Oval Above Ground Pool Looks Funny

(Illinois)

Hello, I just had a pool installed by an installer 3 days ago & was wondering why my 15x30'x54" oval pool (Aqua Leader Influence) is like a peanut-ish shape instead of a true oval. It’s like the curves and the straight sides are not lined up correctly. Some of the seat covers are not fitting properly where the curves meet the straights. I thought it would work itself out after it was filled up, but it did not. This can't be normal, right?

I took a few measurements and read the manual again and the steel structures are not 42" from center of each strap channel as required in the manual. They are not even an equal distance apart. Is this acceptable? It seems strange. At the very least, I believe one of the few problems is that the seat covers are on the wrong sections (the bigger ones are supposed to be on the rounded part and smaller on the straight parts) I think maybe they reversed it.

Do you think there are more problems than the seat covers?

Thank you for helping me, Concerned

Hi. It is hard to tell by the photos whether you got a good job or a lousy job. Here are a few things you can check for yourself.

Start by measuring from the top rails to the water level. Do this every few feet all the way around the pool. This will tell you how level the pool is. Hopefully it is well within an inch.

Your pool has transition bottom rails so I would check to make sure those are all in the correct locations. The rails coming off

of the sides, in all four corners, are a different length than the rest of the end rails. See if you can get a close enough measurement to see that these are in their proper places.

Many times when the ends of an oval pool look funny it's because the transition rails are not in the right places. Another thing to check is a visual look down the sides of the pool. The transition rails should all look the same. Some pools, like a Doughboy, will have the transition rails follow the same line as the side rail. So you would have a straight line from the end of one transition rail, all down the side to the end of the other transition rail.

Other pools start the circle part of the ends at the beginning of the transition rails, like yours does. Most of the time it is a smooth flow from the straight sides into the curve. Rarely are pools designed to make an outward angle at the end of the sides, like your photos illustrate.

Your visual exam should tell you how the pool was meant to be. All four corners need to be exactly the same for the pool to look right. All four transition top rails need to bend at the same angle coming off the end side posts.

Your transition rails appear to go out a little before starting the curve, and that might be just fine, as long as all four are the same. That's what I can't see for sure from the photos.

The only way to know about your seat covers is to move a couple and see if they fit better the way you think they should go.