Hey all!! Been doing some research and found this awesome forum! My husband has VERY reluctantly agreed to let us (me and two boys, ages 2 and 4) get a pool. Originally I was just planning to get the small intex pop up pool. But he has expressed that if I'm going to do this I need to do it right and make it a little easier on myself. So here is my plan... I still want a small pool, since my boys are small. Looking at the 12'x30" intex metal frame pool, I would like to use a sand filter and salt filtration. I am looking at the intex Krystal clear sand filter pump 1200 gph, and the intex salt filtration with EOC, the smallest I have found says 7000 gallons. Since I have no idea really what I am doing, please help me out! The salt filtration came from a recommendation from a friend who uses the same, but their pool is 18'x48". I guess my question is, will this stuff even work with a pool this small? Ideally I would like to shell out the money for a nice system and use a smaller pool for 3-4 years and then upgrade the pool (using the same system) when the boys are a little bigger. HELP!
Newbie here small pool questions
- Thread starter Meganspool
- Start date
Isn't the depth of the pool you are considering the same as the one you are interested in "upgrading to" shortly? I'd save the bucks and get what you really want now. You can drown in a teaspoon of water. Vigilance is the same in a smaller pool.
You can use the Intex sand filter and SWG on their smaller pools, although you may have to get a little creative making adapters as Intex traditionally uses 2 different hose sizes for their smaller / larger line of pools and pumps. As of last year though there have been reports that Intex has made some changes on the number of connections on their pools adding a second drain to even the smaller pools as an added entrapment safety feature. Therefore by doubling the number of the smaller fittings, it makes it easier to T these together and feed one of the larger size pumps vs the traditional approach of cutting a larger opening in the pool. There are many modification threads for the Intex Ultra-frame series of pools here that you may want to look at. Two popular modifications are adding a real skimmer (usually a Hayward above ground skimmer), or replacing the Intex flex hose with hard PVC pipe.
Ike
Ike
Thank you both. Husband has recently said that there will be no upgrading anytime soon, if at all. He is pretty much take it or leave it with the pool. We have well water and initially we were planning to fill from the well, but after some thought we decided that we should try to find water delivery, but that like literally does not exsist in this area. So we have decided to rent a water trailer, prepay for 4000 gallon at the city water plant and truck it ourselves. So basically this is a one shot deal. We cant ever fill again, this has been way more difficult than I ever imagined! SO I sure hope that I can get the science down and maintain, its my only shot!!
Having spent one summer with an Intex easy set pool as an experiment in the backyard using the stock filter, I would suggest not getting the pool if you can't replace the water or upgrade the filter and add a real skimmer. The Intex filters are pathetically undersized which will become even more evident in a location like OK where you likely tend to get a fair amount of wind blown dust. As I see it an Intex pool with a stock cartridge filter and no skimmer is just a set up for disaster in your situation.
well, upgrading the pump is what I plan to do. I have purchased a 14' x 42" Summer Escapes pro series pool, it does have a skimmer. I will either adapt that skimmer to take a larger pump, or I will upgrade to a Hayward Skimmer. I have continued to research since posting this question, so that is basically where I stand now. But we would ideally like to keep the pool up through the winter. I have several friends who recommended the intex saltwater system, am I delusional?
ETA I have purchased a larger intex filter pump, but I am not opposed to upgrading to the sand pump.
ETA I have purchased a larger intex filter pump, but I am not opposed to upgrading to the sand pump.
