid sentence saying not to throw any thing over or in the pool and I hear a plunk. I ask what he had tossed and he told me it was one of the screws. Well it was dark I gave him a good verbal reminder of why it is a bad thing to toss any thing in the pool and retreated to the house. Next morning I grab one of the left over screws and sure enough it was non-iron based so no magnet would work. Got the pole and wrapped some duct tape sticky side out and went fishing. After about an hour of eye busting searching screw located at the bottom. Grabbed taped pool pole and held the taped end on the screw for around minute or so and pulled up. Screw came with the pole about 3 foot and dropped. I spent the next 30 minutes getting the screw to out of the pool. Little later my future wife called from work asking what I had been doing all morning and I told her I had been “screwing around” … “really”…”in the pool”…”click” ..:rolleyes: Things were kind of cold around the house for a few days until I told her what had happened and the kid agreed with my story.:D
Steve