Pool equipment
The part nobody photographs and everybody pays for, monthly.
Equipment is where a pool stops being a design decision and becomes a utility bill. It is also the part of a bid that is easiest to quietly downgrade, because it lives behind a fence and no homeowner walks the pad before signing. So this category is written as a checklist you can hold a bid against: what each thing does, what it costs you to run, and the question to ask about it.
On photographyThere is no photograph of an equipment pad anywhere in this company’s library, so this category shows none rather than borrow a manufacturer’s product shot. Ask to walk the equipment pad on a finished job instead — a builder who is proud of what they install will offer before you ask.
13 of 13 pool equipment in this category
- Circulation & filtrationColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Variable-speed pump
The pump that moves the water, running at whatever speed the job needs instead of flat out. Because power draw falls away faster than flow does, running slower for longer is dramatically cheaper — which is why variable-speed is now the default on new residential pools in California.
- Circulation & filtrationColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Cartridge filter
Pleated cartridges that catch debris and get hosed off a few times a year. No backwashing at all, which in a county that prices water the way this one does is the argument that usually wins.
- Circulation & filtrationColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
DE filter
Grids coated in diatomaceous earth. Filters finer than anything else on this list, and in exchange you backwash it, recharge it with powder, and deal with where the backwash goes.
- Circulation & filtrationColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Sand filter
The simplest and cheapest of the three. Coarsest filtration, easiest to live with, and it uses water every time you backwash it.
- SanitisingColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Salt chlorine generator
Makes chlorine on site by passing current through lightly salted water. Not a chlorine-free pool — a pool that makes its own — and the water is noticeably softer to swim in. The cell is a wearing part.
- SanitisingColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Inline chlorinator
A canister of tablets plumbed into the return line, feeding chlorine slowly. Cheapest to install, and you are buying and handling tablets for the life of the pool.
- SanitisingColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
UV or ozone secondary sanitiser
An inline unit that kills what passes through it, so the pool needs less chlorine to stay clear. Secondary, not a replacement — anything claiming it eliminates chlorine entirely is worth a hard look.
- HeatingColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Natural gas heater
Heats fast, works on the coldest night of the year, and burns gas the entire time it runs. The right answer for a spa you want hot in twenty minutes; an expensive way to keep a whole pool warm all winter.
- HeatingColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Heat pump
Moves heat out of the air into the water using electricity. Far cheaper per degree than gas, and slow — it wants to hold a temperature rather than reach one, and it fades on a genuinely cold night.
- HeatingColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Solar pool heating
Roof panels the pump pushes water through. Once installed the heat is free; what it costs is roof area, a sunny aspect, and accepting that it heats when the sun says so, not when you do.
- Automation & lightColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Automation controller
The panel that runs pump speeds, valves, heater, lights and features on a schedule, from a phone. On a pool with a spa, a spillway and colour lighting, the alternative is turning six valves by hand.
- Automation & lightColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
LED pool lighting
Sealed colour-changing fixtures in the shell wall. Uses a fraction of what the old incandescent fittings did and is what makes a pool an evening object rather than a dark hole.
- CleaningColour families — we hold no photograph of this finish on one of our own projects
Robotic cleaner
A self-contained robot with its own motor and filter, so it does not lean on the pool’s pump at all. More money up front than a suction cleaner and it does a visibly better job of the walls.