Tell me about your quick set pool!

[Jenny-momof3]

We're looking at putting in a pool in the next several years. Our HOA does not allow above ground pools so we will have to fork out major $$ for an inground pool with all new fencing!

Before we spend the big bucks on a pool we want to make sure we'll really get alot of use out of it! So I want to put up a quick set up pool this summer. Our HOA allows those. We want a good size one as we have 6 in our family and the kids always have friends over,etc. There's quite a few Summer Escape brand pools on sale this week. Are they comparable to the Intex ones?

We already have a completely level spot to put it on. Any other suggestions to get us started? How much will I be looking at in maintenace cost for the summer? TIA!

 

[brandip22]

bumpity bump! We are looking at doing the same!

 

[verlee]

We have had one the last four years. The boys love it. But it is a lot of maintenance. You have to take care of it almost every day. The chemical balance it tricky. The first two years we struggled to keep it clean by the end of the season we were ready to be done with the pool. We keep puttng it up because the boys love it and use it every day. Dh found this site last year and it really helped.
http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/kiddie-pool-care.html


They also make salt water filters you might want to look into.

For us the cost is not that much but you really do need to keep on top of the chemical balance. It can turn green really quickly!

 

[lucigo]

We had one for 2 years before we upgraded to our "real" above ground pool. The bigger the pool the more the tiny little pump has to work to attempt to keep it clean. It gets quite hot here, and once the water temp got up into the 90's we had to dump and refill because the pump just couldn't keep up with how fast the chlorine would burn off. Once it turns green trust me its easier and cheaper to just dump it and refill it.

We have a salt system on our pool now, and I absolutely love it. I have seen salt systems available for Intex pools, I would definitely look into that and see it it might help with your maintenance.

Basically my advice is, if you can get a "real" above ground pool that would be my first choice, however an Intex pool is MUCH better than no pool at all.

 

[DisneyDebbie]

I used an Intex brand pool for 4 years. I started w/ a small one and each year kept upgrading to bigger and bigger! It is quite a bit of work, but then you'll have an idea of how much work a 'real' one will be As I got to my biggest size 15' x 3.5' I had to run the filter about 12 hours a day. I used about 2 filter inserts a month. I liked the liquid chlorine better than the tablets for some reason. I also used a cover to keep leaves out. Of course it did get green, and it was MUCH easier to dump the water and wipe down the sides ( I used dish soap). that way it was up and running again in a day and I never had to vacuum it either. Sometimes we would make a whirlpool and once all the dirt settled in the middle, I would strain it out!
HTH!

 

[jessica52877]

I just wanted to say that we have inground pool with chlorine dispenser built into the pump. We don't have to do anything but make sure it is full once a week or so. We have a polaris vacuum that handles sweeping the debris. We run ours for 8 hours in the summer. So it sounds like an intex one is way more work then an inground.

 

[Belle0101]

We've had 3 now I think. As our boys got older we would get a bigger one.

There was 1 year we had awful problems with the chemical balance. It turned green. We got it back into balance only to have it go green again. Our neighbor with an inground pool was having troubles too but not to the extent we were.

It took all summer but our neighbor with the pool we finally figured out that it was going green in the days after our other neighbor treated his yard. They mentioned it to the people from the yard treatment company and they said that if it was windy the fertilizer could be blowing into our pools.

Once we knew that we knew to watch the balance more closely on yard treatment days. Since then we haven't had the same problem.

 

[tikilyn]

I just bought my second intex pool (first one split at the seam). The new pool is a 15' x 48". First thing you should do is buy a bigger filter pump that pumps double the amount of water than the one that comes with the pool. Also purchase a salt water generator.

I run my pumps 6 hours a day both of them. My water is crystal clear and my numbers are pretty good. During the summer months I still shock the pool once a week due to the loss of chlorine because of the high temps (as per the pool store told me to do). One day we'll get an ingound pool but until then Intex pool will do!

 

[mrodgers]

You folks down south with the heat and sun must be completely different than us in PA.

We also have been upgrading all along as the kids got older. We had a small pool with the blowup ring, moved to the larger one, moved to a steel pole framed pool, then (after the new dog ate that pool) moved up a size with the frame pool. We've had this current pool 2 years and this summer will be the 3rd time filling it.

We have a well and fill it from the well along with directing the gutter into the pool if it rains (pantyhose "filter" over the gutter downspout.) We do take about a week to fill it with the well as we don't want to run it dry. It fills very fast with the gutter if we have a good rain.

Our well water is very clean and we have no filters or softener on it. We drink it straight from the tap. This is to give an idea what kind of water we are filling the pool with.

We have no problems with balancing or chlorine levels. We balance the pH in the beginning, then shock it. Once that is done, we have a float that we put a chlorine disk into and that holds the chlorine levels pretty good. Maybe once a month in the summer (end of May through August) we shock it.

The filters of the Intex pools are pretty crappy. They are just a paper filter and clog up rapidly. The first time balancing and shocking, we use a new filter and change it out after 4 hours. Each time shocking the pool, we change out the filter after 4 hours of circulating.

My kids (now 7 and 10) live in the pool every day when school is finished from lunch until evening with a break for dinner.

 

[cbg1027]

Not sure if this is unwelcome since it's not exactly what you asked....

I would advise against getting a pool of any kind. Big budget buster! They cost a lot to install, and a lot to maintain. Once you put it in, you have to maintain it for the rest of the time you live in the house. Your homeowner's insurance goes up. If you ever want to sell the house, pools are usually NOT a good feature to have because most people don't want to deal with the maintenance and higher insurance rates.

If you're not sure it will really get enough use, why not look in to a public pool or country club membership? You don't have to commit to those forever.

