Any of you guys purchase a pool or hot tub for your place?
If so, what did you get and how much did it cost? Installation Costs? Etc. What about maintance costs? Electricity? Covers? etc.
I’m very heavily considering getting a 6-7 person hottub and possibly 24’ round above ground pool next year for my place. I’m going to be doing the installs myself as I have access to all the equipment I’ll need and I’m planning on doing the deck where I’d put the Hottub regardless.
my electricity costs are probably 60-80 a month to run the pump for 8 hours a day+, I bet chemicals will run me close to 300 this year, plus about all the vacuum, skimmers, etc etc…
im in florida, so id imagine it’ll be different…
during the winter the pool pretty much maintains itself here though.
How big is your pool? above/in-ground?
My 12x24 inground pool came with the house. It has a deep end and I think it’s around 11000 gallons. It doesn’t have a heater and the amount my electric bill goes up from running the filter isn’t really noticeable. I open and close it myself spending about $40 on chemicals in the spring and the fall. I use bromine which is more expensive than chlorine but has other advantages and spend probably about $150-$200 a summer in sanitation (bromine, shock, baking soda, algicide, calcium, test strips etc). If you spend a few minutes a week keeping the water chemicals balanced keeping the pool crystal clean takes just those few minutes a week. Let things get out of balance and pools can turn green and be a real headache in no time. By keeping mine balanced I’ll sometimes go a day or two without even running the filter, then run it for only 3-4 hours at a time when I do. Obviously with the heat recently and swimming in it constantly I’ve been running the filter more.
We were given a 6 person hot tub this spring by a friend who wasn’t using it. It’s about 6 years old but was a higher end manufacturer (Hawkeye). Keeping it 100 degrees my electric bill has gone up about $20-25 a month. I’m using bromine in it as well since I’m familiar with balancing and didn’t feel like getting a whole 2nd set of chemicals. I probably have to test it about twice a week when we’re using it a lot because with the much smaller amount of water and higher temperatures it’s easy to get huge swings in the chemical balance. I spent around $200 in parts and another $150 in labor having the 220 line run and installed. There’s a fee for the official town stamp of approval on the electrical work if you choose to go that route as well. You’ll need a very level very strong base for the tub which I was lucky and already had with my back patio. 8.34lbs/gal = 2 tons of water easily even in a small 6 person tub. Take time to think about noise as well. With all the jets going they aren’t exactly quiet. Putting the tub on any sort of elevated deck often causes these sounds to amplify and if the deck is attached to the house this sound will reverberate right through the walls.
DOT.
my pool is about 12x 27 with a 5.5 ft deep end… its in ground, its fiberglass, and its not heated… (no need when the pool is already about 90 degrees right now)
My chemicals may be a bit more expensive, but my pool is open all year.
What jay said seems spot on… and our pools sound pretty similar in size… i estimate mine to be about 10k gallons.
My pool is 15x30 indoor with a deep end and hot tub in the corner electric bill went up about $60-80. Heating with natural gas, I have 3 wells so I have no idea on what heating would cost. I shock the pool when I forget about it and run it at night with smart sticks in there. Its like a 2nd job I hate the thing. I’m $200 in chemicals this year. BUT I do forget about it and have to shock it all the time lol.
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Are you running a paper or sand filter??
I had a pool when I lived with my father in college and I was the one responsible for maintaining it, so I know about that fun; it’s not a lot of time, you just have to be diligent in doing it if you’re using the pool. Wasn’t sure on the cost though cuz I wasn’t paying for it, just doing it.
Never throught about the hottub reverbrating that much… hmm… have to plan the deck on the house a little different then. Maybe I’ll do a isolated stand-alone deck for the hottub in the corner of the main deck which is attached to the house.
Was the $20-$25/mo for summer or winter time? If I get one I’m running it year round… nothing like climbing in a hottub after a day on the slopes.
