Looking at a house with an in-ground pool. What's the ongoing cost to keep these up? Chemicals, testing, filtration, etc? Other advice from the hive?

In WI?

Elec bill will be epic.

how big is the pool, are there trees around it?

If you stay on top of it, a couple - few hundred bucks a year.

are you doing the work yourself?

The last inground pool I had was back in the late '80's through mid '90's.

The cost was affordable but the physical work was a bunch.

I enjoyed going out in the evening and taking care of it BUT..................

A big BUT.................  We left the house, it was a vacation house in California, for several months.

Went back out there and the pool was green.  It took several weeks and hundreds of dollars of chemicals to get it
back to that luxurious blue tint.

When we went to sell the place every single realtor told us that we would make more money on the house if we
filled the pool in and made a nice lawn in its place.

I agree with this.  They arent as bad as everyone says.

$87

If you have to ask ......

87 cents a day

Until your liner goes......

I keep my in ground pool at a balmy 87 degrees. That is a big factor right there. Gas heating is high. Chemical are low (BBB/TFPC- googe it). I do the weekly service myself which is easy. Mechanical break downs on heater add a few hundred here and there. I hire out opening and closing which is about $300 combined a season. The killers are liners, leaks, pipe breaks, etc. which run into thousands.

I figure based on owning one for 12 years:

Adds $52 average per month to run pump.  10 hours a day, 365 days

Add another $15 per month in chemicals (of course if you maintain it correctly, goes higher if you don't.)

Figure an hour a day to clean and check everything.  I have a  lot of trees and every leaf falls into the pool.  In the hot summer you can hear the pine needles plunging into the water.  


In seven years you are supposed to re-plaster the pool -$7000 + or -



I would not have a house without one.  We love it.

I pay my pool service guy $175 per month.

You dont want a pool. They are like a boat, a hole into which you pour money.

I do not know how much it will cost to maintain a pool.

We just did this - here



http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1838671_What_is_it_like_to_own_a_pool_.html

Yes...
But if the PH gets away from you,$$$.

best bet is to use It a lot, it stays cleaner that way.

just pay the Pool man

The electric bill on this house  averages $170/month, with the pool and all appliances & heat on electric. No heat on the pool. But it's also owned by a guy who lives alone in a 4-bedroom house.

Running the filter was about $100 a month on my electric bill.  Chlorine, shock, chemicals were probably about $40 a month.  You should buy a test kit every so often for about $20.  Then just test the chlorine and PH levels each week.  it's easier to maintain it, that to let it go, and then try to hypershock it later.  

If the filter pump is an older model, you may want to consider replacing it.  That could cost about $1000 and up.  But if the pump doesn't move water, the filter won't do anything.  The most noticeable effect is that the water is always green, and no matter what you do it's almost impossible to change.  The newer pumps are also more energy efficient, and can bring down the electric bill.  It could be worth it to just bite the bullet and upgrade the pump sooner than later.

Every 6 month you need to clean the filter.  Most of the time, you can just hose the crap off.  Every few years you need to replace the cartridges.  it depends on the pool usage, and how much crap and suntan oil you get in the water.  Mine was about $500 when that happened but it'll vary depending on your filter.

I never ran the heater on my pool.  I can't tell you how much this adds to you monthly bills.  I inherited the property from my father.  He was a cheap bastard that only ever heated the pool once for a special occasion.  And he let me know it cost a pretty penny.

Aren't there different types of pools? I'd think that would make a difference and the size.

Why not ask the current home owners what the maintenance costs have been??

This
Money pit

First, check out Trouble Free Pool, BBB method.  This saved my sanity while owning a pool  http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/4935-TFPC-for-Beginners

Second, the filter/pump should immediately be switched to some kind of timer.  It's absolutely pointless to run 24 hours a day.  

Third, the more efficient/better your pump, the cheaper it will be to run.  I learned this the hard way by using a lot of cheap pumps and replacing them often.  A good pump will last and cost less.

Fourth, keep on the pool, use it often, and don't just let it go for a week at a time and you will have no problems.

Fifth, spend the money and get a loop-loc cover if it doesn't come with one.  It makes a world of difference - http://www.looploc.com/pool-safety-covers.cfm


Pool history:
Year 1-3 used regular old boring Chlorine tabs and dispenser with Sand Filter, replace 1 pump in this time frame that burned up.  Spent roughly $700/year opening/closing/chems/treatments/etc.
Year 4-6 switched to EZ-Pool.  While this was great for the sensitive skin types, it was absolute hell to keep clean/working right.  Constant trips to the pool store, every summer multiple weeks during prime pool season w/out use of the pool.  Roughly $1000/year.
Year 7-11 used BBB method.  Perfect everything for 4 years, not a single closed pool day, never took more than 2 days to get the pool open, less than $200/year on chemicals.

Edit - Forgot about electric the first few pumps I used were between 800-900kwh/month.  The Eco friendly one I eventually bought ended up using something like 200/300.  Then running it on a timer for 12 hours a day only further reduced it a TON.

 
Our electric bill averages about $600 a month.

I have a pool, not that much to maintain it.
Now I have gotten into replacing things, spa heater, etc. some expense there.