Jump to content

tangelo53

Members
  • Posts

    15
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by tangelo53

  1. We just had an inground vinyl liner pool installed this summer. We are interested in getting a heat pump installed. All of my current pool equipment is Hayward so I am assuming we will go with that but wanted to see if there were any recommendations for other brands based on your experience. thank you!!

    Pool size: 16x32 (depth- 3 ft to 7 ft)

  2. Hello! we are about to sign a contract for a 20x40 inground pool and the contract states that the pool company will cover 2 hours of preliminary grading for site preparation and then we have to pay $211 per hour for every hour after that. Is that the norm? I am waiting on a call back from our pool company but wanted to get an honest opinion from this forum because you have gone through this experience as a customer. I would think that 2 hours is not enough time but I really don't have a clue!

  3. We are in the process of purchasing a new pool and I have some questions that I am hoping the experts can help with :)

    (1) We would like to have a heated pool, but that jumps the price up another $5600. Our contractor said we could add the heat pump later, but would it be more expensive to do that after the pool is built? Is it easy (and cheaper) to add later? I figured I could buy it online at a lower cost and have a local pool company install. I am really not sure of what is included in adding a heater???

    (2) Our house is electric so we assumed we would get a heat pump heater? Do you guys recommend gas (propane) or heat pumps? I know gas heats up quicker but I read that heat pumps are more economical in the long run.

    (3) Are there any heaters you recommend, or those we should avoid?

    Our pool is going to be 38x18, about 25k gallons.

    I really appreciate any guidance! I am so excited to finally get a pool, but I want to make sure we think of everything! :)

  4. tangelo--

    How basic is your pool? I'm getting quotes now, and $39k beats what I've received so far. Not sure who gave you that quote, but an electrician friend-of-a-friend, who works with a lot of the area pool builders recommended, among others, The Richmond Group. We're in northern VA, so we didn't call them for a quote, but we are awaiting quotes from Pools by Young, NVBlu and Lewis Aquatech (all recommended by others). We did get a quote from Town and Country, which was way out of our price range. Also got a couple of quotes for fiberglass, which were much more reasonable than gunite. If you're interested in going that route, I can pass along names and numbers...both fiberglass companies I contacted had outstanding references.

    It is a pretty basic pool. It is going to be 40x16 ft, grecian style, sports pool with black bottom. No heater. We have actually had about 5 different quotes now and it looks like it is going to be around $48k...yikes!! I really don't want a fiberglass pool. I haven't heard the best tings about fiberglass, and we are putting our pool on a hill...so I want to be safe and go with cement. My quotes have came from Sylvan, NVBlu, Maryland Pools, and Blue Haven. good luck with your pool! :-)

  5. Hi all- We have decided to take the plunge and get a pool installed. We are looking at a 40x16ft cement pool and the sales guy recommeded that I research salt generators as opposed to chlorine. Does anyone here use salt? What are your thoughts? It is only $900 more to get this and it sounds like it is a much better system. I have chlorine in my hot tub and really have some issues with dry itchy skin from the chlorine, so the thought of not having to use chlorine is great...but I wanted to check with those that are using salt to see if there were any issues I should know about before making this decision. Thanks! :D

  6. Hello- I really want to get a pool but don't know squat about it. I have read a bunch of topics on this forum that has helped...well, I think it has helped. The more you learn, the more confused you can be, right? :-) Anyway, I live in Virginia and we have a goodsize backyard...half on a hill and the other half is nice and flat. I would like to have our pool take over the hill which would give us the nice flat part of the yard to use for cook-outs, etc. Has anyone else put pools on hillside? Any issues? We are thinking about putting decking around it, with wide stairs going down to the flat portion to avoid a retaining wall. That way we could also store stuff underneath if possible. Anyway, I have an estimate tonight and they said over the phone that the cost STARTS at $38k for an inground concrete pool. Is that normal or seem a little high? I was hoping for $25-$30k! Also, I have 2 labs that love to swim...is there a certain filter system I could get that can easily clean dog hair. Any recommendations would be great.

  7. Brilliance is a bromine tab that uses potassium monopersulfate (non chlorine shock) instead of chlorine as the built in oxidizer (most bromine tabs contain chlorine as the oxidizer). IMHO, this is just marketing hype and really is not any better than standard bromine tabs. There is a lot of misinformation about how bromine actually works and there is a lot of misinformation about chlorine. If you are using bromine the chlorine added is converted into active bromine sanitizer almost instantly.

