Comments on: Pools are expensive: Our yearly costs

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:05:40 +0000

Pools are not only expensive money-wise, but costly in terms of the labor required to keep the water clear and pure. Since inheriting a house with a pool 3 years ago, I’ve bought a new pump, a new heat exchanger and spent a good deal of money in chemicals and pool closing costs. I’ve learned that the less care I put into my pool, the more problems; the more problems, the more expensive it gets.

Get a good pool testing kit like the K2006 by Taylor and test your water at least 3 times a week. Keeping the water balanced can reduce problems and costs significantly.

Regards,

Rob

By: Is this us? Washington Post writer has a similar mortgage story at Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:58:17 +0000

[...] $400,000. The Michael from the article paid about $80,000 more than us for his townhouse. Oh, and we have a pool, which is a good and bad [...]

By: Recap: Carnival of Home Improvement #8 at Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:07:58 +0000

[...] were 11 submissions, and 7 of those got published, including my own “Pools are expensive: Our yearly costs“. I hope to make you all more aware of the yearly expenses related to owning a pool, outside [...]

By: Mortgage Lowdown » Blog Archive » Carnival of Home Improvement #8

Mortgage Lowdown » Blog Archive » Carnival of Home Improvement #8 — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:25:54 +0000

[...] presents Pools are expensive: Our yearly costs posted at Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money. Discuss the problems and costs with owning a [...]

By: » Personal Finance Blog Roundup, Philadelphia Edition on Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:08:17 +0000

[...] Pools Are Expensive: Our Yearly Costs. “Thinking of installing your own pool? Want to know what to expect regarding yearly pool maintenance?” [Clever Dude] [...]

By: Clever Dude

Clever Dude — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:03:15 +0000

FS: I hope you were smiling as you wrote those ideas

No and No! But thanks for the ideas.

By: Family Savings

Family Savings — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:50:39 +0000

Why not just close the pool and use it as a skate park for the kids? Then it would be absolutely free. You can always put an above ground pool in the cover of the yard.

By: BeyondtheConsumer

BeyondtheConsumer — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:42:41 +0000

Keep managing that pool yourself! Don’t beat yourself over a $90 mistake, I’ve made much more expensive mistakes than that! I just have a pond, no chemicals or complex pumps, and it still costs us hundreds a year to maintain. The skills you learn from messing up is going to save you a lot of money long term.

Btw, nice backyard!

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:07:19 +0000

You may want to look at craigslist for some used pool stuff. We were able to find a couple deals for our pool there:

- Automatic pool cleaner… guy used it for 1/2 a season then the walls of his pool started to cave so he was going to fill it in. Sold it to us for $125, goes brand new in the store for $550.

- Solar reel / cover.. couple bought a house that had a very old pool and they decided to fill it in. They were giving everything away free including a pretty new solar cover / reel. They also had chemicals but I was too late for those.

Some good deals to be had if you don’t mind looking around.