The time has come for the summer festivities and relaxing at home to begin! Many homeowners question which path to take each year when it comes to getting the massive amounts of water needed to fill their pool.
Can you fill a pool with a hose? Yes! You can fill your pool with a hose from the spigot attached to your home, the sink faucet, or even directly to your well. A garden hose will be perfectly suitable to fill your pool. If your hose is connected to City water to fill your pool, you will have to pay for the water being used. There are also some things to consider like water mineral content, sewer charges, and neighborhood water pressure issues.
If you will be using your well water to fill your pool, you can read our article about that here for some additional tips.
How to use the hose to fill up your pool
- Connect your hose to a spigot or splitter if using more than 1 hose.
- Place multiple socks around the other end of the hose using a zip tie.(to protect the finish on inground shotcrete pools)
- Place the hose into the center of your pool
- Turn on the water at Spigot
- Fill the pool til it reaches the middle of your skimmer
The process is as simple as that for filling your pool with water.
How long will it take to fill my pool?
A simple guideline that has been suggested is to fill a 5-gallon bucket up with your hose to find out how many minutes that takes. Once you have the number of gallons then you can apply it to the amount of gallons your pool will need to get an estimate of the time it will take. You can locate the number of gallons in your paperwork when you had your pool built or in the manual when you purchased your pool.
(Gallons needed to Fill your Pool/5) x Minutes it takes to fill 5 gallon bucket = Time to fill Pool with hose
There are some variables to this like water pressure that can decrease during the day because of high usage in the community but it shouldn’t affect the overall time greatly. Many pool owners fill up their pools in just a couple of days. Check out our article about the quickest way to fill your pool if you are in a pinch and want to see all of the options available to you.
Will Two hoses fill my pool faster?
This answer is highly dependent on the water pressure from your home. After some research, we have found quite a few testimonials from pool owners who have used this method to fill their pools faster.
If your home doesn’t have two spigots you can easily buy a hose splitter to connect to your single spigot to attach more hoses.
When you do this, you will most likely decrease the amount of water coming out of a single hose but will still increase your overall water output which could save you quite a bit of time when filling your pool. If your home has a water pressure meter, you can turn to monitor the pressure with one hose running water, and then with both hoses running water to see if you have a dramatic decrease. If you don’t have a water pressure meter, you could apply the 5-gallon bucket method above. First, fill 1 bucket with water and check the time. Then filling two buckets at the same time to see if you will gain more gallons per hour using two hoses at the same time.
Which size hose should I use to fill my pool?
Hoses can vary in size from ⅜ of an inch to ¾ of an inch. The average garden variety hose most of us are accustomed to is ⅝ of an inch in diameter. The larger the diameter the more output you can get to fill your pool. If your water pressure is good, then bigger is better in this situation.
Pool owners using a hose to fill the pool should be aware that the longer the hose has to deliver from the water source the less water output you will have from the hose. Purchase a hose that is adequate to reach and fill your pool but not much longer than that.
How much will it cost to fill your pool with a hose?
This question is highly dependent on specific variables relating to your location. Places that experience droughts like California will be more expensive. While places that have an abundant water supply are fairly cheap to fill with a hose in comparison.
Take the number of gallons you will need to fill your pool and multiply that by the amount per gallon that was on your last water bill to get an accurate idea of the cost to fill your pool. Beware though, as many municipalities will charge for sewer treatment on the water you are using to fill your pool which can be the most costly part of filling your pool for the summer.
It is worth contacting your local water department to check on your sewage billing when filling your pool. Some cities will not charge you the sewage treatment and that could save you a possible 50% on your water bill. This greatly varies from city to city though and many water departments will charge you for sewage treatment as they believe the pool water will still end up at the treatment plant one way or another.
A tip I found online for those who will be filling every year is to have a separate meter installed for your garden. This is a meter that some would use for watering plants and isn’t charged for sewage treatment. You can use this meter every year to fill your pool without contacting the water department about your sewage charges.
Water Mineral Content when using City Water from a hose
As a general rule, if you can drink the water. You can swim in the water. So filling up your pool with city water from your hose will already be balanced. This means you can fill a pool with a hose and after your initial treatment and shock, you’ll be good to go with a swim.
Things to consider though when using the hose filled with city water is the Hardness or Softness of your water content and its effects on your pool. This is the number of minerals inside your pool water. The most common minerals that you’ll get from city water coming from your hose spigot will be :
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Copper
- Iron
Too many of these minerals and you will face hard water issues in your pool like scale, calcium build-up around your pool, and staining on the walls of your pool. Extreme cases will dye your pool brown or green colors when the water interacts with the chemicals used to balance your pool and make it safe for swimming. Which can also dye the hair and nails of swimmers the same color. This is one of the reasons filling your pool from a Fire Hydrant isn’t recommended.
Too few of these minerals in your local water will cause the water to leach the needed minerals out of your pool shell, ladder, and anywhere else it can find the calcium it needs to balance itself out.
Your best option will be to run a test of the water coming out of your hose spigot on your house to see what you’ll be dealing with. If you have an extreme case, the prevention knowledge you have before filling your pool with a hose can save you some time, grief, and possibly money.
There are filters that you can attach to your hose when filling your pool that will catch various impurities, while it’s not a necessary step but it can’t hurt.
Filling your pool with a hose is not only possible but probably the cheapest and easiest way to fill your pool. Take a few precautions and use some of the tips above to make life easier when filling your pool!
