Prices have increased a bit since then. We got locked into 2020 pricing giving a deposit at the end of Dec but finalizing the order the first week of January 2021.
We got the High Performance model which is about $1K more than the Performance model. With a bit deeper at 48 inches, cover, mirrors, fit@home app, UV purifier, shipping, sales taxes, a modest but appreciated customer discount of $1K, our total is $35,941. That doesn’t include the $3-4K cost for an installer. Also it doesn’t include the materials outside of the pool which might be either wood or stone or a combo of both or the costs to recess the pool halfway. And a small addition!! It’s very pricey but it’s a lifetime investment. If we both didn’t love to swim as much as we do, it would not be worth it. We are in our 50s and plan to swim into our 80s or maybe longer. And being 22 miles from our pool facility and the age of pandemics, it’s going to be worth it. Just wish we didn’t have to wait until Sept to get our pool. If anyone is on the fence, just do it! (my 2 cents)
I purchased an endless pool a few years ago. I have a few cautionary details to add.
Regardless of how you look at it the price and maintenance of an endless pool is by far higher then any health club you join.
While endless pool is fantastic during the purchasing and design journey, as soon as they have your money they are very difficult to deal with. I purchased my pool in denver. They don’t tell you this but the installation is not a part of the purchase price so you’re basically buying pieces and equipment and they do not guarantee the actual finished product. The first installer which endless pool themselves supplied took my money and skipped town. I spent several months taking to them and trying to find another installer. There is no one in the denver area willing to install these pools outside of the “factory trained installers†endless pool supplies. The people who sell the pool spas from endless pools are specifically forbidden from installing them. They finally got me another installer and it turns out that this was basically the second pool he installed himself. Needless to say he didn’t do a great job.
If you do end up purchasing a pool from them be aware that any additions to the pool are best either bought from someone else or left out completely. For example endless pool actually couldn’t get me the pool heater so I actually got one (the very same model they were trying to sell me) from another company for almost half the price. The fit at home system (which I was actually excited to try out) is a piece of crap and half the time doesn’t even work to turn the thing on. The basic controller with the pace meter would be much more useful.
Buyer beware. The lock in the pool is flimsy. I have a young child so I wanted to make sure I could lock the thing. I asked them a hundred times about that lock specifically. When the installer installed it I was shocked. It’s a piece of plastic that fits in a hole he drilled in the side. Pathetic. I spent about 20$ at Home Depot and in 30 min tops I installed a much better lock on the cover.
So do your homework. And frankly I would avoid endless pool at all costs. Get a swim spa from anyone else.
I purchased an endless pool a few years ago. I have a few cautionary details to add.
Regardless of how you look at it the price and maintenance of an endless pool is by far higher then any health club you join.
While endless pool is fantastic during the purchasing and design journey, as soon as they have your money they are very difficult to deal with. I purchased my pool in denver. They don’t tell you this but the installation is not a part of the purchase price so you’re basically buying pieces and equipment and they do not guarantee the actual finished product. The first installer which endless pool themselves supplied took my money and skipped town. I spent several months taking to them and trying to find another installer. There is no one in the denver area willing to install these pools outside of the “factory trained installers†endless pool supplies. The people who sell the pool spas from endless pools are specifically forbidden from installing them. They finally got me another installer and it turns out that this was basically the second pool he installed himself. Needless to say he didn’t do a great job.
If you do end up purchasing a pool from them be aware that any additions to the pool are best either bought from someone else or left out completely. For example endless pool actually couldn’t get me the pool heater so I actually got one (the very same model they were trying to sell me) from another company for almost half the price. The fit at home system (which I was actually excited to try out) is a piece of crap and half the time doesn’t even work to turn the thing on. The basic controller with the pace meter would be much more useful.
Buyer beware. The lock in the pool is flimsy. I have a young child so I wanted to make sure I could lock the thing. I asked them a hundred times about that lock specifically. When the installer installed it I was shocked. It’s a piece of plastic that fits in a hole he drilled in the side. Pathetic. I spent about 20$ at Home Depot and in 30 min tops I installed a much better lock on the cover.
So do your homework. And frankly I would avoid endless pool at all costs. Get a swim spa from anyone else.
