Intex Easy Set 12-Foot by 30-Inch Round Above Ground Swimming Pool Set for Backyard, Family Fun & Summer Relaxation

Was fun while it lasted.We purchased this as the "big" gift for my sons 5th birthday as he really wanted a pool but our budget limited us on what we could do. After reading the reviews and the price on this pool, we figured we'd give it a shot.The smell of the thing out of the box was awful but to be expected for vinyl. The set up was a bit cumbersome to get everything spread out while filling up and boy oh boy did it take way more water than I assumed it would of (1,485 gal. to be exact in case you were wondering).Right off the bat I was concerned with the slight lean the pool made with gravity pulling at it. My yard is actually very flat but does have a slight grading away from the house to keep water from sitting up against it when it rains. Even with this slight grading away from the house though, this thing had a decent lean once filled up. No biggie I figured, it'd just remain like that until we were done using it for the summer.Once it was filled, it took way longer than I would have thought for the middle of summer heat to warm it up enough to be bearable. It was probably a good 2 weeks until it was really OK to go into temp wise but after 1 full week until it was bearable at all.We had it set up and were using it nearly every day and heavily on the weekends for about a month when one day, I happened to look out a 2nd floor window in my house and saw the whole thing was empty.I guess gravity finally won the battle and was enough to finally put the thing over to the point that it caused some waterfall action and dumped nearly every bit of water out of it in the middle of the night. The weirdest part was it didn't even rain or anything like that the night prior.My son was pretty devastated to say the least but there was no way I was about to fill up another 1,500 gallons worth of water for 1 more month of use before the weather cooled up to much.The real fun started when I lifted it up. Words cannot begin to describe the wretched death smell that slammed me in the face the moment I lifted it up to dump the rest of the water out. It was as if a skunk died under the thing and began to decompose. Was truly the single worst smell I've had the displeasure of experiencing in my life. The smell would not quit either. I scrubbed the bottom of the pool and draped it over my sons trampoline and let it bake in the sun for a good week. I was sure I'd have to toss the pool due to the smell but thankfully it actually went away over time. The dead grass under where the pool was on the other hand, held onto that death smell for a very long time. It was so bad that when I'd get home after work in the evenings and go to check the mail, I could smell the death scent strongly all the way at the front of my property. Thats when I decided enough was enough and took to the internet to see what to do. A number of sites were useless as it was what to do beforehand to avoid this outcome (which is to dump literally 4 tons of sand on your yard then place this thing on that!) but I finally was able to piece together a plan of attack. I took a stiff rake and while gagging and dry heaving from the smell the whole time, I broke apart the matted down rotting grass. I then took a bag of top soil and worked that into the whole area. I think watered it slightly. It worked amazingly. Within another day or two after 2 solid weeks of death smells, the odor was finally gone!!Let this be a warning to those interested in buying this pool. 1: Do not place it on top of grass, you're neighbors will thank you later. 2: Get a big level and make sure the area you place the pool is as flat as you can possible accomplish. If you do those 2 things first, you'll have yourself a great little retreat in the backyard.I loved it, until my husband broke it, thus devastating my kids. We do not have grass in our yard, but stone since we live near the beach. So we leveled the surface, pounded/compacted the stone. Everything was looking great. We all were enjoying it for a little over a month or 2 and then it happened... my husband left the hose on for far too long. It caused the pool to over flow, causing the stone to erode, causing the pool to become unleveled, and then the inflatable ring had a slow leak in the seam. It was awful. I woke up one morning to half the pool drained and a gaping hole in my yard from where the water poured out.That's my story of how it broke and the importance of having it remain on a level surface. But, while it was working it was easy to clean, but we had to shock it often as the sun would eat up the chlorine. Our water is naturally alkaline, but adding acid was not an option. Buy one of the chlorine floats and fill it up often. The filter gets nasty fast so clean it out every day and I would suggest changing them often. But they do rinse easily. Set up was easy,once the surface is level.Tips: Buy the ground cover, its worth it to keep the weeds/mosquito away. Buy the chlorine tablet float, skimmer, chemical test strips, and solar cover. Our pool was already 80 by the beginning of June thanks to solar cover, but sadly by the end July, it was like taking a bath without the solar cover. Also,by the cover to keep the bugs and leaves out when you can''t use the solar cover.It was a good little pool but it only lasted one summer. It was fairly easy to set it up, it took about 3-4 hours and feeding the neighborhood guys beers for an afternoon. I usually let the pump run overnight when we had been in it during the day and it kept it pretty clean. Make sure you get some kind of skimmer for leaves and bugs. You have to walk around the edges and push\shake the ring to get all of the junk out from underneath it so you can skim it out, a lot collects under there and if you don't get it out before you get in it will all come flying out when kids start doing kid stuff...all the bugs.I only used chlorine and the occasional shock if I we had forgotten to add chlorine or went away on vacation, but I don't like a lot of chemicals in the water. I went to a local ReStore and bought a large piece of used carpet to put underneath, and that worked great in my bumpy lawn. You really do need to try and get it as level as possible. When I tried to set it up this year it wasn't close to level and was a nightmare.I thought that I had stored it pretty well over the winter but I had two holes in the main pool. They patched very easily. The ring is an entirely different thing. I found about 8 littke holes that I patched up using soapy water so I decided to fill the pool up and open it up. I think we got 3-4 uses with me having to pump up the ring every day, and not being able to find any other holes, before we called it. Then we came out a few days later and the •bad word• pool had dumped all the water out and flooded my backyard.So, I'm torn between two and three stars it was great last year but it was a pretty big investment (I bought stairs, a solar cover, all the toys, chemicals, testers, thermometer, etc.)for 4 months of fun.I was disappointed with this purchase. Hard to set up, ground needs to be COMPLETELY flat, otherwise it sags. The material is not really sturdy enough to support the volume of waterKids had a blast! Easy set up, pump works well and filter system tooLove the pool! The shipping time was even faster than expected. Great!Good product, as advertisedBig for the price! Filter is pretty good.