Swimming Pool Maintenance

[bluejr77]

Hi, we have had our swimming pool running since purchasing our house 6 years ago. However, due to the increase in the price of electricity & water we can no longer afford to do this; its just wasting money. We are considering shutting the pool down over the winter period (I haven’t a clue how they work and would probably be looking for a large bath plug to empty it ) We currently have a company who do the basic everyday maintenance of the pool for us, however we would like expert advice on how best to close the pool down without causing any damage to the pool or equipment.

Does anyone use, or could they recommend a Professional pool company who could advise us on the best option on how to do this eg do we need a pool cover, will they measure up & install etc. As we don’t speak Spanish an English speaking company would be excellent.


Thanks folks Bluejr

[alcanadakid]

HI Bluejr,

I can't help you with the name of a company, but there are some things you need to bear in mind. If you are not running the pumps or adding chemicals then presumably you will need to drain the pool. There will be a way of pumping the pool water to waste from the controller on the filter tank.If you do this then the there won't be any water pressure on the inside of the pool wall as there usually is, and therefore there is a potential for the wall to crack. This is theoretically possible but I am not sure if this really happens. Obviously if it does then it could be a costly repair.

If you do drain the pool then there would be a cost of refilling it. We have a 50 cu m pool and 2 years ago it cost us about €90 to fill using mains water and we were quoted about €200 using tankers. We also found that we had to use much more PH reducer than normal for quite a while until we got the balance right

I am not sure what you do in the winter but we only have our pump on for 4 hours a day and stick in lots of Chlorine and antifungus solution, but it doesn't get used up very quickly like it does in the summer. You can really dose it up because no one will be swimming and all you are concerned with is stopping the water going green. If you do that then it only needs checking once a month. Although I haven't recorded it, I would be surprised if we use more than €50 worth of chemicals in the 4 month winter period. I haven't calculated the cost of running the pumps.

In our case I think it wouldn't save any money to drain the pool and there is always the risk of the wall cracking.

Just some thoughts..

[kate1]

I don't think they are that expensive to run over the winter, certainly we haven't found that to be the case as they only need occasional attention. We keep ours ticking over and we have never had any problems - we don't have a cover either. I am told that it is actually extremely rare to drain a pool - as alcanadakid says, there is the risk of it cracking in cold weather as well as the cost of refilling it, and in addition you have to have somewhere to put the water you are getting rid of. Sounds obvious I know, but our next door neighbours drained their pool earlier this year and managed to flood our garden as well as their own - theirs looked like a swamp for ages. I suspect draining it would be more trouble than it is worth.

[bluejr77]

Hi,

Thanks for your posts Alcanadakid and Kate1. Literally arrived back from our house yesterday and I think I know what the problem may be re the running costs. The pump appears to run 24/7. I read somewhere before we went away (an American site) re the number of hours to run the filter and we seem to have exceeded that big time. The pool equipment is quite dated and I cant seem to find the timer, so we will be looking into this on our next trip out in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the advice - its great to have other peoples input and ideas/suggestions.

[alcanadakid]

Running the pump is not an exact science. In the summer we run it from 9am to 6pm and in the winter 10am to 3pm which seems to work. If you would like to see our set up send me a private message.

[bluejr77]

Hi, thanks very much for the generous offer. We are out again on the 7th – 25th July, however for the first time ever we are trying to manage without car hire. We have decided to use our bikes (not the Tour de France types!) and public transport so our travelling will only be local. Hubby hasn’t been on a bus in the UK for about 30 years, so this is going to be a shock to his system – he probably thinks they still have Conductors! To be honest I cant see him lasting that long before he caves in and goes for a car.

If he does give in and hires one I will drop you a PM as we’d love to pop by and see how your system works. Its always helpful to have other peoples ideas and suggestions; swimming pools are an area we are so unfamiliar with. We don’t visit the house often enough and so have left the running and maintenance of it to others. Need to stop thinking of it as a holiday home and start treating it as a house and getting to grips with the running of it (the honeymoon period is finally over, but it was good whilst it lasted!). Good learning curve though, so really appreciate the offer.

Word of warning to others - if anyone is driving around Pollensa and see two middle aged people wobbling on their bikes, please give us a wide berth!
Bluejr

[alcanadakid]

Originally Posted by bluejr77

Hi, thanks very much for the generous offer. We are out again on the 7th – 25th July, however for the first time ever we are trying to manage without car hire. We have decided to use our bikes (not the Tour de France types!) and public transport so our travelling will only be local. Hubby hasn’t been on a bus in the UK for about 30 years, so this is going to be a shock to his system – he probably thinks they still have Conductors! To be honest I cant see him lasting that long before he caves in and goes for a car.

If he does give in and hires one I will drop you a PM as we’d love to pop by and see how your system works. Its always helpful to have other peoples ideas and suggestions; swimming pools are an area we are so unfamiliar with. We don’t visit the house often enough and so have left the running and maintenance of it to others. Need to stop thinking of it as a holiday home and start treating it as a house and getting to grips with the running of it (the honeymoon period is finally over, but it was good whilst it lasted!). Good learning curve though, so really appreciate the offer.

Word of warning to others - if anyone is driving around Pollensa and see two middle aged people wobbling on their bikes, please give us a wide berth!
Bluejr

HI Bluejr,

We are also out at that time. However we are based in Alcanada, near Alcudia which would be a long bike ride! Send me a PM if you do get more mobile,

[Project]

Hi Bluejr
Richard from Sovreign pools and spas is excellent in this area, based opposite the petrol station in the port.

[pollensa]

Originally Posted by Acidburn

Hi Bluejr
Richard from Sovreign pools and spas is excellent in this area, based opposite the petrol station in the port.

See their details here: puertopollensa.com/property_services.html#pools