This is very similar to all the research I came across when designing my training “pain cave” at my home. The final piece was a swim spa. I narrowed it down to EP and Master Spa. The deciding factor for me was the Master Spa was serviceable like a hot tub and SUPER EASY to get service and not have to rely on the Master Spa installer and repair specialists. Also, swimming in the Master Spa was more like swimming in open water and the EP was like swimming in a pool. You really have to have great form and stay in the sweet spot which requires a strong core and understanding of how to swim in turbulent current at angle not head on. We just happened to get ours right at the beginning of COVID (lucky we ordered before all the supply shortages) and it has been amazing as a training tool.
Digging up this thread, a couple questions for owners …
Are there options besides endless pool if you need it in a space where it’d have to go through a regular door to be installed?
Is it the general feeling that if you have relatively easy pool access that the costs and hassles of ownership outweigh the benefits?
(My interest is for even easier/anytime swim access and also for easier/more frequent video and mechanics feedback with features like the mirror or specific pace setting)
Digging up this thread, a couple questions for owners …
Are there options besides endless pool if you need it in a space where it’d have to go through a regular door to be installed?
Is it the general feeling that if you have relatively easy pool access that the costs and hassles of ownership outweigh the benefits?
(My interest is for even easier/anytime swim access and also for easier/more frequent video and mechanics feedback with features like the mirror or specific pace setting)
Thanks!
Eric
First off, Endless Pools makes two types of pools. The original and spa pools. The original is a modular pool that comes in pieces, and you can put it inside your home with normal sized doors. We have the High Performance which is a high-end original pool. We put ours in a finished room in our basement. And we love it! My former coach (11 time IM champ) has the same pool and loves hers too. She has clients she coaches who purchased those EP Spa pools (comes in one piece) and the current isn’t as good. Complaints are that it is hard to stay straight and keep you legs from sinking. I have never tried a spa pool so can’t confirm this myself. But will say my HP pool is very much like swimming in the open water and it’s a great swim experience. It is set up to be a pool for serious swimmers. It seems those big spa pools are more for families and light swimming. Most people on the facebook group keep their spa pools at 90F and just play in the water with their grand kids. The original pools like the HP are for serious swim training. Lional Sanders loved his HP pool until he sold it and moved to Arizona.
Is it worth it? For me it was worth it, even with broken parts discovered upon initial installation and then a slow leaking hydraulic motor where I had veggie oil in my pool for 9 months until our installer came back from PA. I live in northern VT. Luckily I could still swim and the pool was only down a few days to get the new hydraulic motor replaced.
I live 22 miles from a public pool and it’s huge pain getting to the pool in the winter as it snows a lot and we get 6 months of winter and bad weather. With my pool I have been swimming 6 x a week since I got it installed at the end of Oct 2021. Saves me so much time by not driving to a pool. And I’m an outlier where i just prefer to avoid the general public. I love not dealing with people at the pool and locker room. Have all kinds of stories of “strange denizens in the pool”.
Is it worth it to purchase an EP if you live close to a pool and only plan to use it for easy workouts and some video analysis? I guess it depends on the person. It’s a very expensive investment and you’ll end up paying much more than you planned. If money is no object, you have contractors and an installer easily available, then sure, why not. Helps if you are mechanically inclined and handy. My husband is very much mechanically inclined and super handy. That will help a ton. And also knowledgeable with electricity will help. Or access to a very good electrician.
ETA: - forgot to mention electric costs of heating these pools is very significant. I’m the only EP owner off-the electrical grid (I don’t recommend this as we had to upgrade our whole system and add another solar panel…still worth it for me). But I know that other EP owners’ eclectic bills increase by quite a bit depending on where you live. I guess it’s similar to a hot tub but maybe more depending on different variables.
I would think a pool open to the outdoors would endure much more “hardship” than one indoors. I have friends in VA & MI who have put in Endless Pool’s and like it … these are indoors … one in a house the other in a shed. Some triathlete’s have put these in garages. Endless might set-up a viewing of someone else’s pool and you could ask a user. Just some thoughts
I would think a pool open to the outdoors would endure much more “hardship” than one indoors. I have friends in VA & MI who have put in Endless Pool’s and like it … these are indoors … one in a house the other in a shed. Some triathlete’s have put these in garages. Endless might set-up a viewing of someone else’s pool and you could ask a user. Just some thoughts
Endless Pools will offer a $1K incentive if you allow someone to try your own Endless Pool and they end up buying one as a result. I was asked if I was willing to do so. I’m personally on the fence as I don’t want just anyone coming to my home and using my pool. Especially during the age of a pandemic. But it would depend on the person I suppose. Maybe a fellow Ironman athlete from the surrounding area. But it’s a moot point for me since my driveway alone is almost a mile trek on a snowy adventure through the woods. And no one is going to make that kind of effort to try a pool in the middle of the forest up a steep mountain road. Our own friends from suburbia hardly want to come way out here to try my pool. But I’m digressing. You can contact Endless Pools and they will try and set you up with someone who has a pool and willing to share it. Just not sure how many people are willing in 2022
Our experience has been the opposite. Quite surprised that the electrical hasn’t increased much over the ten years of ownership. My wife keeps it at 88 degrees and swims between 30-60 minutes per day. We were surprised to barely notice a difference in our electrical bill. Was yours located outdoors or didn’t have a well fitting cover?
