Considering pool and need a little help.

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J

JasonD

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Jun 2, 2011
3
Cleveland, Ohio
Hi everyone. New to the forum but I have been reading up on it and pool school for the last several weeks.

We are considering putting in an above ground pool steel/resin hybrid (15x30 oval) which I have estimated will hold 11,160 gallons of water approximately. We would be first time pool owners with this pool and I would like to be a salt water pool.

The dealer I have been going to is totally against this telling me they are nothing but trouble. He wants me to either do Baquacil or the Frog mineral system, which from doing research here and on the net in general I have determined are not good options. He will put in a SWG for me if I want it but he is basically telling me it will be my problem when everything goes wrong.

The system he wants to sell me is a Pentair IC20 but he has quoted me a pretty high price from what I can tell by comparing prices on the web.

My questions would be do I need system this big as my pool hold nowhere near 20,000 gallons of water and should I be worried about problems with rust? He sited a problem with a person's filter basically being welded into the pool because the screws had rusted from the salt. This does sound plausible to me, but I wanted to check with the experts (you guys! :) ) Thanks in advance for any advice you can spare.
 
The thing that has the most problems is Baquacil, by far the worst reviews of just about anything on this site. By comparison, people love their SWGs and most of them would never give them up. Problems with rust/corrosion are extremely rare and normally only occur when you have one of the softer kinds of natural stone.

The Pentair IC20 is very good if you have a Pentair brand automation system, but it gives you very limited control if you don't have one of their automation systems. If you don't have an automation system I would go with some other brand. We also recommend getting a SWG that is larger than you really need. That will save you money in the long run.
 
I don't guess there is anything saying you have to buy everything from this one guy. You could purchase and get the pool running using bleach (BBB method) and then finish your due diligence on the SWG. His high price may be a sign that he does not want the fool with it.
 
Thanks so much for the quick replies.

To answer RobbieH, we were thinking a salt water pool because it seemed to make life a little simpler and most people who have them seem to love them. I haven't committed to anything yet but I was leaning towards the SWG for those reasons.

I don't believe the Pentair automation system is included in the price but I can check with him He was quoting me $1000.00 and I assume this is just the price of the Pentair IC20 itself.

Does anyone have a suggestion on a good SWG for an above ground pool? Also are they hard to install? I've read the article on installing a SWG in this forum but I assume that is for inground pools. The only other thing I can tell you is that the filter included is the Hayward EC40AC if that's relevant.

I'm really sorry if I sound naive, because I am when it comes to pools. Thank you again.
 
I have an Intex SWG that is as bare bones basic as you can get. Do a quick search of the forums and you will learn a lot about them.

I love mine! It does a great job and the only time I have to think about it is when we have a power outage or we have people wanting to swim when it is usually running (I don't like to run it when there are people in the pool-just my preference- I would do the same with any SWG).

Last summer I got compliments on water clarity and the feel of the water. One of our friends even thought her hair felt softer after swimming in our pool.. Maybe she just had too much buildup on her hair :), but it was a nice thing to hear anyway.

I've read all kinds of peoples opinions about saltwater effects on your pool and metal around it. It's hard to say if it's really corrosive like some say when everything by a pool is exposed to the elements anyway. You would have to do some kind of experiment to really see if it's causes problems. I'm not worried about it myself. I figure that the salt level is not that great and when it rains, most parts with get a bit of a rinse anyway.

You may just have them install w/o any chlorinator or swg system and take some time to decide what you'd like to do. If you think you'd like to do an SWG, you might go ahead and make sure you have enough power to your equipment area for one while you're running power for the pump anyway.
 
Ain't pool stores grand. The biggest trouble with a SWG is the dent it will put in the dealer's profits compared to long term sales of baqua or minerals.

If any of the metal fasteners (screws, bolts, clamps) on components like filters, skimmers, or steps that will be in constant contact with the pool water isn't stainless, just make a trip down to the hardware store and replace those fasteners with stainless...either during your build if you can tell that a part isn't stainless, or at the first sign of corrosion otherwise. I'm starting into year 3 with my AGP and SWG, and I've just replaced a handful of bolts and screws on my ladder. The stainless hardware I've used is just fine, but the cheap plated stuff that came with the ladder was encrusted with a good layer of rust.

Even the sub $200 intex SWG units from a big-box discount dept store will do just fine for an 11,000 gal AG pool if you don't need the automation features present in the more expensive units.
 

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