Latham International
reviews and complaints

I bought a pool liner from Latham Pool Products, via a distributor, on 08/08. The liner has a 20 year warranty. The liner has a seam come undone and I have followed their warranty instructions to call *** three times, July 25th at 10:55am, July 30th at 9:23 am and July 31st at 3:09pm and had to leave a message at their warranty extension ***. No one has returned my warranty claim despite leaving my 11 digit serial number for the liner as instructed.

I had a Latham liner installed in my pool by *** of Winchester, KY in 2016. It is serial # ***. The liner is failing. I obtained a Latham Consumer Contact Authorization from *** and filed a warranty claim on 7/7. I included a copy of their form and several photos of the liner. Latham sent a return email with Incident #*** indicating they were busy but would be in touch. Thirty days went by and no contact. I replied to the email on 8/6 and received another this time incident # ***. Again indicating they would be in touch. I called their consumer warranty number but got no answer on 9/10. I left a detailed message with all serial number and contact information. As of today still no contact. The dealer says I must work directly with the company ( Latham ). I have been completely ignored and it is if they don't even exist.

On March 10, we took delivery of a new pool liner purchased directly from Latham Pool Products. Total cost was $2,219.62. The liner was installed Sunday, May 22nd and we finished filling the pool on Wednesday, May 26th. Over the holiday weekend, a leak was identified in a split seam on the stairs and Latham was subsequently contacted on Tuesday, June 1st. We also note that the liner appeared to be pulling excessively on the top 2 steps. Numerous pictures were provided to Latham and repeated offers made to have Latham's local representatives come out to inspect. Now Latham is requesting we drain our pool and return the liner (243 lbs) so they can inspect. Note we paid $3k to install and there is a significant risk to the pool substructure if left empty for an extended period of time. We would like a correctly made liner sent to us and we will gladly return the defective liner upon installation of the new liner. Note this resolution will still cost us $3k in installation expense.

I had an inground pool installed in 1996. The original liner lasted 17 years with no issues. In 2013, my pool company installed a replacement liner manufactured by Latham. Over the next 5 years, the liner faded from dark blue to almost white. In 2018, Latham, after asserting that their warranty did not cover fading, agreed to provide a replacement liner at a reduced cost, and my pool company installed it in 2019. After only 1 year, that replacement liner has faded from dark blue to a very light blue, not remotely like the original color. I have provided Latham with photos of an extra piece of the original liner next to the liner in its current condition. Again, Latham has insisted that their warranty does not cover fading, has blamed "environment or other factors," and has offered to provide a replacement liner at reduced cost. The environment in my backyard has not changed since 1996, nor have the balancing chemicals I use in the pool, and I have my water regularly tested by my pool company, which has confirmed that I am maintaining the water properly. It is unacceptable for me to have to pay the cost of a new liner and installation every two years, as Latham clearly has a problem with fading of its liners.

I noticed that the level of the water in my pool was dropping. I e-mailed Latham Pool Products and informed them that there was a leak in the liner on February 26th with pictures included. One of the pictures showed a flawed seam which was shown to *** at the time of installation. I received an e-mail on March 1st in response that they would not honor the warranty of the liner due to the leak not being in a seam and that the warranty did not cover any other leaks due to condition of the environment. This e-mail was sent from Samantha C Warranty Administrator for Latham. I was offered a replacement liner at the cost of $857.02. I returned an e-mail to Latham on March 5th declining this offer and to ask how that they knew where the leak was since no one had came out to inspect the liner. As per the prorated part of the warranty I should only have to pay 30% of the cost since the liner falls between the time of the beginning of the fourth year to the end of the fifth year. The liner was installed on June 20th. If the leak is found to be somewhere other than in the seam then I would be responsible for 100% of the replacement cost. I feel it is the responsibility of the Latham to find the source of the leak.

The Latham Limited Lifetime Warranty on the Viking pool I purchased in 2018 is not being honored according to the terms of the warranty. In less than 2 years, the pool shell has begun falling apart in pieces. Let's be clear, it's a manufacturer defect. After notifying Latham, they advised me that they would not come to repair the faulty pool shell unless I drained my pool myself, according to their specs (a 3 page instruction booklet was provided) and built 20 foot long braces made of bolted together 2X4s and construction materials to support the shell while they fix the gaping holes. Mind you, their contract also states that if I drain the pool myself at any time, my warranty is void because it is that damaging to the pool. I requested that they come out and professionally drain my pool to repair it, since that is what the contract states. They have declined stating, "they don't do that anymore." I'm 5 '2" with 2 daughters. It's repulsive that Latham would even request that their customers put themselves in danger to repair a pool that is clearly faulty from manufacturing. I spent $70,000 on this pool to have it fall apart in 2 years. They should be jumping at the chance to fix this for me and be apologizing for their horrible product. Then they said I could hire a contractor to come out to my very remote home in *. Why do I have the warranty if I have to pay another contractor to fix or repair my pool?

We ordered a fiberglass pool shell from Latham through our contractor. When the pool was delivered on August 21 there was an large crack in the bottom corner. The warranty team showed up that week and buffed out some cosmetic damage that occured during transit but did not address the crack in the bottom. It was over 15 inches of visible structural damage with multiple cracks in the clear gelcoat. Our contractor placed a call to the manufacturer August 21 to schedule the warranty work as the pool was delivered damaged. The majority of the damage was at the bottom where the Pool sat on the truck as it was being delivered. The damage was very visible from the inside of the pool, large enough to push your finger through the hole. The warranty team did eventually show up to fix the damage 4 weeks later. The fix took about 2 days and all the patches were very noticeable from outside the pool. After waiting a couple days to let the patches cure, we started filling the pool on Oct 16th (only 1/5th of the way) so we could backfill around the installation. The next day the pool water level had dropped 6 inches and the hole around the pool was filled with water. As of November 20th, neither the Latham warranty manager or anyone else from the warranty department has responded to any of our calls. I have spoken to the local Latham Distributer on several occasions and he has promises me that they are working to get this resolved this week. We have been waiting since October 16th when we called them to inform them the patch didn't hold and I have not even been able to get ahold of the Warranty Manager. My contractor and I have been calling him and leaving messages 1-3 times a week with no call back. They finally sent a repair tech in the 1st week of December but he was only able to patch the outside of the pool. We did fill it with water and it appeared to hold but they couldn't do the gelcoat on the inside until spring when it was warmer. After multiple calls again to the Warranty Manager and finally corporate I was able to get the warranty manager to call me back on 4/13 and he did schedule a team to come out on 4/19. They repaired the gelcoat and told us to wait 24-48 hours to dry before putting in water. We also covered the entire pool with plastic to keep the water and dew out until it had time to dry. We waited 4 days to be sure it had time to dry before filling the pool on 4/23. By the next morning the pool had leaked and lost about 1 inch of water. The water is collecting under the pool in the hole. This is the 4th time they have attempted to patch the pool over an 8 month period and it still does not hold water. This was not a used pool. It was a new pool shell damaged in transit.