Considering purchasing an above ground pool, looking for feedback from those who may have one or had one. The good, bad and ugly.
We have had pools since I was a little kid and when my daughter was 2 I had one put in. Its really not that big of a deal. Once you get it opened and the ph/alkalinity etc set you just need to maintain it. Toss Chlorine in every few days, shock once a week, check water balance, backwash the filter (depending on the type you have). Two years ago mine got a little tricky because I went away for 2 weeks and no one notice that the timer had blown so I came back to a mess but in a few days it was cleared up. I tend to run my filter a lot just because I like to- I opened the pool 2 weeks ago and haven't shut off the filter since- next weekend I will put it on a time to run a few hours during the day and then 10 hours at night. I find it gives me less trouble maintaining the water if I leave the filter on more. My neighbor only runs theirs 4 hours a day and always have trouble with balancing it.
luvmy3 said:I agree, its not really a big deal to maintain the chemicals. We just plop some chlorine tabs in the filter basket, shock it once a week and run the filter about 8 hours a day. We did spend a lot of time skimming out leaves but had a bunch of trees taken down so it has made it so much better. We vacuum regularly so that the debris/junk doesn't build up and make us go through chlorine faster.
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The good thing is that you have summer recreation right outside of your back door.Considering purchasing an above ground pool, looking for feedback from those who may have one or had one. The good, bad and ugly.
We have had pools since I was a little kid and when my daughter was 2 I had one put in. Its really not that big of a deal. Once you get it opened and the ph/alkalinity etc set you just need to maintain it. Toss Chlorine in every few days, shock once a week, check water balance, backwash the filter (depending on the type you have). Two years ago mine got a little tricky because I went away for 2 weeks and no one notice that the timer had blown so I came back to a mess but in a few days it was cleared up. I tend to run my filter a lot just because I like to- I opened the pool 2 weeks ago and haven't shut off the filter since- next weekend I will put it on a time to run a few hours during the day and then 10 hours at night. I find it gives me less trouble maintaining the water if I leave the filter on more. My neighbor only runs theirs 4 hours a day and always have trouble with balancing it.
Last year we got a solar heater and used those liquid solor cover things and our pool was like bath water. Once we had the trees taken down, it gets sun almost all day and it got so warm that some days we actually spent the whole day in it. Of course this year, the heater has some leaks and dh is recovering from knee surgery so he cant get up the ladder to fix them yet. The water was cold yesterday!
What type of solar heater did you get? I have seen so many mixed reviews on them that I don't know if user error is making for negative reviews or if the units don't actually work. We were looking to get the 2X10 panel type that goes on a roof. Are you also referring to the new (well, I think it's new) chemical that you can put in the pool and it stays on the surface and keeps the water warm? Do you add that after you get your water up to temp? We live in MI so I need a heater that will raise the temp a few degrees, not just one or two like I have read some reviews say.
What type of solar heater did you get? I have seen so many mixed reviews on them that I don't know if user error is making for negative reviews or if the units don't actually work. We were looking to get the 2X10 panel type that goes on a roof. Are you also referring to the new (well, I think it's new) chemical that you can put in the pool and it stays on the surface and keeps the water warm? Do you add that after you get your water up to temp? We live in MI so I need a heater that will raise the temp a few degrees, not just one or two like I have read some reviews say.
If children appear who are not close friends with my children and want to swim I tell them they may swim but their mom or dad must come over and watch them. Usually, they don't come back. I don't want to be responsible for people's children when I don't really know the parents. I've never had a problem with my neighbors being upset over my rules. We absolutely do not allow anyone to use our pool when we are not home.
That is the heater that we have and it really worked well, and I was pretty surprised that it did. We have it on our shed roof and dh trenched under the ground to the pool and laid out PVC pipe. It does get sun all day, and that is important since if its not in the sun and you run the water through it will cool the pool. He put in a shut off valve so we can run the filter and bypass the heater. On the hot humid days it, the water was really warm, due to the lack of evaporation. I did use the liquid solar cover (fish that you throw in ad they sink to the bottom), its just alcohol so its safe. I swear it worked, but we do have humid summers here so that may have helped. We kept tabs on our temp and it did get over 90 degrees on really hot days, it was just like bath water. Before the heater, it was no where near that, probably not even 80 degrees.
It is kind of cheesy, its hard plastic consisting of tubes that the water flows through, and ours came with leaks at some of the seams. Dh used a marine epoxy to seal it since it was easier than taking it down, boxing it up and returning it.
We left it up over the winter and it did spring some more leaks. I assume there was water left in it and it froze and split the seams. Dh did pump out the water, but its possible it didn't all get out. He is just going to use the epoxy again, so hopefully it will do the trick.
ETA When installing, they expect you to actually drill into your roof. Dh did not want to do that so he constructed a holder for the panels and it hangs over the ridge line of the roof (we have panels on both sides of the roof).
I have a pic but I have no idea how to post it!