Sitemap

Main pages

• Home
• All guides, newest first

Above-Ground Pools

Soft-side, metal-frame and steel-wall pools compared by what they cost across a whole season, not at the till.

• Above-Ground Pools — category overview
• The best above-ground pools for an ordinary backyard
• The best backyard pools on a budget
• The best inflatable backyard pools
• The best backyard pools for kids
• Intex vs Bestway: which above-ground pool to buy
• Above-ground vs inground: which one you are actually shopping for
• What size pool your backyard can actually take
• Pools for a small yard
• How to set up an above-ground pool properly
• The types of backyard pool, and who each is for
• Above-ground pools for adults who want to swim, not sit
• The best 12-foot pools, and why 12 feet is the sensible size
• Pool kit or piece by piece: which is genuinely cheaper
• How long an above-ground pool actually lasts
• Leveling the ground, and the weight that makes it matter
• What an above-ground pool can and cannot sit on
• Permits, fences and the calls to make before you buy
• Buying a used pool without buying somebody else's problem
• The 15-foot class, and the three things that stop being optional
• Pool shape is a yard decision, not a taste decision
• Building around the pool, and what it changes about the pool
• Moving a pool, and the two things that decide whether it survives
• A pool at a rented place, without losing the deposit
• Open the box before the weekend you plan to build
• The circle of dead grass, and how long it really takes to fix
• Seven things people say about above-ground pools, checked
• The neighbor questions to answer before the pool goes up
• Inflatable hot tubs, judged on the bill rather than the bubbles
• Running an above-ground pool on salt, and what it actually takes
• The 18-foot pool, and the three things that change with it
• A dog in the pool is a liner problem before it is anything else
• You cannot swim lengths. You can swim continuously.
• The fence is the only thing here that prevents anything
• Fifty-two inches is where the pool becomes chest-deep
• The oval exists because most yards are not circles
• The semi-inground pool solves the yard you actually have
• Ten feet is the floor of the category
• The best permanent above-ground pools, and what makes one permanent
• In-wall steps are a pool decision, not a step decision
• The 24-foot pool, and the yard that has to hold it
• Rectangular pools, and the hoop strength they give up
• Above-ground pool brands, and what each one is actually good at
• Intex vs Summer Waves: one of them publishes its numbers
• Bestway vs Summer Waves: the one with somewhere to upgrade to
• Easy Set or Prism Frame: ten minutes, or a pool that lasts
• 12 feet or 15 feet: the step that doubles the water
• A pool for older swimmers starts at the steps, not the water
• A cold climate does not stop you owning a pool. It picks which one.
• If it will not fit through the gate, nothing else about the pool matters
• Stock tank pools: the liner is not optional
• Pool privacy screens: do the height arithmetic first
• An inflatable hot tub in winter: never let it freeze, cover everything else
• The best cold plunge tubs, judged by how much water you have to cool
• Cold plunge against inflatable hot tub: which backyard tub to buy this winter
• Gifts for hot tub owners: the tub is in use, and almost nothing fits it

Pool Care & Chemistry

The weekly routine, the four numbers that matter, and the fix for the week the water turns.

• Pool Care & Chemistry — category overview
• First-time pool owner: the complete first month
• Pool maintenance for beginners, in twenty minutes a week
• Cloudy pool water: work out which of four problems you have
• Pool algae: brush, shock, filter, then rebalance
• The best pool test strips
• The best chlorine tablets for an above-ground pool
• pH and alkalinity, and why yours will not stay put
• Pool shock: use enough, once, and use the right kind
• Salt vs chlorine: a saltwater pool is a chlorine pool
• Cyanuric acid: the reading that explains your chlorine
• The weekly pool routine, and how little time it really takes
• The chlorine smell means you need more chlorine, not less
• Pool clarifiers, and the three cases where one is the wrong answer
• Stains on the liner, and the one test that tells you which kind
• Calcium hardness: the reading a vinyl pool can mostly ignore
• Bugs in the pool are a symptom, not an infestation
• The morning after a storm, in the right order
• Phosphates: real chemistry, and a very effective sales pitch
• Foam on the water is a report on what went in
• Bromine or chlorine: sunlight settles it
• Tablets or liquid: the difference is what else goes in
• Bather load: the variable that explains your worst weeks
• Mustard algae, and why brushing it away is not the same as killing it
• Your test result is only as good as how you took it
• Small children and pool water, without the scare stories
• Clear water and safe water are two different things
• Chlorine alternatives, and the ones that are chlorine wearing a hat
• What the color of your pool is telling you
• High alkalinity, cloudy water, and the pH you cannot hold down
• Pool test kits, and when you need a number rather than a color
• Algaecide is insurance, not a rescue
• The three balancing chemicals, and which one your reading actually calls for
• The floating dispenser, and why it prevents more than it costs
• Diagnose the stain, then buy. Not the other way round.
• The only product here that prevents the problem
• A hot tub is not a small pool
• Pool shock: what else you are adding decides which one to buy
• Pool salt is a purity specification, not a brand
• Draining an above-ground pool, and the two ways it goes wrong
• Filling from a well: test first, or stain the liner
• Borates: the buffer most pools never add
• Floc or clarifier: your filter decides, not your water
• Strips, drops or digital: how precise does the answer need to be?
• Leaving the pool for a week without coming home to a swamp
• Hard water changes which chemicals you buy, not how often you test
• Pool losing water: the bucket test answers this for free
• How long before you can swim? The label gives a number, not a time
• Pool enzymes: buy the one that publishes a dose rate
• Smart pool monitors: the device is the cheap part
• Hot tub water change: the arithmetic says two weeks
• Hot tub rash: your pool chlorine number is too low for a spa
• Hot tub aromatherapy, and the dose instruction written for somebody else's tub

