Which Pool Lift Fits Your Pool

The three numbers, and how to measure them

Every pool lift is specified against three measurements. Take them in inches before you look at a single model.

1. Setback. Hold the tape level across the deck, from the centerline of the anchor (or where the lift's base will stand) out to where the pool edge meets the water. A wide coping or a gutter makes it longer.
2. Draft, or deck to water. Lay the straightedge on the deck so it overhangs the pool and measure straight down from it to the water at its normal level, with the surface still.
3. Wall height. Only for an above ground pool, a spa or a raised pool: from the deck the lift stands on up to the top of the wall or coping. The lift has to carry the seat over it.

Before any number, two answers narrow the field: what the deck is made of (concrete, pavers, wood, a thin slab, or nothing you can drill) and what kind of pool it serves (in ground, above ground, spa, raised, or edged with a perimeter overflow gutter).

Then capacity and use. The ADA floor is 300 lb. A lift rated between 350 and 450 lb serves most pools; therapy and bariatric programs need 500 to 600 lb. A hotel, club, school or public pool needs a lift its manufacturer states meets the ADA. A home pool can take any lift that fits.

The wrong lift is one that falls short of the water, or cannot hold its raised seat at least 16 in back from the edge, however well it is installed.

Which lift family fits which pool and deck

Each figure is the manufacturer's own for that model, in inches. Never average two brands' figures or carry one brand's range to another.

In ground pool, flat deck, short setback

The Aqua Creek Ranger 2 does not rotate, and its seat side reverses in the field. The Global C-375 takes an anchor set as deep as 8 in below the deck surface. Spectrum's Motion Trek BP350 sits as close as 6 in and gives up draft the farther back it stands.

Long setback, raised deck or gutter

The Aqua Creek Mighty 400 turns 360 degrees and picks up at 24 in, past the Ranger 2's 19. The Global R-350MTR spans 6 to 36 in, the widest stated range of any lift here. Over a perimeter overflow gutter, look at the S.R. Smith Splash! Extended Reach, the Global SXR and the Global R-450R, which Global's lineup says reaches 35 in over a gutter and clears an 18 in obstacle.

Above ground pool or raised spa

Wall height decides. The Aqua Creek Neptune mounts on concrete, wood or pavers with its own spa series anchors. The S.R. Smith Splash! Hi/Lo serves ground level pools and raised walls from one lift, and the Splash! Spa serves a spa whose top sits as much as 48 in above the deck.

For a home pool or a dock, the Aqua Creek Power EZ 2 needs a helper to run it and is not stated to meet the ADA. Its wall limit is printed as two different figures, so confirm yours with Aqua Creek. The Nebula, for above ground pools and swim spas, also needs assistance and is not stated to meet the ADA.

For a pool with an automatic cover or an unusual shape, the Aquatic Access IGAT-180 AD keeps the whole lift on top of the deck.

Match the anchor to the deck

• Reinforced concrete, 8 in thick: a cored or cast in anchor from any of the five manufacturers.
• Concrete under 6 in: a shallow anchor such as Aqua Creek's F-77SSA, or reinforce the slab first.
• Pavers: a paver anchor seated in a footing poured under the pavers.
• Wood: a wood deck anchor bolted through the joists, from Aqua Creek, Spectrum or Global.
• No deck work allowed: a portable lift, or a surface mount from Spectrum or Aqua Creek.
• An old sleeve already in the deck: Global builds Retrofit versions of the L-325 and R-375 that seat in another brand's sleeve. Aqua Creek, S.R. Smith and Spectrum sell adapters.

The pool lift anchors show which anchor each lift takes. What a pool lift costs and what installing one takes covers slab specs, bonding and the install day.

How each manufacturer confirms fit

• S.R. Smith: every order needs a completed Deck Profile Sheet. Its online configurator asks for the facility type, whether the deck is new or existing, whether the lift is portable or fixed, and eight deck dimensions lettered A to H. A specialist then confirms the lift within two business days.
• Aqua Creek: an Application Graph Chart for each model, setback along one axis and draft along the other. If your point falls inside the curve, the lift fits.
• Spectrum: a setback and draft grid in its brochure. Find your setback, then read the draft allowed; it shrinks as the setback grows.
• Global: a stated setback range for the Commercial series. Its other series are confirmed pool by pool.
• Aquatic Access: enough straight wall for the lift, and the socket where the drawing puts it.

When the numbers are not inside a range

Several lifts have no setback or draft range on record here: Global's Legend, Superior, Proformance and Home series, S.R. Smith's aXs2, multiLift2 and PAL2, and Aqua Creek's Revolution XL and Scout Excel. When your pool falls outside every stated range, the selector puts them in a group marked "confirm with the manufacturer's chart". That is not a no. The manufacturer has to see your deck.

1. Fill in a deck profile. S.R. Smith asks for it anyway: the drop from deck to water, the coping and the setback.
2. Plot the chart. Put your setback and draft on the Aqua Creek model's chart, or read the Spectrum grid. Watch the gaps: the Ranger 2 stops at 19 in and the Mighty 400 starts at 24, so a 21 in setback is a chart question for Aqua Creek, or a Motion Trek or R-350MTR on their stated ranges.
3. Ask a specialist. Send the three numbers, the deck and the pool type to the manufacturer before you buy.

The usual misses: a draft deeper than the lift allows, where the Aqua Buddy V2 or Mighty 600 may reach; a setback longer than the reach, where the extended reach models come in; a wall over 48 in, where the Neptune runs to 68.

The portable question

"Portable" describes two different designs.

• Free standing. A weighted base and nothing in the deck. The S.R. Smith PAL2 needs a flat deck and comes with the Secure-It Kit. The Aqua Creek Portable Pro Pool 2 sits on its counterweight on flush decks only.
• Lift off. The lift bolts to a deck anchor and comes off when the pool closes. Global's portable kit for the C-375 and C-450 lifts off at under 150 lb. Spectrum makes an Aqua Buddy V2 Portable and a Portable Motion Trek with a lockdown kit. Aqua Creek's Mighty Voyager has a fixing anchor.

At a pool the ADA covers, what matters is attachment. The Justice Department treats a lift as fixed when it is attached to the deck or apron in some way, so either design can qualify once its kit bolts it down. A lift wheeled out of a storeroom on request does not. Aqua Creek does not state that the Portable Pro Pool 2 meets the ADA. The PAL2 Hi/Lo is built for a site with a pool and a raised spa, but each pool and each spa needs its own entry whenever it is open, so one portable cannot cover both at a public facility. The full rule is in ADA pool lift requirements.

At home, portable suits a deck you cannot drill. See the portable pool lifts and the above ground pool lifts.