To think an indoor pool is going to cost a fortune?

[Mercial]

DH all in favour of buying a house with an indoor pool. I'm more skeptical of the running costs. I'm not even sure where to begin with who is right. We would use it but at what cost!?

Pools are off putting to some, but I can’t see how a pool could cost 14k per year, as both of my (divorced) parents have pools - both sunken/outdoor/heated and they open in April, close in Late sept/Oct and each costs about £100 per month to heat and run the pump...

The pool man opens in spring which happens over the course of a couple of days, and half drains and closes for winter. So aside from his cost (couple of hundred each end?) and the cost of heating c.£100/month and then just having chlorine in, it genuinely isn’t that expensive- notwithstanding any maintenance issues such as leaks/liner damage/pump issues - which are an occasional cost over years ime as opposed to a regular outlay. Neither liners have ever been replaced here and it’s been 15yrs and 20+yrs respectively.

If you enjoy swimming then it’s bloody amazing. If you’re not bothered about swimming then it’ll be a waste of space and money.

I don’t think it’s so much the cost but the work involved. Indoor pools need far more work than outside.

I rented a house with an indoor pool, it takes a fair amount of energy to keep the water warm, plus there’s monthly servicing etc. I loved swimming but didn’t actually use the pool that much. It’s not the length of public pool so you spend half the time doing turns. Plus it’s too easy to get bored and get out when you’ve not made the effort to go there in the first place. I’d never want a pool again. On the plus side, you don’t need to wear a swimming costume

We bought a house with an indoor pool. Yes we had a few fun parties, but it was a 5 minute wonder, and yes it cost a lot to heat, and to have the air con all the time to avoid condensation. The biggest issue however was my paranoia about our youngest potentially drowning in it. I became obsessive about checking the door to the pool room was locked (DH had a habit of leaving it unlocked). I had nightmares about our DD drowning in it. We had it covered over and had a games room/gym instead. That got a lot more use.

I'm sure there was a thread before where people actually said what it cost to run their pool (in case that's what you're after OP)

We've had an outdoor pool for 14 years, and it costs us about £800 a year to run it for the summer. This includes heating and chemicals. We don't have monthly servicing - we do it ourselves. It's the best money we ever spent - all our grandchildren learned to swim in it, but it's not for everyone. However when we move, if we have room we'll have another smaller outdoor one. I think indoor is much more expensive to run as you have to keep the humidity right.

My DH has a client who has a large indoor pool, his gas bill was over £6,000 per quarter and he has to pay a company to come in each week to look after it plus chemicals.

They’re much cheaper to run now than they used to be. The equipment is expensive to buy but running costs are not prohibitive.

Costs will vary greatly depending on m3 you’re trying to heat, the temperature you want it at and also the equipment being used.

hit sent too quickly there! keep the humidity right to stop condensation and mould. You can't beat a midnight swim on a hot night!

My parents have one. They use it all year round. They say it doesn’t cost that much in the scheme of things.

We have an outdoor pool (proper in the ground thing 15m long) and it does cost a lot to run. It's open from April til October every year. There is almost always an extra expense involved most years - new pump, new heater, new cover etc etc. We love ours and use it a lot but it does cost a lot. Friends of ours have an indoor one and theirs is really really expensive to run.

A friend bought a country property, mostly because it had stables and paddocks for her horses, and suitable large Georgian architecture for the impressing of her husband's clients for dinner parties. It also had an indoor swimming pool with changing rooms and showers round the back of what had once been the farm yard but linked to the house by indoor passage ways. The way she justified its maintenance was that none of their children ever had baths or showers indoors. Everyone went for a swim after school and a quick rinse.

I wouldn't but a house with a pool. It wouldn't just be the running costs that would put me off. I wouldn't want the hassle. I get sick of the kids' paddling pool sitting around, filled with water after a couple of days. It would be like that only worse all year round.

We have an outdoor pool, it costs absolutely nothing like some of costs quoted on this thread. We have a Certikin gas boiler and the filters and pump runs on electricity. The power costs around £20 a month to run the filters and we heat it for around 2 hours before we go in it, the cost is minimal, at the most it costs £50 a month including the chemicals over the summer.

The maintenance is straight forward in terms of balancing chemicals - the most onerous part is jet washing the patio tiles at the start of the season.

My kids love it and their friends love it too. Even I love it when it’s very hot - we use it from May to September mostly. Our house is pretty normal, the pool was put in as a previous owner needed it for physio - it’s 24ft by 10ft and is around 5”5 at it’s deepest point (I can dive into it )

Indoor pools are different because I think the chemicals are a little harder to balance - I can’t comment on humidity issues etc. We do maintain ours ourselves - it’s not very complicated once you know how.

