Pool owners!

[ThePresence]

What type of pool? Specs? Etc?

We have an inground vinyl lined 17x38.
DE filter (PITA to backwash)
No automatic chlorinator (have to get one soon). Chlorine pucks go in floater and skimmer.
Polaris 380 pool cleaner.

Water was black as coal on opening. Crystal clear blue now!

My first season as a pool owner. So far so good.

 

[railer]

Nice. About how much was that to put in?

We just got our first this week...it's an above ground 18 footer, so nothing special but here in upstate NY we'll be lucky to get 2 months out of it. Cost us around 11k to have installed. I think the pool itself was around 7K, and they did have to have bury it in the yard (yard isn't flat), and had a crew of guys here for 1.5 days putting it in, so the 4k installation was probably $$$ well spent. Sand filter. Cl in the skimmer and no auto cleaner (yet). My folks have an inground with a DE Hayward filter so I'll see what the difference is between sand and DE.

 

[ThePresence]

Nice. About how much was that to put in?

We just got our first this week...it's an above ground 18 footer, so nothing special but here in upstate NY we'll be lucky to get 2 months out of it. Cost us around 11k to have installed. I think the pool itself was around 7K, and they did have to have bury it in the yard (yard isn't flat), and had a crew of guys here for 1.5 days putting it in, so the 4k installation was probably $$$ well spent. Sand filter. Cl in the skimmer and no auto cleaner (yet). My folks have an inground with a DE Hayward filter so I'll see what the difference is between sand and DE.

Bought the house beginning of the winter with the pool already there.

Backwashing strips all the DE off the filter grids, so it has to be reloaded each time you backwash, which is a huge PITA at the begining of the season because you have to backwash a million times. At least I did.

 

[Number1]

We purchased a used 15 footer and had it installed professionally last month. Total cost was about $3K including fencing. I deconstructed a deck we had on the side of the house and used the lumber to build a new deck around the pool and stairs connecting the new deck to the main deck.
Nothing fancy but it's going to be great this summer.

It looks fantastic at night with the Aqua Glo lights that changes color in the pool. Beautiful.

I use a chlorinator and I am in the process of installing a solar heater. We are finally getting some nice weather and the pool temperature is about 22 degree now.

It's still a work in progress.

More pictures

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going for a swim, it's getting hot here.

 

[blurredvision]

Cost us around 11k to have installed. I think the pool itself was around 7K, and they did have to have bury it in the yard (yard isn't flat), and had a crew of guys here for 1.5 days putting it in, so the 4k installation was probably $$$ well spent.

Wow, $11k? I got an above-ground pool (21') 3 years ago and the whole package was $3500. That was for the pool, sand filter, pump, solar cover, winter cover, cleaning brush/net, vaccum, starting chemicals and installation of everything. Basically everything to get the pool going.

I had a lot of problems with it in the beginning, mainly due to my inexperience/laziness and my pool supplier giving me horribly bad advice in how to take care of it. At the beginning of last year, I actually ended up draining the entire thing, scrubbing it down and filling it back up. When I properly close it in the fall, I can take the cover off in the spring and the water be crystal clear. Now I'm getting pretty good at keeping it clean and swim-able with the least effort possible.

My general chemical rotation is shock once every 7-10 days, a single 3" chlorine tablet in the skimmer every 2-3 days, and the recommended dose of algaecide (about 3oz) once a week. I will check the pH about once a month but it doesn't vary that much on me. I've always heard it's important to keep the pH in that 7.2-7.6 range since that's the only range where your chemicals work, but I think that's bullshit. I know it's still important to keep it there for comfort, but I don't think the chemicals care. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I would consider a pool if it wasn't $40k to put in and pretty expensive to maintain for only a few months usage around here. I like the idea of taking a swim everyday in the privacy of my own backyard.

 

[Jeeebus]

Love our pool. Nice deep blue, salt chlorinator, solar heated.

I,ve just switched over from jogging at 5:30 and just swim instead. Very peaceful that early.

Will see if i can scrounge up a picture or two.

