Solar covers...Any Experience??

[Green&Slippery]

Does anybody have any experience with this type of solar cover/heater. Good? Bad? Are the manufacturers claims true?

http://www.intheswim.com/Pool-Equipm...olar-Sun-Rings

[PoolDoc]

We had a member report using rings, similar to those shown, successfully on her pool last year. You can search for her posts if you like.

The 21,000 BTUH claim is almost certainly greatly exaggerated. As best I could determine, daily *peak* insolation values for the area west of San Francisco is not likely to exceed 600 watt-hrs/m^2. That translates to 60 watt-hrs/ft^2 or 200 BTUH/ft^2. For the 5' rings sold by InTheSwim have about 78 square feet of area, for a maximum possible gain of about 16,000 BTUH.

But, when you allow for reflectance, re-radiation, non-optimal tilt, etc . . . you'll never get 16K BTUH in heat from a single ring.

Also, if you use your pool every day, someone will likely get pretty tired of removing and then replacing them.

But, if
+ you use your pool intermittently;
+ are conscientious about maintenance tasks
+ lose heat to evaporative heat loss (probably -- I assume the air is quite dry)
then, you may like them.

[Green&Slippery]

Thanks for the info.

[mas985]

One of the biggest complaints I hear about the solar rings is that when the wind picks up they all end up in a pile in the corner of the pool.

[kelemvor]

When considering a solar cover type device such as these, I like to reccomend that folks read the US department of energy's writeup on solar covers here: http://energy.gov/energysaver/articl...ng-pool-covers

It explains how and why solar covers work. Primarily by preventing evaporation from water that is exposed to air. One of the problems with the rings is that they don't cover a lot of the water due to their shape. The other is as mas985 said; they blow away if there's any wind.

I decided to not use a solar cover myself this year, although I could potentially get an extra month or two longer swim season here in FL. I find that I'm just too lazy to remove the thing and replace it after and the result is I don't swim anyway.

[CarlD]

The trick is to have a good reel to uncover and a 2nd pair of hands to recover the pool. Then it's easy. I used to buy the heavy diamond pattern expensive covers, but after 3 years the bubbles would pop and they usually don't warranty that. The cheaper ones work just as well and last the same 3 years.

[Green&Slippery]

One of the biggest complaints I hear about the solar rings is that when the wind picks up they all end up in a pile in the corner of the pool.

I hadn't thought about the wind issue. We had a couple of seriously windy days in the last week or so. White caps in the pool :-)
Thanks

[JimHFL]

Carl,

What "cheaper" ones are you using?