Discussions

So we have bought an above ground pool from Costco and are in the midst of setting it up. Wondering where the best place is to buy chemical and also a heater. Solar or electric? TIA for any helpful hints and advice!

Chem - Can Tire, Walmart, Home Hardware - whichever is cheaper. There are a lot of additives, that are needed if you have a pool that reuses water every year (pH increaser, pH decreaser, muriatic acid, etc). Unfortunately, Manitoba is not exactly conducive to that level of pool care since our pools get partially or fully drained for winter. No point putting the extra chem into the pool just to dump it out 4 months later. All you really need to worry about is chlorine. Pucks, Liquid Chlorine, or SWCG are all options.  
 
As for heaters, my only experience is with solar heaters. The cheaper 2ft x 20ft heaters can often be found on amazon or other online stores in multi packs of 4, 8, etc. This is the way we chose to go. It takes some space though, as to be effective, the surface area of the solar heaters should be close to the surface area of the pool. (Our heaters are about 50% of the pool surface and more would be better.) Roof mounted would help with that, but the roof mounted systems are more $.  
 
Andrew

We have an 18ft above ground pool. The solar heater did little to warm the water. What is very helpful is a solar blanket. The clear ones are the best, do a google search for comparisons. We have propane heater because we didn’t have enough room in the panel box to add en electric heater for the pool