Our experience has been the opposite. Quite surprised that the electrical hasn’t increased much over the ten years of ownership. My wife keeps it at 88 degrees and swims between 30-60 minutes per day. We were surprised to barely notice a difference in our electrical bill. Was yours located outdoors or didn’t have a well fitting cover?
Ours is indoors but in the basement so the air temps are usually in the mid to high 60sF year round. We insulated the sides between the metal and the cedar siding. We have the regular manual cover. A better insulated cover could help but it wasn’t available for some reason when I ordered my pool. I keep the pool between 77-79F (I would feel sick in 88F water). It looses 1-2 degrees per day depending on how cold it gets outside as the basement does get a tad chillier on those bitter cold winter nights. The pool uses 4 kilowatts of electricity per hour to heat and it takes about 90 minutes to heat the pool 1 degree. So per month that could be an extra 45-50 kilowatts of electricity usage. We make our own electricity from the sun all summer. In the winter we run the generator a lot to charge up our lithium-ion batteries with all the clouds and short daylight. So we don’t have an electric bill. But spent a boatload of money to upgrade our system.
Like I said in a previous post, an increased electric bill will depend on where you live. There are quite a few folks on the FB group that complain about high increased electric costs from heating. Sounds like you have your pool super insulated. What kind of insulation and cover do you have? Also, what kind of pool do you have? Wondering if those big spa pools have good built-in insulation. I have the original (High Performance model)
Like I said in a previous post, an increased electric bill will depend on where you live. There are quite a few folks on the FB group that complain about high increased electric costs from heating. Sounds like you have your pool super insulated. What kind of insulation and cover do you have? Also, what kind of pool do you have? Wondering if those big spa pools have good built-in insulation. I have the original (High Performance model)
We have an original and designed it to be efficient with the insulation that EP sells and the certified installer added some under the skirting if I’m not mistaken. Below is a photo of our set up if your curious (assuming the uploader works for me). The room is 18x12 with a pool specific 5x6 utility room for the mechanical and pool storage.
Nice photos and set up. Do you mind me asking how warm do you keep your pool room? And how long does it take for your pool to go down to 87F from 88F? A couple days? Wondering if air temp in my pool room needs to be much warmer but then that requires extra energy to heat it. We do have an oil burning furnace but this year we are heating the house primarily with two wood stoves and also have a heat pump. But for those -20F mornings, we will need to heat up our upstairs offices for a bit.
I think I have the same cover. And maybe the thick insulation we used isn’t as good as what EP supplies. We did the skirting and coping ourselves. The white cedar is local and milled by this young forester who likes to stop by our place from time to time
Our experience has been the opposite. Quite surprised that the electrical hasn’t increased much over the ten years of ownership. My wife keeps it at 88 degrees and swims between 30-60 minutes per day. We were surprised to barely notice a difference in our electrical bill. Was yours located outdoors or didn’t have a well fitting cover?
I suspect it could depend a lot on the average speed of the water flow
Our experience has been the opposite. Quite surprised that the electrical hasn’t increased much over the ten years of ownership. My wife keeps it at 88 degrees and swims between 30-60 minutes per day. We were surprised to barely notice a difference in our electrical bill. Was yours located outdoors or didn’t have a well fitting cover?
I suspect it could depend a lot on the average speed of the water flow
OK so wjoiner’s wife keeps the pool at 88F and at that temp, you can’t really exert too much energy swimming at high speeds as you would overheat. Are you saying that slower swim current speeds means the pool will cool at a slower rate compared to someone swimming against a fast current? I guess that makes sense.
