Safety Covers

Looking for a safety Cover for our in ground pool. Any suggestions....there are soooo many. Also, we have a kidney shape and I was wondering if it would be safe rather than getting a custom fit to use a rectangle or oval to cover it...thoughts. My only problem is that all I am seeing come to fit a 20 x 40 pool. Ours is actually 22 in the widest part of the kidney and 40 long. We would need an oval or rectangle to fit a 22 x 40 so measuring 24 x 42...not sure if that exists in a standard cover. We may have no choice but to get a custom fit....expensive:(

Hi @Fiveattripp

I have a "natural" shape in-ground pool and I do not have a safety cover. I have three little boys. Here's my setup for safe swimming -

1. Pool enclosed in a wrought-iron fence with self-closing, self-latching gates. Each gate is pad-locked with a key lock that only my wife and I have keys to.

2. Fence is pool-code designed with 4" or less gap between verticals and non-climbing

3. All doors from the house to the pool are alarmed with an ADT home security system. The chime function is set to go off any time a door or window is opened alerting anyone who is home that a point of egress has been opened.

4. All door have "pool-code" deadbolts which means, in addition to the normal handle lock and deadbolts, there is a second deadbolt hung 30" from the top of the door frame making it impossible for any child to open a fully locked door.

5. All children in the house have regular (or seasonal if it applies) swim lessons. If an infant is in the home, Infant Swim Rescue (ISR) lessons could be considered. I have personally witnessed an 18-month old child let go in the deep end of a pool turn onto her back and kick swim to the nearest coping edge....the program is phenomenal if available in your area.

6. At least one adult in the house is trained by Red Cross in CPR and drowning rescue along with a Red Cross rescue kit in the home. Being trained in how to deal with drowning scenarios can literally mean the difference between life and death.

...and the most effective and cost-free idea - never, ever, under any circumstances allow children to swim without a competent adult pool-side during swim play.

Safety covers, if you can afford them, are another layer of protection but they are not compatible with every pool configuration and they can lead to a false sense of security regarding swim safety.

Good luck in finding an affordable safety cover for your pool and I hope others on The Pool Forum can chime in with some good suggestions.

Safety covers, both solid and mesh, come in all shapes and sizes but they are (relatively) expensive. Everything SO says helps, and the safety cover adds ANOTHER layer of protection...it can also prevent large branches from tearing a vinyl-sided pool. Kidney-shaped is fairly standard. I have pretty much the same setup as SO, and similar rules. "Adult" supervision ends about when you get a driver's license (my older). The safety mesh (my preference) is my last line of defense. It's never been tested, but, like air bags, you still want them there.