Topping off with the hose vs just biting the bullet on a water delivery

Started by Sam Whitaker · · 3 replies
Back to the forum
Reply
#1
Been going back and forth all summer. With three kids and their friends treating my 24ft like the community pool, I'm topping off with the hose probably twice a week just to keep the skimmer covered. Water bill's already made that jump everyone's been posting about.

Guy at work says for what I'm spending on city water I could just get a truck to bring a load once a month and be done with it. Never used a water delivery so no idea what that actually runs or if it's even worth the hassle for one pool versus just eating the hose cost.

Anybody actually done the math on this, buddy. Feels like one of those things where the hose is annoying but the truck might be more annoying to schedule.

3 Replies

#2
Sam, whatever the last guy said about the truck being cheaper is probably right on paper, but nobody mentions the scheduling headache of being home when they show up, my oval's small enough the hose still wins for me even with three kids splashing half of it out daily.
#3
I ran the actual numbers on this a couple years back when my water bill spiked after a resurface and refill, not the same situation as splashout but same question of hose vs bulk delivery. For a 24ft above ground you're probably looking at somewhere in the 12-15k gallon range total, and city water even at inflated summer rates is usually still cheaper per gallon than a delivery truck once you factor in the minimum load they charge for. The delivery math only starts winning when you need thousands of gallons at once, like a full refill after opening or a liner replacement, not a few inches twice a week from evaporation and kids cannonballing water onto the deck.

Rick's scheduling point is the real killer for topoff use anyway, you'd be arranging a truck around a few hundred gallons of splashout which is nothing for them to bring out. If the water bill is what's bugging you I'd look at cutting the loss instead of solving the refill side, a solid fitting pool cover when it's not in use cuts evaporation a lot more than people expect, and for a 24ft it's not a big investment. Twice a week with the hose sounds annoying but you're probably only actually spending real money on a fraction of that volume.
#4
Marcus nailed it, a truck's for a full refill not splashout, up here in Ohio I fill maybe twice a season and even that felt like a lot of standing around watching a hose.