Solar Cover Reel

[chinewalker]

Hi everyone!

I have a solar cover for my pool (18' round) and now I'm looking for the most convenient and inexpensive way to remove and store the cover. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Keith

[Watermom]

The age-old question --- what to do with the solar cover on a round AG pool. It is without a doubt a pain in the you-know-what to deal with it but it is definitely worth the hassle because it retains so much heat overnight that would otherwise be lost.

I also have a round pool and this is what I have done with my solar cover for the last few years. I cut mine into fourths which makes it much easier to manage. I take each fourth and roll it onto a long piece of PVC (capped on the ends) and then stack the four pieces of PVC on the deck and cover it with a couple of old white twin-sized sheets. If you don't cover it, it will get so hot in the middle that it can warp the PVC. (That is what happened to mine the first year I used the PVC.) The white sheet causes much of the sunlight to be reflected, thus lowering the heat inside the rolled up solar cover and prolonging the life of it.

There are others who have done other things, but this is what I do.

[chinewalker]

I actually hadn't thought of cutting it into smaller, more manageable pieces. I hate to because it's brand new, but I will definitely give it some thought. It sure would make it easier.

Any other ideas out there?

[Watermom]

I know what you mean about hating to cut it because it is brand new, but it sure made it easier for me! I can take the cover off and on by myself easily. Before, the thing was SO HUGE that it was terrible to try and do it by myself.

Anybody else have any ideas?

[chinewalker]

Did you quarter it like a pie or did you cut it into strips?

[Watermom]

I quartered it like a pie. Then, when I put it on, I just make sure the circular part goes around the perimeter. The two straight edges kind of overlap with the other adjacent pieces and that helps to keep it in place. Here are a few pics I took quickly to give you an idea of what I do.

In this first pic, you can kind of see what it is like rolled onto the PVC pole. Normally when I roll these up onto the pole, I am in the pool. When I took this pic today, I was standing on the outside of the pool and just quickly rolled it up. So, it isn't rolled up as neatly and as tightly around the pole as it usually would be. BTW -- the pole you see right behind the roll is not part of the rolled up section. It is just another pole that was floating in the water behind it when I took the picture..



Second picture ---- Normally, all 4 of the pieces are laying flat on the surface of the water and then I lay the PVC poles across in a couple of spots to keep the pieces down flat. Since I was taking these pics while outside the pool and wasn't in the water, i just kind of yanked on the pieces to separate them a little so you could maybe see the individual pieces. You can see the piece on the upper right section of the picture. Also, in addition to the four quarted pieces of the cover, I also throw an extra piece cut from a previous solar cover onto the area around the steps. Again, it all looks kind of messy in these pics but normally is all laying neatly in there.





On the last two pictures, I took a close-up showing one of the clips and the other one shows the clip holding the cover onto the pole. These are just inch-wide semi-circles cut from PVC. There is one at each end of the PVC pole. When I am starting to roll a piece up, i catch the edge of the cover with the clips. That holds the cover in place as I start to roll it up.






As I roll one piece of the cover onto a PVC pole, I can then easily -- by myself -- lift the piece out of the pool and lay them neatly on the deck against the rail so they are out of the way. Once all 4 pieces are laying there, I take a couple of white twin-sized bedsheets and cover them up to keep the heat level down inside the rolled up pieces of cover. That will prolong the life of the cover.

The whole process of getting all 4 rolled, lifted onto the deck and covered with a sheet takes me maybe 5 or 6 minutes and is easily done by one person. When I am ready to put them back onto the pool, again it doesn't take me more than 5 minutes and can be done easily by one person. That was never true before I cut it! Even with a couple of people helping, it was a pain in the butt. Plus, it was tough to get it onto the deck as one huge piece and it was just messy looking to have a heap of solar cover all bunched up on the deck.

Hope my idea may help somebody who is struggling to figure out how to manage their solar covers. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

[Leehicks79]

I have the same size pool as you did then. Do you remember how long each pipe was? Thanks!

[Watermom]

Each of the pieces of pvc was 10 feet long.

[Watermom]

This thread is a few years old. There is actually another thread started this week where someone was asking the same question ----- how to manage a large round solar cover on an AG pool.

I used the system explained in this thread for quite a few years and it worked well. But, last year, I ran across a product called a Solar Roller Cover Stick that I now use instead. Here is a link to the product in case someone missed that other thread and is interested in this product.

http://www.solarroller.com/

[Watermom]

Bumping this up so one of our new members can find it easier.