An Endless Pools Thank You

[endlesspools]

A big thanks to everyone who got a chance to try out the Endless Pool at the LCC's. In the end over 1/3 of the participants took a test swim and over 250 took home videos of their stroke. Your feedback and support was very valuable. We look forward to seeing you at the SCC's next year!

Best,
Endless Pools

[ArtShark]

Sounds like a successful event for you endless! How about some of you that tried it out posting your thoughts here! I have always been curious about how it feels.

How does it compare to the pool?

Can you swim at a pretty good clip?

Hit the back when you stop?

And what was up with the filming? That sounds like a treat?

[NKMD]

Thank you endless pool. I had a great time swimming in your demo pool. It was educational and fun.

Endless pool had a demo pool on the swim deck that swimmers were able to try their product with an underwater video taping of their strokes.

In comparison to a pool, you can swim at any speed that you set. You just have to practice turns in a regular pool. It would be great for swimmers who have back problems that have trouble with turns. Also, I can see how it would benefit, open water swimmers and people who don't have access to train.

The propeller that produces the resistance can go up to 1:10 pace (per the sales person), it was great to warm-up in. Especially since the warm up pools were only 20 yards long.

I did not hit the back drop or the front panel. You just had to swim faster or decrease the speed to maintain a good pace. You can also move to the side, to step outside the current.

The underwater video was a plus. I swam all four strokes in the pool and had a great feedback. The pool also had mirrors on the bottom of the pool and the front to give you immediate feedback to work on your underwater stroke and hip rotation.

What a great experience. Everyone should try it.

[tjburk]

I agree with Nadine! I could see having one at home for when you can't make the pool, or if your schedule is tight.
Thanks Endless!!!

Tracy

[Gareth Eckley]

I dream of owning an Endless Pool.

The only problem is that I don't have the money !! I think that it would be great to have one and I have already figured out where it will go.

Perhaps I need to spend more time working and less browsing this forum !!

[born2fly]

I did not get the chance to swim in the endless pool while at Rutgers, however, I did see people in it. Was more curious, what is the general ballpark cost for the basic model minus all the fancy decking around it?

Is it just an endless pool or can it also work as say a hot tub also?

Thanks in Advance,
Greg

[endlesspools]

Hi Greg,

Standard price, which includes everything you need to swim, is $17,900. Our price list can be located below:
http://www.endlesspools.com/plan/plan_customize.asp

Hydrotherapy jets can be added for that hot tub-esk experience. Exercising in really hot water however is discouraged.

Happy Swimming!

[dcarson]

As a very happy Endless Pools owner now for almost a year, I'll just add my 2 cents that I've been very pleased with my purchase. I use it for daily swimming, along with swimming at a nearby pool (the U. of MD, which is also an amazing pool). The Endless Pool truly can deliver up to near sprint swimming and can easily work all strokes once you are used to swimming in a current. I've also found it's great for building upper body strength. The hydrotherapy jets are a nice addition (especially for just chilling and for pool party purposes).

Anyway, I just wanted to add my brief comment. I'm always glad to let people try my pool so if anyone is ever in the College Park, MD area (near the U. of MD), please feel free to drop me a line (my e-mail address is in my USMS profile). I'm also always happy to answer people's questions about the pool. It is a major investment (I spent 3+ years contemplating the purchase), but I've found it well worth it and really top quality craftsmanship.

[WaterRat]

What has been people's experience when swimming backstroke in an Endless pool? Is it difficult or something you just need to get used to. Also, how wavy do they get? Open water swimming like or not that much different than a pool.

[dcarson]

Backstroke for me was the hardest to get used to swimming in the Endless Pool. This is only because my backstroke is far from fluid/straight and I had the habit of moving to the left or right causing myself to get out of the swim current. I've rigged a pull clothesline that I can have go across above the pool so if I'm doing backstroke I can keep myself in the middle and in the current by aligning with the rope above.

I find minimal wave motion. The rear intake which routes the water under the side benches and back to the front are primarily the function to help make the current smooth. However, certain strokes are a bit wavier than others, such as breastroke causes a bit more wave motion. Freestyle is awesome in the stream with extremely minimal wave motion (which is my competitive stroke).

Overall the Endless Pool is a great workout; however, for maintaining a training regimine for competitive swimming a regular pool is also needed routinely. Not just for practicing starts and turns, but for the whole training of strokes in a regular pool type of water. Endless Pool does well in allowing focused training and wonderful constant swimming (particularly building endurance), but you can't rely on it alone. If you do the Endless Pool a lot and then go to a regular pool after a few weeks, the first few laps feel quite strange without going against a current. It is easy to transition between the two types of pools.

[laineybug]

After this summer, when the guards would close the pool at the drop of a hat. (I know they were just trying to protect me from getting struck by lightening, although I have NEVER heard of a person getting struck by lightening while in a pool) I have been considering puting in an Endless Pool or a single lane lap pool.

