Kayak Pools Reviews

I wrote an unhappy review earlier this year and wanted to update everyone. Since then the pool is fixed. However it took the tenacity of a bulldog to get it done and way more money than I thought it should. Adam at Kayak headquarters in New York was a reasonable guy trying to do the right thing which is way more than I could say for the rest of the Co.

This is an update to the review I posted on Consumer Affairs on April 22, 2014.

I bought this pool in 2007 and have had nothing but problems since. Started out with the purchase price of the pool and was able to work with them to correct their error. Then I had them come out to replace three walls a few years back and was told that I had to pay to have a manufacturer defect corrected, that the walls were crap and they should all be replaced but I would have to pay for them to Ship and labor and part of the cost of the walls. Now three years later I have 6 walls caving in and have to pay 70% of the cost of walls and shipping and labor to replace.

Bought a used 16x32 Kayak pool almost four years ago for $5000. Disassembled it and found that some of the original "lifetime" waterwalls had corroded-through the aluminum to the plastic core along the bottom edges. I was told that this can happen depending on the chemistry of the sand/soil that contacts the panels. After considering the options, I ended up making my own waterwalls out of 4' X 8' X 3/4" marine plywood ($890 total) cut at an angle along the top edge to fit in the 1/2" wide top frame channel. Primed and painted them with three coats of quality house paint before assembly and before installing the new liner, covered the inside of the waterwalls with thin foam underlayment intended for wood flooring. The pool structure, waterwalls and liner have been problem-free since.

I am shocked to hear so many unsatisfied customers on your site? We bought last year a 16x32 Kayak pool. We have had nothing but the best experience with Kayak Pools Midwest and everything was done on a timely fashion. The sales person was nice and informative and made the purchase easy. The installation crew was professional and completed our pool in 2 days. Our family has nothing but the highest praise for this company. We did a lot of research and Kayak Pools Midwest with thousands of customers has an A+ BBB rating.

We bought a 16x24 version and had it for 2 years and really didn't have a problem then. We put our house on the market and decided to keep the pool. We contacted Kayak and about moving the pool to our new house, and they said they could of course at a pre-agreed price. I asked them about the warranty and was told the pool would still be warranted if they did the work. They disassembled the pool, moved the parts to the new house, and reassembled. We enjoyed the first summer - after that is when the troubles started.

From the start, buyer beware! When dealing with the initial sales representative, look at the back of the agreement you sign before you sign it. There are so many disclaimers and reasons Kayak has that holds them virtually responsible for nothing, not even attorney fees even if they fail to bring a lawsuit. Before you sign the agreement, ask about the 3-day right to decline the offer before making a deposit. If you unfold the bottom part of the agreement that the sales representative has so cleverly hidden, you will find that if after 3 days you decide not to purchase a pool, too bad, you lose the deposit and are still liable for more monies owed! Get everything in writing.

I need sizes. My camber blocks are bad and Kayak wants me pay $40 for a new manual and I just need the sizes for a 16x32 pool; it's the wood blocks under the decks.

If you are trying to find a hopper liner for a Kayak Pool, don't waste your time dealing with the Kayak Pool dealer in Newmarket, Ontario. I dealt with someone named ** and he was confrontational from the word "go". He started by bad-mouthing every retailer out there, saying, "If they tell you it is a Kayak liner, they are lying," and I hadn't even mentioned that I was looking anywhere else! I asked him if they had a dig plan with their liner and he got quite upset with me. I also asked him what the depth of the deep end is when the hopper liner is installed and he didn't have a clue. I asked him again, assuming he didn't understand my question the first time. He was belligerent and rude with me, when I was asking a simple question! I will never deal with them, and will be contacting their head office.

