Looking at putting in a pool

[dank69]

so when i accidentally swallow pool water i'm drinking bleach? Blech

Haha yes, in concentrations that aren't harmful. Similar to Clorox Anywhere that you can use around food. I remember an episode of Good Eats where Alton uses bleach to make corn last longer.

 

[NoTine42]

Yeah, just going by what the first company told me about this Frog system. I assumed he meant ppm. It seems strange to me though that you said a stabilizer that is used to keep the chlorine from dissipating actually requires more chlorine. Isn't that self-defeating?

Edit: Looked up the Frog system and it says 0.5-1.0 ppm. Check the manual on this page

Without stabilizer, all chlorine is "eaten up" by the sun, and must be replenished.

With proper stabilizer, most chlorine remains. So while you use more to get to the higher level, you actually add less chlorine per day to maintain healthy water.

 

[cbrunny]

All very interesting. Always wanted my own pool, but only one that is 25 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Anything other than that, and I would not even consider it. But that's just me.

I won't be much help here, but if it were me, I'd go with the one that seemed like it was going to be the best quality all around regardless of price. The company that's willing to take the time to do it right and not rush the job. High quality materials, experience, etc.

When we need something done we usually start by looking at the BBB. I know i know BBB hahaha yeah yeah. It isn't gospel by any means, but it will tell you if one company is a piece of garbage.

 

[Aikouka]

Bleach in a pool?

I guess that makes sense. You'll come out cleaned and sanitized.

Yes, bleach adds chlorine to the pool. The problem with the "pucks" that people use is that they not only add chlorine but also stabilizer. You don't want a lot of stabilizer as you'll have to add even more chlorine to make up for it, and the only way to reduce stabilizer to is drain (some) water and refill the pool. (You shouldn't fully drain a vinyl pool or else the liner will pull up.)

Yeah, just going by what the first company told me about this Frog system. I assumed he meant ppm. It seems strange to me though that you said a stabilizer that is used to keep the chlorine from dissipating actually requires more chlorine. Isn't that self-defeating?

Edit: Looked up the Frog system and it says 0.5-1.0 ppm. Check the manual on this page

None of their manuals will open for me -- they all list as being damaged -- but the amount of chlorine should still depend on the amount of stabilizer in the pool. Yes, the minerals in the Frog system should help kill microbes (it's a lot like a silver additive in water cooling systems for a computer), but it isn't going to do everything.

Also, I'm not completely sold on their anti-salt talk. I don't use a salt-based chlorinator, but that's because of the cost to add one (about $500-1000) and the fact that they require specific water temperatures (i.e. you might need to consider a heater -- $2000-4000 -- especially in colder climates). Although, the point of them is that they convert salt to chlorine (salt is just potassium and chlorine after all).

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Salt water fiber glass pool owner. Definitely check the trouble free pool forums, they're an amazing resource.

I would never swim in a 1.0 ppm or less chlorine content pool. Far lower than mine and salt+fiberglass combo is pretty much the lowest you'll get, and I still keep mine between 4&6 ( depending on guests).

Also, if you have a lot of sun, CYA is critical to keeping your chlorine levels up.

Absolutely love the salt water in case anyone was wondering, was definitely worth the upgrade. Also, get one of the dolphins asap, buy them online though, save a couple hundred.

 

[LegendKiller]

My parents had an in-ground pool for ~20 years in the north.

1. Fiberglass walls did not break down over 20 years despite drastic differences in temps and the pool being drained half way every winter.

2. Liner only needed to be replaced a few times, once because somebody came into our pool area and sliced it.

3. Sand bottom was fine

4. Concrete around should be reinforced. My parents replaced a ton of the slabs around the pool. It doesn't matter how much you prep the soil, the ground moves and whole slabs break apart. You can prevent that with the stress cracks, but eventually it breaks up.

5. Given this was a long time ago they used traditional chlorine. It worked fine. Yes, you're dumping tons of chlorine in. I remember the big 5-gal buckets of straight up chlorine concentrate that we'd have to pour in at the beginning of the season to clear out all of the algae and such. Then there was "shock" and such, the tablets in the basket filter...etc. It is *a lot* of work/money to keep it balanced.

6. As others said, for every person that likes it, another hates it (work, cost, safety, yard space, actual usage vs all of these). Consider this carefully since you're effectively removing a huge portion of the buyers market from your house.

If I had one piece of advice - get an auto cover. We just had a solar cover, which limited its use, but it is also a *massive* pain in the ass to open the pool up in the spring if you don't have it covered in the winter. Dredging up decaying leaves, worms, salamanders, frogs, voles/moles/whatever rodent...etc, was a *disgusting* job. It was horrid smelling.

 

[BillTims]

I used to have an inground salt pool, and jeeze that thing was a hassle. The house insurance was through the roof and even though the salt pools are supposed to be cheaper on chemicals I still spent a couple thousand each summer to keep it running (the pool was 20x40 with it being 12 feet deep in the deep end)

I'd recommend instead of getting your own pool, find a friend that has a pool that will let you come over for some beers a couple weekends