Splash Pad Design Calculator

Because Recommended Features is driven entirely by Splash Pad Area (one feature per 75 sq ft), not by capacity. Peak Child Capacity instead feeds a separate MAHC-based check: it's converted to a recommended minimum pad area (about 37.5 sq ft per child) and compared against the area you entered. If your capacity implies more area than you actually have, the "Pad may be undersized for capacity" flag turns on -- the feature count itself doesn't move, but the flag tells you the pad may get overcrowded at peak attendance regardless of how many features are on it.

The two models measure completely different things. Flow-through assumes the whole system's flow rate runs to drain for 60% of every operating hour, since it has nowhere else for the water to go. Recirculating only has to replace what's actually lost -- roughly a 3-minute system volume for daily turnover plus about 5% of flow per hour for evaporation and splash-out -- because the rest is filtered and reused. For the same feature set and hours, that usually puts recirculating water cost well under flow-through's, which is the tradeoff against its higher upfront mechanical cost (filtration, UV or ozone treatment, and a larger vault).

No. Construction Cost is built from feature count, pad area, and the mechanical room (pump, filtration, and for recirculating systems, treatment equipment), none of which depend on how many hours a day the pad runs. Operating Hours/Day instead reaches Annual Operating Cost ($) through TWO separate, independent paths, not one: it scales Daily Water Usage (gal) (and, through seasonal water cost, adds to the total), and it ALSO scales the pump's annual electric cost directly (Pump Size (HP) x Operating Hours/Day x Season Length x $0.12/HP-hr) -- a second term computed straight from operating hours, not routed through water usage at all. Either way, how long the pad runs each day changes what it costs to operate, not what it costs to build.

Pump Size (HP) is calculated from Design Flow Rate (GPM) -- the sum of every feature's flow requirement plus a 20% safety margin -- against a fixed 45 ft total dynamic head and 65% pump efficiency, using the standard GPM x TDH / (3960 x efficiency) formula. Since Design Flow Rate is itself driven by feature count, and feature count is driven by Splash Pad Area, pump size ultimately traces back to pad area the same way Recommended Features does, just through an extra step.