What happens when all of your children are grown and have left home? Would you be using this pool?

Some things to think about...

 

[valentine92]

For those with Intex pools I have a couple of questions as we were thinking about getting one.

1. Did you inform your home owner's insurance and did the rate go up?


2. Since it is a temporary pool (I would take mine down after each season)
did you have to get a permit to put the pool up? and if so did you need
to run a dedicated electrical line for the filter?

We are really considering one. We are totally fenced in. I wouldnt mind if my insurance went up a bit but would mind if I had to do major electrical work to run the pool filter.

A few years a go we priced a regular pool and the cost just to run the electrical was going to be very expensive as the city we live in wanted us to run the line underground.

If we get the Intex pool we were hoping we could just plug it into our garage outlet when we needed to run the filter.

Any information would be helpful!

 

[lucigo]

Not sure if this is unwelcome since it's not exactly what you asked....

I would advise against getting a pool of any kind. Big budget buster! They cost a lot to install, and a lot to maintain. Once you put it in, you have to maintain it for the rest of the time you live in the house. Your homeowner's insurance goes up. If you ever want to sell the house, pools are usually NOT a good feature to have because most people don't want to deal with the maintenance and higher insurance rates.

If you're not sure it will really get enough use, why not look in to a public pool or country club membership? You don't have to commit to those forever.

What happens when all of your children are grown and have left home? Would you be using this pool?

Some things to think about...

This is why we have an above ground pool and not an in-ground. We live in a rural area and realize the selling point for our house is the zoning, and ability to have horses or other animals, and a pool is probably only going to hurt resale. That, and the above ground was less than 5K, in-ground starting around 40K! We had just watched our neighbor, an older gentleman, fill in his in-ground pool with dirt after his wife died and his grandson entered high school and no longer was using it. Broke my heart to watch him do it, but he has no regrets.

 

[uk_wildcat]

We bought an Intex last year and it was great. We have one that has the metal frame. We also went with the salt water pump. That makes a big difference in keeping it clean. We also liked that we didn't have to buy chemicals, just salt. The only thing we had to do was periodically add salt and take out part of the filter and clean it in vinegar when it would get caked with salt. The water was nice and clear and felt much better than chlorine water.

 

[labdogs42]

Where can you get the salt systems for the Intex pools? They sound like a neat idea!

 

[tlbwriter]

Where can you get the salt systems for the Intex pools? They sound like a neat idea!

I got one at Walmart last summer, I think it was $200 (it might have been more). It's amazing. Every year in the past we spent hundreds of dollars on chemicals and DH was always running back and forth to the pool store to get the water tested. Last summer? The salt water system and a couple of $8 bags of salt were all we needed!

If you're buying a new pool, you can get one with the salt system. If you already have a pool, you can buy it separately.

 

[tlbwriter]

1. Did you inform your home owner's insurance and did the rate go up?

I did call, and I don't remember if they said it wouldn't affect our rates, or if they said they didn't even need to know. It's been a while. I do know that we have a fenced yard and a large umbrella liability policy, so that may be why it didn't affect our rates.

2. Since it is a temporary pool (I would take mine down after each season)
did you have to get a permit to put the pool up? and if so did you need
to run a dedicated electrical line for the filter?

Well, I didn't even think about a permit. Those pools are wildly popular around here and I doubt anyone has a permit. I'll have to call and make sure. We just plugged ours into the regular electrical outlet outside and put it on a timer to run at night.

 

[okeydokey]

We had an intex pool f or 4 years before we put in an inground pool last year. The intex pool was much harder to keep clean and was a lot more work.

The most important thing in installation of the intex is to be sure the ground in COMPLETELY level. I also highly recommend the salt system.

 

[friend2Figment]

We had intex pools, we also got larger ones as the kids got older. I hated it. Those little pumps just do not do a good job filtering the water. It seemed like we were always dumping more chemicals in. Last year we put in a 24' above ground pool and it was really easy to maintain and keep balanced.
My daughter's friends were always calling wanting to come over to swim so it got alot of use. We figured since we live in the country that it would cost so much in gas every time we wanted to go to town to swim then the cost for admission for us and any friends. It was not much more to have our own pool, if you swim as much as we do.

 

[uk_wildcat]

We got our salt water pump for the Intex on Amazon.com. It was a good deal because shipping was free. I never saw them at any of our local stores.

 

[brekin67]

You folks down south with the heat and sun must be completely different than us in PA.

We also have been upgrading all along as the kids got older. We had a small pool with the blowup ring, moved to the larger one, moved to a steel pole framed pool, then (after the new dog ate that pool) moved up a size with the frame pool. We've had this current pool 2 years and this summer will be the 3rd time filling it.

We have a well and fill it from the well along with directing the gutter into the pool if it rains (pantyhose "filter" over the gutter downspout.) We do take about a week to fill it with the well as we don't want to run it dry. It fills very fast with the gutter if we have a good rain.

Our well water is very clean and we have no filters or softener on it. We drink it straight from the tap. This is to give an idea what kind of water we are filling the pool with.

We have no problems with balancing or chlorine levels. We balance the pH in the beginning, then shock it. Once that is done, we have a float that we put a chlorine disk into and that holds the chlorine levels pretty good. Maybe once a month in the summer (end of May through August) we shock it.

The filters of the Intex pools are pretty crappy. They are just a paper filter and clog up rapidly. The first time balancing and shocking, we use a new filter and change it out after 4 hours. Each time shocking the pool, we change out the filter after 4 hours of circulating.

My kids (now 7 and 10) live in the pool every day when school is finished from lunch until evening with a break for dinner.

How is the gutter different then the water just raining down into the pool?
Thanks,