Paper filter here which I’d highly recommend. Better (finer) filtration than sand but not nearly as much work as DE (diatomaceous earth). DE is the ultimate in filtration though filtering down to 3 to 5 microns. I just spent 3 days rebuilding my mom’s DE filter because it was leaking DE back into the pool. The idiot pool people she was working with told her to just keep running the filter and the pool would clear. I took the return line off and used it to fill a small kiddie pool and what was coming out of the filter looked like milk. I’m estimating she had anywhere from 5 to 20 lbs of DE in suspension in her pool. It took almost a full week of running the filter 18+ hours a day to get it clear once I fixed the seals in the filter.
The 20-25 was summer. I haven’t had it through the winter yet. I’m not expecting it to be that bad though based on what other people have told me. Maybe 30-35. I got a new cover for it too with a 3-5 taper and 2lb foam so that should help a lot. Standard is a 2-4 taper with 1lb foam.
Had paper then the filters tore and it was like $300 for new ones, we got a sand filter free so that’s what I’ve been using. I really hate the pool but if I drain it I think it will harm it being dry. I’m not sure if it will crack. If you can figure out a way to cut it off the house and take it I’ll cut you a deal.
Ok, here’s my quick rundown.
We ended up buying a high-end (10" top rail and 10.5" posts) Sharkline 24’ above-ground from Pool Mart up near the Transit Drive-in. Awesome folks to deal with. Mike (mgr) and John (sales dude) are fantastic.
For the entire kit, so :
And some other odds and ends, ended up being less than $3k. This was a pretty decent special a few months ago.
We did have the installation professionally done by a company called The Pool Guy also up in Lockport area. They charge $750 to level ground (up to 4" leveling) and install/build the pool. Extra leveling is $25 per inch. Definitely worth the expense, IMHO. They spent about 2 hours leveling and another 7-8 building.
So, for under $4k, this is what we ended up with (obviously, the deck expansion was extra, but we’re focusing on the pool). And please ignore the obvious construction stuff still laying around in these pics
Jason - AWESOME! That’s almost exactly what I’m looking to get. Not sure on make/model/etc yet.
Just found out my Dad’s cousin owns Denny’s Pools in Batavia… so I should be able to get an awesome deal.
Glad to help. Just don’t go too big for your yard. We had the scratch to do a 28, but once we started measuring things out, realized that extra 4’ would essentially render our back yard useless, and the 24’ is perfectly fine. Hell, I’m sure we’ve had 10 adults/kids in there at any one time.
i have a 24" above … sand filter that i normally run 20hr a day (im lazy on the cleaning and this seems to take care of about all my cleaning) …
i use HTC granules for my main chem. … BJ’s has a 50 or 80 pound tub for $89 … which lasts me more than a season … i do 2 scoops a few hours before im gonna go in …
i also NEVER use shock … just use dollar store bleach … i use 1 gallon a week for maint. … and 6 gallons when i first open my pool in spring …
my pool is crystal clear and has near perfect chem balance … once in a while i might have to add a little PH rise
LOL… I actually measured the yard first to figure out a good size. Where I’m planning on putting it, I’ll still have 30’+ on two sides before my property fence, and 80’ the other direction. Plenty of room. I could go to a 27’; but I’d be over the yard drainage lines I’m installing this year to dry the back 1/4 of my property up.
I’m still just in the planning phase anyways; this won’t happen till spring of '11. Got to much debt to pay off and other house projects to finish first.
Another thing to consider with the size of a pool is the bigger you go the more work and expense you have. A friend has an olympic sized inground pool and I was amazed when he was telling me what it costs him each season to run it. Unless you’re planning on having massive pool parties or wanting to swim laps competition style go as small as you’re comfortable with.
^^^yea. my grandpa lives next door and i do alot of maint. on his pool. its an inground, somewhat peanut shape about 35-40 feet long and maybe 20 wide or so. shallow end is around 4ft and deep end is at 8ft. sucks ass cleaning that thing. he switched to a paper filter when the sand filter took a crap and the paper filter is awesome. just pop the cover off pull the filters out and spray em off with the hose. that happens once a year and all is good. his pool in florida is indoor, so that one is easier to clean, though instead of using chlorine he uses hydrogen peroxide. that pool is roughly the same size but square.