Unibead, beaded or overlap, and how do I tell?
Look at the top of the wall on the pool you have. An overlap liner hangs over the outside of the wall and is held by plastic coping strips clipped over the top, so you can see liner on the outside. A beaded liner has a stiff lip moulded into its top edge that snaps into a track fixed round the inside of the wall, so nothing shows outside. A unibead does both: it snaps into a track, or you tear off a perforated strip and hang it like an overlap. That flexibility is why nearly everything here is unibead.
Does the wall height have to match exactly?
Yes for a beaded or unibead liner, and it is the measurement people skip. The bead sits in a track at a fixed height, so a 52 in. liner in a 54 in. wall is stretched short and a 54 in. liner in a 52 in. wall has nowhere to go. Measure the wall itself from the bottom track to the top, not the water. Overlap liners have a little more tolerance because you are draping and trimming rather than clipping to a fixed line, which is why some of them are sold for a range.
Is a 25 mil liner worth it over 20?
A 25 mil liner is thicker vinyl in the same shape, so it resists a dropped toy, a dog's claws and a careless pole better, and it handles being stretched over an uneven bottom with fewer thin spots. Our own warranties make the same point without us having to: the standard liners here carry one year full and ten pro-rated, the heavy gauge ones two years full and twenty. Nobody publishes how many seasons either actually lasts, and the honest way to read the difference is the warranty rather than a number of years.
How do I measure an oval pool?
Long side first, then short, and take it from the inside of the wall. An oval is described the way the maker built it, for example 15 by 30, and liners are sold to that nominal size rather than to what a tape reads across a wall that has bowed over ten summers. If your tape disagrees with the size on the pool's own paperwork by a few inches, trust the paperwork. Ovals also need the shape to match, since an oval liner will not sit in a round pool of the same area.
What comes in a pool package?
The structure and the water's edge, not the equipment that keeps it clean. The packages here are built on 5 in. resin coated steel uprights, and most list a widemouth thru-wall skimmer and a return fitting as included, which is the part people are surprised by either way. What is generally not in the box is the pump and filter, the ladder, the chemicals and anything to sanitise with. Read the included line on the product before you plan the weekend.
