here we go again, pool opening.

[Crbn79]

My wife bugged me to get an above ground pool for the kids. After a while I relented and allowed one of those temporary intex pools. I set it up for the 3rd year in a row today. It costs me about $50 to fill it from the tap, but I get to reclaim my space the second week in Sept! I have taken care of a 100k Gallon pool in the past and don't want the headache of an in-ground pool ever again.

 

[sj kahr k40]

Grew up with a pool, loved it until I had to open, close and maintain it! We now swim at the club!

 

[Grump01]

Never had a pool........NEVER WILL HAVE THAT HEADACHE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cozy439]

Uncover it? I let Mother Nature and Global Warming open/melt mine for me. Proud owner of a Cement Pond w/o the cement lining. Entire family loves partying in it, I can fish in it, rope swing for the kids and the dogs have been swimming in it since 1 week after the ice went off it. I do put some copper sulfate in. Wife requires we dye it (she was not a big fan of the Electric GREEN dye left over from turning the St. Marys River green on St.Patricks day) and every afternoon I am home I walk the perimeter with a beer (or 2) and feed the fish.

 

[melensdad]

I had an inground pool put in when I lived in Virginia. I absolutely loved it. We spent all of our time out there. Plus, when the kids were teenagers they always had their friends over at our house instead of going someplace else. Hard to put a price on knowing what your kids are doing and who their friends are.

Had an above ground pool and hated it.

Now have an in ground pool with a salt generator system and love it. Talk about a low maintenance pool!

Plus, as you point out, having the kids at our house, instead of having our child off somewhere else and not knowing what they are doing is worth the cost and effort of the pool.

 

[Lectric102002]

Had an above ground pool and hated it.

Now have an in ground pool with a salt generator system and love it. Talk about a low maintenance pool!

Plus, as you point out, having the kids at our house, instead of having our child off somewhere else and not knowing what they are doing is worth the cost and effort of the pool.

If you don't mind me asking, about how much did the salt generation system cost ? I've got a 20,000 gallon in-ground on chlorine and go through a lot of chemicals in a season. I've been thinking of looking at a salt system.

 

[jd4320t]

I think you guys should post pics of your pools for us who don't have them yet

 

[shibumiseeker]

I got me an in-ground lake. With an island. And blue heron and bald eagles fishing in it. I'd have a heated pool too, if someone else would take care of it.

 

[jmiller676]

The wife wanted the pool opened this year, so I dug my heels in, then she got mad. Long story short, pools opening this week.

 

[indyk]

Call Keiths Pool Service and Repair for your salt generators, we have a lot of folks in line but are catching up rather quickly,
salt generators are extremely efficient with balanced pool water, stay away from Intellichlor, or any other generators that have little to no warranty.

Also unless you dump a little chlorine on the regular and "air out" your cover an idle or closed pool will quickly turn into that cement or steel walled pond,.and cost much more to clean later, We have actually cleaned out and detailed, "cement ponds" and I'm talkin real ones with bikes cellphone or two and fish yes crappie, bass and bluegill, it always costs the customers $$$$.

I will post some of these ponds here later


and never drain your inground fiberglass pools for a long period or time and never drain a liner pool without water on standby, some FYI for those with wild cleaning ideas.

Pools are like running cars in the ground.

 

[ashby koss]

Only upside to an in ground pool. You can bulldoze any surrounding "pool" structures into its pre-dug grave.

 

[melensdad]

If you don't mind me asking, about how much did the salt generation system cost ? I've got a 20,000 gallon in-ground on chlorine and go through a lot of chemicals in a season. I've been thinking of looking at a salt system.

Honestly I don't know.

When I had the pool installed (4 years ago) they told me I could have either the traditional chlorine system or the salt generator system, but they STRONGLY recommended the Salt Generator. I don't know if it cost more or not, they sold me on the overall lower costs and the overall ease of maintenance.

When we opened the pool the first year I poured 400 pounds of regular Table Salt into the pool. Flipped the switch and forgot about it. Table Salt is CHEAP.

The big problem I had was at the end of the last season, my salt generator panels got clogged up with calcium. I had never cleaned the generator for the first 3 years because the "needs cleaning" light never came on. 1 gallon of muratic acid, a bucket, and about 2 hours of easy work (mostly letting it soak, dumping the acid out and pouring new acid in) and it was as good as new. I'll probably clean it at the end of every season now that I know what it takes, it would probably take 15 minutes of annual cleaning if I did it every year.

Of course, just like with any pool, I have to clean the filter on a regular basis. Worse for me, we don't use a cover during the summer, not even a solar cover. So my filter gets to clean out lots of debris. But I figured out an easy way to clean the filter. First trick is to own 2 filters. So I alway have a clean back up filter. Second trick is to have a garbage can for the dirty filter. Add some Filter Cleaner (expensive) + Water or, if you are cheap and lazy like I am, add about a quart of Muratic Acid (cheap) + Water and let the filter soak overnight. Hose if off the next day and its clean!

I may buy a solar cover this year to help keep some of the debris out of the pool and to help reduce the cost of powering the pool heater. But I've never found a solar cover that doesn't shred apart.

