So depressed... :(

[ShelleyAnn]

Well, the wind has changed here in the mile-hi city and daytime high's are in the low to mid 80s. Nighttime temps are in the 40s so the pool drops down to about 65-68 by morning. The highest I've been able to get the water with two small solar panels during the day has been 71 and I'm thinking that takes out my 10 and 12 year old and maybe even me. My husband is game down to around 68, but only for a minute or two.

This is our first year having a pool and I had no idea I would enjoy it as much as I have. The feeling of loss is worse than any I ever had with the garden that the pool went on top of. What are we supposed to do over the winter!?

[tenax]

i find anything below 75 intolerable ( i like to "lounge" in my pool versus swim...i shoulda bought a hot tub) i'm in lethbridge alberta..pretty much duo north of you right by the montana border..temps are very similar...i'm surprised you don't have a heater of some kind..or a huge solar array!:) we have a great week of weather still to come anyway but it is very cool at nights.

are you using a solar cover by the way? it's making a huge difference very noticeable now with cooler night time temps..i've got my heater set at 82-83 and consistently since last week when i started to run it (it's new) the pool is only losing 2 degrees overnight)

[SeanB.]

...i shoulda bought a hot tub

We were initially not going to get a hot tub, but just a water feature with our pool. One of my co-workers who has a pool with a spa told me that a couple of years ago, when we had snow on Christmas Eve in Houston (that NEVER EVER happens), he was out in his spa drinking a beer and watching the snow fall. I was sold! Now I'm looking forward to the spa as much as I am the pool, especially since the pool season will be over just about the time our build is complete.

[tenax]

spas are lovely..i unfortunately don't have a good place to put one (i don't like the looks of above ground units..they look like they are going to get hauled away after the weekend:)) and my concrete deck would be a paint to punch a hole through:) i do have a sauna for post swim and it's quite nice..my daughter had some friends over for a swim yesterday and it was 130 in the sauna at least..i thought my face would burn just opening the door. i don't know how they could stand it!

[ShelleyAnn]

Yes, we are very diligent about putting it on our solar cover in the evening and taking it off when the sun gets up. I have some dinky little solar panels I got tricked into (thought I was buying one 4 x 20 and it was really 2 9 x 3s. Kept them because they were versatile and we could move them around easier).

Let's see...it was 68 this morning when I took off the solar cover and now at 2pm it's up to 73. MAAAAAAAAAYbe I'll get in and do a few laps this afternoon.

[matt4x4]

Things got cold fast up here, my pool is 62, AND, to top it all off, I still have to get in to take the weight off the steps and get the steps out - praying for a 2-3 day warm spell here.....

[RavenNS]

I actually had the hot tub before the pool. The beinging able to use it year round sold me :)
It's a stand alone, & I assure you TENEX that it won't get hauled away for the weekend. These things are heavy! - it also stood up to one huricane & two really nasty blizzards.

I'm depressed about closing the pool, & winter - stuck in the house :eek:

I have a heat pump, but I have't figured out when it's just not worth while paying to heat anymore ( we like the pool at about 90F).

Matt 4x4, I thought I had read that you bought a new heater ( guess I'm mixing you up with someone else)

Winter, the one time a year that I wish that I lived elsewhere, otherwise I love living in Canada :D

[tenax]

hey raven..twas i who bought the new heater! i have come up with an easy way to decide when to close the pool. if the air temp is less than 20C, the kids simply won't use it..not cause i can't heat up the pool enough, but they don't like the chill they feel coming out (sucks, i know) when we moved here 4years ago, i ran the pool right until end of sept. it was silly...the cost of running my heater 10 hours a day steady for the sake of wanting to swim 3 hours a week. i figure if i'm going to pay a bill for daily heating, they better use it every day:) i did not have a solar cover then so i literally did have to run the heater 10 hours per day to keep it up on the low 80s...i am very interested to see how it does this month...i have not had the heater going long enough to get a sense of what the monthly bill could cost me for ngas now that i have a cover, new heater and can't forget,a timer!. i can tell you that last summer, the natural gas for one month cost me over 300 dollars which is in line with the enercan program i was tipped off to which says for southern alberta, with a swimming season from may 15th to end of september, the cost without a cover would be about 300 a month for ngas. it was very handy to show my wife that based on the average weather pattern for may and june for this region, that there actually is only 2 swimmable days in those 2 weeks of may and all of sept..i'm going to continue running the heater this week and into the weekend (temp 24 to 29C) but i see by next wed, it's going down to 16 during the day..we're done..that will be almost mid september.

