"We went with solar, and have regretted it. For one thing, the connections will spring a leak, which requires someone climbing on the roof to tighten it. We have a 2 story house with a steeply pitched roof. Secondly, when it's not leaking, it doesn't heat the pool enough. The first 15 minutes are quite warm, but then the temp is close to the cold pool. We think we needed more panels, but we couldn't fit more on the roof. Our pool is 800+ surface area, and we have 11 solar panels." I may be able to provide you with some advice for getting your solar to work properly, but I need some information first. In what part of the country are you located? What is the size of your panels? Length/Width Who is the manufacturer of the panels? What is the HP of the pump you are using? I have been installing Heliocol systems for years, and I have yet to have a customer that is not satisfied with their solar system. Sometimes within a few days of installing the panels we will have a small leak or two as the rubber "O" rings didn't seat properly when the system was pressurized. We usually catch the leaks immediately as we don't leave a new installation for at least an hour after pressurizing the system. If we find leaks, we just disconnect the leaking joint and replace the "O" ring. That always works. On occasion, but very rarely, we will have a small leak show up after a week or two. Again, we just replace the "O" ring and that takes care of the leak. Based on the information that you provided, it sounds as though you had a bad installation. Have you attempted to contact the installer to remedy the situation? If so, have they responded? I get occasional calls from people who purchased their solar system from someone else and they are not happy with the performance of the system. When I get to the job site, I find that the system was poorly engineered and installed. Anyone can call themselves a "solar company". Most of the fly-by-night outfits sell a few systems; take the money and run, never to be heard from again. When shopping for a solar company, always ask how long they have been in business, and request references. If they hesitate, look elsewhere. There is a lot more to installing a solar system than just slapping some panels on the roof and every job is different. I always spend at least one hour at a potential job site to do the engineering even before I prepare a quote. Things that need to be taken into account are: Size of the pool. Is the pool in full sun or partial shade? How long will the feed and return lines for the solar system be and how much rise is involved? If you have your panels on a two-story roof, you may not have sufficient HP from your pump to adequately feed the panels. Panels require at least 5 gallon-per-minute of flow to work efficiently due to the high head pressure. Also, any system that is larger than 8 panels needs to be separated into more than one bank; otherwise, the water wont flow through all of the tubes. To install more than one bank of panels requires some knowledge of hydraulics and plumbing. How much HP is the existing filtration pump? Is there sufficient roof area for the proper amount of panels, and will they face to the south? What water temperature does the customer want/expect? These are the major points that are required to engineer the solar system so that it will function properly. To do the engineering requires experience and an understanding of hydraulics. This is why I strongly discourage people from doing the installation themselves. Most people donÂt realize the complexities that are involved in getting the most out of a solar system. Before selecting a contractor to install a solar system for your pool, do your homework. Hopefully you can avoid disappointment.

I AM WARNING YOU - DO NOT USE SUNSET POOLS IN KATY TEXAS We have had out pool from Sunset for a little under a year, and it has been the worst year of my life. When we first met with sunset pool company, they promised us a luxury pool with quality workmanship and excellent customer service (which you should get when the pricetag is over 90K), but our pool is the furthest thing from that. The process of getting it built was pretty horrible, and the problems pretty much started from the get go. The day they dug the pool they asked if we could use our neighbors driveway. We said no, but low and behold, we show up in the afternoon and there is mud and heavy machinery in out neighbors driveway. Luckily, our neighbors are forgiving enough not to do anything about it. Throughout the process, contractors did not show up on days they were scheduled, poor workmanship abounded, and our construction manager Brandon never returned phone calls. Multiple times our construction manager flat out lied to us. When we would call our salesman Tanr and the owner Adam, they were constantly coming up with excuses and telling us something different. They make this sales pitch that they use consistent, quality contracters, but most of these guys didn't even seem to have a relationship with our mangager who was never there (even though we were promised to have excellent oversight of the contracters). I think that they went with whatever day laborers were the cheapest. When we were nearing completion, it seemded almost impossible to get the things on our punch list done, and they were certainly in no hurry as they already had the vast majority of our money. In the end, we just ended up letting a few of the things go since we were so sick of dealing with them. The sad thing is that the process of having the pool built has not been the worst part, it has been the quality of the product. We have had a least one thing break every month since we got this pool - leak, filter problems, chlorinator problems, remote problems, cleaner problems, etc. dealing with this company to get the issues fixed is impossible. They give us a date then don't show up, every person there gives us a different story about what will happen, and of course they are unbelievably slow getting anything done as they already have all of our money. The worst part is that Adam, the owner, acts like we are high maintenance because we want things under warranty fixed - as I said before, for over 90K we should be able to demand quick fixes for broken parts and warranty issues. If the first year of pool ownership has been this bad, I can't even imagine what will happen down the line with some of this shotty workmanship. I am just warning you, don't get tricked by their fancy office (which I now know they can afford because they scrimp so much on their workmanship) and their designs (which admittedly are quite good) - they are not a luxury pool builder. You will get below average workmanship and way below average customer service. Please heed my warning

No, the soil is just the excuse they are trying to use to not fix it. We will be heading to arbitration so it will all get resolved one way or the other. I know that Dallas is a different office and hopefully they are better folks. I just wanted to point out that a national builder with a "great" warranty doesn't always mean things will work out and to be sure that you understand what protection the contract does and doesn't give you.

We used Hamilton-Steele (see link below)who we saw at a home show earlier this year. They charged $500 for the design. In the end we didn't go with them to do the project because after 3 revisions to the pool design it still wasn't right. I think one problem was that the salesman acted as the interface between us and the architect. We never met with him so something was lost in translation. However I think it was worth it to have a good starting point to work with other pool builders. One of the things we liked about Castlerock the salesman (owner) realy liked freeform pool design. He worked with us for many hours to get things just right. I hope that helps. Good luck in your journey. There will be bumps along the way but it is well worth it in the end. Here is a link that might be useful: Landscape Architect.