 

[purbeast0]

my dad had a really nice pool put in about 5 years ago.

sucks that he died nearly 3 years ago totally unexpected, and my stepmom couldn't afford the house on her own, and owed more than it was worth, and the house was foreclosed on 🙁

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

At my previous house I had a 20 x 40 in-ground, marcite, with DE filter and inline chlorinator. There was no screen enclosure so it was open to all kinds of crap like leaves, oak pollen pods, and a variety of animals. At least twice a year a mother duck and her freshly hatched ducklings would adopt it for a few days. During the summer the Cuban tree frogs loved it too. Every day would require a cleanup of the previous night's frog orgy in the pool. Frog eggs and frog jizz smell just like you imagine they would. At least once a month I would have to remove a snake. After hurricane Charlie I had to extract the top half of my neighbors red oak from the deep end.

At first it was great having a pool but over the years it became a drudgery of maintenance, particularly since the one that got the most use out of it was the dog. Was happy to sell the house and be rid of it. Now my yard backs up to a small lake. Mother nature maintains it. Much happier.

 

[blurredvision]

At my previous house I had a 20 x 40 in-ground, marcite, with DE filter and inline chlorinator. There was no screen enclosure so it was open to all kinds of crap like leaves, oak pollen pods, and a variety of animals. At least twice a year a mother duck and her freshly hatched ducklings would adopt it for a few days. During the summer the Cuban tree frogs loved it too. Every day would require a cleanup of the previous night's frog orgy in the pool. Frog eggs and frog jizz smell just like you imagine they would. At least once a month I would have to remove a snake. After hurricane Charlie I had to extract the top half of my neighbors red oak from the deep end.

Good god. I would've chlorinated the hell out of it to kill anything that tried to get it the water or drink it. Shortly after I opened my pool this spring, a frog had gotten in there and I found it dead in the skimmer one night before putting chlorine in. Means I'm doing things right.

 

[ThePresence]

Good god. I would've chlorinated the hell out of it to kill anything that tried to get it the water or drink it. Shortly after I opened my pool this spring, a frog had gotten in there and I found it dead in the skimmer one night before putting chlorine in. Means I'm doing things right.

The skimmer pulls animals underwater and drowns them. Probably killed them more so than the chlorine. I fished out 5 dead moles and 2 frogs this season already.

 

[ThePresence]

At my previous house I had a 20 x 40 in-ground, marcite, with DE filter and inline chlorinator. There was no screen enclosure so it was open to all kinds of crap like leaves, oak pollen pods, and a variety of animals. At least twice a year a mother duck and her freshly hatched ducklings would adopt it for a few days. During the summer the Cuban tree frogs loved it too. Every day would require a cleanup of the previous night's frog orgy in the pool. Frog eggs and frog jizz smell just like you imagine they would. At least once a month I would have to remove a snake. After hurricane Charlie I had to extract the top half of my neighbors red oak from the deep end.

At first it was great having a pool but over the years it became a drudgery of maintenance, particularly since the one that got the most use out of it was the dog. Was happy to sell the house and be rid of it. Now my yard backs up to a small lake. Mother nature maintains it. Much happier.

That's a big pool. How many gallons?

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Good god. I would've chlorinated the hell out of it to kill anything that tried to get it the water or drink it. Shortly after I opened my pool this spring, a frog had gotten in there and I found it dead in the skimmer one night before putting chlorine in. Means I'm doing things right.

Even when I super-chlorinated (shocked) they wouldn't stay away. The chlorine didn't kill them either. I got up early one morning to try to catch them before most of them left. I caught 18 of the bastards and killed them. Didn't even make a dent. Loads were back again the next night. There were usually 2 or 4 holed up in the skimmer whenever I removed the basket.

Cuabn tree frogs are an invasive species in Florida. They are large, nasty, extremely loud (they make a piercing croaking sound that's highly annoying), and are displacing many of the native tree frogs in Florida by eating them. I hate the damn things.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

That's a big pool. How many gallons?

Based on the standard calculation method it was somewhere around 30,000 gallons. 8' on the deep end, 3.5' on the shallow end.

 

[slag]

We have a small 12 ft round, 39 inch tall pool that is great for the smaller kids, ok for adults who just want to sit down and relax or float on something. We have a saltwater setup hooked up to it that works great, no chlorine smell, it just plain works. We really only use the pool for an hour a day at most, sometimes more on weekends, but normally we are out on the boat on the weekends, time permitting.

Would like to have a larger one, just dont have the room.