I have had our pool for six years and it is supposed to be under Kayak Pools Midwest warranty to which I even had them install it. I have opened and closed the pool the same way every year and this year, when I opened the pool, I had seen the liner was pulling out in a certain area. So, I called the company only to get the runaround and told they could place a service call, but it would cost me 250 dollars and they do not guarantee that they can fix it. Then, she goes on to tell me how to drain it to fix it myself. If you cannot guarantee that your own people can fix this, how I am supposed to do it? They offered me no help or assistance at all on a pool I overpaid for, thinking it was covered by a good warranty. The best advice I can give anyone is to never ever buy from this company for they do not know what customer satisfaction means.

I had my pool installed a 36x24 and right off the bat, the liner leaked the next day. They replaced the liner at no cost to me, everything was great. Then I noticed the edging that holds the liner in was cracked and covered with white caulking. I called them and complained and they said I signed the acceptance letter and they couldn't help me. The acceptance letter I signed was for the first liner, not the second. I argued back and forth with no results. The trim was expensive to ship because it was so big, I had no choice so I had to buy it myself. Then the wall started buckling in by the filter. So I had to replace the wall liner and of course, the water. This company does not stand by their product at all! I would never have bought this pool if I knew how shady they were. Another problem was the handrails that go around the pool are very flimsy and the screws fall out all the time. I had to buy new stainless screws to replace all of the ones they installed. I would not recommend this pool to anyone

I purchased a Kayak Pool 5 years ago with the understanding of a Lifetime Warranty on the walls. Two years ago the walls began buckling inward. I contacted Kayak and they gave me the name and number of a Kayak representative. The representative came out and inspected the pool stating, "I have never seen this before. The only cause would be of improper installation or improper cutting of the walls. There is no fault to the owner."

We had to replace our walls with lifetime walls in 2006. They are bowing out and the liner is going through the walls. The person who installed them has tried working with them. I can't get anyone to return my calls. I have sent emails with pictures and so has the installer. They wanted proof of purchase, which we have, but can't get them to call back.

I bought a pool in 2005, at which time, the salesman stated Waterwalls were 100% guaranteed for life. After 1 year, 3 walls were dented and Kayak replaced them for "free" - we had to empty the pool and refill ($400) and pay the East Coast Kayak contractor $400 for labor. At the time of replacement, the contractor told me that there was a bad batch of walls in 2005. Kayak knew this! In 2009, more walls started to buckle and in 2010, I now have 19 walls that need replacement.

About 5- years ago I had a Kayak pools installed. The water walls are failing and I called last year and was told I could either buy the walls and they would cover the re-installation or they would pay for the walls and i pay for the installation. I have since sent an email 2 weeks ago (today is 7-27-11) and I have yet to get a answer. I have a total of 7 walls failing and one of them pushing in 4 inches and soon to puncture my pool liner.

I bought a pool 16' x 24' in 6/08. It now has grass growing through the liner at the bottom. I am being told that the warranty does not cover this. Also, was told that this is the 2nd complaint they've had with this problem. I can patch the 3-4 places where the grass is coming through or I can purchase another liner for $799.00 plus installation. Randy the Kayak rep told us that if we purchased the liner, he wouldn't "**" us to have it put in. Unbelievable.

Since the warranty is in the fourth year, we will need to pay 30% of the current retail price on each wall. Then we will need to pay for shipping to us and shipping back.

My 7-year old Kayak 16x32 pool's liner ripped in Feb 2010 and Kayak offered me a 35% discount on a new one which sells for $1,039, leaving me with around a $650 cost. They won't pay for shipment, pool water refill ($400), no labor. What does 30-year warranty mean? I have an empty pool, kids who can't swim in this hot weather and a terrible experience with this company that gladly took my 17,000 dollars.

Our pool was installed in August of 2008, after the guys who installed the pool left, I noticed that there were scratched is the paint on the deck. I contacted them and they would send a bottle of touch up paint. Never received it. Called back and never sent. Waited until the spring and the paint was starting to flake off, sent them pictures and customer service responded with they will replace panels,but we had to pay to have them installed.

