Should You Buy An Above Ground Pool? Review and Costs

hey folks welcome to the do-it-yourself dad channel today we're talking about pools and specifically above ground pools i'm going to talk about our pool we've had it for five years how we like it and help you make the decision whether you want to get an in-ground or an above-ground pool stay tuned to the very end we're also going to talk about how much one of these actually will cost you and i'm also going to show you some ways that you can save money on different kinds of pools now obviously we've had this pool for five years and i do like this pool so i'm a fan of above ground pools but that doesn't mean i'm also not a fan of in-ground pools i actually grew up with an in-ground pool and had a great childhood in that pool but when it came time for us to put in this pool it was the debate between above ground and in ground pools and there is a pretty big cost difference and we're going to get to that at the end but right now let's talk about the pros and cons of an above ground pool now this pool doesn't have a shallow end it's a one depth pool and this is the deeper of the tube when we put this one in we did offer the deeper one because my daughter was already tall enough that she could keep her head above water standing on the bottom now we did run into the issue that some of our friends weren't that tall yet so they did have to kind of hold onto the side have a parent in the pool or hold on to a fun noodle so that is something to kind of consider is that you are going to be limited to one depth of pool now most folks will list the biggest con as the appearance and you can see here i did wrap ours in bamboo to give it a little bit more of a natural look but there really isn't much escaping the fact that it looks like you have a giant water tank in your backyard now a lot of people have done some really creative things building decks you can actually get above ground pools that you can dig partially into the ground and we'll talk about that and how you can actually add a deep end to your pool in a little bit but the difference between above ground and ground pools the first one is going to just be the cosmetic thing now in addition to the cosmetic thing the pool here is pretty tall and i'm going to show you from a seating position across my yard what i can see now if i'm sitting here on my patio that's the view of my pool and the big downside to that is i have kids and my kid has friends over and it's very hard to keep an eye on them because you can see until i'm standing up completely i can't actually see the surface of the water so if you do have kids that is something to consider now we did put a security camera in the backyard that does face the pool but i would never consider that an alternative to keeping an eye on your kids so that is one thing to consider is how well will you be able to view the water of the pool while your kids are in it if that's a safety concern for you another thing is how you get in and out of the pool there are all sorts of different ladders and step configurations we went with this one this was the ladder that was basically the kit ladder if i had to do it over again i would splurge and spend a few more dollars they do have ones that are more of stairs and then when you get onto the entry side of the pool it does have a regular ladder that comes in there all the way to the bottom which is nice but they do have actual pancake steps so the nice thing about those steps is it does give you somewhere to sit especially a kid when they're in the pool with that let's also talk about depth now most of these pools are going to be one depth fits all now you can actually with some of the liners dig in a deep end and have a shallow end and a deep end but you do have to kind of decide at the time that you're putting it in how deep you want your shallow end most above ground pools do come with some sort of a skimmer and the skimmer is a great feature because it keeps the surface of the pool free from debris now you can see down there in the bottom of the pool we have wanda and wanda is our pool vacuum now i've got a video all about wanda down in the description below you can check that out i would never own a pool without some sort of a pool vacuum you get dirt and grit and leaves and things like that all over the bottom of the pool and you can see here the bottom of my pool is completely clean because i've got wanda doing that with a net would take hours so the 150 or so that wanda cost is a good investment now some of the smaller less expensive pools and i've got a picture of the one that we put in a couple years ago right here this one was our first pool we got this just for the kids to splash around in and i'm going to talk about these a little bit later but some of these don't have skimmers they just have an inlet and an outlet but they're smaller so they're easier to take care of now in a little bit we are going to talk about those pools the intex pools the ones that you can get on amazon and walmart and target and what i think of those and it's actually probably going to surprise you now while you're watching the video be sure to check out down in the description below because i do have links to this pool and the other pools that i'm going to mention the video and the other equipment that i'm going to mention the video so you can get an idea of exactly what everything is going to cost you and you'll also be able to see your different options now moving over to the filtration side of these the above ground filters and the in-ground filters are pretty much the same now you will get an option down here you can see the pump that i've got going on here you will get an option for how big of a pump you want i would always advise going with the biggest pump your pool can handle you'll never regret having too much pump but you will regret not having enough and when you're spending the money to do it you might as well spend the extra day of the larger pump the price difference between this pump and the smaller pump for me was 50 so totally worth it the other thing with your pumps is a lot of them are basically plugged into the wall you can install one of these timers and that way your pumps will kick on automatically for a given amount of time each day it makes it a lot easier than having to remember to go out and flip your pumps on and off now we get to talk about maintenance and pool chlorine so chlorine is not the only thing you're going to have to throw in your pool there are other chemicals as well but this is kind of the basics we've got chlorinating liquid and that's what i use to get everything balanced and then i have the tablets and the tablets i put in the float and that keeps the chlorine levels where they're supposed to be now this right here is a bare minimum test kit this is the minimum you need to keep your pool balanced there are bigger ones that have a lot more stuff in them you can test more things but the bare minimum you're going to need is a chlorine and a ph and you need to get both of these balanced to keep your pool water looking like that now i usually test my pool water two times a week and i make sure everything is balanced and i also check the chlorine float to make sure the pool is getting enough chlorine this is probably the best thing you can do to keep your pool maintained if you keep the chlorine levels correct and your pool parameters in check you won't have to deal with algae and doing all the algaecides and stuff like that in the pool i do have