Above ground pools? (1 Viewer)

[Ron-P]

Anyone here have one? If so what size, brand and other info would be great. I am looking into either a 12'x30" or 15'x48". Metal framed. Problem is, where it would sit. It would be half on concrete and half on grass. The concrete patio is sloped away from the house and the grass slopes into the concrete patio, basically creating a "V" to which would be the middle of the pool. I can build a wood deck which would be perfectly level, or do I even need to? Any help or comments?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Above ground pools cannot rest on concrete. The liner cannot be on a hard surface, you must dig a depression and fill it with sand to protect the bottom of the liner.

 

[Ron-P]

What if I put a heavy dude tarp down first so the pool rests on that?

 

[Patrick_S]

I'm sure the manufacture will have all the information that you will need to install the pool correctly. I would definitely follow their recommendations since they would know best.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

I believe the manufacturers require a bed of sand in order to warranty a liner. Liners are not hard to puncture, even in a bed of sand. I've seen rocks make their was up through the sand and shred a liner, just from shifting weight. You are talking about multiple thousands of gallons of water, all being held in by a relatively thin layer of vinyl. Any solid or edged material underneath is going to cause wear and tear, so I imagine the manufacturer will require you to dig out the slab, dig a depression, and lay down sand.

 

[Ron-P]

Well, today we used a BobCat to remove the majority of my lawn and then I hand cleared the remainder. I ran a few string lines to get my level and tomorrow I will rob my neighbors sand pile, finish leveling, lay the sand and tarp it. The pool (12' x 30") is due to arrive on Friday. Most likely won't get to setting it up until early next week though. Here's the first pic of the nearly leveled area.

 

[Bob Graz]

I don't have a pool but through friends I hear a lot about salt water pools being easier to manage and better than chlorine pools. Are you planning on salt water or chlorine? Bob

 

[Al.Anderson]

Chlorine pools aren't that hard to maintain - keep tabs in there and throw some shock in once or twice a week. Algaecide once in a while when it's very hot out. Takes about 4 minutes a week. I would expect the salt pools to be cheaper to maintain; but the downside would be if the water tasted like ocean water, that would ruin it for me. If anyone uses salt I'm curious, tastes like ocean? How cheap and easy?

 

[Greg_S_H]

Can't give you much advice, but everything I've read said they do not taste salty at all and do not burn your eyes. They also supposedly don't dry out your skin and some say they "feel refreshing like a shower." A friend of my BIL says he converted and the salt etched his lining, but I don't think that's common. Ask your pool expert. My dream pool would be a beach entry salt. Bottom line: the salt is converted into chlorine, so it's just another way to chlorinate your pool. Not a pool owner, so everything I say should be taken with a grain of, um, salt.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I have a 16' Intex ultra frame above ground pool running a Krystal saltwater chlorinator. Ours is sitting in a sandbox we built for our first pool seven years ago. Personally, I would recommend a salt water system over regular chlorine tabs any day. If used properly, the water doesn't taste salty, does not burn your eyes, does not irritate your skin and stays clear all summer without having to dump in chemical after chemical. You still need to balance the pH level and other things you would normally need to do, but you shouldn't ever have to worry about buying and adding chlorine and algaecides all summer long. Here's some advice if you plan to use a salt water generator: When I initially set up our pool, I used 125lbs of sodium chloride in the pool. If Wal-Mart has any left (doubtful this late in the season), they should run about $5 for a 40 pound bag. DO NOT use iodized table salt... You'll ruin your liner and chlorinator. You can also use water softener salt pellets, however, these take a long time to dissolve and you want your system running as quickly as possible. After filling the pool with water and turning on the pump, broadcast the salt in the pool and let the pump run for 24 hours before turning on the chlorinator. That's it. Done. Finito. Usually, it takes a day or two for the water to reach a safe free chlorine level, but after that, as long as you run the generator, you have chlorine. I run ours about 4 hours every night when the pool is not in use and the filter pump runs 24-7 unless the pool is occupied. Remember, sunlight makes chlorine less effective so make sure the water is stabilized and run the chlorinator at night. Greg is correct that a generator turns salt into chlorine. See this article . Once you add the salt, it is always in the pool unless you pump the water out or a large amount is splashed out because Johnny Knoxville drops a piano into the pool or something. Even when water evaporates out of the pool, the salt stays behind. We even leave our pool up during the winter, we just drain off the water level to below the inlets and use a vinyl pool closing kit from Sears, a pool pillow and a cover. When I remove the cover in the spring, the water is still clear so all I have to do is re-add water and calculate the amount of salt to add back to the pool since we drain almost half of it in the fall. I don't have the URL handy, but there is a handy pool calc out there which will do it for you after you plug in a couple numbers. The first year we set up this pool, we were out $500 for the pool, $200 for the chlorine generator, $20 for salt, $25 for a vinyl opening kit which contains stabilizer and a couple more things, the cost of water to fill the pool, $40 for a closing kit which contains algaecide and a couple more things, $5 for the pool pillow and about $50 for the cover. Each season, all I have to buy is an opening kit, closing kit, about 2500 gallons of water and $10 worth of salt. That's it. My total yearly maintenance bill for the pool is $75 plus the price of water. I was spending more than that on chlorine alone for our first vinyl pop up pool 7 years ago and we had to put in so much chlorine to keep the water from going green that that's all you could smell when you were in the pool. You get out and you smell like chlorine. It would burn our eyes and make our skin dry and itchy. We only used that pool two years, taking it down and putting it away for the winter and it was such a hassle, plus it developed a lot of pinholes while trying to put it up the third year so we scrapped it and decided a few years ago to get the metal frame pool we have now. Hope you like your pool Ron! I don't swim much but my better half loves ours, so it was a good investment. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll share what I know. :tu:

 

[Ron-P]

Thanks guys!


I should have it up and running tomorrow. Still digging and leveling. If the pool works out well this summer then next year I will convert it to salt water. From all the reading I've been doing it's no where near anything like the ocean. No eye burn or salty taste.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Not even close.

 

[Ron-P]

Did a bit more clearing so the pool sits 100% on dirt and doesn't ride up onto the concrete slab. Laid a couple in bed of sand, leveled then laid out the tarp and the pool assembled in minutes. She's about 1/2 full, about and hour to go and she's ready for a dip. Of course, I'm still reading up on my opening kit I just got today.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Looks good Ron! Intex recommends replacing the filter every 2 weeks but I find it better to do it every week if you have a heavy swimmer load or a lot of bugs. That reminds me... I need to go online and order more filters. I have one left and no one in Arkansas stocks them after July 4th. (There's just no room with all the Christmas stuff they start getting in...)

 

[Ron-P]

Where do you get them from Clinton? Just looking for a place that stocks them for a good price. Amazon has a 12 pack of the ones I need for $38.

 

[Rob FM]

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[Clinton McClure]

I use the "A" filter and usually order them from target.com for $10 per 2-pack.