I would not recommend Kayak Pools to anyone. We purchased our Kayak Pool 5 years ago. We were sold on the 30-year warranty and lifetime water wall warranty the salesman told us about. Two years after we purchased this pool for $19,000 and put their sign up in our yard for those two years, the water walls were bending in on the inside of the pools. I called Kayak customer service. They said, "Don't worry if anything happens, they're 100% warranted for life." Over the next two years, they started getting worse so I took pictures outside and sent them to Kayak. They replied that it must be an installation problem but "don't worry, their 100% warrantied".

We requested that a Kayak salesperson visit us to discuss purchasing an above ground pool. The sales person said we would receive a discount if we purchased that night only and the cost was over $19,000. He explained that the warranty was 30 years, which would pay for the cost. When the pool arrived and was set up, we received the manual which states the cost of replacement parts if there are issues with the pool. We had our first panel go out in July of 2008; we purchased the pool in October of 2005. The cost for one way of shipping for the part was over $250. That was not mentioned when purchasing the pool.

I live in Texas and bought a kayak pool 2 months ago from Swim Texas. They service Texas. I can tell everyone I have had a wonderful 2 months in my kayak pool and the people have been great. Right from the start, with Bob the salesman to Paul and his crew who set it up to Steve, the finance/owner, have all been wonderful. The best part is I have not seen any complaints from anyone in Texas. So I would advise anyone in Texas to go ahead and call Swim Texas and ask to speak to Bob or Steve!

Our lifetime warranty Kayak Pool's frame broke in two pieces and blew out three water walls and bent the supports and the 10-foot deck. Because the local dealer went out of business as well as Kayak Pools, they would not honor the lifetime warranty. Kayak went back into business, but they supposedly did not buy up the warranty papers so they refuse to fix our pool. They also said they had no record of us buying the pool.

We originally were looking to buy a pool from Kayak Pools in May 2009. After their demonstration, we signed an application for financing and gave a $5000.00 deposit. With an overall credit rating of 810 on all three reports, I didn't think financing would be a problem or I would have never gave that kind of deposit, knowing it's non-refundable after 3 days. Well, it is July 7, and we still do not have a pool.

In April of 2008, we purchased a pool from Kayak Pools Southeast. We ordered the pool to have a 5 and a half foot depth on one end of the pool. On the day that the pool was being installed and water was being put into the pool, it was discovered that the liner was not the correct one for the agreed upon depth. We reached an agreement that we would accept the liner the way it was and that Kayak Pools Southeast would in turn provide a cover for the pool, a case of Pool Frog Bac Pac Chlorine cartridges and closing the pool in the fall of 2008. To date, they have still not provided the case of chlorine cartridges and the President Rick will not return my phone calls. I have tried to contact him on average once a month since July of 2008. The cost of the chemicals on the main Kayak Pool's site is $189.99 for a case of 12.

I have a letter that documents all that has happened. Basically, our pool that was installed by Kayak East Coast in November 2007 suffered damage this winter due to the poor engineering design and installation of our drainage system. As a result of this poor engineering design and installation of our pool's drainage system, we have a burst pipe and a torn pool liner.

My Kayak pool has a problem with one of the waterwalls. It tore loose from where it is attached. Kayak states that it has a lifetime warranty on all waterwalls. The break caused my pool liner to be damaged. The business which was a franchise of Kayak pools went out of business so I contacted the corporate office directly. They reviewed my pictures and stated that it was an installation error. They would not do anything about it. I would think that a company would have to stand behind the warranty even if the franchisees do not install their pool correctly. It would have only cost Kayak a few hundred dollars. They are not a good company to deal with. If I were you I would not spend your hard earned money on one of their pools. Now I plan to buy all my parts from other companies that sell parts for Kayak pools. For the few hundred it would have cost Kayak to fix the pool they lost all my purchases in the future.

I can't believe what I'm reading about a Kayak Pool. My husband and oldest son put mine in. We did have a hopper end 8 ft. and after our boys grew up and got married we decided to fill it in and that way our grandchildren could enjoy it and I could still swim. We have had our Pool for 24 years. We have put lifetime walls in and had I think 3 liners. I love my pool and can't wait to get in it with the grandchildren. We have a blast. Sorry so many of you are disappointed with your pools. Maybe it was who put them in. The pool itself is great, easy to clean and take care of. I still have people who want to know where I got my pool.

