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437 of 441 found the following review helpful:
 Great Pool, but allow more than 15 minutues to set it up.May 26, 2003
I purchased this pool last year for my family. It might only take 15 minutes to set up if you have help...it took more than 15 minutes just to get the ground cloth the way I wanted it. Your ground MUST, MUST, MUST be level. If it's off more than 1 inch you're in trouble. Don't try filling it higher than the instructions say or you'll have one of your children going over the top (which they loved and asked if they could do again, I said no) with 100 gallons of water or so. The instructions say to run the filter for something like 5-6 hours per day. No, you need to run the filter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Forget the little floating Chlorine tablet thing. Go buy the small 1 inch chlorine tablets and fill the center of the filter after it's in the pump container with the tablet. Refill every 2-3 weeks when you change or clean the filter. You can take the filter out and clean it with the hose and/or soap and water/hose instead of putting out $7.00 every 3 weeks for a new filter. I've learned all this by doing it the wrong way and then talking with the pool guys and learning the right way. But after it's all set up and going it's so much fun, even for the adults. You just have to be committed to keeping it going. And you save water by not having to dump it out every few days.
147 of 149 found the following review helpful:
 Kids love it...you'll learn to despise it.Jun 30, 2003
By Dad (who set-up the thing and has to maintain it)
This is not really a swimming pool, but an overgrown splash pool. But, if you have young kids, hot weather, and don't have many, many thousands of dollars laying around to invest in a real swimming pool, It seems like a promisingly cool toy to have; however, with all the maintenance this thing has been, I'm still waiting for the "fun" part to kick in...Can I give it zero stars for "how much trouble is this toy?" Mine is the 15' diameter by (nominal) 42" depth, and came in a set with ladder, cover, ground cloth, pump with two filter cartridges, and skimmer/vacuum set. THE BAD:
WARNING 1: You have read this warning in other reviews, but it cannot be repeated often enough...YOU MUST HAVE FIRM, LEVEL GROUND. We have operated this toy for only two months now, and have had to drain, dig and/or backfill the ground, and refill three times already. With just two or three inches "off level" across the 15' width of the toy, this large "bag of water" slowly, inevitably, "crept" in the direction of the low spot, eventually sagging and spilling over on that side. You can simulate the effect by filling a zip-lock bag with water, carefully setting on a tray, then slowly tilting the tray. Be warned!!! WARNING 2: The filter pump is a joke. It has NO POWER. You could run it 24/7, but you will STILL be vacuuming 3 TIMES DAILY to pick up the grass, soil and other detritus from the bottom, and skimming CONSTANTLY. When you do vacuum, you will have to stop 5 or 6 times per session to dismantle the hosing and clean out all the gunk from the "pinch points" that seem specifically designed to clog up. Each time you undo the hoses, half the gunk you just vaccumed will spew back into the water. Also, you'd think they could put an extra foot or two on the vacuum hose, so that you could actually REACH the opposite side of the toy (the floor on that side is pretty much permanantly dirty). Finally, you'd better pray you got all the creases and folds out when you set up, or else your vacuuming will be quite frustrating. WARNING 3: Use a tarp of some kind as a ground cloth, and consider it disposable. We set this up on our lawn...and after only about one week we had to drain and refill (see above). In that short time, the area under the tarp became unspeakably filthy, slimy, smelly...something like sewage sludge. You do NOT want such gunk touching the bottom of the pool itself, nor do you want to try to recycle the tarp. Get a new tarp each time you re-set the pool. Also, use some kind of stakes (like those green ones for landscape fabric) to hold down your tarp...it makes unfurling and spreading out the toy much easier! WARNING 4: As others have stated, this toy comes with NO chemicals or test kit items. These are, of course, essential. How much would it have cost for them to throw in a few test strips, a rip-top packet of algaecide and a small bag of stabilized chlorine shock, just to get the newbie started? THE GOOD:
DURABILITY: This toy has already endured three take-down/set-ups, and almost constant use by up to six kids at a time...not to mention two dogs who want to get at that previously mentioned smelly area underneath by pawing at the ground right where it meets the vinyl, AND those same kids using the filled pool as a backstop for hardball pitching practice...without bursting a seam. I am mightily impressed by this, as I frankly didn't expect this contraption to hold water in the first place. EDUCATIONAL: This toy has really helped boost my childrens' confidence in the water. Heck, they've even had some fun...of course, they don't have to maintain the thing... IN SUMMARY:
Your kids will love this toy and will love you for buying it. You will love it for the first week or two, but will quickly grow to hate the sight of the thing (unless you really like to do extra, unrewarding work around the house on a daily basis using inadequate tools...but hey, who doesn't!).
