Pool newbie thought I may be able to get some unbiased answers here.

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Dougk30

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Oct 27, 2016
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Mogadore Ohio
Just signed into this forum. What a great place for info. We live in north east O-H-I-O, (wierd thing Ohio people do with the caps and dashes) and am putting in a pool this fall and want to get it right the first time because it is going to be very costly. We are going with a 20 x 50 rectangle. We will have 4 skimmers and 6 returns. Plumbing will be 2" (which I am told will be an upgrade), 4 mini led lights 12 mil solar cover and a 28 mil vinyl liner. So below is some of my questions.
First off we don't always have time for maintenance so I am thinking of going with saltwater, my real question is I have heard that the saltwater is very corrosive to concrete, in pool lights, vinyl liners and anything metal. I have a background in work with metal specifically stainless steel and I know that the salt water will not effect stainless steel. So I am wondering if it is just the people that sell the chlorine putting this bad spin on saltwater.
Secondly is the equipment is there any type or brand of equipment that I should stay away from. We are looking to go with Jandy pumps and filters anybody have any problems with this line of products.
Also any other initial upfront do's and don'ts would be greatly appreciated.
Thank upfront for any and all help
 
Welcome to TFP!

I will never own a pool that isn't saltwater and has an autofill and overflow. Those are 3 sometimes daily chores that can be a pain and are easily eliminated. Saltwater will not do anything to concrete. Especially not pool salt water. Pool water is about 3500-4000 ppm salt, human tears are 9000 ppm and ocean water is 35,000 ppm salt. There is stuff made out of concrete on shorelines in the ocean that has been there for decades, some more than 100 years. There is lots of stainless steel on boats, docks, etc that is exposed 24x7 to ocean water and it last many years. As you know it just isn't true. So, the only motivation they have is getting you to buy something different and they are apparently willing to say anything to scare you into buying their product.

Jandy, Pentair, Hayward are all top brands I pool equipment and will work great.
 
Oh my! This is going to be a FUN one!

I see your 20x50 BUT how deep? Any ledges, benches, steps?

4skimmers?? That is a lot of skimmers but that is a lot of pool so........I just hope they will pull enough. Will you plumb them so you can control each one?

What size of filter are thinking? The bigger the better on this one for sure!

Have you met with any PB yet?

Take and share a pic of where it will be going and tell us what you are thinking as far as layout.

Kim:kim:
 
We are doing 8' deep with a 12" ledge all the way around the pool here are some prelim drawings. It will be a 2 hp pump and a 340 sq ft filter. The heater that was quoted was a 260,000 btu Jandy gas heater. The local pool house will be doing the plumbing and we have not discussed anything yet. The south side of the pool will have a decorative concrete retaining wall down to a lower level. It will be kinda like a fake infinity pool.

Another question I had is the pool guy told me that I don't need a drain at the bottom is that crazy???
I will post more pics as I get them.

Pool dwg.jpg
 
It is more and more common not to install a bottom drain. I personally like mine and like to be able to brush the pool toward the drain and have it go to the fileter. I have not vacuumed my pool ever. But, with robots being much better it is less necessay. I love my robot and I don't need to brush as often.
 
I love the 12" ledge all the way around- I wish I had found this site and done more research before building last year. With 2 dogs - one that likes to get in the pool, typically the tanning ledge, but occasionally falls in the other parts and doesn't swim - the 12" ledge around the perimiter of the pool about 6 to 8 inches deep would have been the one thing I would have done for sure. Not sure how practical it is in a concrete/plaster pool, but I would have asked. Best of luck on the pool, my builder only installs Pentair, so I'm 100% Pentair and really like the way it all works together especially the automation and Screen Logic. I have no experience with other equipment, but they may be just as good. Don't forget to look at automation, looks expensive, but much easier to add up front and can really make using the pool much more enjoyable and easy for anyone to operate vs worrying that someone will open or close a valve wrong.
 
Sounds like it is going to be incredible. Especially the size. A few comments. I really like the idea of the ledge around the entire pool, especially given the size it shouldn't intrude much. What width will they be, the standard 18"? The 12" will be the depth? You should consider if you will play pool basketball, other pool sports, or will have children jumping into the pool often. If so, the ledge may become an obstacle for these activities. In our build, we specifically left one side of our pool open with no benches, ledges, shelves, or stairs for this exact reason. Lastly, I've seen many gas heaters on this site go up to 400k btu. I'm not a heater expert but 260k btu feels underpowered for how large your pool is. Might want to double check that.

