Quote:
Originally Posted by tophcfa
You will definitely need heat from at least mid December through early March. Installing a system is only as difficult as writing the check to have it done. A heat pump along with a pool cover should do the trick for a small pool.
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True, but a good heat pump for my 14,000 gallon pool cost $6,000, and solar heating is nearly that much. A solar blanket to keep the water warm is the least expensive, but it doesn’t heat the pool but just holds heat in. Pool cleaning and chemical testing and all corpse $2,000 a year, and various repairs cost at least another $1,000, generally. Given how seldom I used the pool, compared to what I spent on it, I’d guess that each use cost me about $500. I was happy to sell that house and buy a smaller one without a pool.
That said, some of these really tiny pools about twice the size of a hot tub—more conversation pools than swimming pools and with lots of built in seating—are a delightful idea and could be much cheaper to heat and maintain. Ideally, get one that uses salt rather than chlorine to kill the bugs, so you don’t need to shower each time you use the pool.
Good steps and handrails are very important. You might think you don’t need them, but the rare times I had visitors, several would not have been able to get into or out of the pool without those.