Hello pool lovers! It's blazing hot in Texas!! After reading through an old thread about burying above-ground pools, I decided it might be fun and informative to check with everyone to see how their buried above-ground pools are doing. Our Doughboy was eight years old when we had the 4/11/2016 grapefruit-sized hailstorm here in Wylie. It punched a hole in our original liner, which was holding up wonderfully, BTW. We'd had no problems with our pool in those eight years and ran our 2-speed pump on low 24/7/365 (with little difference in our electric bill). After the storm, we had to have the liner replaced. The pool sat empty of water for a few days and no issues with caving. Thus, I have to agree with a prior poster that the dirt (ours is gray clay) is well settled after awhile, so it's not as risky to leave the pool empty (though I wouldn't leave it empty for months). While our eight-yr old liner, though VERY faded, was still working just fine, it was nice to get a fresh new look with a new pattern - almost felt as if we got a whole new pool!
So it's been six years since the new liner - a total of 14 years on the pool. We are still using the original filter, original Zeolite, original pump - still running it 24/7/365. I will say that the little pump is the absolute best thing in the world! The water has gotten too low a handful of times and the pump was running dry - to this day, it still works fine, still runs quiet, though the stand it is bolted to is severely rusted. To date, we see no rust on the 10-12" above-ground outer walls. At the 8-yr mark, there was no rust on the vertical top plates. Now, at the 14 yr mark, top plates are VERY rusted. Our original installer did not space the pool correctly, so a lot of the resin rail caps have never snapped into place to completely cover the top plates, though I suspect they would have rusted anyway. From what I have read, the top plates and bottom plates are usually the first to rust.
The only problem we have had with our buried Doughboy, other than the common rusted vertical top plates, is that the coping seems to have gone completely brittle, breaking off and allowing the liner to slip back over the top of the pool wall. We suspect the installer re-used the coping in 2016 when he replaced the liner, and hoping that this will be an easy fix. Sooo, aside from four ducks, two bunnies and two toads, these are the only issues we've had after fourteen great years with our buried Doughboy! After looking back at pictures of the new liner install, we just realized that he installed the new liner on top of the old liner. Hmmmmm.
So all in all, I'd say that we would do it all again, though maybe include the slurry next time and go with a higher quality skimmer. The secondary reason we went with a buried AGP is because the city cannot tax you on it - it's considered "portable." (What was the first reason?...COST!)
Cherie
32x16 buried Doughboy, 4' shallow - 7' deep
Pentair Dynamo 1 hp, 2-speed - Pentair 150# SD40 w/zeolite (75#)
One skimmer/two returns/Dolphin Robotic
So it's been six years since the new liner - a total of 14 years on the pool. We are still using the original filter, original Zeolite, original pump - still running it 24/7/365. I will say that the little pump is the absolute best thing in the world! The water has gotten too low a handful of times and the pump was running dry - to this day, it still works fine, still runs quiet, though the stand it is bolted to is severely rusted. To date, we see no rust on the 10-12" above-ground outer walls. At the 8-yr mark, there was no rust on the vertical top plates. Now, at the 14 yr mark, top plates are VERY rusted. Our original installer did not space the pool correctly, so a lot of the resin rail caps have never snapped into place to completely cover the top plates, though I suspect they would have rusted anyway. From what I have read, the top plates and bottom plates are usually the first to rust.
The only problem we have had with our buried Doughboy, other than the common rusted vertical top plates, is that the coping seems to have gone completely brittle, breaking off and allowing the liner to slip back over the top of the pool wall. We suspect the installer re-used the coping in 2016 when he replaced the liner, and hoping that this will be an easy fix. Sooo, aside from four ducks, two bunnies and two toads, these are the only issues we've had after fourteen great years with our buried Doughboy! After looking back at pictures of the new liner install, we just realized that he installed the new liner on top of the old liner. Hmmmmm.
So all in all, I'd say that we would do it all again, though maybe include the slurry next time and go with a higher quality skimmer. The secondary reason we went with a buried AGP is because the city cannot tax you on it - it's considered "portable." (What was the first reason?...COST!)
Cherie
32x16 buried Doughboy, 4' shallow - 7' deep
Pentair Dynamo 1 hp, 2-speed - Pentair 150# SD40 w/zeolite (75#)
One skimmer/two returns/Dolphin Robotic