Pool Costs

Purchase, electricity, chemicals, water and replacement parts - added up, sourced, and shown as arithmetic you can redo.

• Pool Costs — category overview
• What an above-ground pool actually costs to run for a year
• What an above-ground pool costs to buy
• What upkeep costs, separated from everything else
• Are backyard pools worth it?
• Liner replacement: the big occasional cost, and how to avoid it
• What your pool pump costs to run, in watts and dollars
• What a season of pool chemicals actually adds up to
• What it costs to fill a pool, and to keep it full
• The cheapest pool setup that actually works for a year
• Backyard pool or a membership: how to actually compare them
• What actually wears out, and when you will be buying it
• The bill a bad close sends you in April
• Year two, and the lines that disappear
• Cost per swim, and why it is the only number that settles the argument
• One size up is not a premium, it is a subscription
• Heating a pool, priced properly
• Seven ways to cut a pool's running cost, ranked by what they actually save
• What is worth doing yourself, and the two things that are not
• Buy cheap and replace, or buy once: the actual arithmetic
• What happens at the end: selling it, giving it away, or getting rid of it
• Every line of a pool budget, and exactly where each number comes from
• The deck costs more than the pool
• The salt system pays back, eventually, on some pools
• The robot buys back ten minutes a week
• The solar cover pays for itself, and it is not close
• The pool is seasonal. The hot tub is a standing charge.
• The fence is priced by your yard, not your pool
• It is not an investment, and pricing it as one is the mistake
• The call to your insurer takes ten minutes and is not optional
• The kit price is the smallest number in the project
• Trucking water in, priced against the hose
• What closing an above-ground pool costs
• What it costs to open an above-ground pool
• Inflatable hot tub running cost: the bill is a winter bill
• What a cold plunge actually costs to run
• Buying a pool in the off-season: the discount is real, the warranty is the catch

Floats & Fun

Floats for adults, toddlers and dogs - ranked on seam and valve construction, which is what actually decides how long they last.

• Floats & Fun — category overview
• The best pool floats
• The best pool floats for adults
• Toddler pool floats: know which of two products you are buying
• Pool floats and ramps for dogs
• The best pool loungers
• The best pool toys for a backyard pool
• How long pool floats last, and why yours did not
• Swim vests and floaties: the label that separates them from toys
• How to store pool floats so you are not rebuying them in May
• Kitting out a pool party without buying a garage full of vinyl
• Floats that work in a small pool, where the big ones ground out
• Finding the hole, and making the patch actually hold
• The dog can swim. Here is what it costs the water.
• Pool games that work in a backyard pool, not a leisure center
• The most common way to break a float is to inflate it
• Six ways to buy a float you will not use twice
• Pool noodles: the float that cannot fail
• Pool volleyball nets, and the above-ground mounting problem
• Pool basketball hoops: the toy that gets used every day
• Inflatable islands, and the question of whether it fits
• The slide has two numbers on it and both rule people out
• Waterproof and floating are two different claims
• The cheapest thing on this site, and almost nobody owns it
• The cheapest thing that changes how the pool gets used
• Refill speed matters more than range
• The cheapest reason to stay in the pool
• The answer for the child the pool is too deep for
• The float that keeps you in the water
• The pump decides whether the floats get used
• Where the floats go when nobody is swimming
• Noodles or a swim vest: only one of them has a label that means anything
• Vinyl or mesh: one floats on the water, the other sits in it
• A hoop or a net: one needs two people, the other needs six
• Pool shade: compare the square feet, then the anchoring
• Swim diapers: read the warning printed on the box
• Pool exercise gear: your wall height decides what works
• Cheap floats against premium brands: the budget ones publish more
• The best foam pool floats, ranked by a number you can actually check
• Gifts for pool owners, from someone who knows the pool is closed
• The best poolside towels, with the fabric weight worked out

Pool Equipment

Pumps, filters, vacuums, heaters and ladders - matched to your gallons and priced by what they draw.

