My neighbor's pool filter

[Gillysusan]

Hi,

I have lived in my house for 4 years now and summer is my favorite time of year. I love to play outside in the yard with my 3 year old and have meals on our deck. My neighbor's above ground pool filter runs very loud. I know loud is subjective...but to the point where I go outside and I want to come back in again!

My neighbors did have the filter coming on during the middle of the the day or in the middle of the night which was a great schedule and I didn't mind that all as during the week I was at work and on the weekends usually busy during the day. Now it is on at dinner time and into the evening for about 4 hours and in the morning around breakfast time for around 4 hours....the times we like to sit or be outside!

I don't want to offend my neighbors or upset them but is there any way I could broach the subject diplomatically with them..and ask if they could program the filter to run in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping or mid-day again when most people aren't around?

Otherwise I was thinking of suggesting to them that I could buy them a new quiet pool filter. How much would that cost? Honestly if it meant the noise would no longer would be there it would be money well spent for me!

Suggestions?

thank you!

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome to TFP! Well, you bring-up a very sensitive subject and one that you certainly don't want to effect your relationship with the neighbors. The noise you are hearing is probably from the pump motor, not necessarily the filter itself. The motor/pump is what moves the water through the filter and back to the pool. The cost of a new pump/motor can vary depending upon what they are currently using - anywhere from $200 - over $1,000. We have no idea without know what type of equipment they use.

Are you on good terms with your neighbors? Maybe one day you could just strike-up a casual conversation with them and make an observation about the pool and the sound of the pump/motor. From there you may be able to discuss if there are any programmable options since many pool owners do have their pumps on timers to come-on a various times of day/night. Not sure how close all the homes are in your neighborhood, but you can imagine that one neighbor might like it quiet in the day for napping, the other quite early evening for TV, and yet another quite at night for sleeping. So that could be tricky.

But you never know. They may be receptive to your concerns, or you may learn something from them that dictates why they are doing it that way at the moment. I wish you luck!

 

[Gillysusan]

Thank you for the welcome and the advice!

So I really don't see my neighbors that much at all but we have had friendly chats a handful of times. I could make a point to go out and pick up my mail when they are outside with their dogs and say hi. I think that's a good idea....to bring the motor up in casual conversation...I had thought about doing that. Hopefully they would be ok with talking about it. I just have to summon up the courage...it's very awkward! I'm honestly a bit shy. If they can't adjust the pump to run at certain times of the day or are happy with the times it runs now, maybe they would be open to me purchasing a new quieter motor.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

One way you might consider starting the conversation is to cast it in the light of concern -

"Gee, I was outside the other day at such&such time and I noticed how loud your pool pump sounds. I don't seem to remember this previously. Perhaps because it was on at times when I was not home. Is the pump OK? If so, any chance you might consider running it at this&that hour?"

Hopefully they will respond as a good neighbor.

Recently my neighbor did the same thing but a little different situation. We share a wall separating our properties and right at the edge of the wall two Palo verde trees have started to grow (they're about 10 years old so still on the small side). They are outside my yard so I never paid them much attention and they never bothered me. But the other day my neighbor came by the wall when I was using the grille and we struck up a conversation. At one point he brought up the untrimmed trees and just said that he did not consider them to be his "property" so if I wanted to trim them or remove them then he had no objection. Honestly they bothered him (and more likely his wife) a lot more than they did me. But, in the spirit of neighborhood harmony, I spent about 2 hours on Saturday trimming and cleaning up the trees (and I did a fantastic job of it if I do say so myself). He drove by my front driveway when I was getting the mail and was so happy and complementary about the work I did. It was honestly no big deal to me but it made him very happy so I figured next time I have a "suggestion" he's more likely to remember this experience.

Most people want to be good neighbors...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gillysusan]

Thank you for your advice and thoughtful response! It's good to know that there are good neighbors out there like yourself and that your neighbor really appreciated your hard work.

No matter how it pans out just being able to vent on here and get pool owner thoughts has helped...after all getting on with our neighbors is a big deal. I'll let you know what happens...I'll probably ask them about it over the next couple of weeks.

 

[Griswald]

You could suggest (or even offer to fund) a small privacy fence type enclosure around the pool equipment. The sound will get directed up and the equipment will look much better with a nice wood privacy fence around it.