I received Two Questions from Two People on the Same Day, that were Almost identical:
Hey laurie i know you get inundated with emails so i will keep it short and sweet and when you have time...
any concerns you have had with your endless pool? did you consider swimex pool and decide on endless for a reason? anything i should be aware of of issues you have had with it from a running/maintenance point of view???
thanks!!!
Brooke
Hi Laurie
I am back looking at adding a free swim pool to our lives. I know you ended up with a Swimex set-up. Could you point me in the direction of how to investigate a similar set-up here? There is a Swimex distributor about 15 min. from me.
Hope you are well.
Jean
So, I made one long run on sentence type of an answer for both, and I thought it would be useful for everyone to read if they were thinking of adding a pool. Happy to answer any other questions as well.
Laurie
Swim Pools
Re: Swim Pools
Okay, so we have an Endless Pool… but I imagine that they are similar. No reason we chose Endless over anything else.
Things we’ve learned.
We built a platform around ours for dogs to get up and in.
Getting in the pool was a challenge. In the end my husband built stairs out of metal brackets and plexi glass with rubber screwed on for grip, and long leg extensions (with tennis balls on the bottom of the legs that touch the ‘seat’ area of the back of the pool.) We had tried a boat ramp, too long. In fact most ramps are too long given the dimensions - so steps work best we’ve found.
Hmm… I think our is 14 or 15' x 7’ I think! The cheaper version was the ‘spa’ version (so it has seats at the back edge.) At first we thought this was a pain in the butt that we would just have to live with, but they have turned out to be a good place to take the dog to rest it between interval swim bursts against the current.
Ours is stainless steel base unit with an acrylic liner or whatever that is… anyways, with a water current we were told we had to use chlorine. If we used a salt solution, there was the potential to create an electric current! Yikes!
The chemicals have been a fine balance (chlorine, an enzyme that kills other things when the water turns greenish). We do partial empties and refill from our tap water mostly. The first fill we had a truck bring in warm water. The pool company from where we bought it has been good with helping us out in regards to figuring out chemicals etc.
Fun tidbit, because we don’t use if for ‘personal use’… our warranty is nul.
We had a couple of times in the early days where the pump stopped working - hair in the line. We subsequently learned that when we change the filters we need to turn the pump off completely (i.e. unplug it) so there is no gulping of water into the pump lines which invariably happens if there is power at all.
Humidity can be an issue. When we put it in, we had an Engineer calculate things for us and recommended we put in a Make-Up Air unit that sucks air from just above the pool and brings in fresh air from outside. Additionally, I purchased two dehumidifies that are on a constant run and help to mitigate the humidity when the make-up air is not on (i.e. when we’re not there overnight / Sundays.). The gals in the pool complain that the make-up air makes things cold for them if they are in the pool and it’s on (and it’s -30C outside.) So, we’ve had to be strategic about when we turn it on.
We keep the temperature at 31 - 32C.
Water - we’ve created water barriers between the pool and wall, and platform / stairs using water noodles and foam/rubber tubing. We put water sensors under the deck/stairs in case of a flood. But the thing is stainless… so that’s not a huge potential.
We are at our power maximum. We were advised by the electrician to perhaps not run the pool, the uwt, and the W/D all at the same time. Fair point. I’m not sure we’ve abided by that to be honest! All has been good.
The gals in the pool find that wetsuits work best - 1) to keep warm and 2) to protect their legs if they have large dogs that kick hard when they swim.
You need a person in the pool, the dogs don’t tend to swim against the current on their own (especially not at first). When they get used to it and do some retrieves, then they get it. Staff needs to be aware and watch for dogs that gulp too much water and are at risk of water toxicity.
We start all dogs with a life vest (i.e. there’s a handle.) In fact, I think most dogs all use a vest anyways for control.
Because someone has to be in the pool to direct the dog, and or make them take breaks, or redirect them towards the current, it’s not a great choice of exercise for a fractious dog - unless they are comfortable in a basket muzzle… but then, why swim them in our pool. That’s a tricky one!
Owners are instructed to bring their own towels. We couldn’t keep up with laundry (physically, quantity-wise, or financially!)
We book 30 min appt times for swimming - This ends up being 15 - 20 minutes in the water with life vest donning pre-swim and drying post-swim. Dogs are pretty pooped with this - especially since we can turn up the current to make it more of a work out for the super fit dogs.
I’m just throwing it all at ya. Not sure what you want / need to know.
We were quoted a way higher price at the beginning, which we say, “Um No…” and the pool company came back with a substantially reduced rate because they wanted to get one in and we were their first.