• Pool Equipment — category overview
• Above-ground pool pumps: how many gallons per hour you actually need
• The best above-ground pool vacuums
• Pool filters: the consumable nobody budgets for
• Sand vs cartridge: it is a maintenance choice, not a quality one
• Pool heaters, priced by the watt
• Above-ground pool ladders, and the spec everyone skips
• Robotic pool cleaners: good, and hard to justify
• Salt systems for an above-ground pool
• Sizing a pump: the number on the box is not the number you use
• How long to run the pump, worked out rather than repeated
• Filter cartridges: the consumable nobody budgets for
• The manual pool tools that do most of the real work
• Backwashing, and the rinse step everyone skips
• Pool pump problems, diagnosed in the cheapest order
• The electrical side, which is the one part of a pool you should not improvise
• Equipment for a big above-ground pool, where the small-pool answers stop working
• The skimmer is the cheapest part of the system and the one that stops it
• Nothing in this category is standardized, and the hoses are where you find out
• Automating a small pool: one thing is obvious, the rest is not
• Sizing a heater: one calculation, and a warning about the answer
• Solar heating: three products, two of which mostly stop losses
• What kills pool pumps, and none of it is running time
• Four pump noises, and only one of them is expensive
• What is inside the filter, and how fine it actually filters
• The pool thermometer, and the two expensive questions it answers
• Variable speed pumps, and the honest answer for an above-ground pool
• The pool brush, and why it is a chemistry tool
• The pump timer pays for itself in one season
• Filter cartridges: the consumable that decides whether your water is clear
• The liner is the most expensive thing you can wreck in an afternoon
• Electric or gas, and the third answer that usually wins
• The cheapest upgrade that changes when you use the pool
• The alarm removes the silence. That is its whole job.
• The cleaner that borrows your pump instead of bringing its own
• The feeder turns a guess into a dial
• The pump does not die of old age. It dies of low water.
• The best salt systems for an above-ground pool start with your pump
• The pad under the liner is the cheapest part of the build
• The patch kit is the difference between a hole and a new liner
• Sand filters, and the flow rate that is not on the box
• Filter balls: the claims do not agree with each other
• Pool steps, and the weight rating that is not what it looks like
• Robotic or suction: one adds filtration, the other borrows it
• Floater or feeder: the same tablets, metered two different ways
• Steps or a ladder: comfort against the thing you can lock
• Salt does not attack the pool. It attacks everything metal in it.
• Equipment for a small pool, where most advice is written for a big one
• What to buy with the pool, and what can wait
• Your filter manual already chose the sand
• Solar pool heating: collector area is the whole story
• Pool cove: the cheapest part, fitted at the only moment you can
• Spa filter cartridges: check the type before the price
• Hot tub steps: the handrail is the part that matters
• Draining a pool: buy on how low it goes, not how fast
• Pool lubricant: silicone only, and you need less than you think
• Pool heat pumps: cheap to run, and they quit at 50 degrees
• Hot tub seats and headrests, ranked by what holds them down

Seasonal Care

Winterizing, covers and spring opening - the four weeks of the year that decide whether you own a pool next summer.

• Seasonal Care — category overview
• How to winterize an above-ground pool
• The best solar covers, and why this is the one thing to buy
• The best winter covers for an above-ground pool
• Pool closing kits: buy one the first year, then stop
• Opening an above-ground pool in spring
• Adding weeks to the season, starting with the cheapest thing first
• Taking the pool down without ruining it
• Solar cover or winter cover: they are not the same product
• The midsummer reset, and the drift it fixes
• A freeze is forecast and the pool is still open
• What to buy before you open, not halfway through
• You lifted the cover and it is green. First decide, then treat.
• Leaf season, and the three weeks that decide next April
• A heatwave attacks a small pool from three directions at once
• Before the storm: secure it, do not empty it
• The pool year on one page
• A winter cover fails from water on top of it, not from cold
• The solar cover reel solves a behavior problem, not a water problem
• Winterizing kits: convenience, correctly sized, or a waste
• The cover pump exists because water is heavier than people think
• The leaf net is a yard purchase, not a pool purchase
• A tarp that keeps leaves out is not a barrier
• Pool antifreeze protects pipe, not water
• The gizzmo is designed to be destroyed
• Wind takes the cover off. Clips are what stop it.
• The air pillow is structural, not padding
• What size cover you need, and the overlap that decides it
• Where the pump spends the winter
• Mesh or solid: one keeps the water out, the other lets it through
• Pollen season: the three weeks the filter does all the work
• Storing pool chemicals over winter: separate the oxidizers, bin the liquids

About this site

• About Splash & Skimmer
• How we research and rank
• Editorial policy
• Affiliate disclosure
• Frequently asked questions
• Contact
• Privacy policy
• Terms of service