[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by diamondgirl45

Wow, that is a lot to know. Maybe I will stick to the public ones, lol. I know that when I lived out west it cost about $2500/year to maintain my friend's pool.
I would probably get more use out of a hot tub....since the winters are longer.

If you spend money up front or buy from someone who spent money up front, you will not have to worry about a lot of those issues. Our pool essentially self chlorinates. We had to balance the PH at the beginning and then add some chemical once during the year. We had to throw in some water softener salt (44/bag rather than the pool store $15, just make sure it meets the purity requirement and does not contain iodine). We have a robot thingy that cleans the pool and does an excellent job. All we needed to do was to skim out leaves, remove and replace the floating cover and back wash the filter a couple of times. the cost for the season excluding electricity and gas wa about $150. On the other hand, the cost to join our community pool for the whole family for the season was about $110, but it is really nice to be able to swim in privacy, with only about forty seconds of preparation anytime at all. I used to jump into the pool for fifteen minutes play time with the kids while whatever I was barbquing that evening was cooking on the grill.

If you pay the up front costs of installing the pool, it probably is not worth it. However, if you buy a house and let someone else take the loss on the installation and set up, it certainly is. A pool does not increase the value/sale price of a house at all. One appraiser told us that he usually decreaases the home value for a pool

[One Thousand]

For clarity sake, most pools do not have saltwater chlorine generators which cost anywhere from $1,200 to $4,000 installed. Further, your annual maintenance cost will be increased by $1,000 to $2,000 for element replacement every three to five years. Further, due to the salt, your chemistry is more volatile and must be tracked closely. If you're adjusting pH and leaving it without worries, experience tells me that you're going to have some expensive heartache in a few years.

SWG's are the latest fad in swimming pool care. A new fad comes out every few years to "eliminate" chlorine. Years ago, I maintained a few pools equipped with them. My experience says that if a pool has a SWG on it, stay back. Due to the need for replacing the element, that's an excellent place to catch your $1,000 ding.

However, if you keep track of everything on it, the water does feel nice... It's just much more expensive in the long run compared to a well kept pool.

A little off topic, but I hope it helps.

[mt67]

opening late april & closing in mid oct.
pool is heated & we love the loooong season.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by One Thousand

For clarity sake, most pools do not have saltwater chlorine generators which cost anywhere from $1,200 to $4,000 installed. Further, your annual maintenance cost will be increased by $1,000 to $2,000 for element replacement every three to five years. Further, due to the salt, your chemistry is more volatile and must be tracked closely. If you're adjusting pH and leaving it without worries, experience tells me that you're going to have some expensive heartache in a few years.

SWG's are the latest fad in swimming pool care. A new fad comes out every few years to "eliminate" chlorine. Years ago, I maintained a few pools equipped with them. My experience says that if a pool has a SWG on it, stay back. Due to the need for replacing the element, that's an excellent place to catch your $1,000 ding.

However, if you keep track of everything on it, the water does feel nice... It's just much more expensive in the long run compared to a well kept pool.

A little off topic, but I hope it helps.

It is my understanding that SWG systems have been in use in Austrailia for over 25 years. I first heard of them becomming popular here about 5-7 years ago. Ours has a 10 year warranty, so I guess we are safe on the element replacement. At least we were told that the warranty covers absolutely everything. I will have to read all the fine print to make certain that the elements are covered. It is certanly cheaper than hiring soemone and I am often too busy to do the work myself.

I am amazed at how effortless modern technology can make pool care. Now if we could only get this cover put together so we can swim year round, it will be fantastic. We need something to lift sections of the cover about 10 feet inthe air. Each section weighs about 450 pounds by my guess. Any ideas from anyone? (Sorry to drift from tht topic. swimming pool discussions just remind me of that darn cover sitting n pieces in our driveway).

[One Thousand]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

It is my understanding that SWG systems have been in use in Austrailia for over 25 years. I first heard of them becomming popular here about 5-7 years ago. Ours has a 10 year warranty, so I guess we are safe on the element replacement. At least we were told that the warranty covers absolutely everything. I will have to read all the fine print to make certain that the elements are covered. It is certanly cheaper than hiring soemone and I am often too busy to do the work myself.

I am amazed at how effortless modern technology can make pool care. Now if we could only get this cover put together so we can swim year round, it will be fantastic. We need something to lift sections of the cover about 10 feet inthe air. Each section weighs about 450 pounds by my guess. Any ideas from anyone? (Sorry to drift from tht topic. swimming pool discussions just remind me of that darn cover sitting n pieces in our driveway).

I've read the same thing about Australia. They've been around for as long as I can remember, but, yes, it's over the recent past that they've begun gaining popularity.

However, (I could of been more specific in the previous post) in the mid-nineties they started to gain popularity. A couple years later, it was minerals in various packaging (Frog for example). At one point, high pH was the rage. At another time, it was low calcium. Now, they're back to SWGs... with every product or (in the case of pH and calcium manipulation) scheme there's a plethora of evidence to support it.

My experience is that there's always someone behind the curtain making cash off a bad idea.

If they cover the element for more than five years, I wouldn't expect to find the company when it comes time to replace. Five years is in a perfect world where you can keep it running at 20%. I'd check the fine print.

If you're happy with it, that's what counts. Pools are to make you happy. However, I'd watch my calcium, alkalinity closely. Ideally, in my experience, your chemistry maintenance is no easier than if you're using chlorine. (A well chlorinated pool can be ignored for weeks on end as well, but the long term problems are the reason to check chemistry daily. Where the real saving of using a reasonbly priced, competent service [good luck with that one!] or staying on top of chemistry is that your plaster will last a comfortable 15yrs. instead of a coarse 8yrs.)

The cost savings, when installation and element replacements are taken into account, doesn't pan out like they claim (in my experience.)

I haven't heard of such a cover. Do you have the name of them?

[Coldjensens]

The cover name is Americover I think. Libart makes them too. I do not recall which brand we we ended up buying. Very expensive and we ran out of money and cannot get it assembled.


We looked into a pool service. Their prices were all so high that i just laughed. Not even a possibility.

Our pool is vinyl not plaster. I did not want the maintenance and the skinned knees of plaster/gunnite, it is too costly anyway. Fiberglass is even more expensive and many of our neighbors have had problems with fiberglass, plus you cannot get custom shapes and sizes. Vinyl will not last forever, but the cost of replacing a liner is less than maintaining plaster, so vinyl seems like a good choice. It is really neat how they build them. It is basically an above ground pool in the ground.


the pool is a pain in the rear right now. The winter cover blew open and dumped a load of leaves into the pool. It will take days of work to get them all out. Then we still have to fill it back up and restart the filter and heater, balance the PH, add salt. etc etc. Maybe it will work out better once we get everything into a routine. It sure is nice to have in the summer. but if we did nto have the enclosure, it probably would not be worth the hassle compared to just going to the local pool for $120 or so a year for the family. We still join the local pool anyway for social reasons.