When your pool is under construction it’s easy to get distracted by all the details and construction methods. Many homeowners forget that you’ll eventually need a swimming pool water tanker to fill the pool. Yes, sometimes you can fill the pool with your hose. Or perhaps you’re bold enough to pump water from the stream next to your property into your new pool. Usually, it’s best to pay for a water delivery from a swimming pool water tanker.
Swimming Pool Water Tanker Choices
The first major requirement to consider when planning a swimming pool water tanker delivery is how large is the tanker and what is the access they will be using to fill the pool. Generally speaking, there are two sizes for pool water delivery trucks.
Large Swimming Pool Water Tanker
The first size of swimming pool water tanker is the 18 wheeler size, which carries about 8,500-9,500 gallons of water per load. These trucks usually will be backed down your driveway, and then water is run to the swimming pool from there.
An 18 wheeler needs a lot of space to turn in order to get onto your driveway. Because of this, it’s not a bad idea to have the water company ‘pre-site’ the delivery location, and make sure their trucks can make the delivery.
Small Swimming Pool Water Tanker
The next size is the smaller tanker truck. These are the same size trucks as most propane delivery trucks, oil delivery trucks, and the like. They are approximately 4500 gallons per load of water. As you can see if these trucks need to be used you’ll have twice as many trips to deliver the water and the cost will usually be twice as high.
How Much Does A Swimming Pool Water Tanker Cost?
The cost of the water delivery lies typically with the trucking costs, not with the cost of the water itself, and trucking costs are fuel, overhead, and man hours. Water delivery is usually between $250 to $1,000 per load of water. We recognize that this is a huge range. However, the price is highly dependent on how far your swimming pool is from the fill location for the water trucks. Price also depends on how far both are from the trucking depot.
Pro Tip #1: Check Water Content For Metals
One major requirement to consider when planning for a swimming pool water tanker delivery is that the water needs to be free of metals. It sounds like a basic requirement, but you’d be surprised how much water has a high iron or copper content.
These minerals can be removed using sequestering agents and filtered out of the pool. However, this process can cause another 2 or 3 week delay in getting your pool up and running after it is filled with water. It’s always best to order swimming pool water from a swimming pool water delivery service. In most cases they will be delivering water from a reliable source, but it’s always best to ask for their test results prior to delivery.
Pro Tip #2: Run Your Hose In Between Swimming Pool Water Tanker Deliveries
During the fill up of your pool, your pool company will likely ask you to run your garden hose in the pool during the fill process. This is because there will be a gap between the loads delivered by the swimming pool water tanker. These gaps between loads can cause staining in freshly plastered swimming pools in the form of rings around the perimeter. It’s important for the pool to maintain a constant filling between water loads to prevent these unsightly rings from forming.
What To Do After Filling Pool With Water?
After your finish filling the pool, it’s time to balance the water. Your pool company will send out a service technician to first start up the pool equipment and then to do a preliminary balance of the water itself. This will entail adding chemicals and possibly sequestering agents if you have a high metal content in the water in your pool.
If you have high metal content in your newly finished pool you cannot use chlorine until the metals are removed. This causes the pool to temporarily turn green and swampy as the sequestering agents do their work. Once the metals are out of your pool it’s time to clean the filters and balance the water for swimming.
Summary
There are many methods to fill your pool with water. Using a swimming pool water tanker will give you the least amount of headaches. Always make sure that the water going in your pool is free of metals. Also, don’t let water sit idle in between water tanker deliveries. Instead, keep your hose filling the pool to decrease chance of ugly rings on your pool walls.
