I set my intex 26' pool up in 2012 and I use an intex SWCG. I LOVE it!
When I started with my pool a lot of people were curious about whether the SWCG would cause rust issues. It did.
I first noticed the rusting (keep in mind that I did keep an eye on it) in the summer of 2015. That's 3 years before rusting. The rust was confined mostly to the 2 legs on either side of the thru the wall skimmer. That, I believe was because when we would get our daily thunderstorms (NE Fla - June thru Nov)
the water would overflow thru the skimmer and splash those legs. One other leg did rust just a bit where the leg entered the black plastic foot.
I ordered 4 legs from intex knowing that I had to replace 2 but preparing in case I had others that were damaged where I could not see. Turns out I had only to replace 3.
I drained the pool as much as it would drain thru the drain hole. Then then using a clean water pump I took it down to just about dry and let the sun do the rest.
Once it was drained I disassembled the pool and pushed it back one half at a time and placed flexible caulking in the grooves between the sheets of extruded polystyrene that I had used as an underlayment. The grooves were because I used only 1 strip of duct tape when the smart people on here suggested 3 strips of gorilla tape. My bad. I should have listened. Anyway, I filled the grooves and hope that it helps reduce the dirt that collects on the bottom of the pool. After filling the grooves I reassembled the pool and put in the new legs. All good now.
My point to all this is that I use a SWCG and I only had to do the repairs at the 4 year mark. Not too bad considering how easy it is to maintain the pool with the SWCG.
Here are a few pictures. Just for fun. The pool is back up and getting ready for summer.



When I started with my pool a lot of people were curious about whether the SWCG would cause rust issues. It did.
I first noticed the rusting (keep in mind that I did keep an eye on it) in the summer of 2015. That's 3 years before rusting. The rust was confined mostly to the 2 legs on either side of the thru the wall skimmer. That, I believe was because when we would get our daily thunderstorms (NE Fla - June thru Nov)
the water would overflow thru the skimmer and splash those legs. One other leg did rust just a bit where the leg entered the black plastic foot.
I ordered 4 legs from intex knowing that I had to replace 2 but preparing in case I had others that were damaged where I could not see. Turns out I had only to replace 3.
I drained the pool as much as it would drain thru the drain hole. Then then using a clean water pump I took it down to just about dry and let the sun do the rest.
Once it was drained I disassembled the pool and pushed it back one half at a time and placed flexible caulking in the grooves between the sheets of extruded polystyrene that I had used as an underlayment. The grooves were because I used only 1 strip of duct tape when the smart people on here suggested 3 strips of gorilla tape. My bad. I should have listened. Anyway, I filled the grooves and hope that it helps reduce the dirt that collects on the bottom of the pool. After filling the grooves I reassembled the pool and put in the new legs. All good now.
My point to all this is that I use a SWCG and I only had to do the repairs at the 4 year mark. Not too bad considering how easy it is to maintain the pool with the SWCG.
Here are a few pictures. Just for fun. The pool is back up and getting ready for summer.


