Have any of you ever tried the endless pools? I think they would help me get more used to the open water swim without any turns or breaks. What are your thoughts?
I got mine oct of last year. I am no fish yet but i feel much more comf in the water. I am going to be doing a big swim focus this fall and hope to see some big improvement then. I have not been back into open water since the pool has been running. If youcan get one i would highly recommend it.
love mine. Use it 5-6 times a week. Can’t get more convienent than walking to the basement and swimming. Expensive, but worth it in my mind.
Great for long steady swims. I find it makes you swim properly, your weakness will show up easily, and force you to work on them.
All that being said, I still think you need to get some open water swimming in as it’s still different. But I can swim 365 days a year in my EP, my open water access is much less than that.
FishHog
Might be a dumb question but here it goes… How do you know what distance you’ve swam? Maybe a Garmin Swim with stroke count (if you know your strokes per 25m I suppose)?
I’d love to know the distance question too. Also, what’s the ballpark cost?
I’ve only used one at a local instruction place but they have a clock showing your swim pace per 100. I assume it also calculates your distance…or you could figure it out based on the time you swim multiplied by your pace. No idea how accurate it is but I would guess it’s pretty close.
I thought EP’s tracked flow rate, so distance measurements should be pretty accurate. Always good to hit open water now and again. Reality is always different than pool 
I know my average stroke per 100m, so I’ll usually swim based on stroke count. Yeah, counting may seem tedious, but I’ve found it’s a lot easier to keep track when you’re counting every stroke than it is trying to count only at the end of a length or lap.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/features/endless/moreswim.html
Here is something i wrote here a long time ago, and if you click at the link at the very end of the article, you will get a lot more articles about the one dan and i put in, from start to finish.
The big question is: Do you pee in your endless pool?
EP Owners,
Is there a particular manufacturer and model you recommend?
I have a fastlane, had it for 4 years. Yes pee is clean if it is your own. The pace clock isn’t exactly accurate, sometime you can click to make the current faster and the wall speed actually slows down. The negative effect of the flume is that it pushes your hips down, so if your body position is not good your legs sink. I swim with a swim snorkel a lot in it to work on position and mechanics while looking at the mirror.
The big question is: Do you pee in your endless pool?
Answer: Yes. But only if you’re actually in it. Wife and kids kind of freak if you decide to shoot up and over when standing at the edge.
You asked about Endless Pool and I have a Fastlane which is the current generator.
When we were looking to move last year we looked at a house that had the entire in the ground Endless Pool kit: mirror, fiberglass pool, current generator, lights, etc. I asked the seller if she would turn on the current for a minute for me to see it in action and she said no. I asked really? She said no again. So we said thanks and moved on to the next house. The Endless Pool is pretty much a dedicated swimming pool, not any room in there for anything else. We both felt it was unsightly also.
When we purchased our new home we had an in the ground put in and had the Fastlane System put in with it. There is a recessed area in the deep end to accept the current generator so it protrudes minimally into the open pool space.
I can review this but as I have not used an Endless Pool I can not compare the two.
The unit has two remotes, they are supposed to be water resistant but seeing how poorly the back cover plate screws on, I can’t believe it to be. Three buttons on the remote, an on/off button and a faster button and a slower button. The system has a memory so when I turn it off after a workout, the next time I turn it back on it is at the same setting. If I remember correctly there are 50 something speeds for the current but nothing to let you know where you are in the settings, such as no level one, level two, etc…The first time I used it my wife was watching and asked: it is even working? I have managed to crank it up from there though with regular workouts.
When we purchased the unit, I was told that the high performance (upgraded) current generator was only available for the Endless Pool, not the Fastlane. I have tried swimming against the current on it’s highest setting and can do maybe 30 seconds, mostly just splashing faster
I use a watch and swim about 30 to 45 minutes five to six times a week, weather permitting. I dont get bored. I watched the videos on the Endless Pool website as well as other sites and I see that they are swimming right in front of the current generator. I find that with the open pool, the best current is when I am about three feet from the unit, a nice wide smooth current. As far a technique, mine is bad, bad, bad so I can not comment on if it pulls my feet down or such but I do find that I have to concentrate on swimming in front of the unit or I move out of the current.
One thing that I don’t really like is having to stop swimming to change the current speed, it’s not really that big of a deal, just an annoyance. The convenience of being able to walk out the back door and swim is huge, no down time for swim meets, or little old ladies doing aqua aerobics. After swimming I hop onto the computrainer and workout more, two minutes between workouts.
My dog likes swimming in it also in case you are curious.
BTW, I don’t pee in it and neither does the dog.
I’m admittedly the most recent Vasa shill, but FWIW, I’ve really enjoyed and benefited from my Vasa swim trainer - to the point that I would actually turn down a request to have an Endless pool now, as the Vasa has ZERO maintenance, and translates well enough to real swimming that I would much prefer it for a no-maintenance home swim unit.
Might be worth considering if you’re averse to the hassle of dealing with the expense and maintenance of a real water system (which I’ll definitely agree is better than a Vasa for actual swimming, but the vasa is remarkably good for what it is.)
