Well, there's full proof that Ben is totally AWOL - Duraleigh's post wouldn't have lasted more than 5 seconds and Duraleigh would now be permanently banned from Poolforum even though he has given years of insightful and extremely helpful advice to many a lost soul on this forum.

One thing that keeps coming to my mind about using a fountain is loss of water to evaporation - bearable if you have a water source to replenish from, not so bearable when you have to pay to truck your water in.

Burrying the hose would definitely help, however, in climates with frost (where hot water problems would likely be less prominent), it may cause an issue when it comes to draining the hose at year's end.