Call Keiths Pool Service and Repair for your salt generators, we have a lot of folks in line but are catching up rather quickly,
salt generators are extremely efficient with balanced pool water, stay away from Iintellichlor, or any other generators that have little to no warranty.

FWIW, my unit is an Intelichlor (sp?) unit and has been ZERO problem, on the 4th season now and working great. Like I said above I didn't clean it for the first 3 years and I had some issues at the end of season 3 that were pretty easily resolved. But mine works great. Maybe I'm lucky.

Also FWIW, I have a fiberglass pool, approx 20,000 gallons. 18 by 38 irregular shape, with a hot tub at one end, a shallow sunning deck, and 4 bar stools along one side.

Only upside to an in ground pool. You can bulldoze any surrounding "pool" structures into its pre-dug grave.

If you are spending more than 30 minutes a week taking care of an in ground pool then you are doing it wrong!

 

[melensdad]

Here is the old pool, shortly after install, before we finished the landscaping around the pool.

This pool is a 16x32 above ground pool. Its a rectangle. Built into the side of a hill so the 'hill side' allowed us to have the deck even with the ground, while it looked like a traditional above ground pool from the 'farm side' of the pool with a raised deck.

I really hated taking care of this pool. The farm field dust and debris ended up in the pool constantly. We had a couple liner tears. After about 12 years one of the wall panels failed, rather than drain it, repair the wall panel and put in a new liner we decided to simply tear it down and build a new pool in a different spot on our property.

This is the new pool, photo taken from inside the new pool's pump house and bar.

Its a fiberglass one piece pool. Simple to take care of with the salt system. Only rarely have to deal with algae chemicals or anything else. Photo was from right after the install while the ground was still torn up and before the new landscaping was completed but we also built this one on a slope. Dug out 540 cubic yards of clay to level the ground, built a retaining wall around the 3 sides to hold back the slope and poured a patio to make maintenance even easier.

Another angle of the pool, deck and wall. Wall is about 5 1/2 feet tall, I installed lights on the wall while it was being constructed with wiring running behind the wall. The lights are controlled by the pool computer panel inside the pool equipment house/bar and are on the same circuit as the lights on the exterior of the pool house/bar.

The pool has 1 heater, but 2 pumps and a valve system that allows me to heat the pool separately from the spa area that is on the end of the pool. So if people want to sit in the spa with the jets running that can be 100 degrees while the pool can be at a more comfortable temperature for swimming. All controlled by a simple computer panel in the equipment shed/bar, and also controlled by a remote panel that is over at our house installed in our mud-room.

 

[jmiller676]

^ glorious

 

[melensdad]

^ glorious

And honestly, coming from a very lazy man, it is easy to take care of!!!

 

[jmiller676]

And honestly, coming from a very lazy man, it is easy to take care of!!!

Nice, we have a 30' AG, I need to build a little bar by it.

 

[melensdad]

Nice, we have a 30' AG, I need to build a little bar by it.

When I ran the wires and gas to the pool pump I made sure I pulled enough power out there to power a bunch of other stuff. I also ran out data lines and phone lines. So we have a telephone at the pool shed, we have electricity to run blenders, a mini-fridge, etc. Running the data lines also allowed me to put a couple infra-red cameras out there to watch for illicit night time activity too (none so far). We then built the shed on top of/around the pump/plumbing/heater and pool computer panel.

The "bar" has a granite countertop because that is weatherproof. I didn't really want to spend that much $$$ on a countertop but it was a simple choice given that it requires essentially no maintenance and it holds up to summer sun and winter extremes.

The opening for the bar is actually a door, laid on its side, hinged at the top. It open in & up and is pinned into place on both sides when closed for security, but simply latches into place with a couple of hooks when open. Sort of looks like a 'concession stand' at the local little league. Works really well. The only bad side was that we had to build a custom size door because the opening is taller than a standard door is wide.

You can also tell from this construction photo that there are windows on 2 sides of the the equipment shed/bar. That provides great cross breezes because the pool heater is also inside the shed. There is a triple wall stove pipe that runs the exhaust, and much of the heat, up through the roof. Inside its shielded on the 'bar side' with a solid insulation panel, skimmed with a thin piece of plywood, and stained for appearance. That 'shield' is about 24" wide and gives me a place to mount the telephone, it also prevents anyone standing on the bar side from stepping back and accidentally bumping into the exhaust chimney pipe.

 

[jmiller676]

Very nice! You definitely thought this out. Enjoy some frozen margaritas this summer!

 

[melensdad]

Very nice! You definitely thought this out. Enjoy some frozen margaritas this summer!

I'm more of a bourbon guy, but I'm open minded when it comes to summer drinks in the sunshine.

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Was in the process of replacing the pool liner on my above ground pool. Discovered that the side walls are corroded to the point of having small holes everywhere. With the sun shining, it looks like it was peppered with bird shot. Cannot see corrosion from the outside, but the inside looks nasty. The pool was 24 years old. We got our moneys worth out of it. Wife agreed to not replacing it. The scrap dealer will get the metal and give the pump and filter to a friend.