Watermom's New Pool Adventure

[Watermom]

Guess who called this afternoon? Yep --- the first guy who we've been trying for a week to get a hold of. Sorry, I tell him, we have already hired someone else since we didn't think you were interested.

[Watermom]

I have been fighting the urge all week to go throw some bleach in my pool which is green. I have a real problem looking at it green, but it just doesn't make sense to spend the money on bleach when the pool is coming down. We are in the process of draining it by siphoning it with a hose. I thought the new one might be installed this weekend, but the weather hasn't been real cooperative and I'm not sure if the pool and liner came in yet. I called the pool store this afternoon, and they are still on their winter hours and closed on Friday, so I'll try again tomorrow.

The deck was torn down last weekend and off course the area under the deck had no grass growing. Now with all the rain, we have a nice muddy area in the yard. Of course this also means that I have muddy pups. Yuck! I have three golden retrievers, all female, a 7-yr. old and two 11-month old pups. The older one has more sense and doesn't see the mud as a playground. The puppies have NO sense and have no intentions of avoiding the mud.

When the installer was out here last weekend looking around, his initial plan was to get the ground prepped and then come back the next day and do the pool walls and liner and then the third day, cut out the skimmer and return. I told him that plan wasn't gonna work. The ground prep and the wall installation have to happen on the same day. There is no way I'll be able to keep the dogs out of the sand, etc. So, he's gonna have to work a long day and not leave a freshly prepped area just sitting there unless he wants to redo it. I know that is kind of a pain for him, but that's why I'm paying him!

[Watermom]

For years, we have fought with our solar cover. It is a huge piece of vinyl and even cut into smaller pieces, it is still a pain. The last few years, we cut our cover into fourths and rolled each piece onto a piece of PVC pipe and then lifted each out onto the pool deck. This has certainly been better than any other way we have tried but even still, I've continued to wish for an easier way. Recently, when looking on line, I ran across something called a Solar Roller Cover Stick. I think I'm going to buy one and hope that it works as well as it appears. You can take a look at it at the following link and there is a place on that page where they have demo videos of how it works. If any of you have bought one of these, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.solarroller.com/products/...over-stick.htm

[AnnaK]

We cut ours in sections and fold it accordion-like when we take it off, then either stack the sections on the deck or under it. With this method of folding it's easy to put back on the water: You just push it to unfold with the net pole. It's a one person job. The solar stick looks interesting but may require two people to lift out. My deck isn't wide enough on the long sides of the oval to where this would be feasible.

[kelemvor]

I'll be waiting with bated breath to hear the results. I abandoned the pool cover I bought last season after using it only a handful of times. Total PITA to deal with, but I sure wouldn't mind having my pool 5-10 degrees warmer.

[Watermom]

I know what you mean about it being a total PITA to fool with that huge piece of vinyl!! But, the difference it makes in keeping my pool warm is HUGE so despite it being a pain, I still use it. Especially when combined with my solar heater, there is quite a difference in my pool's water temperature. Without the solar cover on there, you basically lose at night whatever heat you picked up during the day.

[AnnaK]

Nights is when our pool loses all the heat gained during the day. We run the pump at night to take advantage of the 50% reduction in rates. The above-ground steel walls act like a heat sink when the temperatures drop at night.

[FlowerPool]

For years, we have fought with our solar cover. It is a huge piece of vinyl and even cut into smaller pieces, it is still a pain. The last few years, we cut our cover into fourths and rolled each piece onto a piece of PVC pipe and then lifted each out onto the pool deck. This has certainly been better than any other way we have tried but even still, I've continued to wish for an easier way. Recently, when looking on line, I ran across something called a Solar Roller Cover Stick. I think I'm going to buy one and hope that it works as well as it appears. You can take a look at it at the following link and there is a place on that page where they have demo videos of how it works. If any of you have bought one of these, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.solarroller.com/products/...over-stick.htm

I just watched the videos for the cover stick yesterday. The woman demonstrator didn't give me much confidence about the ease of the process tho. Watermom I am going to wait for your feedback after using it for awhile so do keep us posted here. Also, when your cover was cut into fourths didn't it blow off or uncover in some areas while on the water in a strong wind? I have tons of trees and debris from them and battle such all season long. While the cover and i are in the water kind of fold the cover into a burrito and fold the ends in to trap the rain and debris in and then hoist it onto my deck as fast as possible so the filthy water doesn't dump right into the pool. Sometimes there is gallons of dirty water I am attempting to hoist up. I then unroll the burrito on the deck so all the water n yuck drains thru the deck. If really bad I have to then hose down the cover and then the deck. Yesterday I saw on poolsupplies.com some plastic grommets to insert into the cover to allow water to drain freely...but then I would have debris coming out of 6 grommets and have filth draining all over the pool vs one spot of to heavy to hoist. I then have to hurriedly grab the net to snag the big stuff while the green and tiny stuff floats away and creates more mess to vac at some point. This process is the worst part about owning a pool as I can't afford an automatic pool cleaner and clean with a stick pump run vac. Please lmk how the cover in fourths worked for u or send me the link. Videos would be even better!

[Watermom]

No videos of the cover cut into fourths. Sorry! It did NOT blow off of the pool. One thing we did do was after all the pieces were unrolled off of the PVC pipes and were on the pool, we took the empty poles and laid them across the cover in various places.

I will report back on the Solar Roller Cover Stick. I'm hoping it works really well.

[BigDave]

I hope it does too. Thanks Watermom!