My daughter went to a pool party in one of her friend's house recently, she had a wonderful experience. Later she was complaining about why we didn't have a pool. After all, we had a large backyard, we could easily construct a medium sized pool there. My son is also going to swimming lessons nearby. He could have them at home. We could also take an occasional dip in this scorching heat. So I guess it's better to have a swimming pool constructed. I was wondering if I should make it myself or give the contract to (link removed by mknauss - TFP mod). Also, I am worried about the maintenance charges. How much does it cost annually? Please do let me know in the comments. Thank you.
Annual Pool Maintenance cost
- Thread starter Doc31
- Start date
with a salt chlorinator supplying the chlorine
i have pump running costs 4-6 hours per day say 4.5kw/h at your electricity price, i have pump running when solar panels generate the most free electricity
around $100 other chemicals per year
test kit every second year $200
i have pump running costs 4-6 hours per day say 4.5kw/h at your electricity price, i have pump running when solar panels generate the most free electricity
around $100 other chemicals per year
test kit every second year $200
Are you saying 4.5 kW total per day, or 4.5 kW/h per day (or 16-27 kW per day). If the later that's pretty expensive electricity wise on a monthly basis. Would be ~$53 per month for electricity alone.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 48,404
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
My chemical costs per year are about $380 (typically bleach & acid). I add bleach manually. My electric bill increase is minimal since I have a 2-speed pump and it's always on low 24/7. Maybe $15 a month or so.
Welcome!
- Based on our personal experience.... I would suggest starting with a "budget" above ground pool package.
- You'll get a taste of pool ownership,
- without the hassle of being "stuck" if it isn't a good fit.
- The initial expense (purchase) is the highest cost,
- Do you know what your electricity costs are?
- There are several forum members who are great about giving pump electricity cost "forecasts".
- Is your tap water usable for filling?
- What is your water cost?
- Do you know what your electricity costs are?
- Managing a pool can be extremely affordable,
- if you stay out of the "pool store" sales pitches...
- Check out:
Just some questions to get you started! Your family will love it!!
We jumped into our pool headfirst about six years ago, so we have not been lifelong pool people. We pay a service to open and close our pool, so that runs about $1,200-$1,500 annually. It's not a difficult thing to do on your own, but it's a time issue for us. We do our own chemicals throughout the season ($10-$18/week depending on what's needed) and have a robot that does the vacuuming (under $1,000 initial purchase). We now have a Variable Speed Pump that saves us a ton of money from our old one-speed. Maybe $60 a month to run. Last of all, the heater. You're in the GTA so I would imagine you'd need one. That's used as-needed, obviously. Hard to gauge monthly cost but not more than $100, when it's used. July-August use is minimal, May, June and September - depends on the weather. So altogether about $3,000 for the season. As I mentioned above, if you do your own opening/closing You can take the cost for the season below $2,000 and possibly below $1,500.
We also have a whole-house insurance policy which includes pool coverage, so if anything breaks we pay no more than $100 for the repair (and the coverage runs about $700/year for the entire house). This has worked out extremely well for us. They use local service providers and when the thermocouple on our pool heater went out our first summer the repairman not only fixed it but spent a good 45 minutes walking me through the pool equipment and giving me pool maintenance tips.
Our biggest costs by far were ice (we now have a dedicated icemaker) and beverages, alcoholic and otherwise. We get a lot of weekend guests, including our adult children and their friends. And the wife couldn't be happier.
We also have a whole-house insurance policy which includes pool coverage, so if anything breaks we pay no more than $100 for the repair (and the coverage runs about $700/year for the entire house). This has worked out extremely well for us. They use local service providers and when the thermocouple on our pool heater went out our first summer the repairman not only fixed it but spent a good 45 minutes walking me through the pool equipment and giving me pool maintenance tips.
Our biggest costs by far were ice (we now have a dedicated icemaker) and beverages, alcoholic and otherwise. We get a lot of weekend guests, including our adult children and their friends. And the wife couldn't be happier.
Chemicals, maybe $400 a year.
I have an old single speed pump, but I only run it a couple hours a day. I've never stopped to calculate how much that costs, but my last electric bill -- and California is noted for high rates -- was $68 for everything. In summer, with the AC going, it's about triple that.
If you're unsure, put up an above-ground pool. Some of them can get pretty big. The advantage is that you probably don't need building permits, so it doesn't show up as a property improvement, so your taxes don't rise. If it turns out that pool ownership is not for you, drain it and put it in the want ads and let someone come take it down and haul it away for their yard.
I have an old single speed pump, but I only run it a couple hours a day. I've never stopped to calculate how much that costs, but my last electric bill -- and California is noted for high rates -- was $68 for everything. In summer, with the AC going, it's about triple that.
If you're unsure, put up an above-ground pool. Some of them can get pretty big. The advantage is that you probably don't need building permits, so it doesn't show up as a property improvement, so your taxes don't rise. If it turns out that pool ownership is not for you, drain it and put it in the want ads and let someone come take it down and haul it away for their yard.
Let's get real...pool maintenance costs are typically less than a couple grocery trips. The real expense is the parties. We have already had people over a couple times and the pool has been open only a few weeks...food, snacks, exciting party drinks of your choosing, fun beach towels, floats, goggles for the kids plus spares for their friends, sunscreen, cutesy signs that say "pool paradise", lounge chairs, cushions, water guns, wife needs new swimsuits for the parties...ok, fine, you basically end up buying about 10 aisles worth of stuff from Target.
if you have pool company do opening and closing, and do your own chemicals, its probably around $1000-$1500 per year (adjusted to area).
