aston

swimming pools just aint worth the hassle?

ABCDiamond

Yes !

aston

me too

moneypenny20

No but then I don't do the maintenance, he does. I just use it.

aston

im the same with our cooker!!

moneypenny20

So am I

KatieStar

Don't have one, my parents do, and I am happy with that arrangement

Hostess with the Mostess

They are a big mither.

For example; When it rained heaps last summer I had to backwash it about 3 times through the night to stop it flooding the neighbors. However, due to user error, I left it on bloody backwash the last time and woke up to an empty pool. With water restrictions. Thankfully the pump did not burn out.

Then there is cleaning out dead toads. Stuff the kids throw in that they never fish out and it gets sucked into the cleaner thingo. The cleaner thingo always twisting up so it only cleans one corner. The kids pulling the cleaner thingo out or using it as a part of their game (usually someone else's kids who you can't threaten with death). Or riding the pool cover roller (another reasonably priced pool item).

Getting your hand stuck in the skimmer box and crying for help and no one can hear you as the pumps on and the man three doors down has to rescue you after 35 minutes while your husband is inside blissfully unaware.

Falling in fully clothed whilst pouring in salt. Carrying the bloody salt from shop to car, car to pool. Testing every two weeks.

Wet floors. Wet towels all over the pool fence (never on the hooks purposely and thoughtfully provided).

With all that said, we have just sold a house with a pool and the kids will really miss it. I daresay we will have another one but much smaller. Just to dip x

Hostess

Dorothy

I love my pool. No hassle at all and I use it every day during the warmer months. All winter it's been covered with the kreepy krawly running 2 hours a day. Once a week I sweep the steps and check the chemicals but so far have had to do a big fat nothing to it. OH did clean the filter about 3 weeks ago, but he would do that monthly anyway.

quoll

Absolutely - wouldnt touch one with a barge pole. Many of my friends have had them in the past and either moved, deliberately, so they didnt have to bother with it or have filled it in. We had an above ground one once - never again. They were all the rage in the 80s.

carolinephillips

They are costly and take time to maintain, but I wouldn't be without mine, as it is the only way I can cool down when I get overheated.
If I get too warm, bits of me don't work due to MS, so my pool is a medical necessity...........wonder if I can claim any tax on it????

Centurion

I loathe my pool and would have it filled in except we are probably not going to be in this house for years to come and it does look good.

Costly to run, waste of my time cleaning it. Costs of the pool guy sorting out the water, chemicals blah blah.

I would never own one again. I can understand the point if you have kids that will actively use it, or a lap pool and are a keen swimmer. Other than that I bet 99.9% of pools never get used more than once/twice per year.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I asked several of the locals when I first arrived about getting a house with a pool... to a man they said "don't bother".

I guess it is dependent on where you live though.

Dorothy

What's costly? Our pump comes on automatically for 2 hours per day, so there's that electic cost I guess. Time to maintain? The kreepy krawly does the vacumming for me, although there is that 5 minutes every Saturday when I sweep down the stairs and test the water. And the time it takes to take a water sample to the pool shop on a Sunday.

BadgeIsBack

If you know what you are doing they are not hard. I cleaned and advised on my neighbour's pool the other day and it came up sparking in 24 hours. I was quite surprised!

Ours is an above ground pool and a bit shabby so would not replace it when it is due for replacement or ever springs a leak. It has a liner which stains if you add the chemicals without properly dissolving them.

As it has plastic ridging around the edge the pool blanket catches it when you roll or unroll - to be honest, that is the biggest annoyance by far.

It doesn't even cost a great deal of money really. All this running the pump for hours every day turned out to be bollocks.

EDIT I certainly would not move due to having a pool - that would be insane! If you do that then either the housing stock you live in is not that interesting and the next is just like another - without a pool - or another house is so good that the pool is just academic.