Filling a backyard pool
We just bought a backyard inflatable swimming pool. My husband insists there’s a better way to fill it with 1,000 gallons of water than the garden hose.
From what I can calculate, it’d cost us about $100 to fill it that way. Can anyone weigh in? Any better ideas?
Bucket brigade to Lake Superior.
$100 seems a bit high – we work with a 30,000 gallon pool in the Twin Cities and have seen it cost about $300-400. Various city water rates may differ.
Use the neighbor’s garden house instead?
A normal rain fills all 5 of my 50-gallon rain barrels. If you ran gutters from your roof …
Perhaps it’s paranoia, but I’d be a little skeeved out at the notion of swimming in water that ran off the roof. On the other hand, I guess I swim in lakes full of dirty fish and birds all the time.
$100 for 1,000 gallons of water? Is that what the cost of city water is? That sounds really high. I know people who have filled pools that large and they didn’t get any sticker shock like that. Call Comfort Systems and see if they can give you an estimate:
ComfortSystems Customer Service
520 Garfield Avenue, Duluth, MN 55802
Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,
Monday-Friday, excluding holidays
218-730-4050
Otherwise, see the previous post, and seriously do a rain-diversion system from your roof and fill it free from nature. Rainwater from your roof should be really clean, and no worries. 🙂
Yeah, I’m a princess when it comes to swimming. I like filtration. Plus, we just missed a good rainstorm with a nice sunny weekend coming up. So I’m not sure about the rainwater thing…though I do intend to use the water productively when we empty the pool.
My $100 estimate came from my Comfort Systems bill and their rate sheet. I may give them a call. Or I may wait till the hubs leaves for work, and then just fill it anyway and DAMN THE TORPEDOES.
Given Comfort Systems’ rate of $8.64/CCF for residential service ($3.12/CCF for the water, $5.52/CCF sewer surcharge) , it should cost about $11.50 to fill a 1000 gallon pool.
Jaustin’s numbers are right. Those pesky decimal points sure change things, don’t they?
I am currently experiencing intense math shame.
I’m not sure if it is still the case, but you can also call Comfort Systems and let them know if you are using large amounts of water that won’t be going down the drain and they will reduce the charge. A few years ago I accidentally left my hose on for a few days in the garden and once I found it I called right away and they were able to not charge me for the sewer discharge for that water.