Dome .....

[graciec]

[Dr spike]Are you using is year round? Did your neighborhood/ city/town give you any trouble? What brand did you go with? How close to your house is it and do you run outside in the winter or have a cover "way" to the pool? Want it so we can go year round too!

[Dr. Spike]

Graciec,

I bought the house last year in December. When I moved in the previous owners closed the pool for me, they closed it late in November. They did say that you could run it year around, but due to the increase in natural gas prices, the bills can add up. I checked on the pool each week over the winter, it did freeze over, but the ice was not touching the sides, and it was very thing, less then a half-inch or so. It also did not freeze as fast as the lakes did around here. When the weather first got cold here the temp in the dome was a good 20 degrees higher than the outside. The ice melted far before the snow and the lakes were clear too. The temp for most of the winter in the dome was 10 to 20 degrees above the outside.

I do not have a covered walkway to the pool, but it is not very far from the back of the house.

While talking to my neighbors about the history of my house, I found out that the owners before the people I bought the place from did leave the pool open some winters, but they were not sure if they did it every year or not.

Also from what I can tell from talking to my neighbors, there was no problems that they knew of from the neighborhood or city for the dome installation.

My pump and filter are in a pool house that is attached to the back of my house, so they are also sheltered from the elements and cold. My heater on the other hand is no longer in the pool house, but just outside of it. Not sure why someone did that, there is a chimney in the pool house for the heater, plenty of room for it. There is also a cold air intake duct still there for the old heater.

I am not sure yet if I am going to leave it open all year long, but I will sure extend the season if I don't

A downside to the dome, is that in the summer, even with the windows open, the temp inside is a good 10-20 degrees warmer than the outside. Also if I don't open things up the humidity is just plain too high. The water if unheated stays a cool 72 in the summer so far.

I do like having it though.

Oh yeah, it is a Hansen Weather Port. I don't know much more about it, like cost, where to get it, how hard it is to assemble, all that fun stuff.

[graciec]

Thanks for the info...I have researched domes. I am disappointed to hear how cold it stays inside. I was assuming it would warm up and stay warm inside;they do sell extra heaters with some dome models.
I guess the gas prices would scare me off too, since it ridiciously high to heat our homes in the winter already.
So you have used more as a winter "cover " and don't really swim in it when it gets cold?

I have looked at ameridome and one other brand.
I still may try it one of these years for 2,000$ it is worth taking a chance, since we will never have an indoor pool.
Thanks for your input.

[Dr. Spike]

Graciec,

You are welcome for the info.

I would suspect that if you heat the pool in the winter the air temperature in the dome would be warm too. I would think that one of these manufacturers make a heater for them, but I haven't looked into that.

I do want to see if I can keep it open all year, but I am afraid of going broke with the price of gas.

I think the dome can extend the season in our area, but unless you have a large disposable income to feed the gas company, you might not be keeping it open all year.

[sevver]

Swimming in the winter is what hotels are for. Buy a room on occasion and save yourself the $300 per month plus gas bill.

Wisconsin has an indoor water park, I have not visited it yet, but I want to.

[Dr. Spike]

We have a few indoor water parks that are not to far from me. I haven't been to them in quite some time though.

Since I have had the pool, I can not make myself use a public pool. I have been in a few hotels recently and they just are not as clean looking and smelling. I guess I am spoiled.