Is a swimming pool annoying and expensive to run?

[Anonymous]

Yes

No

[FunkyMonkee]

These days, it's a lot more expensive than when we got ours back in `72. That's why dad decided not to replace the liner when it went bad on us and just filled in the pool. We had the pool for at least 22 years and it served us quite well!! I went from not knowing how to swim to getting around like a dolphin!! Except for that bit where they swim backwards on top of the water, standing up and just using their back flippers. Came close a few times! But I hated the fish they kept throwing me!
Once it's in (in ground), all you gotta do is toss in a cup of chlorine every night. About every 2 or 3 weeks, you'll notice dirt build up on the bottom so, you'll have to vacuum the pool. This is a bit tedious and takes a good while because you can't rush it or all you're gonna do is push the dirt around and it'll be right back the next day.
After you vacuum, you have to backflush the filter. Then you add a few cups of diattenuatious earth. After you vacuumed a few times (weeks) you have to shut off the filter, take it apart and hose it off out in the street (if you have one nearby). Then you just put it back together (only takes a few minutes), fill it back up and then turn it back on. After that, you have to put a couple large cups of the earth into it via the skimmer intake so it can coat the filter.
I haven't had a pool since the mid `90's so, I'm not sure if you have to clean the filter EVERY time you vacuum. I know that there were a few times we put the earth in without taking the filter apart so, maybe you only have to clean it out after every 3 or 4 times you vacuum. Also, some of what I'm telling you might've changed in the past 30 years.
I would say the biggest expense is the heater. It takes 1 hour to raise the water temp 1 degree.
In the winter, you have to cover it to keep the water mostly clean. Before the cover goes on, you need to remover the ladder, plug up the skimmer and the exhaust and toss in several cups of chlorine. The cover has long water bags all around the end of it and those need to be filled with water to keep the cover in place all winter. It MIGHT be a good idea to put a bunch of inner tubes on the water before putting the cover on but, we never did. You'll need at least 6 people to help put it on and to take it off in the spring. That's the biggest pain in the ass: finding people to help when YOU'RE ready to do it! However, I've already taken the entire cover off all by myself a couple times. The hardest part is putting it away for the summer. You need a huge yard or field of grass to let the Sun dry it before you start folding it up so it doesn't get moldy. Taking rags/towels to help dry it off is a good idea, too. Otherwise, it could take hours. Once you get it dry, you have to sprinkle baking soda over half it (partly to keep it from sticking to itself, partly to keep the mold off), fold the other half onto it, push all the air out, add more soda to half of what's left, fold again, etc., until it's about the size of a wheelbarrow. Then you need a few people to lift it into the barrow, someone takes it back to where you keep it and you need to put it back into the cardboard box it came in and store it in a dry "dark" place. (The Sun beating on it might rot it.) I think, these days, they have a way to just snap the cover over the pool without the water bags.
For above ground pools, it's the same except that the cover isn't as big.

[Coden7]

I have a couple friends who have had a pool. From what their parents have said, they’re pretty expensive to run where I live. Between water treatment, filling and draining between seasons, if you control the water temperature. Can be very expensive

[Gwendoline]

Annoying for sure. It's nice in the hot weather but a lot of work and to have a good size one that you can do laps in takes up a load of space.

[Nikki1989]

They do require significant effort to keep clean.

[DryGermanGuy]

My parents knew two or three families that gave up their pools again after a few years.