The Best Pool Accessories to Upgrade Your Summer (2026)

Pools are hard. This is not news to anyone who owns one, but an inordinate amount of daily labor and chores lie behind that clear, sparkling, perfectly chlorinated (or salted) water.

Luckily, pool tech has come a long way in the past decade—gone are the hours spent scooping leaves and dead bugs out of the water with a long-handled net, laboring over pH strips, and trying to relax on floaties too small for your adult-sized behind. We've now got robots that clean your pool, apps that monitor water quality from your phone, and even a slushie machine for proper pool-party margs.

With gas and plane ticket prices soaring to astronomical levels, there's never been a better time for a staycation at your own pool. (If you don't have a pool of your own, you can always rent one nearby on Swimply.) My colleague Chris Null has a 12-by-36-foot, L-shaped in-ground pool lined with PebbleTec, and I have a 20-by-12-foot above-ground pool lined with vinyl. Between the two of us, we have pretty much tried it all, so whether you've got a custom-built in-ground complex or an Intex pop-up from Walmart, these time- and life-tested favorites are sure to level up your backyard pool game.

For more yard tech, check out our guides to the Best Pool Cleaning Robots, Best Smart Sprinklers and Irrigation Systems, Best Robot Lawn Mowers, and Best Smart Bird Feeders.

As someone who manually fished leaves and dead bees out of their pool with a net for years, I can attest to the utility of an automatic skimmer. It's not cheap, but if you have a large pool that doesn't have an in-wall skimming system, a robotic skimmer is a must-have, and this is the one pool-cleaning robot reviewer Chris Null likes best. It's solar-powered, so you never have to take it out to charge, and it's got sensors that help it avoid damaging itself by running into your pool walls. Read the full run-down in our guide to the Best Pool Cleaning Robots.