Illustration.
Pool service
If you pay a pool technician to look after the pool, What's The Damage, an Australian cost guide compiling local providers' and marketplaces' prices in July 2026, put a regular service at about $180 a month nationally, and a one-off clean at about $200 a visit, with city differences (for example about $205 a month in Sydney, $190 in Melbourne and $165 in Adelaide).
Electricity
The SA Government says a pool typically uses 2,000 to 3,000 kWh of electricity a year, depending on the pump, its hours and heating. Canstar Blue estimated a pool pump costs 16 to 51 cents an hour at 24.9 c/kWh; run six hours a day over a 90-day summer, that is roughly $89 to $277 for the season.
Chemicals
Chlorine (liquid, granular or salt for a chlorinator), pH adjusters, stabiliser and the occasional clarifier or algaecide. How much you use depends on your pool's litres, sun, swimmers and rain. Our chemical calculator works out each dose so you only buy what you need.
What pushes the total up
- A larger pool, or a pool in full sun.
- Leaves and storms.
- An old, single-speed pump.
- Green-pool recoveries.
- Heating without a cover.
When to call a pool technician
When the water will not clear after you have fixed the chemistry and the filter, when equipment leaks or trips power, when the salt cell or pump fails, or when you want regular servicing so you do not have to test and dose yourself.
Testing a few times a week and dosing small and often is cheaper than one big recovery from green.
Common questions
How much does pool maintenance cost per year in Australia?
A regular pool service at about $180 a month is around $2,160 a year (national figure compiled by What's The Damage, July 2026), plus electricity and chemicals if you do it yourself.
How much does a pool cost to run each year?
Electricity for the pump is the biggest steady cost: the SA Government puts typical pool use at 2,000 to 3,000 kWh a year, before chemicals and any service.