had quite an argument last year for not consulting my wife on pool shutdown time (i shut down middle of september) she wanted to go until the end of sept and it was getting bloody cold..no amount of logic would change her mind..so this year, i rolled out plenty of logic in advance..she can't argue with fact.

well, she can..but i'm still going to shut it down next week:) or at least turn down the heater so it won't turn on:)

[mbar]

Me too - very depressed :(:(:(:(

[tenax]

hey, it's alright guys..me and the missus had some counselling and were fine..

ooohh..you mean the weather:):D

[sjkader]

here in South Dakota its getting cold, but the little lady says we have a heater and she plans on getting some use out of this pool we are just finishing!
We went with propane for heat, yes it cost more to run but then we also know how much we are spending right away to keep the pool heated.

She wants to swim so she has no problem filling the tank and i get to reap the benefits also!

So if you are all shutting your pools down and need a place to swim. Head on over and ill even provide the beer!:D

[matt4x4]

Raven - I do have a heater (solar) but it's only 1/3rd of what's recommended for my size pool, it gets things going early in the year, unfortunately, we've had NO sun the last couple of weeks and the temps really dropped off in the pool. I'm hoping this weekend will change things enough to get in and get the stuff out - I'm afraid this season's pretty much over now.

[KirstenHW]

The depression came a little earlier this year for me. The past 3 weeks the weather has been miserable. Plus, I am in the middle of a court case with the Bozo that did a crappy install of my replacement liner in July of 2004. We don't have a heater or a blanket - maybe next year after this loser it out of my life.

I don't dislike the Fall, I just hate giving into it - its this transition period that's so heartbreaking to me.

[matt4x4]

I don't mind fall, I don't mind closing the pool, I don't mind not using the pool - I have other interests that kick in come fall time to fill the void so the void is not felt.
Up here, I think our pools are really just something to get us through our hot and humid BUT very short summers, maybe we don't put as much weight into having them as our southern friends do. My pool spends more time below 60 degrees than it does above 60 degrees, maybe I WILL let my kid skate on it this winter!

[larry2338]

RavenNS

( we like the pool at about 90F)



I'm with you. 88 degrees is perfect, 90 is fine. You guys who get in the pool @80 degrees or less are tougher than me!!!

[Mom2Czars]

Fall came early to New England this year. About mid August all of a sudden we had no more daytime temps above 80 and chilly, chilly nights. I kept thinking surely it would change and we'd have another heat wave -- but nothing. The water temp dropped steadily and at last check it was down to 64. Brrrrr. Nobody had gone in for two weeks. Closed it up Labor Day weekend, since I got tired of fishing out the leaves every day. Even the trees gave up early this year.:(

Matt -- we finagled our steps out without getting in. :happy dance: We cut the cable ties to the sand jugs off with tree loppers, hoisted out the steps and then rigged up a 'fishing hook' to get the jugs and loose cable ties out. I caught the stair pad with the vacuum. No way I was getting into that pool.;)

[CarlD]

After 2 weeks on vacation, and lots of rain (Ernesto's tail) my pool was in the 70's on returning. I've gotten it to 81, but I'm hoping for a couple more sunny days to get it into the mid 80's so we can all swim some more. I'm also hoping for a sunny September so we can really use the pool till October. (solar heat and solar cover).

[matt4x4]

Mom... - I managed to get my steps out too last year without going in - It was 50 then, however, I managed to puncture the liner doing so - My weight hooks in under the stairs and you can't get at it at all unless you dive under.
We've had some sunny days this week, to my surprise, with the solar panel and cover, I'm back up at a balmy 70 as of last night, hoping this weekends temps will get it up to the mid 70's at which point I will take the plunge.