65 of 66 found the following review helpful:
Summer funMay 19, 2003
A fun pool and you get what you expect. Not too deep for little kids and deep enough to go under water and swim for bigger kids. However you really MUST put this on flat ground, even 2-3 inches difference in height side to side makes a big difference. I had to empty the pool and level the site after setting it up initially. Also I recommend a floating (constant) chlorine supply to avoid algae, which you can get at any pool store and run the filter more frequently than the instructions say. A little extra maintenance is worth it. My kids 9 and 11 really had fun.
40 of 40 found the following review helpful:
A little help for you...Jul 25, 2005
By Angi
"Angi"
After reading all of the reviews, I want to offer a little help to those having trouble. First, this is an EXCELLENT pool when used correctly. Several times it has been mentioned that you need 100% level ground. This is not true. What happens is that when the pool starts to fill, you MUST be sure that the bottom seams are where they are supposed to be. This is what causes probably 60% of leaning pools. If the seams are uneven, then the pool will lean. Simple as that. It took us a while to figure that out, because it's not extremely obvious when you're setting it up. Secondly, I'm sure there have been some problems with seams splitting, but I offer this...PLEASE make sure that you have an INTEX EASY SET POOL and not the AQUA SIMPLE SET POOL. They look almost identical, but the Aqua brand is highly inferior. I have many friends who took the cheaper Aqua pools after seeing mine and thought they had the same thing. The seams split on every one of them. So, make sure you have the right brand. The most important thing I can tell you is to watch the video. You can't just spread it out and leave the hose running in it. The most important step is to start smoothing it out when the water gets a few inches high and then continue to do so until there's enough water that you can't move it anymore. This is vital to keeping the pool level and free of creases. We have had our pool for four years and have a VERY uneven yard. We have two kids (10 and 5) and the entire neighborhood swims in it (I had 8 kids in there yesterday). We've never had a problem after the first year when we finally wised up and watched the video. The most important part of any pool is proper set-up and maintanance. If you're willing to put in the work, the rewards are sweet.
25 of 25 found the following review helpful:
Absolutely WONDERFUL pool!!!!!!!Nov 06, 2005
By momtothree
We originally, back in 2002, bought the 10' pool. My oldest child was 5 that year, youngest child was 2, and the three of us used the pool every day all summer long. We loved it, though it was slightly lopsided from being not perfectly level. I added powdered chlorine every 3 or 4 days we never had any trouble with keeping the pool clean. The next year we knew to set it on more level ground, so built up one side of the ground with a plywood platform. No problem.... pool was perfectly level. We used it again all summer long. The following summer we had a slight problem, as the ring developed a leak. It actually didn't cause as much trouble as it could have, we just inflated the ring every couple of days with our electric air compressor. The other problem was that the pool was getting to be a little small for us.
So, this past summer we bought the 15'. Knowing, from previous experience, that the ground would need to be completely level, we planned for a local contractor to drop a load of gravel. Well, as pool time approached we decided to save a few dollars, and bought our own sand. We bought thirty, 40 pound bags of white play sand at the store ($2.29/bag, so grand total of $68.70 plus tax). It was more than enough to fill in the low spots in the yard. We then spread out the tarp and went to work!
Setting up the pool was NOT the challenge that some other people say it is. We got it spread out level, started filling it, and AS IT FILLED we continued to flatten out any wrinkles in the floor. It was filled to the top in a few hours. we then added the solar blanket that we had purchased, and waited a few days for the water to warm up.
I have to say that this was easily the best purchase I have made in a LONG time! This pool was big enough for me, my husband, and three children to actually SWIM in all summer. We again used the powdered chlorine for routine chlorination. We ended up removing the filter basket and hooking the hoses directly to the filter. It meant an extra five minutes of skimming the pool by hand every day, something I honestly didn't mind. We algae treated every couple of weeks as a preventative treatment, and the pool stayed sparkling clean all summer (with water temperature hovering right around 80 degrees, thanks to the solar blanket!)
I cannot understand the challenges some people have with their pools. If you follow instructions then it is NOT difficult!
I would definitely recommend this to anyone, and will purchase another, slightly larger, when all of my little ones grow.
Great pool!
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based on 153 reviews
