Intex Inflatable swimming pool above ground Review

We elected to spend our meagre entertainment/vacation budget on a backyard swimming pool.  Prices for park district passes have become costly and there is still driving back and forth to facilities with no guarantee on a hot day that you will get in.  We bought this nifty pool that has an inflatable top ring and then you fill...the top ring floats upwards with the water level until the pool is full.  The box comes fully complete with a filter, a strainer, one filter motor, and even a vacuum attachment and hose along with a ladder.  The kits come in varying sizes and depths and prices adjust according to size, but the entire enterprise, pool, chlorine tablets, even some floating inner tubes set us back less than $350 which according to our calculations is basically a couple family outings to places like the zoo or amusement parks or museums, especially with gas prices what they are.  And we certainly expect to get more than two days use out of this.  The set up was really as easy as they say, once we figured out the most effective way to inflate the top ring (compressors are a bad idea).  We used a good old fashioned bicycle hand pump and let the kids take turns pumping.  The filter is incredibly easy to set up and runs surprisingly quietly.  filter cartridges are available at places like Wal-mart, K-mart, Target, Meijer's, even some of the Osco drug stores carry them.  A simple test kit for the water was only another $6, and enough chlorine tablets to last until the end of the season was less than $25.  OK, so it isn't Olympic grade, but you can still play keep away, volleyball, or float around in your tube and generally cool off and relax.  Kids are not sitting in front of the TV or the Computer complaining about boredom.  My older son now has incentive to keep the back lawn mowed short, to keep the bugs down, and my daughter pointed out that he has less lawn to mow-another perk.  I was totally surprised that the kit even included the pool cover....just gets better and better.  A great value for the money, easy to set up and later on, to drain and store.  In winter, if temps go below 32 where you live, it has to be drained, dried and stored inside away from extremely cold temps or the vinyl is compromised and won't hold up to the pressure of the water.  It is made of two layers of PVC along with a vinyl inner layer which is pretty smooth and easy on the feet.   I wasn't thrilled that it was made in China, as I do try to buy American, but anything American would have been a minimum of 3 times the price.  There is even an adaptor you can buy to run your filter with solar salt (like you use in water softeners) and avoid the whole chlorine thing-especially if your skin or eyes are sensitive to it.  We may try that addition next year.  But right now, I am happily floating away on my big old innertube.  Dimensions are approximate based upon where and how you set up.  Variances in level ground may impact the way the pool fills and the ultimate overall depth.  Cannot be used on sloping ground.