How does the cost of an Endless Pool compare to an in-ground one lane lap pool, or an above ground lap pool. Space isn't a consideration for me, as it may be for others; and I already have a hot tub on my deck (I could get rid of it though). So the deciding factor might be initial cost/maintainance costs, like chemicals, cost to heat the water, increase in homeowners insurance, etc.

Anyone ever compared these three options and considered not only initial cost but other factors as well?

Lainey

[dcarson]

Lainey,

My comments aren't concrete but more general as to when I did pricing. I would have loved a 25 meter lane pool myself but my backyard is not that big. I did look at a regular standard in-ground pool vs. Endless Pool. The regular in-ground pool is cheaper I believe, but other factors I considered:
- Endless Pool is very cheap to run. My utilities went up minimally and I'm in a cold winter spot. I was pleasantly surprised running the gas optional heater only increased my gas bill marginally. My pool is installed outside and 1/2 of it is above ground. Heating a regular pool in my case would be extremely high in the winter and I wanted year round use of the pool.
- Endless Pool maitenance is easy. I add 1 1/2 cup of bleach (yes, household bleach) every 3 to 4 days. That's it for chemicals. It's amazing. The actual level of chemicals it needs is about 1/6 or less compared to a regular pool so there's really no chlorine smell and my swim suits last a lot longer. I clean the filter every 6 months. I clean the pool (vacuum, wipe around the edges, etc.) about every 8 to 10 weeks.
- I think a regular pool cost of utilities and chemicals is much more expensive.

All that being said, if I lived in a warm climate with a large backyard where I could fit a 25 meter in-ground pool with a deep diving end I would have done that. But given my constraints and that I have a great 50 meter competition pool less than a mile from my house to also train in, the Endless Pool is good for me.

Hope that helps....

Dan

[edtsuzuki]

I tried the Endless Pool out at LCM Nats and will admit that I was skeptical when I got in the "tub." I was extremely impressed by 1) how well the smooth flow of the current allowed you to swim quite "naturally," 2) how the flow could be adjusted to allow you to really work hard and 3) how the mirrors on the bottom of the pool allowed you to view your stroke pattern.
It seemed to be very well constructed and easy to maintain.

Thanks also for providing a video of my stroke. That was very helpful and much appreciated.

Some suggestions, in my opinion:
1. The flow was adjusted by another person turning a continuously variable dial, that did not have any markings on it. I would think that it would be nice to have a "control panel" which allowed you to "dial in" a pre-determined setting (e.g. a current flow of "7" on a scale of 1 to 10). As you swim in the endless pool, you would know where your setting is and you wouldn't have to try to keep fine tuning the dial.

2. A timer would also be good so that you could do something like a set of 10 x 60 second swims at "8." Similar to the exercise bikes or treadmills, you might even be able to set it up so that in between the 60 second "hard" swims, you had a 15 second "easy" swim at "4" or something like that.

3. To get really fancy, this control panel could have an "up" and "down" button that the swimmer could easily tap with their hand while swimming to adjust the flow, as necessary.

4. Finally, the camera angle in the pool was set in the bottom left front corner looking up towards the swimmer. I thought it would be better to have a camera straight on from the front as well as straight from the side. At an upwards angle from one side it was very hard to compare the right vs. left hand and arm stroke patterns.

Overall, a great product!
Thank you.
Ed Tsuzuki
Garden State Masters

[endlesspools]

Hello Ed, thanks for your notes. We're glad you had a chance to try the pool! The proof is really in the pudding...

<b>A few responses to your queries:</b>

The flow was adjusted by another person turning a continuously variable dial, that did not have any markings on it. I would think that it would be nice to have a "control panel" which allowed you to "dial in" a pre-determined setting (e.g. a current flow of "7" on a scale of 1 to 10). As you swim in the endless pool, you would know where your setting is and you wouldn't have to try to keep fine tuning the dial.

<b>Installed on the Endless Pool at Rutgers was our optional Swim Current Gauge which essentially measures the hydraulic pressure in the system. Through this gauge you can establish and repeat workouts by dialing the knob to your favorite speed. No fine tuning necessary after you've established your ideal speeds for warm-ups, heavy workouts, cool downs, etc.</b>

Finally, the camera angle in the pool was set in the bottom left front corner looking up towards the swimmer. I thought it would be better to have a camera straight on from the front as well as straight from the side. At an upwards angle from one side it was very hard to compare the right vs. left hand and arm stroke patterns.

<b> Due to the sheer number of swimmers in the pool it was necessary to keep the underwater camera static. For personal use however you can position the camera anywhere you'd like. You could even set up several cameras to capture side, front and rear stroke mechanics. </b>

Happy Swimming,
Endless Pools

[cinc310]

Warm Climate doesn't have to do with large backyards. You live in a cheap housing state like Michgian you usually have a large backyard than living in the bay area of California or the La-Orange area where houses are very expensive and a lot of folks live in condos. Anyway, in Arizona the older houses also in a warm climate tend to have bigger backlyards than the newer ones.