The process of installing our Intex 26'x52" pool

[Taterfink]

Edn35, you are so welcome! I am glad to have something to share! So far I have seen no evidence of leaks or tears. Thank you Lord!

We have had a lot of rain so I think it would be difficult to detect but with no rain today, I've seen no increase in any of the rain puddles on the tarp. Again, thank you Lord! I am keeping the faith that there will be no leaks.

I'll be sweeping the water off the tarp tomorrow so it can dry properly. I'll keep you posted.

When is your pool going to arrive? Have you started any of the prep?

OH! Also, here in my city, we can go to our power / water company and complete an affidavit giving our acct info, beginning meter reading and after pool fill meter reading and they charge us only for the water. No fee for sewer since the water never hits the sewer.
I don't know if they do this everywhere but since our sewer bill is about 3 times our water bill, it stands to save me a heap of money.
Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone wants to check with their water company. As near as I can tell, the water will run me about $60 - $80. The sewer fee then would have run $180 - $240 over and above the water costs. I consider that a hefty savings.

 

[Edn35]

That's great to hear. I'll keep my fingers crossed for no leaks or tears for you. Our pool should arrive sometime between the 20th and 24th of the month. Or so we have been told. We have not started on the ground yet. We are hoping to start that this weekend. We are not looking forward to it but it's gotta be done, and done properly. I've been researching pumps and filters. Salt seems to be the way to go but I'm concerned with the rusting as some people have talked about. We haven't made a definite decision on that other than we must get a better pump/filter than what it comes with. Its all so exciting. We kind of waited late in the year to decide on a pool but we hope to be up and running by July. That'll give us a couple months of use at least. Do you plan to keep yours up year round? You may have already said but I can't remember if you did......ok I'll take a breath now :blah: Can't wait for you to get up and running. How exciting!!

 

[Edn35]

Oh, thanks for the info on the water/sewer company. We will be calling them!

 

[Taterfink]

Wishing you lots of luck with the water company!

I got the SandPro75 sand filter/pump. Cannot really recommend it at this point because it is just sitting on my back porch waiting to be hooked up. But, I have high hopes for it! :lol: I only know what I have heard over and over again-- That the intex pumps that come with the pools are horribly inefficient. I don't really remember what made me pick the SandPro 75. The local Pinch a Penny is who first brought this brand to my attention. But, i did not take their word for it, I read the reviews. Then I made my decision and ordered it via Amazon.

As to the rusting - I know that some people have problems and some don't. I've discussed it with my husband and he suggested (and I'll let him do this part) putting a coat of wax on the frame. I suggested rinsing the frame with fresh water from the hose periodically. I don't know if it will make a difference or not but all we can do is try. Tho I am not located right at the beaches, I am within about 30 miles so we still get a lot of ocean salt in the air. Rust is not at all uncommon around here. My point is, there is salt in the air, there will be salt in my pool. All I can do is try and be proactive in the maintenance.

I am planning on keeping the pool up year round. We had only 2 freezes here this past winter. Neither was cold enough for long enough to even have to turn the outside faucets on. So, I think that I will either just continue to maintain the chlorine, etc year round while running the pump/filter or I will winterize and close it in the winter and re-open in the spring. It's too much work to tear down and put back up every year. Especially if our winters continue to be as mild as this last one. Our main concern with keeping the pool up year round is, how do we keep the hot Florida sun from rotting the vinyl that the top support rails run thru? That's why I said we may close it for the winter. If I put a cover on it, that should protect the vinyl to some extent.

 

[Edn35]

I've heard good things about that pump/filter. I would really prefer the salt water sytem from everything that ive read.We were wondering about a protective coating of some kind on the frame. I had not thought of wax. That may be a "do able" option. Maintenance would be key at keeping rust at bay
We are not near the ocean but in Joplin, MO and can have some harsh winters (along with other crazy weather on the other hand this past winter was very mild. It seems like such a chore to take it down every year. I think we will try our luck at keeping it up.

 

[Taterfink]

I have the pump set up and am getting ready to connect the hoses. I have the Intex SWCG and was going to wait to connect it but I think I'm going to go ahead and do that while I am out there, too.

Jason told me at one point that it may not be big enough for this pool and that if I used it I may need to supplement with liquid chlorine. I decided that I'd need to go this route for now. The Intex SWCG was more affordable ($180.00) for me right now. Maybe next year I can upgrade to a better SWCG. These babies can run in excess of $700 for the lower end ones and, they just go up from there.

