Buzzy--Bee

I notice from property websites that a lot of houses in Melbourne have outdoor swiming pools.

Could someone tell me how many months of the year they are practically usable and what costs are associated with them?

Thank you for the advice.

Buzzy.

Pomster

you can use them about 1 month per year and they tend to devalue a house...Melbourne doesn't get as hot and sticky as other parts, further north, and the cost of maintenance seems to outweigh the benefit.


(you can comfortably swim from about Nov to March)

optus

Swimming pools are a money pit. The thoughts of them are better than the reality. In answer to your first question, in reality you only get to use them 4-5 months of the year if you are lucky. We have just had a weekend of 33 degrees, but the water temperature is still only 15 degrees – too cold. You can get solar covers which raise the temperature a degree or two but they cost about $650.

Maintenance is a pain, you spend hours keeping leaves out, cleaning filters, skimmer boxes and vacuuming the pool; only to turn around and find it is back to square one!

Saltwater pools are cheaper to run than chlorine pools. If your water is in good condition then $50 a month would be a fair estimate. However, if the water is not in good condition (and most often it isn’t) then you can spend a lot. In three months we have spent in excess of $600 and the pool still needs work. And of course the more you use the damn thing, the more chemicals it takes and the more cleaning it take (i.e. more time and money). The running of the pump and filter adds about $120 to our electricity bill.

My pool is the bane of my life , my advice buy/rent a place near a public baths or the sea, its cheaper and much less hassle.

OPTUS

Alan Collett

- Have a spa as well as a pool: you can use that for more of the year than the pool

- Be prepared for your gas and electricity bills to increase

- They are great to have for the kids, not so much for the parents who have to watch them all the time

- Spas can be used from about now to the end of April (they tend to be gas heated, so not so reliant on the warmth of the sun)

- Pools can also be heated by gas, but the cost of doing so makes it a very expensive option. You generally need solar heating and this means you can't practically start using the pool until late November/December.

- Don't ignore the hassle of cleaning and maintenance, though a pool company will usually do a monthly check for about $50 or $60 (plus chemicals).

Best regards.

Timber Floor Au

T0o be fair...

Pools arentthat expensive to run, maintain and operate.

Living in Qld we use our pool from September thru to march / april time.

We do find, in Brisbane we have to top the pool up, perhaps once a month in the summer, you need to do this so that the filtration cycle works.

We now have a barracuda, good one, that creepycrawlies the pool, for about 4 hours per day.

They cost about 500-600 bucks some good deals on now but.

Acid , Salt and Chlorine.

Arent that expensive, ours is salt water chlorinator, and we just put the chlorine on when our local pool shop says the alkalinity or acidity is too rich or to low.

Debs does the mechanics I just net the bugs.

We have a shade cloth over our pool, which is a godsend, its about 9m x 5m ( the cloth that is ) so kids can piss about fo hrs without gerrin sunburnt.

Electrically wise in Brissy its about 12c per kilowatt hr.

Ran a ampage check on our pool, and it costs less than 4 coffees per hour over a 24 hr cycle to run filtration system for its 4-5 hours.

Steve

wargod

good way of putting it !!

Timber Floor Au

pmsl thanks, momentary caffeine induced genius lolol

Flying Banana

is that what they cal latte-ral thinking

Timber Floor Au

OMG !!!

LOL

Badge

Don't see what all the fuss is about. I learnt a bit about chemistry so am now in a position to work it all out in 5 min without the shop; infact today they only confirmwhat I already know..I've added one bag of adjustment in 1 year, the rest is just powder chlorine.

I chuck a few spatulas of chlorine in every few days, run the crawly for an hour or 2, then do a manual when required. Its a kind of unwind when I get home from work thing. I don'tr even have a cover yet - which will make the job easier next year.

badge

steveyp

Chemicals and electricity should cost IRO $60 a month if you are properly set up.

A blanket is around $400 and will save you 10,000 litres water a month in peak summer, more savings on chemicals and give up to 8 degrees of free heat and extend your season by 2 months +.

a decent auto cleaner (not a wall climber) is $600 and will leep the leaves at bay, as will a pool blanket.

getting an inspection of the equipment too BEFORE your settlement will pay for itself again and again.