Our experience has been the opposite. Quite surprised that the electrical hasn’t increased much over the ten years of ownership. My wife keeps it at 88 degrees and swims between 30-60 minutes per day. We were surprised to barely notice a difference in our electrical bill. Was yours located outdoors or didn’t have a well fitting cover?
I suspect it could depend a lot on the average speed of the water flow
OK so wjoiner’s wife keeps the pool at 88F and at that temp, you can’t really exert too much energy swimming at high speeds as you would overheat. Are you saying that slower swim current speeds means the pool will cool at a slower rate compared to someone swimming against a fast current? I guess that makes sense.
I’m saying that the electricity bill depends A LOT on the engine that generates the flow you swim against: if you keep it at full throttle, your electrical consuption will skyrocket. I hope it’s clear now
Our experience has been the opposite. Quite surprised that the electrical hasn’t increased much over the ten years of ownership. My wife keeps it at 88 degrees and swims between 30-60 minutes per day. We were surprised to barely notice a difference in our electrical bill. Was yours located outdoors or didn’t have a well fitting cover?
I suspect it could depend a lot on the average speed of the water flow
OK so wjoiner’s wife keeps the pool at 88F and at that temp, you can’t really exert too much energy swimming at high speeds as you would overheat. Are you saying that slower swim current speeds means the pool will cool at a slower rate compared to someone swimming against a fast current? I guess that makes sense.
I’m saying that the electricity bill depends A LOT on the engine that generates the flow you swim against: if you keep it at full throttle, your electrical consuption will skyrocket. I hope it’s clear now
Yes that is obvious
I’m only concerned about heat loss. And it seems my pool cools down quicker than wjoiner’s pool. Similar pools with same cover. I do think because I most likely swim at higher speeds in my much cooler pool, it might cool down faster. (ETA: if I want my bowl of hot soup to cool quicker, I stir it around a bit)
I swim 6 x a week 30-60 mins and my High Performance pool has a 7.5 HP motor so it uses a lot of energy (original has 5 hp). But the real electric consumption comes from heating. I’m off the electrical grid so I actually see the electric usage of all aspects of our pool. Heating drains our batteries so much quicker than running the swim current. I’m not a fast swimmer with a swim background, but I’m sure I’m swimming faster than anyone in an 88-90F pool. My paces range from 1:40 to 1:30 mins per 100 yards (slower for drills, warm up and faster for paddle/fin work).
I’m only concerned about heat loss. And it seems my pool cools down quicker than wjoiner’s pool. Similar pools with same cover. I do think because I most likely swim at higher speeds in my much cooler pool, it might cool down faster. (ETA: if I want my bowl of hot soup to cool quicker, I stir it around a bit)
A faster current would lose heat to the environment slightly faster. Though a swimmer (and, for that matter, the motor) in that current would need to work harder and generate more heat themselves. I’m not sure which of those effects is greater but neither is that large; if I had to guess I’d bet on the swimmer/motor in that scenario.
How well insulated is the room itself? Mid 60’s seems cool for a room with a large volume of 78 degree water sitting in it.
I’m only concerned about heat loss. And it seems my pool cools down quicker than wjoiner’s pool. Similar pools with same cover. I do think because I most likely swim at higher speeds in my much cooler pool, it might cool down faster. (ETA: if I want my bowl of hot soup to cool quicker, I stir it around a bit)
A faster current would lose heat to the environment slightly faster. Though a swimmer (and, for that matter, the motor) in that current would need to work harder and generate more heat themselves. I’m not sure which of those effects is greater but neither is that large; if I had to guess I’d bet on the swimmer/motor in that scenario.
How well insulated is the room itself? Mid 60’s seems cool for a room with a large volume of 78 degree water sitting in it.
This is probably the main issue for my pool losing heat quicker than I’d like. And this winter it’s worse because our furnace on the other side of the fireplace is not running much at all since we are heating primarily with wood this year on the first floor above the basement. And when the furnace runs it makes the basement warmer. The pool room is well insulated, but the basement has no heat zones since it was never needed. We could add a heat zone and thermostat to the pool room but then it’s another project and we would have to run the furnace more and burn more oil. But then the room would be warm and then we’d run the generator less in the winter on the cloudy days. We have thought about adding a heat pump to the pool room but again, that causes more energy usage on our solar system/batteries if it’s cloudy.
