I heard about these a few years back, and today found a company that makes them. It’s just a very small rectangular swimming pool with a pump that gives you a current to swim against, so you can swim for miles of you want in an 8’ x 15’ space.
I like the idea, but not the price (starting at $18,000+ US). So my questions (hopefully to people who have experience with them) are:
Are they an acceptable substitute for going to a lap pool for distance swimming?
What are some bad points about them? (gotta be something)
Just how difficult would it be to make your own?
For #3, I think the hardest part would be to get a front grill and to get the return channel hydraulic action right. Pumps are easy to find, heaters too, pools as well. OR, is there some problem in making one yourself that should stand out but I’ve just missed?
I could probably find these answers with a few weeks worth of research, but I was hoping to save some time by asking here.
A downside: I like to vary which stroke I am using and how fast I am going, since the lap pool you linked to doesn’t seem to detect swimmer speed and auto adjust, that would be a big problem.
Make your own? It moves 5000 gallons a minute using a 16" propeller. Do you know how to engineer something like that, let alone where to get parts, etc. Also it has to be 100% watertight and 100% electrically safe. That’s a wide variety of engineering skills you’ll need.
I have experienced using one of these in a health club I used to go to. The first downside is that you have to swim at a constant speed (as mentioned above) which isn’t necessarily easy using a variety of strokes. I also couldn’t really get comfortable with my stroke because I was always having to re-adjust to stay ‘balanced’. Because the flow is quite directional, it’s not like swimming up stream, and you have to try and stay in the centre of the flow.
However, if you really want to swim and have a limited amount of space it’s not a bad substitute.