Thread: Swimming pools

I hate pools and I'm allergic to chlorine, I filled in the last pool I had . I bet it caused issues for the people that bought & demolished the house .

Our latest house to my chagrin also has a pool . The grandkids probably would not visit if I filled it in. It was salt chlorinated when we moved in 3 years ago but Ive converted it to Magnesium and is bearable now. Its self cleaning via rotating jets in the floor .

To convert to magnesium you need to empty the sand out of the filter & replace with crushed glass media, drain the pool to about 30% refill and add $500 of Magnesium / Potassium salts . Job done . It consumes about half the chemicals (about $30 a month instead of $70) of a salt pool and supposedly feels like a mineral spa ,( whatever one of those feels like ). Hydroxinator still produces chlorine but no chlorine smell now.

A solar cover is reccomended to preserve chemicals, stop evaporation & keep it clean & warm, but they are messy & a pain in the bum & threw ours away, Also removed the solar heater as it was leaking thanks to cockatoos & destroying the zincalume roof. Installed a Heat Pump instead , expensive to run but offset by PV array.

Keep the filter running all year & water maintained during winter.

at least I was able to test my inflatable kayak for leaks

Mine is an above ground pool partly set in ground. The pump has been submerged while running a few times and survived. The side wall recently rusted through & collapsed but a secondhand pool from Gumtree and a new liner and it was back in use again. The pump seized while the liner was being replaced so attacked it with an impact driver which freed it, guessed I'd have to replace the pump but no, after welding a new baseplate (old one had rusted off) it's been fine.

I've had an 'ionic generator' on my current pool and the one at our last house.
Two electrodes made from copper & silver are in a housing in the flow from the pump. A control box alternates the polarity to the electrodes (so that they wear evenly).
As the copper and silver ions try to transfer to the opposite electrode they are washed away into the pool by the flow. Copper kills algae and silver kills bacteria.

You do need to add chlorine occasionally to oxidise & burn off 'swimmer wastes' (spit, sweat, makeup etc.).

Worked perfectly at the old house and for over 10 years at the current house then had a few problems with algae. Recently removed the control box and dropped it off to a mate who discovered a relay had failed so wasn't working properly. Just got a call today to say it's fixed !

I do remember that when the pool shop tested the water they would check the copper content because too high and the kids hair would turn green. That would be funny, but SWMBO wouldn't be impressed.

Mostly I've maintained the pool using the test facility at Bunnings in recent years. Using a pool shop always seemed expensive... 10Kg of this, that upsets the balance of that so another 5kgs of something else, that causes this so another 2 kg of .............. etc.etc.


Colin

Our old aboveground pool has been fairly low maintenance and I only clean it for the season, it goes to swamp for the test.
I just use 200g chlorine tablets in an inline dispenser and apart from the occasional dose of liquid and keeping the leaves out it's all I do.
It's partly sunken and is slowly rusting away.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

Had one. won't have another. Mrs. and I don't use it. Kids are grown and gone and grandies are in Sydney with their parents. A hole in the ground into which I throw money.

We have been looking to move to the Sunshine Coast into a smaller low maintenance house. Almost every one we are shown has a pool. I have now told several agents that if We are to buy a house with a pool then $50,000 has to be knocked off the price first up to cover the cost of removing the pool, filling and landscaping the hole.

Think you need better agents.....

Unless the seller has overpriced the property by $50k I doubt they would even entertain the agent....I wouldn’t. I’d rather knock $25k off to a person wanting a pool and be $25k in front.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Been there, done that, never again. Too much hassle. I suppose you could start fish-farming...

Exactly,particularly if there are lots of trees near it

Then one of the sons bought a place with a pool,didn't listen to me,and,after 6yrs, now even he says,never again.

But some people love them,and always want a place with a pool.

So its whatever rocks your boat.

Originally Posted by scarry

But some people love them,and always want a place with a pool.

So its whatever rocks your boat.

Agree

Oh and I think Ranga has already purchased, probably a bit late for him to change his mind.

10 years on Ours is underused these days, but costs bigger all, always nice knowing it’s there for a dip over summer, easy to maintain.

I do have to think about installing a pool fence....well sometime over the next 2 1/2 years

Originally Posted by weeds

Think you need better agents.....

Unless the seller has overpriced the property by $50k I doubt they would even entertain the agent....I wouldn’t. I’d rather knock $25k off to a person wanting a pool and be $25k in front.

I am a buyer. Agents are supposed to work for the vendor. I, however, have the money and dictate terms in a buyers market. Most properties are overpriced by in some cases hundreds of thousands. Do your research and find what similar properties actually sold for. Public records at the Titles Office and local council will reveal actual sale prices.

I do not trust or believe land sharks and real estate criminals. I know they can only show you what is listed for sale but if I give them my list of requirements then they should be smart enough to accept they are wasting their time and mine by showing me places that don't meet my specification. "I know this is not exactly what you want but I thought it may suit". No, it doesn't suit and you know that so why did you stuff me around?