Finances & Money

Pools are expensive: Today cost us $400

Some of you may have caught me mention that we have an in-ground pool at our home. When we purchased the home almost 3 years ago, we weren’t looking for a pool. We’ve never owned a pool, our parents didn’t own a pool, but my aunt had an above-ground pool. All I remembered was my cousin always complaining about maintaining it.

Well, we fell in love with the home as soon as we walked through the door. Our home is a 1941 Cape Cod with several additions and improvements by the former owners, and it sits on a fifth of an acre in a semi-suburban/semi-urban area of Maryland. It’s actually one of the biggest homes in the neighborhood, but still small compared to the homes built in the last 2-5 years (it’s nowhere near a McMansion).

We viewed the home in mid-September on a warm, sunny day, and the pool just looked so inviting. We did some research and talked to the owners about the pool maintenance and costs, and determined we could live with the pool.

I won’t bore you with all the costs of owning a pool in this post. I’ll spread those out into a number of articles so I can focus more on each of the costs. In this article, I’ll talk about today’s big purchase…

A New Pool Pump

The former owners were so gracious as to leave most of their records for all their home purchases with us when they left. This includes receipts, manuals, notes, and brochures. We were just very lucky the owners agreed to do so, but they did have to go through many of their already packed boxes to pull out the materials for us, but it’s been a lifesaver a number of times already.

The one thing we don’t know, though, is whether our current pool pump is original or had been replaced in the last 9 years since they installed it. Also, we didn’t have information about the model as the sun and rain have beaten every last bit of identification off the pump. We know the motor was replaced about 3 years ago, but that’s now half of the problem.

We’re getting alot of air bubbles in our pool and the pump is really loud. I’ve gotten the bearings checked and they’re fine. Basically, air is leaking in somewhere and causing problems. I replaced half of the PVC plumbing already, but it hasn’t helped. I checked into just getting new gaskets and so forth, but just decided that if I need to do all this work on the plumbing, I might as well just replace the whole pump with something more efficient and much newer.

I went down to the pool store, where the employees are VERY knowledgeable about pools, unlike their chain-store competition who hires high-school and college kids for seasonal work. These guys know their stuff, but the store usually charges a good bit more for their parts and chemicals than anyone else.

I won’t bore you with more details, but I walked out with a new Pentair Superflo 1.5 HP pump (which has a motor too). We have a Hayward, but Pentair came out with a replacement for our specific pump that is more efficient (more water flow) for the same power. Also, the inflow and outflow lines up with our existing plumbing, so I don’t need to (but will) redo the plumbing.

How much did it cost?
Original price: $450
Sale Price: $380
Final Tally: $401.63 (with tax)

I checked with the local chain store, who happens to be advertising 10% off their pool pumps, but they don’t carry this model. Also, their prices aren’t that competitive on the pumps they do carry. At least I’m comforted that I got a decent price and discount on our new pump.

Where is this money coming from?

Since this purchase wasn’t budgeted from our regular paychecks, I have my advertisers and reader to thank for helping with this purchase. Pretty much all the money I’ve made after tax to-date on this site through advertisers (text links), Adsense, and paid reviews will be used to pay off this pool pump. So, now you know where my advertising dollars go.

Oh, and any leftover money just went to pay for another year of hosting for my site ($120). So, although I could be pushing more ads, affiliate links, and paid reviews, I want to keep the amount of ads you see to a minimum. I’m not writing to make money. It’s a hobby for me. I like to educate, and be educated, so it’s more personal fulfillment for me. However, the extra money is nice, especially for times like today. 🙂

THANKS READERS!