Question for Florida pool owners

[gshanny]

We were recently in Florida and rented a house we had rented 2 years before and paid extra to have the pool heated. We had problems with the pool heating up enough to swim this stay. When we stayed 2 years ago in January there were freeze advisories one or two nights we were there. We were in the pool every night and it was nice and toasty. In the morning there was a steam coming from the pool.
This last stay there was never any steam. The pool never got warm at all. DS tried to swim and was in the water for maybe 15 minutes 2 different times. We stayed the week of January 20-27. The temps were near 80 I believe on Monday and were in the high 50's on Thursday.
The management company is trying to say nothing is wrong with the heater and it was just colder out. They refuse to talk to me about it and tell me to go to the person I booked with. I am not asking for anything but the pool heating cost despite there being leaks in the plumbing and we discovered the heater in the house didn't work either when we awoke to 60 degrees in the house our last morning there. This is a different management company than last time and it shows.
Does anyone in Florida ever her their pool at all in the winter, and have you had it not heat up enough to swim comfortably?

 

[mickeysgal]

Does anyone in Florida ever her their pool at all in the winter, and have you had it not heat up enough to swim comfortably?

Friends of ours that live in Clearwater cannot use their pool year round. They heat their pool with solar panels but it does get cold in Florida. In the winter months, it sometimes is too cold to swim. Now I imagine if you're talking southern Florida...like Naples, West Palm Beach, etc. you may be able to swim year round. South Florida doesn't seem to get as cold as central and northern Florida.

 

[Amity 3]

even with a solar cover the water temp is way too cold for us this time of year, and way to fickle. we heat the hot tub and don't waste the money on the pool, way too expensive.

the management company you're dealing with is screwing with you.

 

[ChristmasElf]

You will lose a lot of pool heat overnight when the sun goes down this time of year.
If the kids want to use the pool in January, I turn the heater on for an hour or so before they go in and it is usually warm enough for them to have fun in. It is too expensive to run 24/7 though.
It does look like the management company doesn't want to own up to a faulty pool heater though.

 

[maps]

You may want to post this on the Orlando and attractions board---they are lots of vacation home owners on there that can give you advice.

We've rented pool homes for the past 4 yrs in Feb and have always been able to swim comfortably in them. We use the solar cover to keep the heat in.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Is it possible that the owners just left the pool temp lower this year?

We have solar heat--so we don't get the pleasure of steam.

Friends of ours just got a heater and they can set the stat to whatever they want. I think they keep it at 82 or something. To me it is still frigid and there is no steam so we don't swim though my girls do (and for quite a bit).

What did the thermostat say the pool temp was? I guess I would have documented that or at least called and complained during the stay.

Is this the same house you rent or do you get a different place each time?

I've never known anyone to heat the pool like a spa since it is quite expensive. If that is what you were promised and it wasn't heated properly...then you definitely have a valid complaint.

It does take a day or two to notice a comfortabel temp difference. So another theory was the last renter did not have heat..and by the time they turned it on for your stay--just didn't have enough oomph to heat it properly.

But to answer your base question--an electric or gas heater is definitely able to heat the pool to a swimmable temperature in the winter.