I love my Kayak pool. Worth every penny! Very low maintenance and easy to care for. Purchased in 2004. Excellent installers. Even gave us pool school showing us everything we needed to know. We videotaped it and watch it every year to open & close our pool. Liner had a tiny pin hole near top and they immediately came out to patch. Have called several times with questions and they have always been incredibly helpful.

We bought the pool back in 7/2007. Upon opening the pool in May 2008 we noticed that the pool liner was pulling away from the wall so I called the 1-800 number and I was told that they had no one to come up here and fix it but that we can still use the pool so enjoy the summer. I told them that I thought it should be covered under the installation warranty and they said if it would be if it was installation related. So I just called again, since we are getting ready to close the pool, and NOW they said that the installation warranty expired at the end of 7/2008 and that it will cost me $300.00 to get it fixed. I really think that he scammed me in that he knew by blowing me off for 2 months they could make some money. I don't think that I should have to pay $300.00 because obviously 2 employees were incompetent in their job. 1) the installer obviously did not install it properly 2) the woman that I spoke to initially did not log my call. I am not sure what good it would have done for me to write it down if she didn't write it down.I may have to incure $300.00 in monetary damages to fix the pool or else it may very well ruin the liner and cost me about $600.00 in the spring for a brand new liner.

on the 13 of june at 7 pm we signed a contract at 7 pm at night the 14 and 15 was saturday and sunday so we tried to call all day on monday june the 16 and no return calls so that night we signed contract to cancell and sent it certified mail on tursday the 17 of june. kayak pools now say were in breach of contract for not going trow with letting them put their pool in our yard and it seems that a lot of people had not had their calls returned as well according to web sites. they sent us two letters saying we had to th 17 to rescin on one and the 16 on another. ln one letter they say we was approved for financing on the 17 and in the other they say the 18 . then in one letter they say they called on the 19 to say pool was in and we was ok with financing terms and in other letter they say they caled on the 23 to say pool was in and we was ok with terms... my thing is if we canceled contract on the 16 sent by mail on the 17 why would we say ok to financing on the 19 or 23 we never gave permision but for them to run credit throw one company and that company name was on top of letter head not to run it trow 5 or 6 companies..now they was us to pay 15 % for breach of contract and put a mechanics lien on our home. the cancelation letter was signed on the 16 and mailed certified well before midnight on the 17 what was our last day to resind. the salesman had us post date check to the following monday the 16 because it was after their normal buss hours and to write on top of credit check page do not run till june 17for them to drop his mechanics lien drop this 15% what is $2953.95 and to return my deposit and my lawyer fees and letter statting that no futher actions can or will be taked

After one year of research I bought a Kayak pool in 2000 becuase of its structure design and warranties. After one year rocks and sumps formed in the floor of the pool. Some parts were missing to the railing and notified dealer in Dallas, never returned my calls. After several years the liner started to rip. It was tearing at the seams. Notiefied corparate becuase dealer in Dallas went out of business. Corporate said that warranty only cover manufacture defects with the seams.This suppose to be a 30 year warranty liner. Corporate can not show me any wriiten statement to this fact. I have e-maile and call and they said they will return the calls. After awhile they stop all together leaving you high abd dry. The kick panel lifetime warraty are detiorating. Corparate said that the pool should not be in the graound and backfilled around the side. Who installed it? I did not. Supposely the dealer hired professional to install the pool. Sent pictures to corporate no response. Contacted the local Kayak dealer to have a service tech to check the pool at my cost. The dealer will not send a service tech must go through corporate. Dealer will get back with me. No response. It would be better to buy a cheap pool every three to five years then spend so much money for the Kayak pool. I would not recommend this pool to anyone. I am still fighting with corporate. Going through the BBB now, then to the State General's office, then Federal Trade Commission, I will not stop.Pool liner tearing at the seam and the kick panel are detiorating. Both have a good warranty, 30 years on the liner and lifetime on the structure.

