With such a hot summer nearing its end I was wondering what ozbargainers pay for their pools.
More precisely, how much (excluding setup costs)do you pay PER swim. Thats weekly running costs divided by swims per week!
Ive come to clean ze pool
theworks on 19/02/2014 - 11:44
Comments
We pay way too much per swim, and because we do not have solar heating and our pool is in a shaded area, it gets very cold even during a hot summer's day.
However, if it wasn't for the convenience factor, we wouldn't be swimming at all. Very easy to just throw the kids in the pool and wash up right afterwards, instead of packing all the towels and swim gear and bundling them into the car etc.
We have a decent sized pool, 10x4m, and we hardly spend anytime maintaining it! Every few weeks we check the chemical levels and top them up if need be (we don't even touch it over winter). For cleaning we have a little robotic cleaner with a large catcher bag inside it that cleans the bottom of the pool, easiest thing ever.
For heating, we got the pipes set up thinking maybe to install heating one day, but we have a cover on our pool and that does more than enough heating for us! For the bulk of january our pool stayed above 30° and that was without even having the cover on half the time!Guessing at chemical costs here, but maybe $10-15 a week but you do have to buy a fair of salt etc to recover the pool from leaving it in winter. Divided by number of swims? Whole family of 5 uses it regularly so maybe 20 swims a week depending on weather!
Ive come to clean ze pool
but, we dont even have a pool…
Agree with Woodyg22 - after 4 years I can finally say my son is trained to look after the pool properly and so we've had our best year yet. Around 45,000L and about 80% full sun, we use a blanket most days and in Perth this has kept it around 30 degrees..a bit hot for some, but kids n wife like it. The 3 or 4 bags of salt at start of summer, along with another bag every month, running the pump 5-6hrs a day with cartridge filter (still original catridge might be its last year). Even though its cartridge system a good 5 minute clean by the son twice a week with gentle hi pressure has been the key..dont leave it too long etc..
First few years we had it go green and other issues with ph which does cost a fortune. However, do it right and it doesn't cost much at all. We've spent maybe 10 bags of salt ($75 bunnings), 6 hrs a day pump, 1hr a week topup water, and two chlorine shocks -maybe $10 powder chlorine. Amount we swim - heaps. Kids swim most days, me n wife swim often at night and all weekends. Cost per swim - $300 or so for summer (maybe $500/yr) and daily swims most days over the 5 months Nov - March. I've also got the pipes installed (they love to sting ya with that when installing lol) but havent thought we needed it yet.Do it right and enjoy it with minimum fuss.
mosquito larvae and algae do most of the swimming in the family pool…