To wonder why on earth people in the UK have outdoor swimming pools?

[KenAdams]

We're looking at houses at the moment and are coming across some that have outdoor pools. Why?! In the UK you'd hardly ever get to use them! And it's usually houses that could have had the money better spent in other ways.

We used our paddling pool for most of the summer last year, even when it rained, so we'd certainly use a heated outdoor pool!

Whether it's U or not I think depends on whether you use it or not.

IF I had one, and it was heated above freezing, I would be in it most days. I can swim happily for hours in the open air. I'd be less inclined to use an indoor pool.

Well, we have an outdoor pool and in the five years since we moved in, I have swum approximately 15 times, cost per swim about £200!

However we didn't have a heater, which we do now as we have tenants in there at the moment, and when we move back from abroad, we will use it a lot more as it will be heated and the children will be old enough to use it.

We put a full secure locked hardwood fence around ours and we now pay a man to open and close it, and come every two weeks all summer to keep it clean and the algae at bay (bad experience where it went completely green and we had to drain it a couple of years ago, very hard work!).

So yabu, I can see a lot of good times ahead with our pool now it is heated, though we close it between Oct and May so only use it during the warmer months.

However I can see your point, they are work that you might not want, they cost a lot to maintain, we had to put in a new liner, and the electric bill goes up obv when the filter is on!

just looked on google maps, and in the posher bit near where I live, every third house has a swimming pool. In the even posher bit, they have swimming pools and tennis courts. Round our way we only have trampolines

Action girl........if it turns green you just have to "shock" it as long as the Ph levels are normal. Let all the algae drop to the bottom and then "suck" it to waste ( hope that makes sense)

Two words.......pool drains!!!!