We ordered the High Performance Endless Pool back in January and it arrived in a crate just over a week ago. Our installer won't be available until September to install it. But we are still working on getting our basement ready.

Our total invoice from EP was almost $36K and the installer costs an additional $5,600. Plus the costs of getting our basement finished and ready. We live in a remote, rural place and driving 22 miles each way to a pool is not sustainable long term. We did it all last winter, leaving the house at 5am to do master swims at 6am. Our winters are brutal so the drive to the pool was terrible on some days. So the EP is really our best option.

My previous Ironman coach got the same pool before us and LOVES it. She says she swims every day and probably too much. Another friend and former coach said that she used to swim at an EP close to her work regularly and said it really helped her open water swimming.

I can't wait for my pool to be ready! It will be life changing. I will use it almost every day (goal is 6 days a week even if it's a short swim for body feel). I'm an extremely late AOS so this pool should be a big help for me.

Energy costs? We are off the grid on a big solar system with huge lead acid batteries and a Northern Lights Generator. We are going to add more solar/batteries for a heat pump for AC in the summer so that will help with our pool. Plus my hubby wants a hot tub too eventually and will definitely need to augment our system for that kind of power usage!

I don't know anything about the fastlanes being put into an existing pool but haven't heard any bad reviews. I do hear the performance pools are much better for serious swimming compared to those swim spas that come in one piece, also sold by Endless Pool. I think those are more for families/recreation.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I install and service endless pools. The hydraulic motor does not play nice with salt systems.It doesn't matter how careful you are with the chemistry or how many anodes you install, the motor that drives the turbine will fail.

Good luck with your project

My parents have one I have used a few times. I am not really a fan but maybe I need to try it more. The water pushing your arms back rather than having to pull through the water just doesn't seem like good training. I almost feel it would be better to use bands and no jets. Again maybe I need to use it more

I’ve had a Sentry Riverpool for 12 years. Since nearest indoor public pools are 60-90 minutes away, it is a real time saver.

I have replaced the pump, and pool liner.

See Sentry pool web sites for pricing and options.

Energy use, keep filter pump going 24/7, but the real energy cost is the electric heater.

What I like best is I can swim based upon power. It has a power meter so you you can tell how much effort you are using. Of course in a normal pool you get similar metrics based upon distance and time. But the river pool is relentless, you can’t slowdown with out resetting the power meter.

For an indoor pool, a pool cover is a must to control humidity.

I use trainerroad and I have a treadmill, so I can do an indoor triathlon anytime. I use it all winter long when it is too cold to run outside.

Contact Endless Pools and they will try to find someone in your area who will let you try their Endless. Folks will let you try their Endless because they get something for it (can’t remember what). Then you can decide if it’s worth the cost for you.

We built a pool last year, salt water, and we thought about installing an Endless during the design process. I contacted Endless and the rep confirmed, as stated above, that salt water is tough on the motor. Cost was around $10K from our pool builder to add it.

We skipped the Endless and designed the pool to be long enough for real swimming. My wife and I both swim, typically at the same time, so having a single Endless wouldn’t work well for us. Plus, I’ve spent quite a few hours in an Endless for swim coaching and I much prefer a regular lap pool. But the Endless is a good compromise for a home pool that’s already there.

This echoes my experience - it feels like water is being thrown at you, rather than grabbing water and pulling. Plus, if you want to change swim speeds, you have to stop and press buttons on the remote. And it’s hard to compare swim speeds in the Endless to open water / pool swimming. The Endless I used did have a speed clock, but I doubt it’s very accurate. Maybe accurate to itself, but I like being able to gauge my swim speed against a fixed distance.

Have endless fastlane pro. We did it as part of a new build so had the area prepped, but it was delayed quite a while. That said now that it's in I love it so far. I have taken a long time off swimming, but now back to several times a week most weeks. It's app could use some work but I do suggest getting the wireless adapter so you can program workouts. I want to say cost plus install was ~10k, and I ended up finding a local installer that would come do about 3 or 4 in an area over the weekend if the pad was setup for the hydraulic unit.

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Founder: BestBikeSplit
Amazonian

HI,
I'm actually in Louisville as well.
I just got a michael phelps swim spa. salt water voids the warranty with the phelps swim spa
It takes some getting used to but it helps me get some swim training in that I wouldn't otherwise.
It took a while for me to find an electrician willing to hook it up. I wound up using Brandt. I can give you his contact if you want he did a great job

Thanks for the detailed reply!

Thanks Piche, this was really helpful info and something I didn't know before. This will be the determining factor in my using a local YMCA rather than installing an Endless Pool.

Thanks, that's an interesting point about the mechanics of having your arms pushed back. I've not used one before.

