How fragile are the Intex liners *really* ?

[IGnatius T Foobar]

First-time Intex ultra frame owner here. When I read some of the horror stories on various review sites I wondered whether it was a good idea to put up this pool, but we did it anyway and it's been perfectly fine. I'm wondering whether we were rewarded for being careful with it or if we were just lucky. Do any of you pool experts have a feel for whether a lot of the negative-reviewers did something wrong that resulted in torn liners?

Our Intex cost $300 which was a bargain compared with the $890 the town wanted for a municipal pool membership -- so I don't mind buying another one next spring if I have to. What I'd like to know is whether we "just got a good one" or if it really is just the luck of the draw.

[BigDave]

I haven't read the horror stories you mention, but, my Intex donuts appeared to be quite strong. The floors seemed a little thin but never failed. My guess is that alot of pool failures are the result of mishandling, abuse, and improper installation

[IGnatius T Foobar]

If you read the reviews on b-to-c sites (amazon walmart etc) there are people talking about the seams coming apart, holes and other damage in the liner, etc. I intend to be gentle with mine and hopefully get a few years out of it. I also wonder if the process of taking it down at the end of the season, storing it, and setting it up again next spring will put any undue stress on it.

[PoolDoc]

If you read the reviews on b-to-c sites (amazon walmart etc) there are people talking about the seams coming apart,

Could you post some links, please?

I just scanned through about 400 reviews on Amazon, reading the worst ones, and what I found was:
=> 2 cases where the pool leaked at a seam out of the box.
=> a LOT of problems with the Easy Set air tube deflating (sounded like birds or squirrels in a number of cases)
=> a LOT of 2nd year problems, where the pool was stored against the ground somewhere, and acquired pinholes over the winter. (My guess is termites and ants - they'll definitely do that.)

But, I didn't see a single seam failure that occurred after pool has been up for a while EXCEPT on non-level ground, where the whole pool collapsed. (There were a lot of rather bitter complaints to the effect that, when Intex says, "Must be on level ground", they really mean it.)

We don't sell Intex, and I have no connection with the company, but what you're telling me doesn't fit with what I've seen. We've seen a lot of problems with Intex filters, and circulation systems, but that's a different issue.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

I was reading for example at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allRe...ct_id=19336117 which is where there are reviews for a pool equivalent to mine. There were a few reviews that said things like "leaking after only five days" or "in a week pool ripped at seam" or "great for 45 days until holes appeared in the seams at the bottom, which rapidly worsened."

I suspect you're correct about most of the failures being related to something the owner did wrong to damage the pool, and I also suspect that any review site is going to be negative biased because people who have had problems are more likely to go online to complain. However we love our new pool and would like to do everything we can to take care of it and make it last a few years. It will definitely be stored indoors and handled gently during takedown and reassembly.

[PoolDoc]

OK, this one sounds credible, and is scary:

I called customer service. They told me to drain the pool because THEY WERE AWARE OF PROBLEMS WITH THE LINER SEAMS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL WHERE THE SIDES ATTACH TO THE BOTTOM. They said to look there for the rip and repair after draining. So, we did. Another 3000 gallons of water later it leaked out a couple thousand more gallons in less than 2 days. So apparently there is another rip where the seams have come undone. I called WalMart to complain and the CSM told me to bring it back (even if the 30 days had expired although it had been less than a week) because she has had roughly a HALF DOZEN returns on this pool at her store alone!

I have gotten the impression that Intex farms out manufacture to a bunch of Chinese companies, and that production quality varies. Sounds like the moral of that story may be, buy from a vendor who will stand behind it.

And . . . inspect the seams before you fill!

I'm disappointed that Intex apparently shipped known-bad pools, without doing a re-inspection. That's consistent with all the Chinese product support I've seen in other areas, but not what I've seen of Intex previously.

We'll need to add a caution to "Inspect your pool CAREFULLY before you fill it!"


This quote was interesting, though not Intex's fault:

Whereas I commend Walmart for their speedy delivery and also their speedy and free return authorization process, I cannot recommend this pool. After I purchased it, I went to the town hall to make sure I followed the safety guidelines and found out that even though this is a removable pool, they consider it to be an installed above ground pool because it has a metal frame. Therefore, you must install a twist lock electrical outlet and ground the metal on the pool ($700.00), buy a different regulation filter ($600.00), get permits ($200.00), get a ladder with a self-closing, self-locking barrier ($600.00), get a pool alarm ($90.00) and comply width placement laws in your neighborhood. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying a cheap pool for use 3 months out of the year. If you want to get away cheap, get the pool with just the blow up top ring that is 48 inches high.