What are the MUST haves for your pool?

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J

jackty

0
Jan 18, 2011
43
West Tennessee
I am at the very beginning stages of planning and researching so I would love to hear about the aspects of their pool that they love! I haven't don't any research on equipment yet, so my list is pretty much based on looks and safety.

At this very early stage of planning my only MUST have is an automatic safety cover.

The other items that are also up on my list are:
tanning ledge
salt water
umbrella sleeves around the pool (b/c we burn really easilty)
 
A good test kit, a net for leaves, a pool brush, and a lifetime supply of bleach. :) You won't need high reserves of bleach with salt water though. ;)

I know that's not really what you were looking for but I couldn't resist!

We love our diving board. I also like having a large deck area with lots of room for lounge chairs, tables, etc. My next big item will be a cabana at the edge of the deck for entertaining!
 
It depends on what you're into.. I honestly couldn't care less about a tanning ledge but on the other hand I really enjoy our diving board. My sons enjoy it even more... My P4 panel makes my life easy and so it my TF100 test kit. I had a pool robot (Irobot verro) but sent it back to Costco because I feel vacuuming "therapeutic" and don't have the hassle of cleaning the robot filter after.
 
We had a tanning ledge on our last pool, the novelty wore off quick - I wanted to trade it more room.

With our new pool we went for more space, more depth and bench seating in several areas. Umbrella sleeves are great - put in more than you need - have had a suction side cleaner and a pressure side (with booster) I prefer the latter.

Can't have too much decking or a shade/pergola.

Also we put a larger entrance/wider stairs on our current (so when you have a party everyone isn't trying to get up and down a 30" wide stairs.

LED lighting is nice - with color changing. If you live down south with the heat a fountain is nice to cool it off.

I love our variable speed pump. Low noise and little change in our electric bill.

Ditto on auto drain/fill - our auto fill is on sprinkler timer - I set so many minutes every cycle and adjust a few times a year
 
Lots of seating area in the pool is nice to have too and ditto on large decking. You would be surprised how much room a few chairs and tables take up.
 
Bathroom/changing room nearby without going through the house.

Storage for the solar cover reel (or an auto cover).

Hose spigot for rinsing things, topping off the pool and a million other uses.

Shade nearby. It gets hot watching kids swim.

Absolute access control to the pool. Fence/gates/locks. Makes sleeping easier.
 

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Deck jets and a VS pump so you can have them spray as far & as high as you (and the kids) want them to. Ours will go up about 7'-8' and actually can overshoot the pool on the higher speeds. 4 jets cost about $250 online and our pool builder installed them for $200. Great bang for the buck. I also agree with the color changing lights-we have 3 of them and they add really cool night time effects. Diving boards are fun too and very popular with the kids and adults. We have a Nitro wall climber and really like it a lot. You can always add solar heat, pool covers, and alarms later if you want. Get a good automation controller, we almost skipped getting that but we are very glad that we added the Easy Touch. Good luck with your pool.
 
Ditto on the backyard bathroom/changing room - especially if your gonna have a lot of kids.

My brothers pool has two two small bldgs (each about the size of a small 1/2 bath) on the west end with about 10 ft between and a pergola/shade spanning the two. One is a bathroom/towel storage, the other houses his pump and pool chemicals/toys.

4cb6e09d-ccd6-bca5.jpg
 
There have been a lot of suggestions so far, but here go a few based on things that I either have, have added, or plan to add, etc..

1, Steps my pool was built with only ladders, it now has drop in steps, next time the liner gets changed I may go with something more permanent.

2, Nearby changing room, more than 1 would be nice, my pool building has a bathroom with shower that is about 6x10 ft, lack of changing place and people using the bath room/shower always leads to lines, if I had it to do over I would put the toilet and sink in one room and shower in another.

3, Good lighting, modern LED fixtures are revolutionizing options here, the traditional one light in the deep end is not as good, better would be multiple smaller lights.

4, Automatic cleaner, I have used suction side cleaners for years, and just invested in my first robot vacuum, any automatic cleaner beats doing it the old fashioned manual way.

5, some sort of food prep/serving area near the pool, nothing makes people hungry like swimming

Ike

p.s. think a long time before getting a diving board, is it a must have for you, my pool has one, but it is 30+ years old when it seemed all pools had diving boards and over the years has been the cause of more than one accident requiring medical attention including one case with a teen age girl clipping the bottom of the slope to the deep end mouth first and ripping a finger length hole in the liner with her braces (thankfully she did not loose any teeth).
 
Lots of deck space
SWG
Solar heater
Heat pump
Pool long enough to swim laps.

I don't personally consider an autocover to be all that safe.
I still recommend a pool safety fence even if your yard is already fenced.

Wide entry steps beat a pool ladder any day.
Extra pool light.

Oversized filter.
Automation system
Acid pump if you have a SWG
 
Some things we're glad we did:
1) Hot tub - kids love it
2) Heat pump, takes longer to heat hot tub, kids don't care, much cheaper to operate
3) 3rd body of water for toddlers, can be heated on spa circuit. For the same reason kids love the hot tub, guests with toddlers tend to hang out in this pool
4) Riverflow swimming system - acts as a lazy river for the kids, also a good work out for our impossible to tire 5 year old and my wife who swims for fitness
5) 9.5ft diving well with 5ft raised decking around it. Kids love to jump into the water, at least it's safe.
6) UV Filter and low chlorine levels - we run 1-2ppm, nearly impossible to detect smell, stinging eyes etc.
7) Variable speed pump constantly running. Pool uses 400W with UV light on and pump running continuously, which is about 1/3 the cumulative power a fast turn cleaning cycle requires.
8) Lots of storage - collecting a lot of pool toys and stuff that needs a place to go when not in use
9) Solar cover - really helped hold the heat this spring in Austin, especially with the high winds
10) electric coded lock on rear door, requires a code to get out of the house. The only way to get in the back yard. We don't accidentally forget to lock it like we did with the interior key lock.

Some things I wish we did:
1) Had a lot of trouble with automatic chlorine because of the slow pump speeds. Now using a peristaltic pump with Clorox. I should have started here rather than try different puck feeders and an LQ. (LQ was great, just didn't work very well with such a large pool and low flow rates).
2) Wish we made the hot tub 2' larger diameter. The kids play a lot in it, it's crowded and I worry about them jumping into it.
3) A couple more return jets pushing water towards one of my skimmers. The water feature is the only thing pushing surface water to the main skimmer.
4) Colored pool lights and deck jets. Our pool is a bit boring at night.
5) A slide. I have a spot I think I can put one, but I wish we had designed around one. My pushed back hard due to aesthetics, but now wishes we embraced it.
 
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