Love that you're equipped to race an indoor tri if there's an apocalypse. Turns out my saltwater pool isn't compatible.

Thanks, this was really helpful. Since we have a saltwater pool I'm going to stick with the local YMCA. I thought I was SOL but then found them fairly close by.

Thanks for the details and pics! If I have the finances to put in a secondary pool in the future for swimming, that looks like an awesome aesthetic.

Hey thanks, nice to connect with another Louisville triathlete. I'll be racing at the Oldham County sprint, Carlyle Lake, and IM Indiana (FLO Factory team kit).

Since it seems like our salt water pool is incompatible, I'll be swimming at my local YMCA.

See you out there, thanks for the offer and details!

Seriously you should try a swim tether for your saltwater pool.

It's boring as heck and certainly won't be your 'main' swim site, but for days where the swim pace isn't critical, or for days on tight schedules, swim tethers work really well for swim training in small pools.

Even the competitive swim teams at the pool I swim in, do tethered swim sets just for both power training and so the coach can evaluate their stroke more efficiently since they're not moving.

Even Triathlon Taren with his super-lux swim spa in his pain cave comes right out and says he prefers to NOT run his swim-spa at the indicated paces (due to engine load/wear) and he just tethers himself to the back and runs this jets at a slower speed setting. At that point, the speed display is kind of useless - you might as well just run the tether alone.

Hey, I actually just had a new pool built and had the Fastlane Pro built with it, so I could get a clean looking setup. Endless pools connected me with a local guy who had a deckmounted fastlane on his pool so I could try it first, and it was good enough for me to decide I wanted one.

My pool is 30x12-15ft, so it's plenty big enough for a Fastlane. One think I hadn't planned on is how much the kids love it and probably use it more than me. I have been using it 4-5x /week to supplement my swim training and now only swim 1x at the local ymca pool. I know it's not a complete replacement for pool swimming but I can now swim at home anytime I want, so that option is key for me. It does take a little getting used to but the water flow is good enough to get what you need out of it. It does seem to be a strength workout as you technically aren't moving through the water, but the first time I swam back at my YMCA pool I was really surprised at how much better I felt in the water. It does force you to focus on your technique/form (in the fastlane), and that will directly translate to the pool from what I can tell so far.

Bottom line is I'm so glad I decided to pursue one during our new pool build.

-Dave

Agree with NicohlasJ. I have only tried them, never really trained in one, but its a little like running on a treadmill in my view (yes I hate treadmills too). In the EP it feels like you hand is being push back vs pull. Maybe long term it gets better, but curious if people have found it does translate to open water swimming.

Funny that your kids like the Fastlane. Friend of mine has swim jets, and he sets them on low, which turns his pool into a lazy river when you lay on a float.

Glad to hear your Fastlane is working out (literally and figuratively). I wanted a salt water pool, so it was a deal breaker for me. The salt system has made maintenance a lot easier, especially when we leave town. We were gone for 3 weeks this summer on vacation, and the salt system kept the chlorine level topped off the entire time.

What type of tether? We just moved to a house with a pool and I got one that you strap on your ankles. It seems fine, although I definitely prefer the feedback of a pool,

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Just go to Amazon, order one or more and try them out. I used a waist tether that I felt worked perfectly, but some don't like it for some reason. Tethers are cheap as heck and easy to return, so go crazy. I bring a tether with me if I'm on a work trip to a place where there's a small (but not tiny) hotel pool just in case I want to swim and can't go to a normal pool.

I had a Fastlane installed 7 years ago when I was renovating a pool at a house I has just purchased. I have a saltwater set up and no issues so far, but comments on this thread are enough to make me think about just switching to chlorine now that it is time for a new salt cell.

I was a competitive swimmer through college and I can say I have no issues with the "feel." I actually really like the fact that you get immediate feedback from small stroke changes by seeing whether you move forward or drop back in the current. I also like that if you get out of alignment, it will blow you right out of the current.

My only complaint is that mine has never delivered the 1:08 per 100 yard top speed that is advertised....I would say it is 1:15 at best.

Every time I read these EP threads, I think that I'd rather buy a house near the municipal pool

If you decide to switch from your salt system to traditional chlorine, with the goal of making your Fastlane last longer, you’ll have to drain your pool because the salt will still be in the water.

For those not familiar with salt water pools, they still use chlorine for sanitizing. An electronic device converts the salt to chlorine, which somehow converts back to salt (you don’t have to keep adding salt to the pool). The salt system generates chlorine continuously so that you don’t have to keep adding chlorine tablets or liquid chlorine.

It’s a very convenient way to maintain chlorine levels and also allows you to run a slightly lower level of chlorine.