Solar Cover and Reel Recommendations?

[valentij]

Looking for new solar cover?

Is it worth the money to go with 16mil as opposed to 8 or 12 mil.

Also...

The reels are so expensive... any recommendations on reels and where to get a good one cheap?


Thanks!

[poolmikecalif]

I have a 12 mil cover from Leslie pools. Seems fine after one year. I use a aluminum reel with the metal ends and wheels. Again, OK after one year. Leslies has supplies on sale regularly.

[matt4x4]

Better solar covers last much longer, you get what you pay for.
I had my reel custom made by a local guy who uses 4" aluminum tube, makes his own round handles and bearing seats, I'm really happy with the result and it cost less than half of any on line deals.

[kaybinster]

I have used both high quality solar covers, and real cheapo ones. My analysis is that the cheapo ones are a better value. Sure they don't last as long, but the most I have gotten out of the "best" ones is two seasons. So, I have been buying the cheapest I can find, usually under $100 for my 20' X 40' IG and I get about a season and a half out of it.

[MaxxFusion]

I got a Oddessy M800http://www.odysseysystems.com/abovegro.htmI got it at the end of last season so I need to install it this year.

[matt4x4]

It sounds like you keep your solar cover on during the daytime hours or you keep a very high concentration of Chlorine in your pool. (am I correct on either?)
Solar covers (unfortunately for them are named wrong), should only be on your pool at night to stop heat from escaping, they do not help in attracting heat into your pool during the day, rather, a lot of the heat that could be gained gets bounced off the cover and back into the air.
Proper use of a solar cover means rolling it up during the day and allowing the light to filter through your water, bouncing off the floor and walls of the pool, that way, the floor/wall absorbs heat and puts it into the water, the water will also absorb a small amount from the rays travelling through it, but since water is almost transparent it is very minimal.
The cover should be rolled up and covered, many people sew a few bedsheets together and make a clip on cover to place over the roller, white bed sheets reflect the sunlight better that a blue cover, helping your cover last even longer.
I have a medium grade solar cover that is still like new after 2.5 years (and it stays on teh reel over the winter), mind you, my chlorine level is extremely low thanks to this forum and that probably has a lot to do with it. I do not follow proper solar cover ettiquette because I just don't have the time to remove it every morning.

[kaybinster]

My chlorine is kept very low, but yes I keep the cover on all the time-- well except when we go swimming (he he he!) I partially agree with you on the fact that you will gain more solar heat with the cover off during the day. However, your net energy flow will not be better by doing that as you will greatly increase the rate of water evaporation with it off and as we all know evaporations will very quickly cool the pool. So, I strongly believe you will better off to leave it on all the time except when swimming.

[matt4x4]

Evaporation - BAD WORD!
I live in the country, no real water sources, trucking it in is expensive - one of the reasons the cover stays on - I keep my water in the pool.
The heat gain without a cover is actually higher even if you take evaporative cooling into account, I think it was proven umpteen times on the forum, but then you have to top it off with cold water, plus you went through all the daily troubles of rolling that thing up!
I'm a firm believer in keeping it simple - the less work my pool is the better, that's why Ben's 3 B's are perfect, I hardly had to do a thing to my pool last year except add bleach and toss teh barracuda in once a week and it was always sparkling!

[duraleigh]

Hmm, well, I always love a good discussion. It would be my uneducated opinion that evaporative cooling would exceed radiant heat gain in MOST cases. I would say at 10% relative humidity and a 30mph wind, I would take evaporative as the winner everytime. 90% relative humidity and no wind would probably tip the scales the other way.

The variables are so great I'm not sure how it could be tested in a real pool. I will soon contact my engineer friend who deals with these issues daily and post back if he offers something interesting.

Dave S.

[kaybinster]

I don't buy it that solar input would ever be greater than losses from evaporation. Here is why. It takes one BTU to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree F, BUT for each pound of water that evaporates the remaining water will loose roughly 970 BTU's! That is a very big difference. Look at it another way, to raise the temperature of a pool that has 30,000 gallons by one degree requires roughly 250,000 BTU's of energy. That same energy is lost for each 31 gallons of water that evaporate from that 30,000 gallons pool.