@StrugglingToBeStylish

If it helps, OP, I went to see a house with an indoor pool. Running costs were £20/month plus annual servicing apparently

Is that it

Anyone with an indoor pool willing to share their running costs? Perhaps we'd only use it for the warmer six months of the year even though it's indoors? It's currently heated by oil but I think we'd put in solar and a ground source heat pump. Does it hugely bump your insurance premiums?

Can't comment on indoor pool. I love wild swimming, and I've always fancied a natural pool:

www.countrylife.co.uk/gardens/natural-swimming-pools-everything-need-know-building-one-garden-184617

We have the land to create it, but not the cash or time to attempt it ourselves. A girl can dream.

No idea of running costs but we used holiday with a family who had one in their house. It was full size and FABULOUS!!!!!! Looking back i wonder if I had dreamt the pool but there are photographs of us playing in it.

The cost of the pool will totally depend on the construction and the method of heating. If its newish and has insulated walls and a decent cover then that will reduce heating costs. If it uses an electric heater then that will be very expensive to run. Solar can be a good way to heat pools (the water based solar is much cheaper to install than panels) or an air sourced heat pump. Either of those would make the running costs significantly less. As for maintenance, I actually think indoor would be easier than outdoor as there aren't any external contaminants getting in the water. Ours is technically in a building but it's so dilapidated it's at least part outdoor pool now and we spend most of our time cleaning the damn thing before you get in. Although a robot pool cleaner could do that for you. You have to test it regularly and add chemicals, but its not rocket science to look after it yourself.

To work out the costs you could find out what heater it has (eg mine has a 12kw electric heater) which I know runs for approx 3 hours everyday in the summer months to keep our 12 x 24 ft pool heated to a temperature of 30ish degrees. Which means we use 12 x 3 = 36kwh per day at say 15p a kwh so around £5.50 a day to heat. That a pretty inefficient ancient set up in a very draughty (think holes) conservatory style building. The building itself isn't heated. I guess condensation isn't an issue due to the 'ventilation'.

An 12kw air source heat pump should give you approx 4 units of energy for every 1 you put in. So your bill should be 1/4 of the electric heater.

It's definitely worth asking the current owners to show you their running costs and bills for heating the pool.

I do love having a pool, it was absolutely amazing through lockdown and the summer last year. We used it every day. They are way easier to maintain than a hot tub. My next project will be to renovate ours.

If the dehumidification system is good, the upkeep cost is more limited. Definitely get a pool maintenance company out as part of the survey etc. The material and design of the pool influence maintenance costs too - especially acid washing mildew out (which over time wrecks your pool, so minimising building up is important). The cost varies annually depending on the need for repairs and more in depth servicing, so definitely important to set aside a little so it doesn’t crush your finances.

Our old house had an indoor pool.
Our gas bill was nearly £2000 monthly.

We would NEVER have a pool again

@tinselandlights

We looked at a house with a pool last year and worked out it would be around £14,000 per year to heat, maintain and clean it.

There were other houses without pools on the street that were actually dearer, I guess because a pool is so off putting to lots of people.

Wow! For that cost I think I’d rather rent a beautiful villa in Tuscany/Ibiza for a week and enjoy the pool there once a year

It's not just the running costs but the supervision too. Every child who ever comes to your house will want to swim in it. Unless you know they are seriously good swimmers, you will not dare leave them unsupervised. Which means that when your DC have play dates, they don't just disappear off into their bedrooms/the garden/whatever leaving you in peace but you have to go & sit by the pool and keep an eye on them. And worry about whether you'd know what to do if one of them got into difficulties.
Then the visiting children either don't bring all of the kit they need so you are endlessly washing towels etc or they have come in swimmers but not brought pants or something so have to go home with yours and then you are constantly missing random items of clothing.
This isn't my experience by the way. Just listening to my teenage best friend's mum moaning a few years after they moved from a house with a pool.

A quick google says an average of 7.50 a day op, so approx 250 a month.

@HairyToity

Can't comment on indoor pool. I love wild swimming, and I've always fancied a natural pool:

www.countrylife.co.uk/gardens/natural-swimming-pools-everything-need-know-building-one-garden-184617

We have the land to create it, but not the cash or time to attempt it ourselves. A girl can dream.

What a beautiful idea! I’ve never heard of this and I love them.