Costs of Maintaining a Swimming Pool

Asif Abrar 7/26/2024

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Maintaining a swimming pool involves several costs that can range between $100 to $400 per month, depending on whether you handle maintenance yourself or hire professionals. Key expenses include $50 to $75 monthly for electricity to run heating and pumps, $20 to $30 for chemicals like chlorine and pH testing, and $75 to $90 weekly for professional servicing. Long-term costs include $10,000 for replastering every 10-30 years and around $2,000 over 10 years for pump and heater replacements. To manage these costs, consider setting aside $100 monthly for equipment replacements.

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When you're considering the purchase of a swimming pool, make sure you take into consideration the costs on ongoing maintenance. These costs can be as high as $400 a month or as low as $100 a month, depending on your pool and how much work you want to put into maintenance.

How do the costs break down?

Heating, Pumps and Electricity

Running the pool actively, keeping it heated and keeping the water circulating takes a lot of electricity. You can expect to spend between $50 to $75 a month on electricity when you're actively using the pool.

Naturally, in the winter months when the pool isn't in use, this won't be much of a factor.

pH Tests, Chlorine & Other Chemicals

Contrary to what you might expect, these chemicals are quite affordable.

Generally it'll cost you between $20 a month and $30 a month for all the chemicals you'd need to keep your pool in great condition.

Weekly Servicing

You can learn all you need to learn about pool chemistry and how to keep your pool in good condition on the internet.

Still, a lot of people prefer to have someone else do their pool's servicing for that. If that's you, you can expect to pay about $75 to $90 a week for the servicing. This includes the cost of all the chemicals.

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Replastering

If you have an in-ground vinyl pool, you'll need to get your pool replastered about every 10 to 15 years. This can easily run you $10,000 or more.

Other types of pools may need replastering every 20 to 30 years as well. This is a big expense that definitely needs to be factored in.

Replacing Pumps & Heaters

You can expect to spend about $2,000 over the course of 10 years to replace pumps and heaters.

If you maintain a good chlorine level and the right pH levels, your pumps will last longer. If you aren't maintaining your pool properly, the water's chlorine and acidity will corrode the pumps faster.

The Totals

In total, you can get your costs down to as low as $100 a month if you're willing to take the time to learn about pool chemistry. If you learn everything you need to know about pool maintenance yourself, you can save a lot of money.

On the other hand, if you want to hire someone else to do it, you're going to need to spend about $300 to $400 a month.

In addition to the total costs of maintaining your pool, you should also set aside about $100 a month towards a pool maintenance fund. Set this money aside, so that when equipment inevitably needs to be replaced, you'll be ready.