What do you all think of fiberglass?

[PoBoy]

I got a fiberglass pool last november and love it (13x26 inground).

1. Get one with a warranty (lifetime available) and you wont have to ever worry about cracks, fading, etc. I have a Blue speckel coloring and see fading even with the 112 degree AZ heat. But it's only been a few months...

2. Chemicals - we do nothing but put keep the chlorine floaty thing full. Which makes it easy to forget to check it since we rarely do anything to the pool in the first place. It did go empty last week and we had a little algea that disappeard in a day after adding clorine and a few ounces of algea killer stuff. Since the pool is non-pourous - algea brushes off with ease.

3. Maintanence - we have a polaris, so he does 90% of the cleaning. Every couple of days we brush dirt off the steps and seating spots because the polaris cant alwasy climb up the walls and get to those spots. Since the pool is fiberglass, it is slippery for the polaris so he cant climb as well as he would in a concrete. We wouldnt have to sweep but every few weeks if our pool wasnt surrounded by dirt - we have no grass or gravel yet around our pool. It's all dirt.

My wife and I both work - we went with fiberglass because we dont have the time to keep up a pool. We just want to be able to jump in whenever we want. The pump only has to run 4 hours a day (we run it at night) so the electricity costs are lower in addition to the chemical costs. You also dont have to re-plaster it every 7-10 years. Only problem with fiberglass is that you have to like the styles available. If you dont like them - get a concrete. Ours is a Bermuda by Viking pools: http://www.vikingpools.net/bermuda.htm

[chazas]

2. Chemicals - we do nothing but put keep the chlorine floaty thing full. Which makes it easy to forget to check it since we rarely do anything to the pool in the first place. It did go empty last week and we had a little algea that disappeard in a day after adding clorine and a few ounces of algea killer stuff. Since the pool is non-pourous - algea brushes off with ease.

You didn't ask, but I'm advising you anyway. Read up on chlorination on this forum and on its sister site poolsolutions.com. This ultimately is a recipe for algae. The pucks in the floater quickly will increase your stabilizer to very high levels, and the higher the stabilizer level, the higher level of chlorine you need to keep your water sanitized.

[PoBoy]

I'll look into it - but we havent had an algea problem at all and we have the clorine floater on the lowest level. Perhaps it is because I am in Phoeniz, AZ where it doesnt rain ever. The wife tests the levels every few weeks and all is well. We also took a sample of water to Leslie's last week while shoping for a cover and it came up "good". Perhaps we need to get a better testing kit as ours just does PH and Chlorine levels...thanks for the info!

[ThePoolGuy]

This mourning I arrived at the only Fiber glass pool I clean. It was a total mess from hell. I figured it would be a little messed up considering the huge rain and dust storm we had last Thursday and that all my pools thus far has been that way. But this pool was nothing but Alge and dirt I was very surprized to see how easy it was to vacuum up all the Alge. It sucked right off the walls and didn't leave much for me to brush...I stilled brushed the pool down afterwards. The Chlorine was around .2 and the PH around 7.4. I shocked the crap out of it brining the chlorine up to around 3+ and the PH around 7.8. Then I dump a half bottle of some Alge Terminator in the skimmer and will doose it out the rest of the week. The pool looks like a new pool with just a few hours of work. I talked with the owners and we agreed it's probaly better to clean that pool twice a week instead of once a week. That once a week is a PITA since they got to much foilage around the pool.

Anyways, thats my experince with a FB and it reinforces my liking of them.

[waterbear]

3. Maintanence - we have a polaris, so he does 90% of the cleaning. Every couple of days we brush dirt off the steps and seating spots because the polaris cant alwasy climb up the walls and get to those spots. Since the pool is fiberglass, it is slippery for the polaris so he cant climb as well as he would in a concrete.
There are special wheels available for the Polaris for fiberglass pools that allow it better climbing ability.

hope this is helpful

[PoBoy]

yeah...we have those wheels - the suction cup ones. They work too well- he likes to climb out of the pool and gets stuck on occasion where the hose comes out of the wall. The reverse action isnt powerful enough to unsuction him when he gets stuck. Maybe once they get a little wear and tear - they'll lose some of the suction power. Regardless, we have a couple high sitting areas in the deep end that he just doesnt get very well along with the top 2 steps in the shallow. The weight of the hose pulls him back...still - the polairs is MUCH better than doing that whole vacuming the floor thing. That was a PITA. We got the 360 (low preassure one) since our pool was built for a suction solution. It works good enough...sweeping the steps is no big deal.