How Did You Fill Up Your Pool?

[Nikki]

Did you just use your water hose? I called the local fire dept because I know years ago, they would come out and fill swimming pools up for a $50 donation. We have a fire hydrant in our front yard, so I thought we would be in luck, but they have stopped doing that. They can no longer fill up residential pools.

Our water pressure here isn't good at all. It will take DAYS to fill up a 24 ft. pool.

[Pathfinder]

Try and seek out a water hauling company where I live they charge about $185 Cdn

[Trigger]

I would caution folks NOT to fill up on a hydrant. I've seen the pool get full of rusty water and it's a mess to get the pool clean. Days of filtering, vacuming, backwashing the filter...it's just not worth it.

Better to have a water company haul in clean water for the initial fill up. IF you close the pool correctly in the winter, you should only have to top off the

pool and bring the water level back up above the filter inlet and returns.

When I installed my new pool (about 11K gallons) I did so using my garden house and town water. I have decent pressure and the pool was full in about

30 hours (which, I understand is pretty good).

[Nikki]

I can't find a single "water hauling company" around here. There was one listed in a city next to ours, but it's gone out of business. I called the water department and they said they hook up to the fire hydrant and charge 30 per hour...plus the cost of water consumption. Not sure what we'll do now. I'm not exagerrating when I say that our water pressure is awful. It's a nightmare just trying to wash my car.

[Trigger]

Did you ask the dealer who sold you the pool what others have done? I would call a local pool supply store and ask if they know of anyone. They may have some suggestions.

If filling off the hydrant is your only option, then there ya go. You cold get lucky and have no problems, but don't be surprised if you have a couple of days of clean up before swimming. It's not the end of the world, but it can be a real pain in the rear.

[Nikki]

I finally got the name of the closest water hauling company (which is not very close to here) and they quoted me $450 to fill it up. Ummmm...no thanks. I can let it take days to fill up and it would only raise my water bill about $100. As for having the city come out and hook up to the hydrant, I'm not sure about that yet. I want to get some more info.

BTW...thanks!

[Pathfinder]

IMO get the hydrant from the city they will usually flush the hydrant b4 filling they will put a meter on the hydrant and do the reading that way and it will be priced the same way as if you filled from your hose except for the $60 for labour.

[Nikki]

I think that's probably what we'll do. My best friend's dad is the fire chief at our local fire dept. She's going to call him and ask him how many gallons per hour come out of the hydrant so we'll have an idea as to how long it will take (how much we'll be paying for the labour).

[valvestem]

I have been using a garden hose for about 19 years now. It usually takes about 24 total hours of running.

[Trigger]

Nikki

let us know how this works out for you.

Thanks!

[Nikki]

I will! I found out that the hydrant puts out 1,000 gallons per MINUTE. That's with it wide open though and they can't put it wide open or it would knock the pool down. We're planning on paying for 2 hours. If it's not full by then, then we'll fill the rest with the hose. Hubby called the City Utilities Dept today and they said it should only take 2 hours to fill it. She also said that for a 13,000 gallon pool, the water consumption charge would be $35 (That's not including the $30 per hour labour fee).

[Backglass]

Wow!

If the fire hydrant at the curb has that kind of pressure, I would be concerned why your house has such "little pressure at all". Maybe there is a pressure reducer somewhere that has been cranked down too much.

[Nikki]

I wondered that too. The pressure INSIDE our house is fine. It's the outside spikets that have such weak pressure. Our next door neighbors said theirs is the same way. Where would a pressure reducer be located?

[stewartsrus]

The size of the pipe could have been cut down by the builder for the outside lines (a way of saving a few cents per line). If it is a home with a basement (and not finished), trace the line from the outside faucet to see if the size of the pipe is reduced somewhere.

[Nikki]

Wanted to post an update....

The city utilities came out today at 1pm. They flushed the fire hydrant for a long time. Hubby said that thing had some POWER. The force of water blew all the neighbors gravel away from their driveway. They got it all up and put it back before they left.

After it was flushed really well, they turned the pressure way down. It only took about an hour to fill a 27 foot pool and cost us $65.

[Trigger]

nice and clear too? I am impressed.

That's great!

[Nikki]

Yeah...it is really clear! It wasn't at first, but they ran it for a long time. When I left for work this morning, there was dirt washed all into the road all the way down to the stop sign (about 60 feet) from them letting the hydrant run for a while. I hope the neighbors aren't mad at us!

Kids are LOVING the pool. They don't mind the cold water. It's reading 71 degrees....brrrrrr.

[MrsNoPlea]

Threw the garden hose in..........a little over 5000 gallons, it took about 10 hours....nice, clear water!

[rklesla]

I just throw in 2 garden hoses and my 12'x24'x48" pool fills up in about 8 hours. I just call the water company and tell them that I'm filling the pool and they charge us just for water and not sewage for all that. So it costs us about $10-$20 to fill it up.

[jamesdaff]

I am a pool newbie. I just bought a 21x41x4 Splash SuperPool. It holds 26,000 gallons.

I'm filling it from my hoses right now. I estimate it will take 40-50 hours, with both hoses running. I checked with a water delivery company in Massachusetts and they were going to charge about $250 per truckload, and the trucks only hold 6,000 gallons, so it would have cost me $1000, and it would still not have been quite full.

My situation is a little different from the rest of the responses here. I have no fire hydrant nearby, and we are not on town water. We have a well. I'm trying to watch the pressure on my well pump to make sure it doesn't drop below, say 25psi, and I'm trying to run it for only about 8 hours a day. At this rate, it will take about 5-6 days to fill.

I hope I don't burn out my well pump, or start pumping mud, but I'm crossing my fingers and watching things carefully. If I get really desperate, I'll have some of it brought in by truck, but I don't want to pay that much if I can help it.

Besides, I'm actually finishing my installation while it's filling (hooking up the pump, filter, & hoses).

Patience, patience.

Jeff

[Rita]

I can't find a place to fill up my pool in the Lebanon area

[Rita]

It's only a 16ft by 10

[Cusser]

[Johan]

On 5/29/2007 at 10:09 AM, Trigger said:

I would caution folks NOT to fill up on a hydrant. I've seen the pool get full of rusty water and it's a mess to get the pool clean. Days of filtering, vacuming, backwashing the filter...it's just not worth it.

Better to have a water company haul in clean water for the initial fill up. IF you close the pool correctly in the winter, you should only have to top off the

pool and bring the water level back up above the filter inlet and returns.

When I installed my new pool (about 11K gallons) I did so using my garden house and town water. I have decent pressure and the pool was full in about

30 hours (which, I understand is pretty good).

I was thinking the same re: hydrants. Like you I just used the hose. Took some time and I did it in shifts because I didn't want it running all night but it works out fine.