owning a swimming pool in AZ (houses, rent, art)

[idratherbeclimbing]

So my parents and i are going to be moving to arizona in a year! We are looking at houses with an inground pool and we were wondering if you have to have a heater in the pool?

sorry if someone already posted a thread about this I didn't feel like looking through 21 pages!

Alex

[Ponderosa]

If you want to swim all year. But you won't because it is too cold. Only your relatives from back east willl want to swim in the middle of winter when they visit. The unheated season starts in early April (for the kids anyway) and runs to early-October. You can put a floating cover on the water and that will add a week or two on each end.

[tucsondesertdweller]

The last couple of years I can't go in the pool until the water is well in the 80's!!!, We actually like the water almost 90 degrees. Oh, I guess that means we are real desert rats now. Oh No---

[aj661]

Originally Posted by tucsondesertdweller

The last couple of years I can't go in the pool until the water is well in the 80's!!!, We actually like the water almost 90 degrees. Oh, I guess that means we are real desert rats now. Oh No---

We may be related! I even like it at 90! Hey, that's lower than body temperature so it doesn't feel hot. Anything under 80 is COLD. A week ago my pool temp was around 50 degrees. It's been as low as 47. I usually can't get in until early May. I drag the cover out at the beginning of the season, but it doesn't seem to help much in warming it up. It does help a great deal in keeping the heat in at the end of the season, though.

Personally, I think heaters are a waste of money for the reason stated by Ponderosa.

[cloud dweller]

The desert was so beautiful in the 50's.Why do you people need swimming pools to raise the humidity level and clutter the atmosphere.If you like water so much,move to California or better yet-Florida,where everything is damp and humid? cloud dweller

[diggitydot]

Originally Posted by cloud dweller

The desert was so beautiful in the 50's.Why do you people need swimming pools to raise the humidity level and clutter the atmosphere.If you like water so much,move to California or better yet-Florida,where everything is damp and humid? cloud dweller

Everyone has their own preferences. Meteorological humidity isn't affected enough by swimming pools to raise the ambient levels in the air. Particlulates or "clutter" in the air are MUCH more likely to be dust than anything else.

Many people that I've encountered down here moved to avoid the mold and mildew allergies they experienced in wetter climates. That doesn't necessarily mean that they or their children don't want to swim when living in an area with predominantly warm temperatures.

[diggitydot]

Originally Posted by idratherbeclimbing

So my parents and i are going to be moving to arizona in a year! We are looking at houses with an inground pool and we were wondering if you have to have a heater in the pool?

sorry if someone already posted a thread about this I didn't feel like looking through 21 pages!

Alex

Hey Alex,

No, you don't "have" to have a heater in the pool, but if you want to use it year round, its a good idea to have one. We don't have a heater in our pool, mainly because its too cold, (to me), to use it any other time than when its warm enough outside to heat it. But my family loves to come down in early spring and use it. (I think they're nuts!)

Our closest friends have a heated pool. They use theirs more year round, though.

[tucsondesertdweller]

If my community or development had a community pool, we would not have put one in! Having a pool out here in the summer helps a lot if you live here year round, we do.
We may have a pool but we do have native or low water use cactus and plants, NO GRASS, so we do a little also. I am not out every day in the car just driving to be out driving. So we are at least doing a little bit.
Why should homeowners not have pools when every other community has a golf course?
My development does not allow grass in the front yard