videos if you make a mistake and your pool water does turn green i have videos that will show you how to get your pool water looking just like this and those are also in the description below i also love using these these are the solar covers they look like bubble wrap and these do a couple of great things for the pool now the first thing i live in a drought area so water usage is very important and these do a great job in preventing evaporation when they're on the pool if i leave this on the pool i really don't lose any water to evaporation so that's a big help the other thing it does is because it limits its exposure and air transfer it also helps with your chemicals if you put one of these on the pool you're going to go through a lot less chemicals you still are going to lose chlorine chlorine breaks down with uv but this does help a fair amount with that and these also do a great job keeping your pool clean in the summertime because stuff falls on them when you roll it up you can get it out of the pool the last thing this does it keeps your water warm if you'd like a warm pool this is the thing for you i've got a link down below for a solar heater that i actually made for the pool but these do a great job and i actually have to take this thing off in the summertime sometimes because the pool gets too warm so that's something great to look into i've got a link in the description for different pool covers now i mentioned earlier that this wasn't the first pool that we had and we did actually pick up a cheaper one it was under 200 i don't remember the exact price and things have changed since then but i put in a smaller one it was a 10 foot round pool for the kids when they were really small and i bought this thing thinking it would last me a summer and then it would wind up going in the trash after all it was an inexpensive pool the thing did wind up actually last me three seasons and i didn't take it down in the winter time it comes with an inexpensive filter and you can set it up on pretty much any level piece of ground but that pool was well worth every penny i spent on it i would recommend it to anybody with small kids just always remember if you put a pool in your backyard you're putting a safety hazard in your backyard and it does on you the parent to make sure your kids are safe now maybe a pool is too big for you or too expensive for you or maybe you just want warm water there is also a great option for that above ground jacuzzis are awesome but if you're looking for an inexpensive option my brother has a review on his channel go check that out it's for the coleman above ground spa it's actually an inflatable spa he's had this thing for several years now and it's still doing great so be sure to go over to his channel check that out and throw him a subscribe and let him know what you think of that jacuzzi option for your backyard one thing to consider when you're deciding where you're going to put your pool on top of it needing to be nice level ground is what's next to it you can see here i have these citrus trees and that tree at least does tend to dump leaves into the pool so where you're putting it is important but something to also think about is with an above ground pool because it's not at ground level i don't have as much of a leaf problem because things don't blow across the yard into it they have to actually fall into it so i find much less debris in this thing compared to the pool that we had growing up which was an in-ground so speaking of that installation let's talk about the cost of installation now i've had this pool longer than i've had this channel so unfortunately i don't have video footage of it going in but the most important thing to remember is level your ground if the bottom isn't level the top isn't level and not only do you have unlevel water but it could also cause structural problems to the pool now you can hire a professional to install one of these things and i've heard that ranges between 500 and thousand dollars depending upon where you are so that's an expense to think of the other thing to think of is electrical these things should have their own dedicated circuit to run on and that's going to cost you about 500 to you know about 500 depending upon who you hire if you don't have the skills to put in that circuit yourself now that we're on the topic of money let's talk about how much one of these things cost to put in and how much it costs to maintain now the numbers that i'm about to give you are for an above round pool like mine which is made by doughboy it's a hard sided pool but i am going to show you the bargain deals at the very end of all this so a pool kit's going to cost you between two and five thousand dollars that's for my size pool the bigger the more expensive but that's not going to come with the pump and filter you're going to have to add that for about 400 to 600 plumbing fittings to get it all hooked up is going to run you about 100 the underlayment and sand you're going to need is going to be 100 to 200 depending upon what you have on hand electrical 100 bucks if you can do it yourself just for the materials are up to 500 if you're gonna have to hire an electrician and then of course there's the installation cost it could be as cheap as pizza and beer for some friends or up to 500 bucks if you need to have a professional come in and help you out now that you got the pool put in your yard there's some extra stuff you're going to have to purchase the pool sweeps and nets you're going to want those to keep the pool clean those are going to run you about 200 bucks chemicals and test kits for my pool are running me about 150 a year but depending upon your pool size it may be more i like pool covers those are about 100 bucks and the electrical for my size pool is about 100 bucks a year and again if it's a bigger pool the electrical is probably going to be more and now for the bargain approach and you notice i call it the bargain approach and not the cheap approach because cheap makes it sound like it's not quality the intex above ground pools i love those things we've had them and i have a lot of friends that have had them and they've all had great luck thousand dollars as cheap as 100 bucks and it comes with everything except for the underlayment it even comes with your pumps and some of them even come with starter chlorine and of course that coleman spa we showed you earlier those are great if you want an above ground spa you can get into one for as cheap as 300 bucks go check out my brother's video and subscribe to his channel it's down in the description below he'll tell you all about it so i hope this video helped you out maybe helped you make a decision please leave a comment down below let me know if you have any questions about pools or what you're planning on doing hit that subscribe button because we got a lot more awesome content just like this coming your way and of course thanks for watching

Channel: DoItYourselfDad

Views: 372,697

Keywords: Do It Yourself, Do It Yourself Dad, DoItYourselfDad, above ground swimming pools, best above ground pools, best above ground swimming pool, best above ground pool, above ground swimming pool, above ground pools reviews, above ground pool, ground swimming pool, above ground pools, swimming pool review, above ground pool to buy, best above ground swimming pools, fiberglass pools, in-ground pools, swimming pools, value of inground pool, intex pool, intex review, swimming pool

Id: 5g-jk2BT5xk

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 06 2020