I am also planning to see how best to care for the vinyl so that it does not get brittle from the sun beating down on it year round.

 

[linen]

The Intex SWCG was more affordable ($180.00) for me right now.

That's where I'm at too. The swg is so cheap, that if it works, I might actually save money over LC/bleach. Even if I have to run it a lot and replace every 3 years. I am on my third season with mine now! On my 11000 pool up here in Minnesota, I am running the intex swg (copper bar version, but disconnected bars) about 5 hours a day right now. Make sure you salt has a day to dissolve, then fire your swg up and let's see if can keep up with the load!

 

[Taterfink]

Re: The process of installing our Intex 26'x52" pool

Linen, would you tell me please how you disconnected the copper bars? Did you just unplug the wire? If so what did you you do with bare the connectors? Or did you remove the bars all together?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

[linen]

One one intex swg I have (my backup), I removed the copper bars entirely...but I do not think that is necessary. On my other intex swg, I just unscrewed the small diameter nut around the electrical cable going into the bars, and when it came off, then I pulled the plug and just left it unplugged...did nothing else, not even tap over the connections (they are recessed on the wire). Very simple. Running with the bars unplug has now shown any measurable copper in my pool over 2 seasons (going into third) using the strips intex included with the swg.

 

[Taterfink]

linen,

I have looked at my SWCG and the plug on mine has two little round pins and the wire is capped off with the receiver to those pins. I think I'll just unplug that wire (my point being that my connection is not screwed on, it just plugs in). I may tape it just for grins and giggles and for my own peace of mind. Well, I am off to put the sand in my filter . Thank you for your explanation.

 

[linen]

my point being that my connection is not screwed on, it just plugs in

Yeah, that is different from mine, though I am going to take a look again at mine to confirm. Just leave it unplugged, tape if you want too, it is DC and fairly low voltage, so I would think there is no risk.

 

[linen]

So I looked at my intex swg connections, while looking at the readout, from left to right, copper bars, swg cell, and the float switch. The only connector that does not require unscrewing is the swg cell connection. That one is a large flat connector. The copper bars connector is round. Which one did you disconnect?

 

[Taterfink]

I haven't got it running yet. I have everything hooked up, was getting ready to put the sand in the filter and we got hit with yet MORE rain. I swear we have as much rain water as city water in the pool. It has rained ever since Tropical Storm Beryl blew thru (it hit us pretty much full on). The ground all over town is saturated. I'll finish the setup when we get some daylight and I'll let you know which part I'm talking about, to make sure I disconnect the correct thing. I'd like to say I'd look at the manual and read the instructions. But, I've come to realize that Intex instructions are a bit cryptic.

 

[Big_kid]

When putting ours up the budget would only support ¼" fanfold foam, so that's what I used. I didn't tape the seams 100%, just enough to hold them together and in place. It's only been up for a week, but so far so good. I worked the wrinkles out while filing it, and this morning when I looked I could not feel any seams.

I too was concerned about pinholes and leaks after reading the reviews, but so far I've had no trouble. I was careful during setup not to drag or spin the pool on the ground.

 

[Taterfink]

We've has SO much rain that if I had a leak, I'd never know it. :?
Every time the sun peeks thru, a black cloud floats in and dumps rain on us . We get a lot of rain every year at this time but, this year seems to be off the charts. Any way, I'm going to have to wait for things to dry up a bit before I can be sure about having no leaks.

 

[Taterfink]

linen,
here are pics of the swcg :

a pic of the copper bars.

top view of the unit: copper bars on the left.

the plug/prongs on top of copper thingy:

Pic of the pump / filter / swcg

I haven't hooked the SWCG up as yet. I am trying to get a handle on the chemicals first. Then add the salt, wait to dissolve, then run the SWCG. I do plan to disconnect the copper bars.
If I understand you, I can simply disconnect the plug from the top of the copper bars. No need to tape the plug nor the prongs!?

Oh, the drops of water everywhere are from all the rain, no from pool water.

 

[linen]

If I understand you, I can simply disconnect the plug from the top of the copper bars. No need to tape the plug nor the prongs!?

That's what I did, no tape.

By the way, you do have the right connector, and you did need to unscrew a nut. Just included that for future readers.

 

[Taterfink]

Thank you for the clarification. I told my husband that I wanted to just unplug it and he looked at me like I was nuts. He understands about not wanting copper in the water, he just didn't get how you could let the plug just hang there.

 

[linen]

No harm to cover it with tape, but not needed IMO. Low voltage DC.

 

[Taterfink]

AH! Now he gets it! Thanks.