Can You Reuse A Pool Liner
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If you are looking for information about if you can reuse a pool liner then you will be disappointed to know that in the vast majority of cases you can not reuse a pool liner. But what if your case is special? Is there any circumstance in which you might be able to reuse an old pool liner again in the new pool...even for just a little while? Any pool installer worth their salt would still say no. Our time as professionals is worth a lot and we do not have time to fart around with second hand pool liners - but maybe you do.
The conventional wisdom is that pool liners can only be used once, and for good reason. If you attempt to take down a pool, and move it to a new location, and you want to reuse the liner, you are going to have a tough time of it. There are a lot of things that could go wrong with this plan which all result in the same conclusion of you needing to buy a new liner. An intrepid DIY'er would probably then argue that there is no harm in trying anyway to move the liner to the new pool, and in a worst case scenario they are still in the same position needing to buy a new liner. While this may be somewhat true it is also worth considering that above ground pools are cheaply constructed and taking one apart and putting it back together is like dealing with IKEA furniture - they work well enough the first time you put them together but if you take them apart and put them together again it just is not as good. The materials are too cheap and it is extremely easy to crack something or break / lose a piece of hardware.
Trying to install the old liner again will put wear on important components like your coping (or liner retainer) as well as the skimmer and returns. If you break the wrong piece or component on an above ground pool then you might find that it is difficult or impossible to find a replacement, and proceeding without repair or replacing the part is not possible. In my opinion taking down and moving an above ground pool is already pushing it in terms of what you can get away with doing. These pools do not go back together well. Expecting to reuse the old liner as well is just not a good plan.
Same pool VS. new pool - If you want to take down a pool and move it to a new location then the liner most likely will not be able to be reused. However if you are attempting to reuse an old liner in a different pool then that is even less likely to happen. The liner will already have holes cut into it for the skimmer and returns and there is virtually zero chance that the new pool orientation will line up properly to these existing cutouts in the liner. Even moving the same pool can result in these holes no longer lining up well enough. Reusing an old liner in a different pool altogether is highly unlikely to work. This also means that an inground vinyl liner will not be able to be reused in any other pool.
Why Can't You Reuse A Pool Liner?
When vinyl liners are made there are plasticizers that are added to the vinyl in order to give it the stretch and elasticity it needs to be able to stretch into place in the pool. The vinyl is not simply laid in the pool and filled with water, but instead stretched into place by vacuums or the immense weight of the water. When a vinyl liner is brand new is has a lot of these plasticizers so it has a lot of stretch. Over time, due to UV exposure, chemical exposure, and exposure to the water, these plasticizers will leech away into the water. These plasticizers escape the vinyl very quickly at first which means in just a short amount of time (six months to two years), the vinyl will have substantially less available stretch.
Further to this the vinyl liner will shrink due to damage from UV exposure. As detailed in this article about problems with vinyl liners, UV protective chemicals are added to the vinyl manufacturing process. These particular chemicals are expensive and one of the ways in which a cheap liner differs from a more expensive liner option. In speaking with an independent liner manufacturer they told me that above ground pool liners have substantially less UV protection in the vinyl as compared to the vinyl used for making inground liners. This is one of the ways that liner manufacturers reduce on their cost of materials to meet the competitive price point needed on above ground pool liners. If you intend to take a used liner and try to reinstall it on an above ground pool then you will almost certainly be working against the fact that the liner is now physically smaller than it once was.
Liner shrinkage - When held in place in the pool by tens of thousands of pounds of water the liner is not inclined to shift or move despite the fact that it is now smaller than when it was initially installed. Once you drain the pool, and the water weight is gone, the liner will shrink and will be difficult or impossible to stretch back into the size you need it to be. Even if you try to use the weight of the water to stretch the liner, it will now rip, or a seam will separate before the liner is stretched into place. Even if the liner only shrinks a tiny bit everywhere, now none of the corners will fit it, and all of the holes for the skimmer and returns no longer line up.