I can't wait to see this one in progress! Good luck!


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Some favorite/recommended upgrades of this forum seem to be going with a variable speed pump (especially if going salt) and larger sized equipment (Salt generator, filter, etc). The thinking is that it is cheaper to go bigger at the beginning than wind up undersized and require an upgrade. We are building a much smaller (18x34, 5ft deep, 16k gallons) salt water pool here in Florida and went with the following equipment:
- Pentair Intelliflow variable speed pump
- Pentair IC60 salt system
- Pentair CC420 (sqft) filter


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I was a little concerned originally and the ledge as well but I think in the end it will be nice. It will be a 12" wide ledge 3'4" deep. I was also concerned with the heater, my salesman told me the it would be plenty big enough, but I am up for anybody else who may have experience with the size of pool and heater. Salesman also said the filter and pump would be more than enough as well, but I am one who likes to over build things so if anyone thinks any of this may be under powered please let me know. The drawing says the pool will be 32k gallons.
Again thank you all for your input it is seeming to be a great help.
 
We love our ledge, but only 6" wide which we find more than enough. Works great for grandkids, as they can swim to any side and hang out or climb out more easily (even though we have ladder and steps. Love my saltwater pool - no issues here. One suggestion I always make, consider adding some mounts in cement decking for umbrellas. Nice to have an area in pool that is in the shade - can close or remove umbrella if you want the sun. We have a built in table with umbrella holder and a couple loungers, which are nicely shaded when we want - and the 10' umbrella covers a couple outside loungers too. The built in table is nice, as you can put drinks (no glass by pool) on it, and they're less likely to be spilled than setting along edge of pool.
 
I'd more heavily weight opinions from here versus your PB, especially on issues like: SWCG or not, size of SWCG, size of filter, size of heater, size/type of pump, how to layout plumbing lines, what type of cleaner to use, type/number of lights, etc.

What we also see a lot as a good equipment solution is to go with all one brand (Pentair, Hayward or Jandy - the brand that your PB is most comfortable with often) and then pairing that with a 400K BTU gas Raypak or Rheem heater as mentioned above (if going gas).

Another huge +1 for going with a SWCG. Nothing but praise from me.
 
I use hair nets and love them, most of my excessively having to clean is landscaping or more accurately lack there of. I am working on that now and will be complete by April unless winter is exceptionally wet normally I would not worry about rain in the desert we call California but strangely it is raining as I type. Once done I think I will be down to a couple times a year.

My excessively having to clean aside, a 340 for a pool that is potentially more than 3X the volume of mine sounds like it could be under sized depending on the surroundings.
 
For that size pool you want a pretty big saltwater chlorinator (agreed, all the warnings are hogwash).

Hayward's biggest SWC is too small for your pool, so that would rule out Hayward for me. Jandy's biggest is a bit small as well. Both these would need around 14 hours run time per day.

Pentair's biggest will probably need about 10 hours run time average per day, so that means a two-speed or variable speed pump is a good idea to keep electricity cost down.

An alternative is a big Circupool SWG which would get the job done in under 7 hours. Though this would compromise the idea of having everything in one brand.

Another alternative is to use any of those brands, and plan to run the pump on low speed for plenty of hours, which is a good way to go as well.

That's going to be a fun pool!

Just my 2 cents, but I'm with the others who would leave one or more sides without a ledge, for a few reasons. Any kid small enough to struggle getting out of the pool will tend to stay in the shallow end and should be supervised anyway. I'm thinking about the hassle / extra maintenance of brushing a ledge that long, and unless you're going with a robot, then also reaching wayyy out to try to brush the inset sides. If going with a robot, I'd be wondering if it can negotiate the ledge to get up to brush the waterline. I suspect you'll bash hands and feet on it when swimming, but that's more of a personal choice / style kind of thing. One of the main things that concerns me is that the water gets seriously churned up during kid's games, making it quite difficult to see anything underwater. They need to miss that ledge every time they jump in during a game of tip/tag or Marco Polo. Just food for thought. Your pool is going to be amazing!
 

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