Above Ground Pool, but which one and what to consider??

[Anonymous [GDPR] European in Spain]

Hi everyone,

My name is Joey and I am from Austria. I wanted to ask you, if you have any experience with above ground pools and what is important to take into account when buying one of these. My budget is quite limited and therefore I am aiming for an above ground pool instead of an in-ground pool. That having said I am not planning on buying the cheapest one there is (e.g. the ones from China), but a decent one with good quality standards.
I went to the store recently and the salesperson recommended me a GRE pool (I guess they are from Spain). Could somebody please tell me something about those, or could recommend me something different.

The bespoken pool has a diameter of 3,5 meters and costs around $1000 (€800).

Are there any other issues or things to take into account when having and maintaining an above ground pool (as opposed to conventional pools)?

Thank you very much in advance!!!

[PoolDoc]

Honestly, for $1,000, I'd recommend you look at the Chinese Intex brand premium line ("Ultra" in the USA, and gray rather than blue). Their quality is pretty good, and they do fairly good warranty support, at least in the USA.

In that price range, it's likely that ANY pool you buy will have been manufactured in Asia, regardless of label. And, some of the other Chinese manufacturers have AWFUL product quality. Stay away from anything made by Polygroup (www.polygroup.com). They actually removed their customer support phone number from the website "because they were getting too many calls"! Their pools are sold as
"Summer Escapes" in the US.

Read through the Intex guides in that forum section -- I'll move this thread there, once I finish posting. I can't make any recommendations on specific chemicals, since I have no idea what's available to you. You'll have to read chemical labels and work it out yourself.

As far as testing goes, try to get a non-teststrip based kit made by Lovibond or Palintest. I believe both of those brands are distributed in the EU.

Good luck!

[PoolDoc]

I just checked Polygroup's site -- they've re-instated phone numbers. But I still wouldn't trust the.

It would probably be a good idea to call the customer support department of whatever pools you're interested in . . . BEFORE you buy, to make sure that they are active in Spain.

[CarlD]

Intex is an inexpensive pool designed for first-timers. Despite the complaints about things being cheap and inadequate filter size, they do a surprisingly good job on low priced pools, compared to their competition. I had an Intex for 3 years and I never had a problem with their product. The pool never leaked, the pump and filter always worked and we enjoyed it. It was about 4.5m across and less than a meter deep.

[Anonymous [GDPR] European in Spain]

Thank you so much for your quick and profund responses!!

I do have one further question though. Is there a company who offers to rent pools, for special occasions, or hot summer weeks/months? I know it sounds a little bit silly, but nowadays everything shifts form buying to renting, so maybe there is a service out there I am not aware of.

Thx

[PoolDoc]

If there were such a service, we wouldn't know about it: you => Barcelona; me => Chattanooga; gap = 4,600 miles (7,400 km).

What I can say, without going into details, is that if someone were foolish enough to start a residential pool rental business, they wouldn't be likely to remain in business long, unless they had a LOT of money they could afford to lose.