But equipment occasionally breaks, so every year or so be prepared to pay $500 for repairs.
Also solid cover or mesh cover needs to be replaced every 10-15 years, and then plaster/coping renovation comes.
Its not a cheap thing to have a pool.
But equipment occasionally breaks, so every year or so be prepared to pay $500 for repairs.
Also solid cover or mesh cover needs to be replaced every 10-15 years, and then plaster/coping renovation comes.
Its not a cheap thing to have a pool.
- Nov 7, 2018
- 1,049
- Pool Size
- 14000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
You aren't kidding! We will be having our first pool party the end of this month and guest list has morphed into something that I would have never guessed we would see in a million years! Granted, we recently relocated back to my wife's home state, so there are a lot of people coming she hasn't seen a number of years, but wow...it's amazing how many people will come to a pool party! And those towels!?!? Wow....they aren't cheap!
For me, just a rough estimate with chemicals (chlorine and acid) and electricity during summer months is probably around 50. Winter months is not even noticeable when it comes to electricity and 4gallons of acid/chlorine got me through this winter.
- Nov 7, 2018
- 1,049
- Pool Size
- 14000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
My current chlorine use is between 2-3 PPM per day. At a rate of 3 per day, that results in a cost of chlorine in the ball park of $50 a month. The chlorine is costing me (10% from Wally World) about $3.96 a gallon (with taxes). I have used very little acid and no other chemicals, so I will just guestimate $5 a month for that. I run my pump on high for an hour a day and on low for the other 23 and at .09 per KwH and so that runs me about $25 a month. All in, I would put my monthly cost of "pool season" at around $80 a month.
Chemical costs are the least of your expenses (if you follow this site recommendations and dont go to pool stores for advice).
The biggest cost is renovations and when there are issues with equipment
The biggest cost is renovations and when there are issues with equipment
- Jun 12, 2011
- 3,769
- Pool Size
- 19500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pureline Crystal Pure 60,000
As you can see from the above answers the cost to maintain a pool are highly variable.
1. You can hire a pool service - ($$$$$ and not recommended on this forum).
2. You can DIY based on recommendations and prices at your local pool store - ($$$$ also not recommended).
3. You can spend the time and effort required to educate yourself, by studying all the information available here.
Then maintain your own pool using the TFP principals and methods. ($$).
Owning a pool is a luxury that has a cost in money and/or time. If you have no time or effort that you are willing and able to put into it, the maintenance costs will be very high. Balance the use you will get out of it against the costs.
In my case that’s a bit easier, since I live in Arizona, and my pool is open year round and in use from April until about November. My previous pool (when I lived in a suburb of Boston) was much harder to justify. The cost to maintain a pool doesn’t vary as much, based on how long your season lasts, but in how you maintain it.
1. You can hire a pool service - ($$$$$ and not recommended on this forum).
2. You can DIY based on recommendations and prices at your local pool store - ($$$$ also not recommended).
3. You can spend the time and effort required to educate yourself, by studying all the information available here.
Then maintain your own pool using the TFP principals and methods. ($$).
Owning a pool is a luxury that has a cost in money and/or time. If you have no time or effort that you are willing and able to put into it, the maintenance costs will be very high. Balance the use you will get out of it against the costs.
In my case that’s a bit easier, since I live in Arizona, and my pool is open year round and in use from April until about November. My previous pool (when I lived in a suburb of Boston) was much harder to justify. The cost to maintain a pool doesn’t vary as much, based on how long your season lasts, but in how you maintain it.
It depends on the pool, the equipment, and how much you can do yourself to maintain it. When we purchased our home about 7 years ago the pool was already there but it needed work and this was our first pool. It's a large 33k gallon in-ground gunite pool and the cost to refinish it with Pebble Fina and replace all of the equipment (heater, pump, filter, etc.) was about $15k. We also added a Stenner pump and dual timer for the chlorine injection.. The mesh cover costs about $2500 new and is almost 20 years old, so it will need replacing soon as well. These are the up front costs to make it "nice" again.
For seasonal costs, the pool service that the previous owners used charged them about $500 to open and $500 to close the pool each year and they wanted $130/mth for cleaning, etc.. I dropped them after the first year and I do it myself now. I have a single speed pump 1HP which runs about 12 hours per day and my electric rates are high, so we're spending about $100/month on that plus the 335k btu heater which is about $3/hr to run (usually comes to about $700 per season for heating). Chlorine (3 gal/wk), muriatic acid and other chemicals are maybe $40-$50 per month.
The pool is only operational for 6 months a year, so the annual costs not including maintenance/replacement amortization are about $2k. Throw in another $1k/yr for the repair/maintenance items (about $20k over 20 years), so in my case pool ownership is about $3k per year. Considering we take stay-cations instead of vacations, this means we are saving a ton of money annually just by having a pool.
For seasonal costs, the pool service that the previous owners used charged them about $500 to open and $500 to close the pool each year and they wanted $130/mth for cleaning, etc.. I dropped them after the first year and I do it myself now. I have a single speed pump 1HP which runs about 12 hours per day and my electric rates are high, so we're spending about $100/month on that plus the 335k btu heater which is about $3/hr to run (usually comes to about $700 per season for heating). Chlorine (3 gal/wk), muriatic acid and other chemicals are maybe $40-$50 per month.
The pool is only operational for 6 months a year, so the annual costs not including maintenance/replacement amortization are about $2k. Throw in another $1k/yr for the repair/maintenance items (about $20k over 20 years), so in my case pool ownership is about $3k per year. Considering we take stay-cations instead of vacations, this means we are saving a ton of money annually just by having a pool.
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