I would love to come mow your grass if you could help me with my big decision!!

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OK -- I REALLY hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but I can help you know what you are getting yourself into. I didnt have anyone to tell me!!

The 18 ft porthole one, I have that one (without the porthole), mine was purchased from Wal-Mart 6 years ago for 450.00. Here is a yearly breakdown of what went wrong and the COST associated with it.

Year 1
Install the pool, exactly per manufacturers instructions, level the ground, install patio blocks, put the thing together. Filled it up, added the chemicals. Turned the TOY pump that came with it on. I have a beautiful pool!!! Jump in and enjoy. First week, cheap metal ladder breaks, so we use the back of my husbands truck to haul ourselves in and out of the pool. OK this is workable. Second week -- green algae starting to form because the "filter" is neither strong enough, nor does it actually filter anything. I cant get anything off the bottom of the pool, because there is absolutaly NO way to hook a vacumn up to this thing, because it does not have a skimmer. Give up and close the green monster down after a month.

Year 2
I am going to get a handle on this, I found poolsolutions.com. Before opening that summer, I bought a ladder 149.00 ladder so as not to have to use the back of a truck. I stock up on bleach. Open the monster and cholrinate, still pump/filter not adequate. I mess with it for about 2 months never swimming in it because I cant see the bottom. I give up and close it again.

Year 3
I FINALLY have saved up the money to buy a 450.00 Hayward pump and sandfilter combo and another 100.00 for a skimmer and hoses. We had to and "modify" the pool with a Dremmell tool, cut out an opening for a skimmer and installed it. Open the pool, have a handle on it. Had a great summer, till middle of the summer when the cheap liner got a hole in it. Great -- closed again.


Year 4
Seriously consider donating this thing to the dump -- but I decide instead I have already spent money on a ladder/filter/pump/skimmer, may as well go ahead and enjoy the money pit. SO I spring for a 150.00 liner. INstall myself, and we had a great year after that!

Year 5
Great year!!!! Finally have everything this thing needs

Year 6
We are open and had to buy a new pump, but I wont add that to your cost because I know that was probably a fluke --
BUT now my top rail is staring to rust, so I am probably going to have to replace that next year.

What I am trying to tell you is that my 450.00 pool, is now worth about $1500.00, and I still have a CHEAP pool, with good equipment. If i had just sprung for a decent mid priced pool, I would be much happier at this point.

Anyway, please reconsider, and just supplement the money that your children reaised and invest in a good pool that your family can enjoy from the beginning. The pool you are considering will be green and dirty after 3 weeks because it is just not properly equipped. There is no way to vacumn, no adequate filtration.

Good luck, I just wanted you to be more informed than I was.

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One of the vinyl pools may be a better choice for you. They are easy to fill and easy to drain when you are done, you can refill multiple times in the season. You wouldnt have to rely on a pump to do the cleaning for you, you can just start over. Liner pools are more difficult because you cant completely drain them, because the liner will not stretch back into place. So you cant really ever start over with them.

I'm sorry if I brought you down, that was not the intent at all. I'm really not trying to rain on your parade, I just wanted you to know what you were really getting into!!!! All I saw when I bought mine was price, and it got me in trouble. You have already told your kids they could have one, I would hate for you to dissappoint them!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heres one at walmart that would even give you plenty left over for some new pool toys!
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3651447

I don't have any experince with this pool, but being a fossil here, I can tell you what I've read.
These low end AG pool wanna be's are exactly as described above, you will have MUCH more fun and ease of use with an intex easy set pool in comparison to that one above.
Don't forget, unless you're also planning on setting it up yourself, you would likely have to pay someone at least 500 to set that up.

Check leslie's, they have very cheap pools that are 10x better than the one above.

Add another vote for the easy-set. I've had both the blow up ring one and also the metal frame. Both were good pools, they were definately worth what we paid for them. I don't know how old your kids are, but I had a problem keeping my kids off the donut on the blow up one. They wanted to hang on the sides and you just couldn't do it with that one. Small kids might be able to, but my 10 year old was too heavy. We loved the metal frame pool. Even adults could hang on the sides. We put pavers down for the legs to sit on. The pumps on them aren't the best, but if keep up with your water, (meaning don't let algae start growing) the pump works perfectly fine. It just doesn't do a good job cleaning up a mess if you don't take care of the water. I personally thought the metal frame was easier to take down in the fall than the donut one.

Walmart has a 18' for $488

Sam's has a 16' in store, but not on their website.

Those of us that have used them have found ways to modify them to use regular suction pool vacuums. I know of several (CarlD comes to mine) and myself that even ran solar panels on them.

Don't get bummed! There is absolutely nothing wrong with an easyset, we had just as much fun with ours and we do with our "regular AG".

And what great kids! Willing to give up something as a group for something they want more! I'm not sure mine would have. :( Sounds like you're a good mom! Hang in there! And ask any questions you have about the easy sets or any other pools you find.

Here's a pic of ours last year.

http://www1.snapfish.com/slideshow/A...28/t_=35664128

I would tell you to go with the the intex frame pool. I couldn't beat it for the cost. I put up a intex 16' frame pool from Sam's (just under $300) about a month ago. So far my biggest problem was leveling the backyard. The pool came with just about everything you need. So far the only thing that I thought was lousy was the vacuum. I'm keeping the chemicals in check, running the filter at least 6 hr (on a timer), and hosing off the filter cartrige every other day. I know I'm doing more upkeep than if I had a good filter, but for the cost I couldn't beat it.

Good luck
Carrie

Another thumbs up for the Intex. I think ours was an easy-set...it had a pvc pipe frame, vinyl, really easy to set up and take down. We had a lot of fun with it and never a problem.

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