Im considering getting an EP put in my garage. I would likely do a “fastlane” pool. I’d like to hear what others have experienced.
My issues are:
My biggest concern is safety. Do others get in the pool and swim with no one else at home or no one in the room? I can tell you right now, my wife ain’t going to want to go hang out in the garage while I’m swimming.
The other issue is the water flow. It looks like the regular EP has special channels to bring water back to the pump but the fastlane appears to have nothing of the sort. This concerns me that it won’t swim as well because the water may be just making circles and make odd currents.
The other question is price of the fastlane. What did you pay for it and how much of that cost was installation?
If you can swim than I wouldn’t worry about needing someone else in the room with you while you’re in the pool. If you’re really worried you could set-up a video camera (or baby video monitor) so you’re wife can easily check on you when she’s in another room.
I’ve swum in the Endless Pool, but haven’t tried the Fastlane. I don’t suppose there is any way you can try one out? Maybe contact Endless Pools and ask if there’s a Fastlane near you that you could try. My guess is the current becomes more of an issue the faster you go. If you’re a pretty new swimmer you may notice less of a difference than a really fast swimmer.
The prices on their website are just for the pool. If you want someone to build it you’d be hiring a local person to do it. The Fastlane looks pretty easy to build though. The Endless Pool is a lot more complicated to build.
i think if you are looking at a basement installation you need to go for the full endless pool. The fastlane looks to be more of a temporary solution so doesnt have the humidity controls etc. that the full product has
i think if you are looking at a basement installation you need to go for the full endless pool. The fastlane looks to be more of a temporary solution so doesnt have the humidity controls etc. that the full product has
Yes, I was going to look at pricing for a full “endless pool” and not the fastlane if I was going to put it in my basement. I havent been able to get a ballpark price out of them yet. I’m not sure if the “starting price” of $7000 is a fastlane or a true Endless Pool.
My biggest concern is safety. Do others get in the pool and swim with no one else at home or no one in the room? I can tell you right now, my wife ain’t going to want to go hang out in the garage while I’m swimming.
If you’re more than 4"6" tall there should be no problem swimming alone.
The other issue is the water flow. It looks like the regular EP has special channels to bring water back to the pump but the fastlane appears to have nothing of the sort. This concerns me that it won’t swim as well because the water may be just making circles and make odd currents.
There certainly some interesting currents generated but they never seem to cause my wife a significant problem. If you have the mirror on the bottom of the pool it gives an excellent reference point for staying oriented.
The other question is price of the fastlane. What did you pay for it and how much of that cost was installation?
We bought ours 6 years ago so even if I could remember what we paid it probably would be different now. The only installation cost you probably won’t be able to get around would be installing a 220 electric hookup in the area where the pool will reside. Other than that the basic pool setup is very quick and straight forward. Our unit is setup outdoors in Upstate NY but we take it down for the winter. We have used solar to heat the unit for the last 3 years. It’s nice to have 80 degree water outdoors in early May in Upstate NY.
In terms of noise, the hydraulic pump is fairly loud but one could easily build a muffler box to decrease that. I’d be more worried about the amount of moisture driven into the house by using the pool rather than pool chemicals. We use only a tiny amount of chlorine in ours. If it’s not a public pool you really won’t have a huge organic load to deal with.
I have a fastlane and love it. Its in the deepend of our pool and there are no issues with water circulation. I don’t know how you would put one in in a pool in your garabe. The hydraulic lines go out of the pool side underground to the motor which ws over by the pumps. Its bolted to a cement pad. It would seem awefully messy to do in the garage
The fastlane is about half the price of the endless pool if I recall correctly. About $10,000US for fastlane and $20,000 for the standard endless without any of the bells and whistles. Often they run deals so you can probably get it for a better price than this.
I’m not sure what humidity controls another poster was mentioning. We have the regular endless and use a dehumidifier along with the standard pool cover.
Other costs will include shipping. If you’re in the US I think you can get the shipper to unload the crates for you but we had to arrange for a fork lift to be on site to do this. Not sure if you’d need this with the fastlane.
We use a bit of bleach as the chemical and I can’t smell it at all.
I wouldn’t necessarily rule out the fastlane. It’s cheaper and much easier to set up or move. The apparent downside is that the swim won’t be as smooth without the return channels, but I don’t know this foresure. Again, I would guess that the faster you swim the more important this is going to be.
I’m surprised you haven’t been able to get a price from them. I think their prices are posted on their website.
It’s not noisy at all when it’s just sitting there.
There is noise when it’s going, but it’s a constant hum. If it’s in your garage or basement I can’t imagine it would disturb people in other parts of the house.
I put a fastlane in my basement 2 years ago and love it. Its large enough that the current on the outside does not effect you while swimming in the middle. Took my wife a bit to get the hang of it, but she loves it now also.
I enclosed the room it is in and added some extra insulation in the roof to keep the noise down as our living room is right above it. You can hear it, but it isn’t annoying when your watching TV in the room above it.
I also put a dehumidifier in that room to keep the humidity down and make sure you buy the roll on cover as it keeps the humidity down to a minimum even without the dehumidifier. When swimming the humidity increasaes in the room and there is some splashing on the floor. With the dehumidifier everything is dry in a couple of hours so not a biggy.
Its a lot of money, but you can’t be the convience and even used they sell for a pretty good buck, so I wasn’t too worried about trying it. We have used it pretty regularily since, minus the summer months, but we live on the water and swim in the open water when we can.
If you handy at all, install isn’t a big deal. If you not familar with electrical, you might want to hire that out, but I ran it myself also.
Our unit is setup outdoors in Upstate NY but we take it down for the winter. We have used solar to heat the unit for the last 3 years. It’s nice to have 80 degree water outdoors in early May in Upstate NY.
Hugh, I look forward to seeing this in action…Too bad you could not set it up in your garage, you could swim all year round! I got the Kinetic Road Machine trainer and set it up Saturday, we have already put over 2 hours on it!