leveling and heating intex pool

[savannah]

First time using one of those larger intex type pools. Have had the small one in the past for little ones when leveling wasn't much of an issue. Ground extremely unlevel but what is the best way to level the ground? Should I just add dirt over the existing area to level it off or dig an area for the pool? Also, can a solar panel be used to heat these pools? It's 18' x 48" .

[CarlD]

If you add dirt, be sure to build a wall of stones around the area, then put sand on top. Level is VERY important--critical even. You should try to be no more than 1/2" off anywere on your pad.

A 4'x10' panel or a 2'x20' should heat that pool VERY nicely! Use a solar cover too.

[savannah]

Thanks CarlD. Now my next ?, is there a particular brand of solar panel recommended. I don't have a roof close by to put in on so it will most likely go next to a chain link fence. R these things heavy, can it be placed on top of a gazebo roof, just the fabric kind? I've seen some panels that unroll? but I don't if I understood that right or if it's just a regular panel.

[Poconos]

I believe Carl is referring to solar mat panels. They are nothing more than a bunch of capillary tubes connected to manifolds at each end. They are shipped rolled up. They aren't very heavy and with adequate support can be mounted to a chain link fence. They do need a support structure of some kind and some way to hold them down in case of a high wind. They should also be angled roughly at about 45 degrees on a South facing exposure for best heat absorbtion. I have a 4x20' panel mounted on a wooden frame and held down by rope looped around the frame. Unfortunately I couldn't find a decent pic of the thing but I'll look more and if I can't find one I'll take one and update this post.
Al

[JoshU]

What type of pump do you have? A solar heater may require a stronger pump then what Intex usually produces. Basically your pool water will now have to travel a longer distance and the pump of course will have to be able to move it through the panels.

Josh

[savannah]

I only have the pump that came with the pool. It was one of those all in one box kits. Is that not good enough? I wouldn't know what kind of pump to get if I had to get a better one. Something tells me I better scrap the whole solar heating idea. I don't want to end up spending lots of money on a pump and solar panel when I have no idea how long the pool would even last. I've not heard too much postive talk on these kinds of pools but it was cheap enough that I thought I would give it a go.

Thanks for ur responses everyone.

[CarlD]

When I attached my 10x4 panel to our little 15'x3' EasySet, I had NO problems driving it with the little 1/6hp cart filter/pump it came with. The panel actually DROPPED resistance so low that I couldn't get good velocity at the return and I would have to valve it down a little, which worked fine. I just set the panel on the ground next to the pool. Because of the heat, you don't tend to get all the disgusting bugs and stuff under it--it bakes the ground more, driving them away.

I DID re-plumb the panel so that the inflow and outflow were on the same end--it's not hard--and the far end was sealed. This way the water flows one direction for one 10x2' half, and the other on the other 10'x2' half. Kinda like having 2 10x2's and going down to the far end of one and coming back to the near end of the other. It's hard to say in words what's really simple.

It worked too well--one day, in North Central NJ, our water hit 106 or 107! Talk about a LARGE hot tub!

[Kimrst]

My yard was not perfectly level when we set up out Intex frame pool last year. We needed to dig down a few inches in the north side to get it level. My DH started by using a 9' string tied to a center nail to get the circle and then we dug and leveled shovel by shovel full of dirt. It was a pain, but it did the trick. We picked up all the stones and roots and things before we layed down the tarp to put the pool on. So our pool was put up on Michigan dirt and not on the grass, for the most part. It worked out ok. At one end the pool was flush with the grass and the other end a couple of inches below. (I wouldn NOT have done this if our yard would have been the least bit sandy.)

I hope the set up will be more easy this year as the area is ready and waiting for the pool as soon as it gets warm enough. One thing with this way though the ladder needed to be on the side where the pool was on the grass as the ladder wasn't steady if it was on the dug side. The other thing I found out was to use a fake grass rug to wipe your feet on before getting into the pool. I tried the foot bucket but the bees keept buzzing the kids. The fake astro turf took the grass from the yard off our feet, and didn't attrack the bees. Kimrst

[savannah]

The fake grass is a great idea. The kids always end up tipping the foot bath somehow. Figured I'll give the solar panels a try if I can get them cheap enough on ebay - so far no luck. I think they were the sunheater types although I've seen on other sights other brands like solar bear and sungrabber. I just hope the pump can handle it.