What am I getting myself into?

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waverz

0
Aug 3, 2014
5
evansdale/iowa
Woke up Sunday morning with a pretty good hangover. As the morning progressed I started remembering bits and pieces of the previous evening. I remember talking about pools and remember being on Amazon looking at them.

Apparently I decided to, according to my wife "pull the trigger on a new pool". According to amazon I ordered the Intex 10' x 18' oval inflatable ring.

Our previous pool was a small 10' intex that had a leaky inflatable ring and was modified using pool noodles and pvc to keep it floating. The kids have outgrown it anyway so I guess it was time for a new pool anyway.

I looked into the order a little more and it looks like I ordered a discontinued model. The only difference I could find in manual is that the new model has an extra port for the pump output. I hope it's not an issue. I'm thinking it'll be ok as I own an intex sand/saltwater system rated for 15,000 gallons.

While reading the manual I see they recommend an extra 4-6 feet around the pool. That detail had me sweating a little. The only place I have to setup a pool is between my garage and chain link fence. It is only 13'-6" from wall of garage to the fence.

While looking closer at the design of the pool I noticed this particular model uses restraining straps to help hold the sides of the oval. I know the pool is only supposed to be 10' wide but how long are the straps? After a little google searching I found the straps are 12.5'. This is going to be **** tight.

I'm ok with not having room between the fence and garage to walk through but I hope to god there is enough room and the straps can do what they need to do.

The pool will be here tomorrow so I guess I'll just try and set it up and hope for the best. I did a bunch of prep work today to get it ready. I found some free sand on craigslist so went and got a pretty good load and was able to get things level and compacted pretty well.

Tomorrow I plan on putting down some astroturf over the sand and placing some pavers for the retaining strap brackets and filter to sit on.

I sure hope this drunken ordered pool purchase works out.

Here's a pic of today's progress.

Here's where I wet the sand down before compacting.
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Diy plate compactor. What a great workout you get from this!
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Did some more research last night. It looks like the only difference between the new model and old model is the new model comes with a safety ladder. My kids are part monkey so I think I'll be ok with the style ladder.

Also have been doing some research on heating. There is no way I want to pay to use an electronic heater to heat this pool but I am open to the idea of using solar.

A friend is giving me his old DIY solar heater. It's basically just 200' of black tubing in a giant coil. My garage faces south so I plan on hanging it up on the wall and using the pump that comes with the pool to push water through it.

I'm not sure how effective it'll be but it'll be worth a shot and cost me literally nothing.

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Got the pool filled and filter running. The hoses weren't long enough so I cut them in half and added in sections of 1.25" pvc. The pvc was too large to fit in the hose so a ground the ends down with my bench grinder and used hose clamps to make the seal. Not the most ideal way of doing it but cheap and easy.

It was a tight fit but it's the perfect size pool for the space I have.

Next week I am going to try adding some solar heat. I'm planning on teeing off the skimmer pipe and using the stock filter/pump to push water through 400' of black irrigation tubing that would be mounted on the wall of the southern facing garage.

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Just setup the pool again for the season but relocated it to the back corner of the property. I used to have a garden back there but I've given that up. Also, I now have an enclosed trailer I need to park somewhere, unfortunately where the pool sat last year was the only place available.

Last year I tried 2 different sized floating skimmers. They seemed to work OK but lots of times I would find them floating and it seemed like there was a lot of tinkering involved to get them adjusted right.

I am going to attempt to install a Hayward external skimmer tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous about cutting the liner but I think it's going to work.

Wish me luck!
 
waverz said:
Just setup the pool again for the season but relocated it to the back corner of the property. I used to have a garden back there but I've given that up. Also, I now have an enclosed trailer I need to park somewhere, unfortunately where the pool sat last year was the only place available.

Last year I tried 2 different sized floating skimmers. They seemed to work OK but lots of times I would find them floating and it seemed like there was a lot of tinkering involved to get them adjusted right.

I am going to attempt to install a Hayward external skimmer tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous about cutting the liner but I think it's going to work.

Wish me luck!
Click to expand...
Next time you go on a drunken shopping spree, get this http://www.lighterside.com/product/floating+tiki+beverage+bar.do?from=Search&cx=0
 

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