Money wise… to be honest. If I filled that space with two additional treatment rooms and added 2 more physical therapists to my practice, I would easily triple the money that the pool brings in. Hind sight is 20/20. But it’s nifty, it’s a niche, it’s something to market, it sets us above all competitors, and it’s great for fitness, weight loss, neurologic dogs in the early stages, and some geriatrics. Typical post-op cases still do better in the UWT.
Back to you! After all of that, now what questions do you have?
Cheers,
Laurie
Things we’ve learned.
We built a platform around ours for dogs to get up and in.
Getting in the pool was a challenge. In the end my husband built stairs out of metal brackets and plexi glass with rubber screwed on for grip, and long leg extensions (with tennis balls on the bottom of the legs that touch the ‘seat’ area of the back of the pool.) We had tried a boat ramp, too long. In fact most ramps are too long given the dimensions - so steps work best we’ve found.
Hmm… I think our is 14 or 15' x 7’ I think! The cheaper version was the ‘spa’ version (so it has seats at the back edge.) At first we thought this was a pain in the butt that we would just have to live with, but they have turned out to be a good place to take the dog to rest it between interval swim bursts against the current.
Ours is stainless steel base unit with an acrylic liner or whatever that is… anyways, with a water current we were told we had to use chlorine. If we used a salt solution, there was the potential to create an electric current! Yikes!
The chemicals have been a fine balance (chlorine, an enzyme that kills other things when the water turns greenish). We do partial empties and refill from our tap water mostly. The first fill we had a truck bring in warm water. The pool company from where we bought it has been good with helping us out in regards to figuring out chemicals etc.
Fun tidbit, because we don’t use if for ‘personal use’… our warranty is nul.
We had a couple of times in the early days where the pump stopped working - hair in the line. We subsequently learned that when we change the filters we need to turn the pump off completely (i.e. unplug it) so there is no gulping of water into the pump lines which invariably happens if there is power at all.
Humidity can be an issue. When we put it in, we had an Engineer calculate things for us and recommended we put in a Make-Up Air unit that sucks air from just above the pool and brings in fresh air from outside. Additionally, I purchased two dehumidifies that are on a constant run and help to mitigate the humidity when the make-up air is not on (i.e. when we’re not there overnight / Sundays.). The gals in the pool complain that the make-up air makes things cold for them if they are in the pool and it’s on (and it’s -30C outside.) So, we’ve had to be strategic about when we turn it on.
We keep the temperature at 31 - 32C.
Water - we’ve created water barriers between the pool and wall, and platform / stairs using water noodles and foam/rubber tubing. We put water sensors under the deck/stairs in case of a flood. But the thing is stainless… so that’s not a huge potential.
We are at our power maximum. We were advised by the electrician to perhaps not run the pool, the uwt, and the W/D all at the same time. Fair point. I’m not sure we’ve abided by that to be honest! All has been good.
The gals in the pool find that wetsuits work best - 1) to keep warm and 2) to protect their legs if they have large dogs that kick hard when they swim.
You need a person in the pool, the dogs don’t tend to swim against the current on their own (especially not at first). When they get used to it and do some retrieves, then they get it. Staff needs to be aware and watch for dogs that gulp too much water and are at risk of water toxicity.
We start all dogs with a life vest (i.e. there’s a handle.) In fact, I think most dogs all use a vest anyways for control.
Because someone has to be in the pool to direct the dog, and or make them take breaks, or redirect them towards the current, it’s not a great choice of exercise for a fractious dog - unless they are comfortable in a basket muzzle… but then, why swim them in our pool. That’s a tricky one!
Owners are instructed to bring their own towels. We couldn’t keep up with laundry (physically, quantity-wise, or financially!)
We book 30 min appt times for swimming - This ends up being 15 - 20 minutes in the water with life vest donning pre-swim and drying post-swim. Dogs are pretty pooped with this - especially since we can turn up the current to make it more of a work out for the super fit dogs.
I’m just throwing it all at ya. Not sure what you want / need to know.
We were quoted a way higher price at the beginning, which we say, “Um No…” and the pool company came back with a substantially reduced rate because they wanted to get one in and we were their first.
Money wise… to be honest. If I filled that space with two additional treatment rooms and added 2 more physical therapists to my practice, I would easily triple the money that the pool brings in. Hind sight is 20/20. But it’s nifty, it’s a niche, it’s something to market, it sets us above all competitors, and it’s great for fitness, weight loss, neurologic dogs in the early stages, and some geriatrics. Typical post-op cases still do better in the UWT.
Back to you! After all of that, now what questions do you have?
Cheers,
Laurie
LAURIE EDGE-HUGHES