What is my pool volume?

Tyrone Shuz · Jun 2, 2007

I have bleachcalc (wonderful thing, that!) and it has a volume calc.

16' x 32' IG VINYL 3' to 8'. I emphasized the "VINYL" part because the walls don't go nearly straight down in the deep end. You could easily say the avg. depth is 5.5 ft given the dimensions, but that doesn't count the sloped sides in the deep end. W/o sloped sides, it's 21k+ gal. One pool guy said it's closer to 17k. The the walls are only flat about 3'-4' down in the deep end, then they slope inwards at about a 45degree angle.

Any clues or tools to calculate this?

sevver · Jun 2, 2007

Using the BleachCalc:

16x32x3 is 11520

16x32x5.5 is 21120

I don't know how deep your deep end is, but if it is 8 feet deep 16 feet wide, say 4 feet down by 4 feet across, one on each end of the deep end is 1920 gallons subtracted from 21120 which leaves 19200.

So then, I will guess that the deep end is half the length of the pool, which would double what we had above yet again, sort of. 19200 less 1920 leaves 17280. Sort of meaning that the space where they overlap in the corners is already accounted for. So now what that space is is 4 feet tall, 4 feet deep, and 4 feet long, but the shape is only a triangle and not a square, so it would be divided in half. 240. 17280 + 240 is 17520.

Totally a guess, but that is probably close enough for anything you will ever need to know. It would take about 3504 5 gallon buckets to drain remove and replace the water if you ever needed to. lol

Tyrone Shuz · Jun 3, 2007

Now we're talkin'.

I wasn't clear on your response, and probably not clear on my post, though I did mention the deep end is 8'. It's a gradual slope. The bevels are non-existent in the first 12' or so of length then they start gradually, ending in the deep end where they are pretty massive.

From the shallow end, it's 3' for about maybe 6' of length, then a slope till the deep end, which is flat for maybe 6'.

There are bevels on THREE sides of the deep end (I think you may have assumed that as your calculation is divisible by 3).

So it would be 4' across, 4'deep, and 8' long x 2 on each long side, which would leave another one that size on the short end. (Pool is 16' wide and if they jut out 4' on each side, that leaves 8' right?)

OK, now I get out my bleach calc and it says 8 x 4 x 4 = 960, and I have three pieces that size = 2880/2 because it's a triangle and not square. So it looks like 1440? Subtract from 21120 = 19680.

I'm VERY fallible when it comes to this stuff (volumes, areas and math that doesn't involve balancing a checkbook).

Your guess and mine are far enough apart that I'd love to be proven wrong (or right). I love the bleach calc, but I'd like to know my default size setting.

Thanks for your input, you may well be right.

michiele · Jun 3, 2007

It sounds like we have very similar pools. Ours is IG vinyl also, with those sloping sides in the deep end. The pool was here when we moved in so I haven't a clue as to how many gallons it holds. My husband brought up the fact that I am a mathematics major and should be able to do some fancy calculus calculations to come up with the exact volume

)) However, I am almost 20 years out from college and haven't a clue ... The pool store had our address in their computer (from previous owner's) and had down 30,000 gallons. We calculated several different ways and came up with 20,000, 29,000, and around 25,000

So, I just guessed.

I am not any help at all, but when I get some free time some day, I am going back to the calculus book and figuring this all out

)) Good luck!

sevver · Jun 3, 2007

This will not require calculus, just volume measurements.

waste · Jun 4, 2007

Tyrone, use 19000 gal and you'll be real close. Where does 19000 come from? - Use 5' as the av depth!

Riles_J · Jun 4, 2007

I have the same size pool (grecian shaped) and I use 19,000 gallons.

TarheelPool · Jun 4, 2007

This may not add a whole lot but I have an 18x36 IG rectangle vinyl pool. I have the configuration that you describe in the deep end so I've wondered about the calculation as well. However, the technical information that I received with the pool states the volume at 19,835 so I've used that and it seems to be accurate for chemical additions. Long story short, I would use 19000 as waste recommends and fine tune from there.

Kevin

Tyrone Shuz · Jun 4, 2007

Thanks everybody!

I also goofed on my numbers--I had the length of the triangles as 8' when it's really 16'+, but it's about 8' to the end of the deep end, and still fairly sizable for another 8' or so, though smaller due to the decreasing depth. I think 19,000 gal has got to be within 500 gal or so, which is about 2.6% of being right. I'd rather shoot a little high on bleach count anyway, at least for chlorination purposes.

19,000 gal it is!