We recently bought a home with a huge pool, 42,000 gallon pool, which we've been remodeling for the past two months, upgrading plumbing, replacing a retainer wall, all new decking, as well as replacing concrete on all backyward areas, and building a BBQ. We've spent a ton, as well as extras that have come up. We're almost done, great contractor, but he's trying to convince us to fill it in a bit to make it less deep. From 9.5 to 6 or 7 ft he says will save us tons in the coming years on heat and maintainence costs with less water. My husband has had enough and doesn't want to spent a penny more as this will cost at least 7K more. Is it a real concern to make it less deep resulting in less water, perhaps 25 or 30,000 gallon which is more manageable to heat and maintain? I have all new top systems installed, new skimmer, new return lines etc. But I just am not sure about this one issue. My kids ages 4, 9, and 11 love to jump off the deep end, and dive (no diving board). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Do I make my pool less deep, meaning less water,?
- Thread starter shopsafari
- Start date
Your kids love to jump n dive. Do you really want to take that from them? I know I wouldn't if they enjoyed it so much.
- Jul 16, 2012
- 7,204
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
No expert here (trust me on that) but extra depth to a pool should not create nearly the heating load that extra surface area would. A majority of cooling takes place because of evaporation which will be no different in either scenario. Certainly a bigger pool does come with a larger chemical bill. The main issues for me would be 1) usage (kids will probably prefer the deeper pool given that they like jump/dive now and that kids get bigger and become teenagers - that I can be sure of) and 2) a huge extra bill now versus more reasonable outlays year by year.
- May 4, 2011
- 634
I agree keep it deep if the kids like to dive in, also I suspect any savings on operating cost would take many years to pay back.
Thank you so much for your replies! We are leaning towards keeping it deep, but I'm just worried about the higher costs of maintaining or ever heating (which I'm told I'll NEVER do due to the cost) a 42,000 gallon pool!
Sounds like the contractor is just trying to make more money. Would take a long time to offset the $7,000 to modify the pool now as opposed to the cost of chemicals and heating associated with the existing pool.
I agree with Yukon Jack. If you never plan to heat it then you will only have extra chemical expenses and electric expense in order to achieve water turnover. I spend around $340 on chlorine/year and I would guess another $150 on acid and CYA. This totals $490/year for a 35,000 gallon pool. This comes to $14/1000 gallons. So a 30,000 gallon pools chemical cost would be approximately $420 and a 42,000 gallon pools chemical cost would be approximately $588. This is a difference of $168/year. I spend around $600/year on electricity for my pool so I can not imagine that your pool would use more than $800/year. So between chemicals and electricity your cost could be $368/year more than now. The old saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it" applies here in my opinion. By the way I heated my pool and wish I had not.
Keep in mind that my chemical numbers and electricity numbers are based on using liquid chlorine and keeping my pool open year round.
Keep in mind that my chemical numbers and electricity numbers are based on using liquid chlorine and keeping my pool open year round.
Being the finance guy I am....based on the above you WILL NEVER recoup your savings on the $7,000 investment. Keep it deep!