Brittle consistency - Once a vinyl liner has been exposed to UV and chemicals it changes the chemical composition of the vinyl. Just like leaving a rubber band out in the sun, once damaged the elasticity is gone and any attempt to stretch or manipulate the liner (or rubber band) causes the material to just break apart. Not only has it lost the stretching ability, but it has lost it's own structural integrity and ability to resist changes in applied forces. When liners become old enough, draining the water and letting them dry out will cause them to become brittle like glass. The liner will break in shards and sharp, jagged edges and be completely useless for any kind of repurposing...unless you need a giant festering pile of razor sharp vinyl liner shards, in which case you are in luck!
Remember that a vinyl liner is a very thin layer of waterproofing to begin with. It is a little amazing really that vinyl liners even work at all...but they do. But they are unforgiving against damage which is why you hardly ever see vinyl liner pools used in commercial applications. Liners simply are not durable enough to stand up to the wear and tear of commercial abuse, which is why the much more durable PVC membrane liner systems exist (as well as concrete pools). In an above ground pool you are likely to damage the liner just from folding it up to transport it to the new location. If the liner is older, once it starts to dry it can crack in the creases where it is folded. Even a single hole that you are not able to find is a deal breaker for a vinyl liner, and just another reason why pool professionals agree that you can not reuse a vinyl liner.
Is It Possible To Reuse A Pool Liner?
Looking at this from another perspective, what if it were the zombie apocalypse and I needed an above ground pool liner inside my compound to hold fresh drinking water...could I reuse an old liner? In this extreme example I hypothetically have no other options at all other than to accomplish the task of removing a pool and reinstalling it, liner and all, at a new location. I suppose under these conditions I could make it happen. In order to have the highest likelihood of success these are the factors that I would consider:
Heat & direct sunlight - When you install a vinyl liner you want to do this on a day with decently warm weather and some sun. If I had to reuse an old liner then I would want to install it on a day where there is blazing hot overhead sun. An old liner is not going to stretch like a new liner does but getting it extremely hot in the sun surely would help to try to manipulate it into position in the new pool.
Don't let the liner dry out - Instead of letting the liner get completely dry while you move and construct the pool in a new location, I would remove the liner first and transport it directly to the new location in a 55 gallon bin
Age of the liner - The older the liner is the less likely that it will survive being uninstalled, packed up, moved, and reinstalled into a pool. But if a liner was only, say, a few months old then I would estimate there is a decently high likelihood that it will still have enough stretch to be reinstalled. You might struggle to line it up properly in the pool, but being so young the liner can still be manually manipulated and stretched by hand as well as by strategically pouring boiling water on it where you need it to stretch the most.
A high quality vinyl patch kit
would be my next best weapon in dealing with problems getting the old liner to fit. In a worst case scenario you could completely cover the old skimmer or return cutouts with large patches and try again. This is not something that you want to have to do as the chances of having or developing a leak in these patched areas would be pretty high, but if all else fails this at least gives you a chance to make it happen. It is important for these patches to use a decent quality and thickness of vinyl patch as opposed to the paper thin clear plastic often offered with vinyl pool patch kits. You can cover a pinhole with a thin vinyl patch but you would not want to try to cover an entire skimmer hole.
Fortunately above ground pool liners
are not very expensive at all. At least compared with custom made inground vinyl liners which typically cost $1500 to $2000 or so...by comparison $150 to $300 for an above ground vinyl liner is very cheap. They are able to be so much less expensive because they are thinner material, lower quality (like less UV inhibitor), and they are all pre-manufactured to generic sizes as opposed to inground vinyl which is always custom made for each pool.
In short you can not reuse an old liner in another pool, or in the same pool in a new location even. There is just too much working against you in that you are dealing with an already cheaply made product, and one that has deteriorated and experienced a chemical change since it was first installed. Perhaps if the liner is still new enough, less than a year is best, but less than two year for sure, you might get super lucky and get it reinstalled using the tips that I have listed above. If not, then you will have to bite the bullet and pay for a new one.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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