u/conshfritter

Title: Latham Cayman 16 vs. Thursday Pools Aspen?
Trying to decide between the new Latham Cayman 16 and the Thursday Pools Aspen. We have two kids, ages 2 and 7, so this will primarily be a family pool for playing, hanging out, and having friends over.

The biggest differences for me are the tanning ledge and depth profile. I like the shallower depth profile of the Aspen, while the Cayman is roughly a foot deeper at the deep end.

For a family with young kids, would you generally choose the shallower pool with more usable standing depth, or go with the deeper pool for more versatility as the kids get older?

We have young kids and this will mainly be a family/play pool, but we’ll also use it for entertaining — swimming, throwing a ball around, basketball and hanging out. Diving isn’t a priority but I know kids are going to jump into it.

Option A: 15’6” × 37’. The first 6’ is about 16” deep, which seems useful for kids, the dog, or adults just sitting and hanging out in the shallow water. After that, there’s about 31’ of pool that gradually goes from roughly 3’4” to 6’4”, with a bench across the deep end.

I know one of the common complaints with this type of pool is losing usable standing/play space as it gets deeper. But since the change from 3’4” to 6’4” happens gradually over about 31 feet, I’m wondering if having that much length mostly solves that issue.

Option B: 16’ × 40’ and 4’6” deep throughout. Obviously this gives you a huge amount of consistent standing and play space, but you give up the shallow lounging area and a deeper end for kids jumping .

Pool owners- which would you value more: having the 6’ shallow area and deep-end bench of Option A, or having a consistent 4’6” depth throughout the entire pool with Option B? Which would you choose and why?