Above Ground Pools - Parker,CO

We had a softside one, it cost us about $200 and came with a pump and ladder and stuff. We had to buy chlorine tabs and 'pool shock' for it. HUGE pain in ____@____.com with the pump, we had to drain and clean it out about every other week. I would never own another one again. Ditto for the crappy kiddie pool we have now... I'm about to throw that one out too. If I ever feel the need to own a pool, I'm going to get an inground pool and hire a pool cleaner. Above grown pools was not worth the investment for me. It was more work than fun! If you're still entertaining the thought, get a cheaper one, try it for a season, then scrap it when you hate it without feeling like you've put too much into it. Not trying to be a party pooper, I know how much fun kids have in pools (grown ups too!), it was just such a huge pain for us. You would have thought I learned my lesson the first time, but no, I bought another one and can't wait to get rid of it!

I remember helping a friend put one up once. It was the biggest pain in the butt. And it didn't last long. We always felt like it was fragile, dont touch the sides or it will fall apart. I like the $30 blow up deal we got from WalMart. even has built in drink holders.

We bought a soft one that has a blow up ring around the top. I loved it, it was 3 feet tall and I could step in it and out of it with little effort. It was big enough to allow for several kids to swim in and have a lot of fun.

I saw a video and read some stories about the issues they were finding with it. If it leaned the least little bit it could roll up with the people inside and basically burrito them in the water between the walls as it rolled up thereby drowning everyone inside. The ability to swim or not swim had no effect on this accidental rolling, the ground plus gravity caused the pool to roll up.

Needless to say our yard is not perfectly flat. I saw that it could happen in our yard so we didn't put it up the last 2 years.

We have a 24' long, 16' wide, 4' deep pool. Metal frame. We LOVE it. We do NOT use chemicals in our pool. The reason we got a pool in the first place was because my kids love to swim but I HATED exposing them to all those chemicals. Chlorine is NOT good for your body. We use this, instead of chemicals: http://www.gaiam.com/product/floatron.do. Works GREAT. Not difficult or expensive at all.

We live in Pennsylvania, and use our pool usually from mid-June through late September. Sometimes even very early October. We don't take ours down, just winterize it.

Love love love it! :)

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE OURS! It's not the big 3.5ft deep and 13 ft around? but has been perfect for the kids. This is our 3rd summer with it - so when we got it the kids were 4 and 6 so that's why we went with the 3.5ft deep as opposed to a deeper one. METAL FRAME all the way! We live in Michigan and I take it down every winter. Kinda a pain, but it's worth it. I had to patch 3 small holes in it this spring but they seem to be holding good. I figure we might get one more summer out of it and then I'll buy a bigger one. The kids swim in it almost everyday. We have it fenced in with privacy fence on 3 sides and then a lower see thru metal fence and gate on one side that faces the garden. This way, the kids can swim while I work in the garden! Then I go jump in and cool off too. Check your local laws - here if it's in town, it must be fence in. I use one filter per month ($7) and $20-40 in chlorine per season (May-Sept). You can rinse out the filters a couple of times before you replace them. I rinse ours out once per week. I use a floater thing for the chlorine. You just put in lots of chlorine tabs and let it float around when you are NOT swimming and they dissolve into the water. I never really had the need to "shock" the pool unless after a big party or something. Then you just put in the shock and wait a day to swim. You should go for it!!!! Let me know if you have any more questions - we've been doing this for about 7yrs now.

We have had ours 15 years, it is one of the really nice hard sided ones. I cant remember the sie, but it is around 5 feet deep and about 25 feet across. we have never had any issues with it, it is sparkling and blue always. They told us when we bought it that the life span was 10 years, but we have had 5 years longer, and we use it everyday May/June to October.
We don't drain it, we do cover it in the winter, it is never taken down.
It costs about $10 a week to maintain, we buy a big tib of chlorine once a season, then there is the test strips which are about $30.
I use a net to get out the bugs every day, then I vacuum it fully once a week (that's another expense, to buy the vaccuum) I shock it once a week. It is piss easy to maintain. now again we will have an algae problem, maybe twice a year, which we treat with a chemical.
It probably works out about the same as going swimming, but it's easier because it is right there in your garden.
Oh and we have a really heavy duty filter

My mom gave hers away after 1 summer. Because it was so large, it was ALWAYS freezing cold. They live in southern ID.

My neighbor has a smaller soft-side one which has a pump. It looks fun because it is deep enough for the kids to actually swim in, but I know she has already spent about $100 in the last month just experimenting with different chemicals to keep it clean. We have a blow-up pool which was only 30.00 and it is larger than a regular kiddie pool but smaller than the ones you are talking about. It IS fun to play in but suuuuuuch a pain to keep clean and maintain. It is heavy and hard to drain. After a couple of days it is filled with bugs and leaves and the plastic is slimy. I have to have someone help me flip it, drain it and then we spray it with vinegar and scour it. It takes about 2 hours a week to do that and then blow it up again and fill up.