3rd different complaint since installation in november and opening this year. My outside framing has pulled away from the deck flooring and is bowed out.All of the wood spacers used under the frame for leveling I presume have fell out. Once again 27000 dollars for a pool.I am not happy with your services.

Nothing! I bought my pool [16 x 32] 1n the late 80's from a private individual. Had to dismantle it to move it to my back yard. After 30 days/ +/- of preparation and erection of the framework, I started filling it with a garden hose. A Kayak dealer set me up with a 700.00 [approx]+ Kayak liner - I think 748.00 is closer. The only problem I had after that was trying to find a happy medium as far as the chemical application to insure safe swimming water. Sorry people. I can not find fault with the product what so ever. I love it!

We bought a kayak pool in 2007 and and Had an unusually harsh winter. We had a pipe freeze and in the spring we lost all of our water. As you can imagine we were devastated. I called kayak in Indianapolis and spoke with Nita in service. I must say, she was very professional, very sensitive to our problem and took of it immediately. We love our kayak pool and recommend it to anyone. Thank you

We purchased our pool for over $16,000. It was installed on 09/22/05. We completed all lifetime warranty information as submitted as required to insure we complied with the procedure so our pool would be covered. At the end of June, I noticed that one of the water walls appeared to be caving in and putting pressure on the liner. I immediately notified Kayak and sent photos as requested. I did receive a prompt phone call back stating that it was covered by the warranty. HOWEVER, what the sinister salesmen fail to to tell you when you sign your life away for this OVERPRICED pool is that labor is only covered for 1 year after installation. I was informed by Kayak's customer service representative that shipping was $110 and installation was $495. Close to $700 out of my family's pocket for a DEFECTIVE panel that costs $96. Either way, with or without the warranty, Kayak still makes money from their poor fabrication and screw-ups! You're better off spending $1,000 OR LESS on a pool that you expect to only get a few years out of. Kayak's National Sales Manager has YET to return my call after 4 voicemails regarding my concerns. Customer service stops once they get your money and install the piece of crap pool. We refuse to put a single cent out for the repair. We'll wait until the wall collapses and put a huge sign where the pool stands alerting everyone to Kayak's scam. I'm sure there are people out there who've never had a problem, but it's pretty obvious that there are those who have problems. DON'T BUY KAYAK UNLESS YOU ONLY EXPECT TO GET A YEAR OR TWO OUT OF YOUR POOL WITHOUT PROBLEMS. Poor warranty and they don't back-up their own mistakes. What phonies. Those adds they spend all that money on aren't worth the paper the ad is printed on because not 1 ounce of it is true. The epitomy of falso advertisement.

My husband and I had Chad P. come to our home and tell us about Kayak Pools. It sounded great! We sighned the papers thinking that it was to see if we could get the pool financed and was told that we had three days to cancel the order. Chad was great, very nice, we had no problems with him at all! I called on July 8th and spoke to Craig telling him that we really wanted the pool but wanted to wait until next year to purchase one in order to raise our credit score. Craig said that I could give it another day to think about it. My husband called him back on the 9th and told him the exact same thing! We were very impressed in the pool and wanted to buy one the next year. On the 21st I recieved a letter from Kayak pools saying that we had not told them until July 17 that we did not want the pool. That was a lie! It said that because of a breech of contract we owed them 3099.99 dollars. When I called to speek to Craig twice I was told that he was away from his desk. My husband called and spoke to Jason L. in the Legal Department and told him what happend and he said that Craig was with a finance department and did not work for Kayak pools. I had my neigbors call Kayak pools from thier homes and ask for Craig and they got through. So much for him not working for them! My husband also spoke to Jason L. again and asked for a bill so that we would have proof of payment and he said he did not have to give us one. When he was told that we would not pay until we recieved one, Jason said that he would put a lien on our property. I called to speak with Richard L. the president three times, leaving a message for him to call back, I have heard nothing! I am glad that we didn't buy the pool after reading all of the other complaints. $3099.99 for nothing is better than what we would have been paying for a greater amount of nothing! If this company had a pool that was as great as they say, they would not have to take peoples money in return for them being told no! Good buisness comes with happy customers. After reading all of the compaints on the internet about Kayak Pools I now have a greater knowledge of how they make a living. Doesn't seem like they have any idea on how to do buisness without hurting people. Read the contract and do not sign until you are sure that you want one. This company would rather take money away from your family than earn it by selling their pools!

