We have a smaller inflatable slide for the grandkids, it has a regular water hose connection and we generally run a garden hose to supply water. Last month our water use went from $20 to $80!!, now that's not break the bank but it's significantly higher.

Here's the slide on Sams Club, it's not as big as it looks in the picture, but you can see the two small water ports.

Link Slide




I'm thinking that running this every day this summer with the grandkids here all week will increase it even more since the city has raised rates as well.

So, my thought was, why not run a small electric pump, lift water from the pool to the slide so basically it just circulates back into the pool.

Issues would be that it needs to lift, and flow enough water to have decent enough pressure to run the two small water heads on the slide, they don't have to be spouts like a water park, it's not a huge slide.

Being able to put a small solar panel in the area to run it would be a bonus, or battery powered, otherwise to run 110 I'd have to run an extension cord or have an electrician run an outlet to that area which we don't want to do

Found a couple of small pumps people use for garden fountains etc that are not submersible, which is preferred, I don't want to drop a pump in the pool, similar to stick pumps.

It would need to be larger, a hose runs 500 to 1000 gallons per hour per hour (2000 to 3800 litres/ph)

Another option would be to find a way to connect it to the closest water return jet and let the water flow using the pool pump....

I would stay away from any kind of pump that can introduce or possibly introduce an electric charge into a pool with grandkids in it.

Even if it wasn't a submersible, kids can't be trusted to be safe and not end up with whatever it is in the water.

I think my pool pump pumps about 250-300 gals per minute, which may blow out the slide.

Does your pool pump have a hose bib on it, amd is it close enough to run a hose to?

The feed side on my piping has a std hose bib on it. Never used it, but it's there.
Used it to lower the pool level at our old house, connected a hose & ran it into a French drain.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Does your pool pump have a hose bib on it, amd is it close enough to run a hose to?

The feed side on my piping has a std hose bib on it. Never used it, but it's there.
Used it to lower the pool level at our old house, connected a hose & ran it into a French drain.

It doesn't but I could add one up by the pump that would require running a hose across the patio outside through the screen door and across the deck, not impossible to do but creates another trip point for the kids, no worse than the current one. I could easily add that to the PVC lines there, but would like to hook it to the existing return that's about 8 ft from the slide so the hose won't be up on the deck. Something semi temp basically.

Get a pump for a water fountain.

Harbor Freight, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. sell sump pumps / dewatering pumps, that are submersible and usually have a float switch for control. Many have a hose connection.

That would be my recommendation.

Good luck.

quote:

Last month our water use went from $20 to $80

That could be either/both increased consumption and/or increased pricing.

Do the bills show your consumption in gallons?

We’re not talking about a large amount of GPM, something more along the lines of a trickle, just to keep the slide wet.

Pet store?
Fish tank filters? Not a huge amount of water flow.
But that’s electric.

There’s solar/battery powered water pumps for pond fountains-

https://www.poposoapsolar.com/...HEAQYAiABEgKFkPD_BwE

Toss a small hose on it, run the hose to the slide.

Estimated usage is 3-4GPM, but that adds up to 720-960 if left on for 4 hours. Even worse if all day.

Or, think of it as one of them being in the shower for, oh, 32 hours.
Nevermind, don't think that!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Estimated usage is 3-4GPM, but that adds up to 720-960 if left on for 4 hours. Even worse if all day.

Or, think of it as one of them being in the shower for, oh, 32 hours.
Nevermind, don't think that!!!

Add it to every weekend, Fri - Sat - Sun, and some days during the week.

I'm not sure the little fish tank pumps will push enough GPM to make it work, leaning to come up with some kind of McGuyveristic connection to the pool return next to it.

That return is always on when the pool pump is running, so zero additional electricity, no pump to manage, and just connect a small hose with a manual on off on the hose.

One other issue is adding all that untreated water to a salt pool messes with the PH and Chlorine which ends up increasing the weekly Chemical cost to keep the water balanced.

I've seen it go from adding a cup or two of acid (PH) to a gallon plus stabilizer and kicking up the salt pct from 50 to 70 to keep up.

Pool return is 1 1/2 twist on screw ring, I could replace it with a connector that a hose could go on, run that host to the slide...

Now that it is summer heat I would expect you to need to be adding water to the pool weekly anyway.
So I am not really sure you are having an increase. If you didn't run the slide wouldn't you need to add water for evaporation? I seem to be adding every 4-5 days now.

what about running the hose but at the end put a garden sprayer to restrict the flow but still keep the slide wet.

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
If you didn't run the slide wouldn't you need to add water for evaporation? I seem to be adding every 4-5 days now.

One of the reasons I speced an auto-filler on ours.