Today is a sunny day so I’m heating the pool and won’t have to run the generator. We are charging our batteries and heating the pool at the same time thanks to the sunshine and lack of clouds
Moral of the story. Don’t live off grid and buy huge expensive toys that require a lot of electricity. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. Lots of extra effort, creativity and planning but it’s still worth it to live off grid in the middle of the woods and own an Endless Pool. I’m always looking for ways to keep the pool more energy efficient.
How well insulated is the room itself? Mid 60’s seems cool for a room with a large volume of 78 degree water sitting in it.
This is probably the main issue for my pool losing heat quicker than I’d like. And this winter it’s worse because our furnace on the other side of the fireplace is not running much at all since we are heating primarily with wood this year on the first floor above the basement. And when the furnace runs it makes the basement warmer. The pool room is well insulated, but the basement has no heat zones since it was never needed. We could add a heat zone and thermostat to the pool room but then it’s another project and we would have to run the furnace more and burn more oil. But then the room would be warm and then we’d run the generator less in the winter on the cloudy days. We have thought about adding a heat pump to the pool room but again, that causes more energy usage on our solar system/batteries if it’s cloudy.
A heat pump would help a bit. Though in the winter it’ll only be ~2x (less, possibly) as efficient as heating as the electric heater in the pool itself. And it’s not heating the pool itself.
Insulation and air sealing in that room is the place I’d look if I was trying to reduce its heat loss. I’m impressed with the PV system running a 4kw heater plus the rest of the house in December.
How well insulated is the room itself? Mid 60’s seems cool for a room with a large volume of 78 degree water sitting in it.
This is probably the main issue for my pool losing heat quicker than I’d like. And this winter it’s worse because our furnace on the other side of the fireplace is not running much at all since we are heating primarily with wood this year on the first floor above the basement. And when the furnace runs it makes the basement warmer. The pool room is well insulated, but the basement has no heat zones since it was never needed. We could add a heat zone and thermostat to the pool room but then it’s another project and we would have to run the furnace more and burn more oil. But then the room would be warm and then we’d run the generator less in the winter on the cloudy days. We have thought about adding a heat pump to the pool room but again, that causes more energy usage on our solar system/batteries if it’s cloudy.
A heat pump would help a bit. Though in the winter it’ll only be ~2x (less, possibly) as efficient as heating as the electric heater in the pool itself. And it’s not heating the pool itself.
Insulation and air sealing in that room is the place I’d look if I was trying to reduce its heat loss. I’m impressed with the PV system running a 4kw heater plus the rest of the house in December.
I’m only concerned about heat loss. And it seems my pool cools down quicker than wjoiner’s pool. Similar pools with same cover. I do think because I most likely swim at higher speeds in my much cooler pool, it might cool down faster. (ETA: if I want my bowl of hot soup to cool quicker, I stir it around a bit)
A faster current would lose heat to the environment slightly faster. Though a swimmer (and, for that matter, the motor) in that current would need to work harder and generate more heat themselves. I’m not sure which of those effects is greater but neither is that large; if I had to guess I’d bet on the swimmer/motor in that scenario.
How well insulated is the room itself? Mid 60’s seems cool for a room with a large volume of 78 degree water sitting in it.
This is probably the main issue for my pool losing heat quicker than I’d like. And this winter it’s worse because our furnace on the other side of the fireplace is not running much at all since we are heating primarily with wood this year on the first floor above the basement. And when the furnace runs it makes the basement warmer. The pool room is well insulated, but the basement has no heat zones since it was never needed. We could add a heat zone and thermostat to the pool room but then it’s another project and we would have to run the furnace more and burn more oil. But then the room would be warm and then we’d run the generator less in the winter on the cloudy days. We have thought about adding a heat pump to the pool room but again, that causes more energy usage on our solar system/batteries if it’s cloudy.
Today is a sunny day so I’m heating the pool and won’t have to run the generator. We are charging our batteries and heating the pool at the same time thanks to the sunshine and lack of clouds
Moral of the story. Don’t live off grid and buy huge expensive toys that require a lot of electricity. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. Lots of extra effort, creativity and planning but it’s still worth it to live off grid in the middle of the woods and own an Endless Pool. I’m always looking for ways to keep the pool more energy efficient.
have you considered swimming with a wetsuit? that would allow to keep the pool colder and save some electric energy. during covid lockdown, with pools closed, I did a lot of OWS, often in a wetsuit, and didn’t lose so much fitness
