A new question on Drop-in Steps

[gonefishin]

The new XL ziplock BigBag (2ftx1.7ft) and XXL BigBag (2ftx2.7ft) are nice for containing whatever you use to weigh down the stairs. The plastic and "lock" both seem much better than the piece of junk I received with my steps (yes, it failed with sand twice)

The only plastic weights I could find are standard metal weights that are encased in plastic. I put 50#'s of weights into an XL BigBag. I did this twice then weighed down the steps with the 100#total, in two bags. After I screwed the steps to the top plate it became very stable.

I currently vacuum behind the steps every time I vacuum the pool...but I do wonder if there's anything else I could do that may be a little easier than trying to hold my breath while vacuuming under water. Could a 1/2 gallon milk jug filled with bleach and one small pin hole work? Maybe tie it so it would stay inside the steps???

take care,
dan

[matt4x4]

Carld, just a thought, the bags my dog's food comes in are resealable (ziploc type) and are made of a very thick plastic - sure, they got a pic of an Australian shepperd on them, but hey, that just gives your divers something to look at!
The brand is Nutrience and you can get them in several sizes. If you got kids, you can probably even pawn the contents off on them without them noticing - my kid likes to snack on a few ocasionally as a reminder of how good his life is in comparison to the dogs!

[CarlD]

Carld, just a thought, the bags my dog's food comes in are resealable (ziploc type) and are made of a very thick plastic - sure, they got a pic of an Australian shepperd on them, but hey, that just gives your divers something to look at!
The brand is Nutrience and you can get them in several sizes. If you got kids, you can probably even pawn the contents off on them without them noticing - my kid likes to snack on a few ocasionally as a reminder of how good his life is in comparison to the dogs!

LOL!!!!! No, I don't feed my kids dog food! The big one is too wise to be fooled and the little one too picky--and he's no fool either!

I'm just going to put a bag of sand in one of the salt bags--they are SUCH thick plastic--and use some waterproof tape to close it.

[threekittens]

I bought 2 large plastic gas cans at Wally World. (Red was cheaper than the yellow and blue ones and they are the exact same shape, etc.) Total cost 10 to 12 I think.

Then we filled each jug with pea gravel (one bag of rock filled the 2 cans).

We next tried putting them in like that but the jugs floated. So, we then filled the jugs with water too. That worked great. Steps have been holding in place just fine. Should be easy to grasp and take out again in the fall.

I actually think I read a suggestion to use these jugs on the board last year. Don't recall from who.

[JETTA]

That would be me

I ended up selling my old stairs this season I gave the new owners the yellow diesel fuel cans for the weights. They looked at me strangely when I showed them the containers.

[Sprocket]

I filled up two empty bleach jugs with sand . Tied a nylon rope between then about 10" longer than the width of the second step up from the bottom of the stairs .

Hung the jugs by the rope on the back of the step ( on mine is were they snap together so was a nice crack to fit the rope in ) one on each side of the steps . Now when I take out my steps I just grab the rope and take off the weights in the pool and they are much easier (the steps) out of the pool .

If you wanted more weight , fill with cement , either use , 2/3 gal , 1 gal , or 1.5 gal jugs . On my pool they are white jugs that more or less blend in with the steps anyway .

cheers
Sprocket

[The Raddish]

I suggested this as a fix in another thread and it was well received. Maybe it might work in your situation as well.

Maybe you could try a Magnum??

[Mom2Czars]

I'm going to try the jugs today. We ended up pulling our stairs out on Sunday because the ziploc bags failed. There was air in the bags, no matter what we did, and when we went to adjust them, the seams popped. I'll be vacuuming sand this weekend.

[karrde97]

I think the big question is what kind of steps do you have? I bought a set of Wedding Cake steps a couple years ago. The only place to put weights is along the bottom step which covers the front and part of the side. This doesn't provide a good center of gravity as the back side keeps floating up. It relies on the hand rail being fastened to the deck also. I didn't want to do this because I have to move the steps to clean(after my algae explosion last year) and I didn't want to mangle my composite decking at the time. I put 3 80# of concrete wrapped in garbage bags. When I pulled them out for the winter, they had leaked gravel out causing a big mess. Clean up was easy.....we moved.

We put the pool up at the new house and dropped our steps in 2 days ago. We put a couple deck blocks also. Didn't work. I worried about the duct tape dissolving over time as to what it would do to the pool.

Last night we went and bought a straight ladder. Works great and have more swimming room.

In the end, your steps need a good center of gravity point to place the weights and good water flow. Then you shouldn't need that much to hold them down. Using over 80# just seems like a design flaw.

[karrde97]

Update on the Straight ladder. Not liking it too much either. It's a hollow PVC like with the back open. An algae/water boatman breeding ground. Plus there is no way to weigh it down. I'm trying to find a way to fill the openness to 1) weigh it down, 2) eliminate the breeding ground. Any ideas besides concrete? That would make the ladder 100lbs.