Do you find yourself working near the swimming pool and worried about using your iPhone? There are so many things that can go wrong, a drop on the concrete, a splash from the water hose, a quick drop in the pool or simply answering the phone while it is raining outside.

Well now you have a solution, the DriSuit Endurance by DriSuit technologies (www.mydrisuit.com). It is a fully shockproof and waterproof iPhone case that is still 100% functional.

The case is tested to IP-68 rating which is safe to use at a depth of 5 meters and is shockproof. What makes this case excel over all other cases is that it also remains 100% fully functional.

What does this mean? It means that you can use the headphone jack anytime including submerged! It means that you can make and receive phone calls with the case on. It means that the screen remains active even under water! This is a big one since no other case boasts this feature. If you want to take pictures or video while in the water the fluidic touchscreen responds to your touch. The other advantage of the fluidic touchscreen is that it also acts as a shock absorber for the front of the phone.

I can attest to the ruggedness of this feature. While testing the case, I left it on the side of my swimming pool streaming music via AirPlay. My 89 pound golden retriever got very excited over some splashing we were doing and while running, pounced on the face of the phone sending it skidding into the water!

There was no damage to the phone, his claws did not puncture the membrane and the case suffered some major scratches on the back but nothing to the lens on the case.

This was a little beyond my testing plan.

I tested all capabilities and they all passed. The touchscreen works submerged (allow 20 seconds to acclimatize) the audio jack works and is waterproof.

The home button works and so do the volume and power buttons. The only button that is not usable is the mute toggle, which has a membrane exposing it but is so tight that you cannot move the toggle up or down.

Pros

-       Very rugged, shockproof

-       fluidic touch screen adds extra protection to the front glass

-       Waterproof to 5 meters

-       Touch screen can be used underwater

-       Case can hold one credit card

-       Mechanical seal (cam lock)

-       Smallest seal area (around bottom rather than perimeter of phone)

-       Easy to open seal to dock and charge, any cable will work

-       Audio jack is watertight and fully functional, any headphone will work with or without audio microphone

-       Excellent pictures underwater (all underwater pictures were taken by the driSuit case)

-    Allows space for a credit card or room key.

Cons

-       Capacitive touch screen takes getting used to. More pressure is required to produce a key press or swipe.

-       Key press is difficult near the edges of the screen where the fluidic membrane and the hard case join together.

-       Multi touch gestures are very very difficult (pinch to zoom or expand, etc.) See my work around below.

-       Slightly bulky (thickness of case and screen)

-       Mute / silent toggle not useable (see my work around below)

-       To access the sync / charging port you must open the case.

-       Pictures taken above water were inconsistent, sometimes clear and sometimes blurry (I did make sure that the lens was clean, I believe it is due to a slight gap between the phone and the case which if pressed tight takes clear pictures).

Summary

The driSuit Endurance is a excellent waterproof iPhone case that will protect your phone from many dangers. If you work around or near water and want the peace of mind that your phone will be protected then the driSuit is for you. I give this a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5.

As a side note I have observed the excellent level of customer service by this company. I have been treated very well, they took back the scratched case and replaced it for me at no charge.

Unlike other cases, the phone is easily accessible in the case and once sealed the phone is protected with no chances of forgetting an opening, like the headphone jack or charging port.

Currently you can purchase the phone from the manufacturer directly driSuit Technologies for $59.95 or contact Dany Mallah who works in the pool and spa industry but also supplies mobile phones and accessories. You can contact Dany at CDM Sales and Services, 416-676-8003 or dm(at)cdmsales-services.com.

As a thank you for my avid readers, I will be giving away one driSuit Endurance (Yellow Edition), all you need to do is "LIKE" the poolz.com Facebook page or make a post on the poolz.com forums.

I will announce the winner on November 30, 2012 (yes, just after the 2012 Canadian Pool and Spa Conference and Expo).

My work around for the lack of mute button and multi-touch

Set-up AssistiveTouch on your iPhone

1-    Select “Settings”

2-    Select “General”

3-    Scroll down and Select “Accessibility”

4-    Scroll down and select “Triple-click Home”

5-    Select “Toggle AssistiveTouch”

6-    You’ve now activated the AssistiveTouch feature, click the Home button once to leave the settings area.

7-    Now lets try the feature.

8-    Press your Home button three (3) times consecutively. It usually takes a few seconds for the program to start. When it does you will see a translucent black square with a white circle in the middle. You may move it to a location on the screen that you prefer by pressing and holding it with your finger, then sliding it to where you want it.

9-    Press the square once and the box opens to show four options, Gestures, Home, Device and Favorites.

10- Press “Device” and select “Mute”

11- That’s it, you can now easily Mute and Un-mute your phone.

12- Try the Pinch feature by pressing “Favorites” then “Pinch”. Now you can pinch with just one finger!

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The Circulator is a rotating swimming pool return jet. It replaces the static eyeball type return to give the water entering the pool a dynamic flow of water and distribute the water direction. It is ideal for pools that have poor circulation either by poor plumbing, equipment or design.

Pros

The Circulator does what it advertises, moves the water entering the pool rotationally and creates varied circular patterns throughout the pool. It is easy to install, simpily remove your old return and thread The Circulator in its place.

Cons

Changes the water direction (which it is supposed to do) but stops any circular movement of the water if your regular jets were pointed that way. The skimmer will no longer skim debris from the surface.

Water will bubble up out of the regular surface level when the jet rotates and points upwards. A diverter is available which stops this.

If using an automatic cleaner, it will interfere with it.

Moving parts which will wear down.

Fail

Two things I noted in the product video (screen grabs taken from their website www.thecirculator.com ) that I did not like was

(1) They use two different pools to simulate circulation comparison (figure 1 has no slide, no sun ledge, it is a different shape) 

(2) the return jet is pointing sharply to the surface in the regular die test (see figure 4), normally it should be straight or down. See the screen graps that I took:

figure 1	figure 2
figure 3
figure 4	figure 5

Summary

If you have circulation problems or dead spots in the pool, then this will definetely help you. You may run into problems if you require good skimming action to clean the surface of the water or if you have an automatic cleaner it may get hung up on The Circulator. I also found that there was a constant creation of small bubbles, likely caused by cavitation and restriction of the water in The Circulator. By forcing the water in a perpendicular direction to the return port, you stop the water from circulating out to the opposite end of the pool and agitating the water there. To me, if your pool was designed properly, there would be no need for using this device.