Solar blanket roller?

[Mr.Mooks]

Hello everyone. I have a 15x26 oval above ground pool. I want to use a roller to make putting the solar blanket off and on easier. Does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I really don't want to mount it on the rails in the middle and roll off both directions as I have been told it doe snot work so well. I was wondering if anyone has put it up on post at one end and rolled it back that way? Any pics of install would be great.

[PhantomAndy]

the posts should work. You might need longer straps between the rollup pole and the edge of the cover. My pool is an in ground grecian and i had to use longer straps for my setup. Just buy 20 feet or so of some 1" nylon strapping.

[huskerfan]

I've tried all ways and my preference is having the reel/pole just off one of the short ends like you're inquiring about. Although- it's not a perfect solution, it works the best for me. The down-side is when you reel the cover off the pool, it will catch under the top rails where it curves in close to the end of the pool. If you're taking the solar cover off by yourself- it's helpful to have a handle on both ends of the pole as you have to walk back and forth to pull the cover out from under the top rail after you roll it up two or three times, otherwise you'll rip your cover or the straps will tear out. Ideally, with two people it's a breeze as you reel with one hand and use the other to hold the blanket up and keep it rolling smoothly onto the pole, while the second person keeps the blanket rolling on smoothly on the other side, preventing it from catching under the top rail. I'm still trying to find a permanent solution to this problem, but in the meantime, I cut two pieces of vinyl flooring I had extra of- approx. 2ft x 4-5 ft each, and before I start rolling up the cover I lay this on the top rail in the problem areas on each side, lift the cover up so it sits on top of this vinyl piece and it helps to keep it from catching under the rails as bad. It's another step of putting them out and picking them back up when you're done- but we each grab one and put on our sides, then my daughter usually picks them up and puts them away by habit while I fasten a tarp strap around the middle of my blanket on the pole so the wind doesn't unroll it. Now for the positives: the blanket and reel/pole are on the outside of your pool and doesn't interfere with your swimming at all, and it's a breeze to put the blanket back on the pool! One person can do it easily- either me or my daughter usually does it just before getting out of the pool. I remove the tarp strap I put around the middle of the blanket when I reeled it up, and I drape it over the top of my skimmer basket on the outside of my pool, near the reel/pole. Then I just pull the blanket as I walk backwards and pull it until I have about 6 ft of blanket draped over the pool, then I fold the blanket over back towards the reel/pole about 3 ft, then go to each side and throw/fold the end of the blanket back over itself, so then when you go back to the middle of the blanket and pull it the rest of the way onto the pool it won't take on water on top of the blanket. Then when you get it clear on the pool, just unfold the ends and you're done! It pulls so amazingly easy back onto the pool! Do watch though if you have slits cut in your solar blanket to accomodate rails like I have attached to my walk-in steps, so they don't get caught under the rail as they're more susceptible to rip.

Other than the photo in the picture gallery of my pool that Ben posted from July 2005- I don't have photos at the moment. I can post some soon, pool's open, but haven't been in yet due to deaths in family amongst other things. Hope to put steps in tomorrow and get in for the first time this year! Haven't been in the mood, so got on the forum tonight hoping for some inspiration, lol! If you'd like I can post back with some pics... but I say go for it- Matt4x4 has done the same thing with his round AG pool, and I know a couple others from the forum who have done theirs this way also. Good luck-

[huskerfan]

I forgot to add an important step: before you start rolling up the solar blanket- manually lift up and pull the end of the blanket up off the water and pull it up over the end top rail to start it. If you just start rolling the blanket up without doing this it will catch under the top rail and tear your straps from the blanket. This all sounds harder and longer than it actually takes; from start to finish- it takes about 3 minutes to reel up the blanket off the pool with two of us- about 6 minutes by myself (5'3" female/14 year old daughter). We had to manually roll and unroll the blanket and lay it on the rail out of the way by hand a couple times before we got the reel installed- do that just once and you'll never complain about the little glitches in rolling it up with the reel/pole!

[Watermom]

Hi Donya and welcome back to the forum! Any photos that you submitted before were most likely lost when the forum software was updated. If you can, take some pictures and send them to poolforum AT gmail DOT com and reference the URL of this thread. There are lots of people who would be interested in seeing what you have done. This is an age-old problem for AG pool owners. Again, glad to see you back around here!

[huskerfan]

Thank you - I forgot how fun the forum is! Glad to see a lot of the gang still here helping out, I can't imagine how I would have got where I am today with our pool without all of you and the forum and pool solutions! Kudos to Ben too!

I was strolling through the photo galleries and actually found some pictures Ben put up from when we were putting our pool up and an after picture- but it just shows the cover on the reel off to the side of the pool. Our pool is open, thankfully- as crazy as life/ and death has been lately- hope to get in tomorrow for the first time, will snap some pics of the setup for my reel/pole then and post them.

[huskerfan]

I got some pretty good photos- would u prefer I start a thread on this under Above Ground Pool Equipment & Construction, or here under Pool Equipment & Operations? Maybe can sticky it then- please lmk and then I'll post it. Thanks

[Watermom]

Let's do it in the AG forum.

[huskerfan]

I started a new thread on this under AG Pool Equipment and Construction. I could only post 3 images for now, but more images will be coming soon. Sorry- meant to do this a long time ago- just been too busy to get back on before now.