Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I ordered this directly from VMinnovations which is why my review isn't "verified purchase", but thought I'd throw my review on here anyway since it was here where I discovered this new pool from Summer Waves. Last summer, we used an Intex 10'x30" "Prism" metal frame pool and it was a huge success. This year, we decided to upgrade to a slightly larger 'above ground pool' since with the 10 footer, when the adults joined the children, it kind of felt like we were all piling into a large hot tub, lol. You'd be amazed at how just 2ft bigger circumference makes the pool seem so much bigger. If you have the space for it, I highly recommend going at least 12ft if you plan to join your children in the pool. If you're like me, you'll be scouring the critical reviews looking for consistency. One of the biggest complaints of virtually all of these more affordable 'above ground pool kits' is the filter & pump system they include is woefully undersized, doesn't clean well and almost always fails early. It's just the nature of the beast - you have to plan to upgrade your filter & pump or even better, buy a better one along with your new pool to save you the hassle later on. The filter & pump I recommend is this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005QIYMNM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_11E8Ab0VSRBBH --It's overkill for this sized pool but that means you only need to run it a couple hours out of the day to thoroughly clean your pool and it's much more reliable than Intex's smaller models. It's also surprisingly quiet which is an awesome bonus. Sometimes, it drops to only ~$65 bucks if you're patient and catch it during a pricing downswing (check camelcamelcamel to see its pricing trends). However, you'll also need adapters since that larger Intex filter & pump uses a bigger 1.5" tubing which can be purchased here for under $8: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011YPC2MI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_aCJ9Ab0X49XRW --Review my pictures to see this particular filter/pump adapted to this pool's included skimmer setup. It works very well. Remove the magnet & impeller from the original pump to get it out of the way - don't worry, super easy to do. It just comes right out, no tools needed. I've attached a picture of that too. You can also find 1.5" to 1.25" adapters at Home Depot if the price of those Intex adapters jumps up which it sometimes does. Just search for "1-1/2 in. x 1-1/2 in. or 1-1/4 in. PVC Mechanical Drain and Trap Connector" on Home Depot. Don't worry about the water flow restrictions of downsizing the tubing. It still flows plenty well enough and others have been doing it for years with no issues. Btw, the upgraded pump and adapters are the same if you go with a 10' or 12' Intex pool. In fact, I purchased these last year *for* my 10' Intex pool and just transferred it over to this new Summer Waves pool and gave our old pool to a friend with its original filter pump. With all that said, I'm pretty happy with our upgrade. I love the dark wicker print though it's more brown than grey. Quality wise, I don't see any difference between my Intex 10' pool and this Polygroup "Summer waves" pool. Makes me wonder if they're made by the same company and just using different names. They say you have to have your ground "perfectly level"... now that maybe true for the larger, taller pools (above 33" tall) but our backyard has an ever-slight decline to drain rainwater away from the house and our 10' Intex pool did just fine last year without any issues, even with rough play. This pool doesn't show signs of being any different. Also, one last tip, if you're putting it directly on the grass like we did, make sure to lay down a heavy duty tarp (Sams and Costco sells 12'x16' heavy duty tarps for about $25 and it comes with 2 in the package! Best price I've seen and is what you see in the pictures). I've read a review that said their pool liner was penetrated by weed-grass and I believe it! Bermuda grass is all over our backyard and it's crazy strong and grows right through our landscape fabric like it wasn't even there. 5-17-18 Update: I've added a Summer Waves pool cover I found at Walmart ($20). It claims to fit above ground pools sized 10ft to 15ft so it has a lot of overhang. Turns out, all that overhang makes it easy to simply tuck it underneath the pool's belt like strap that surrounds it and holds the legs in (see picture). Not only does it keep the pool much cleaner, it has the added benefit of bringing the water temperature up too. It's great when things just workout like that. 5-25-18 Update: We just celebrated my son's 4th birthday and at one point during the party we had a total of 13 rowdy kids (age 4 through 14) in the pool at once. The pool frame and vinyl liner visibly flexed during the madness and water was splashing out of the skimmer canister often - A few of the parents joked that they were just waiting for an "America's funniest videos" moment, expecting the pool to fail and suddenly spill hundreds of gallons of water along with the kids, lol! But the pool did great! I've added a picture of this to the review. Kids were hanging off the sides, jumping around, having squirt gun wars, and foam sword battles, created artificial waves by bouncing up and down (causing a ton of water to slash out by doing that so I eventually stopped them). After it was all said and done, no leaks, no signs of damage. All good. If it can handle that, then I'm confident in saying the pool will be absolutely fine for regular use. 6-08-2019: Last year, I took the pool down in late October and I've just reassembled it for another long summer/fall session of use. This time with the Skimmer canister on the high side of the yard to lessen spillage and to allow filling the pool to a slightly greater height. No leaks though leaving the pool filter items in the outside shed resulted in the o-rings cracking. One of them completely broke away but I justed used a bit of rubber splicing tape as a makeshift o-ring in it's place and it's holding fine without any leaks. I uploaded 3 new pictures. You can see some of the sun fading on the canister and down spout. No rust, no structural worries. As long as this pool makes it another full year, I definitely feel like I got my monies worth. I'll update if anything comes up.