    "Minerals" is a marketing word that some manufacturers use for metals like copper and silver (or zinc). (minerals sounds much more "granola-chrunchy" than metals!) Metals are a secondary sanitizer and/or algaecide that are, IMHO,k of dubious value.

    If you are using a bromine system your santizer is hypobromous acid, which is what forms in the water when the bromide in the water is oxidized by an oxidizer like chlorine, potassium monopersulfate, or ozone.When you test your bromine levels you are testing for hypobromous acid (and bromamines which form when the hypobromous acid combines with ammonia compounds in the water).

    But that is what confused me. The Brillance product that I bought said Sanitizer (not Bromine), but they also sold Brillance Bromine tabs. Do I need both or do they do the same thing?

  8. I just spoke with a long time employee of Costco and he informed that the return policy is changing and has already done so for electronics they now will have a 90 day return policy for electronics and will be implemented to other departments in the future. This is by no means a knock on Costco I love the store but I have always questioned the return policy as why when the warranty runs out would they continue to accept returns. Spas I think are so much tougher to return than anything that can thrown into the trunk of a car, that I am sure it accounts for only a slight % of returns that it may be a while before this policy is enforced on them but it is coming.

    Did you know that when you charge items to the AMEX Costco card that gives you extra warranty coverage? I did that with the 2 LCD's and the hot tub that I bought at Costco.

  9. BUYER BEWARE !!!!!

    Hydrospa has poor customer service. I have a platinum / legend series hot tub from costco.

    the price is very good but the warranty service is very very poor. Hydraspa has zero customer service.Costco offers no warranty. i bought my hot tob in dec/2005 and the spa pack went defective in aug/06 . getting the part took 3 months, i called every week to find out where the parts were. i got a different story every time i called, some times from the same person. getting someone to do the warranty work took another 3 months. one guy came out and installed the spa pack , but more parts were needed. those parts took another 2 months to arrive, the original installer would not come back( he would not even return my calls-my guess is that he did not get paid for the work he did).they finally found a new service guy and the repair was finally finished.only time will tell if the work holds up!!!the whole experience took 6 months!!

    www.elitespas.com is the website in the owners manual, www.platinumhottubs.com has the legend and platinum series tubs.they appaer to be owner buy hydrospa in st petersburg florida, thats the name of the company when you call 1 800 749 8003 fom the manual.

    I have heard similar stories from other people that have purchased this hot tub from costco.

    Wow, i am pretty surprised that you had a bad experience with their customer service. I thought it was almost too good to be true. When I first got the tub home, after I filled it, I noticed a little crack in the lining. I called them that Monday, by Friday it was fixed. They sent my problem to a local company, that local company called the next day and we made an appt for repair on Friday. 2nd example- one of my knobs was just turning and not really doing anything. I called and they sent out a whole new knob by Fed Ex and said that if that didn't fix it, then they would send someone out to look at it. 3rd example: my friend Rob, purchased the same hot tub. His radio wasn't working. He called...bam! next day someone was out to repair. I have to totally disagree with the poor customer service. I think it has been truly amazing. No issue here whatsoever!

  10. I saw that Costco has a hot tub called the Legend Elite Spa. There is no information available on line that I can find. Does anyone know about it? Like how much horse power and the like?? All I know is it has 78 jets and is $4899.99

    I bought this hot tub from Costco and so far so good. One of my friends went to a hot tub show and said that the same tub was $15k. I am really liking this tub now!! :-) Here is the info on it (if it is the same one you are referring to):

    http://www.platinumhottubs.com/

  11. The only stupidity is on the part of the lady at the store (sorry to be so blunt). There are only three EPA approved sanitizers--chlorine, bromine, and biguanide (BaquaSpa, SoftSoak, etc.) . What kind of sanitizer was she trying to sell you? If it wasn't one of these three then it wasn't a sanitizer!

    It was a sanitizer by Brilliance. It was little pellets that you put in a floater. I thought that I needed 2 floaters (one for the sanitizer and one for the bromine tabs). I was under the impression that sanitizers also had minerals and other stuff in them while bromine was to just kill bacteria.

  12. Hi everyone- I am new to this forum and first time spa owner. I went to a local spa store and was confused when the lady told me that if I buy a sanitizer, then I don't need bromine. Is that correct? Sorry for the stupidity but I thought they have different functions.

×
×
  • Create New...