I would just like to offer some advise to those of you sitting with useless Kayak pools, we have owned our second hand Kayak pool for 8 years, prior to that it was 2 counties away and we purchased from the original owner who had it in their yard for 17 years. We installed it with only a new liner, and new hardware (screws & bolts), a couple years ago we replaced the walls the aluminum tracking that holds the walls underneath and I can honestly say that besides upgrading a few things here and there due to just giving out we have not had any issues....however all parts and liner that have been purchased have been done so NOT through the kayak company or a kayak dealer... I order all my replacement parts from Pool Supplies, they are in New York and easy to deal with. The staff are there to help and even allowed me to have my own freight driver pick up the walls and aluminum tracks so that I did not have to pay their shipping freight charges... just called and gave the salesman (that I dealt with from order to pick up and always returned my calls) my driver's name and phone and they contacted him to give directions to thier warehouse and all was good... It is not as pricy as the kayak dealers and have not had any issues with the liner that I see most of the comments had with the REAL Kayak liners...so my advise is just go elsewhere to service and take care of your pool there are companies that ship the items all over the US and they are easy to deal with and their products don't seem to have the Kayak issues but still work with the pool. Don't let Kayak make you believe they are the only store in town to get a properly fit liner..at least ours has been great....check out the internet for other stores selling replacement Kayak parts.. Good luck!

Purchased a maintenance free pool from them in 2007. Delivered in a timely manner and installed within a week of delivery. Unfortunately they did not finish installation until 10:00pm at night and had me sign the agreement that everything was good even though I could not see a thing. They told me that if there was any problem with anything just call them and they would come and take care of it. I filled out every one of their warranty cards for the liner, pool, motor, everything. It was supposed to be 10'ft at 4 feet and 10'ft at 5 feet. The measurements are nowhere near that, but I can live with it. The major problems are a deck that gets scalding hot. It is so bad you cannot step on it without shoes or sit on it without a chair. When it came to closing the pool for the winter the manual was so confusing I called for help. Several times of calling and getting no answer only machines, I finally got a hold of someone who said that they had no one to come and explain because it was seasonal work and the season was over. I closed the pool up the best I could, which I knew was wrong but it was the only way I could do it. This summer after hooking everything up I called Kayak to have someone come and inspect it to make sure everything was okay because I had leaks from everywhere. They said they would but they didn't know when. I was surprised when they called back and said they had someone that could come right away. I had to leave for work so my friend and my mom were here to talk to the man. He said I must have lose O rings when I put things away and he fixed everything. When asked about the difficulty with winterizing the pool he said that the manual is worthless and that I did not have to put away the motor and filter just cover them up. As for the drain hoses, I would lose most of my water even though they sold me an Aquador so that would not happen. Their manual is the worst written book I have every tried to understand. I paid $14,000 for this pool so that I could relax my muscles due to MS and Lupus. I wanted better customer service when explaining how to take care of this investment. The man who came out said that this time he wouldn't charge me but next time it would be over $200. My representative told me that it was free inspection and maintenance as long as the warranty's were sent in. I have copies of all the warranty' so they aren't getting a penny out of me.

We bought our pool at the end of the pool season in 2005. When we opened the Pool in 2006 we had 2 water walls buckling. We called the dealer Kayak East Coast and they were great they sent a service team out and replaced the walls and offered to pay for the water to refill the pool. In 2007 near the end of the season we had 4 more walls buckling this time when we called we were told our dealer could not pay to replace the walls any longer that we had to contact the manufacture which is also Kayak in Lancaster NY.