How do you measure distance in one?
I do not pee in my endless pool. Timer runs for 30min at a time. I get out then if I need to.
speed is set by a pace clock, but you must know how fast you can swim already. How accurate do you need it. I started swimming about a 2min/100 pace. So 30min would be 1500m. I’ve bumped the speed up significantly on the EP, about 1:25/100m currently, but I still just log 1500m for a 1/2 hr swim. It’s kind of like the estimate your treadmill gives you for distance. Unless you have calibrated it yourself, it will not be that accurate either. Don’t get too hung up on a couple hundred meters, or yards for you US people.
Its a fantastic tool, love me. Fastlane in Canada, cost me about 12k 4 years ago, not including the room I built dedicated for it.
I researched a lot of current pools, Endless being one of them. I chose to go with the Sentry River Pool. I hired a contractor to assemble it and for the last 5 years it has been my only source of swim training.
It is different than swimming in a pool, but much more similar to open water swimming. Sometimes I put floating balls in the pool to simulate a mass swim start.
I don’t pee in the pool, I have a toilet for that. NOTE: one person peeing in the pool is insignificant. 100 people doing it every day is a real problem.
You can get a swim current meter to tell you the distance you swam, but it can be accurate or inaccurate depending if you swim in the strongest part of the current or the weaker part. It is easy to stay in either, and yes you will know it.
After 5 years of training in a current pool, I have found that trying to use swimming pool metrics does not work. After using Trainer Road for the bike training, It dawned on me to do the same in the River Pool. The current is set by watts, so I have a power meter. I can set the power (watts) to whatever and swim for time or strokes. In a pool my SPL is somewhere around 20-23, so I use a metric of 1 stroke = 1 meter. Not accurate, but I use the same metric every time I swim, so my data is comparable to my data. I find that using Trainer Road bike workouts also work for the swim.
I would recommend that for current pools, forget about distance, and focus on power and time. Based upon using a heart rate monitor, I have a fair correlation between HR and swim Power (don’t forget about RPE!).
Why did I get a current pool? In my county (the size of Rhode Island) and in all surrounding counties there is not a single indoor pool! I do have a whitewater river to swim in, but I don’t do it in the winter! But fun in the summer, 50 min swim up river and 10 minutes downriver back to the start. Rapids are fun to play in as well.
Why did you choose Sentry RP over Endless?
Why did you choose Sentry RP over Endless?
I narrowed down my choice to Endless and Sentry. Based upon the specs of each and customer comments, I felt Sentry better suited my needs. The guy selling sentry was a triathlete, that helped.
Reasons:
- Sentry had a more powerful motor. My pool is suitable for the fastest triathlete, maybe not a world record holder for the 25 meters?
- Sentry had a larger propeller blade, moves more water, provides a bigger swim sweet spot.
- Customers complained about Endless and jet pools about how the current pulled their legs down. Sentry claimed to do the opposite. My experience, the faster the current, the higher your legs. Warning: if you have a poor body position in the water, this pool will not correct it. Just as in a regular swim pool the faster you swim the easier it is to keep the legs at the surface.
- I liked the Sentry pool because of how it could be customized. Mine is 5 feet deep, 18X12 feet. This is larger than standard. My thoughts were that a longer pool would reduce or eliminate the current pulling down my legs.
- I like the deeper pool just for play. My Nieces love to spend time in my pool, even though they all have outdoor full length pools. At 999 watts (max watts) the water is really moving and is quite a ride.
- Sentry had a very good reputation and years of experience. Another pool named River Pool made by someone in Texas had a very bad reputation, like none of the pools sold worked. For the record Endless has an outstanding reputation also.
Bottom line between Endless and Sentry it is more a gut feeling based upon personality. I don’t think you can go wrong with either.
I have had excellent customer service support from Sentry. Like how to balance the water, replacement filters etc.
Extras that are worth it:
Lights, at first I didn’t think much about this, but the beauty of the pool at night with the lights is amazing!
Extra HP motor. Although I am not fast enough to need it (600 watts is my max 100 Meter/strokes), but it is nice to know I can always go faster in my dreams! NOTE: Swim Smooth posted on their website a report of two swimmers in side by side Endless pools showing off their swimming form during a Triathlon convention. They commented that the swimmers could not race each other because they were maxed out on the speed of the pool rather than the speed of the swimmers. To be fair Endless may have a more powerful motor.
Pool cover. This is not a luxury but in my opinion a must have. It keeps the pool super clean. If the pool is indoors it totally eliminates the pool humidity problem. If I leave the cover off overnight, then next morning all the windows/walls etc are covered with a misty cloudy fog.
Heater. A must have, I try and keep the pool around 65-68 degrees in winter and that takes a heater. When the pool temps reach the mid 70s turn the heater off for the summer. If you go into June with pool water 80 degrees or warmer, you will never get it below 90 in July and August.
I wanted to test swim both pools, never got the chance. I am super happy with my pool.