Solar Blankets....really worth the trouble ????

[medvampire]

Bob
I am south of Morristown about 45 minutes from knoxville. If you take a gander at mine PM me. I have a lot of trees including one that hangs over the pool and getting the stuff that drops is a pain with the cover on. I can net things in the morning when I get home with out a cover quickly so I guess I have added reason for not using it.
The liquid seems to be helping quite a bit so I guess I will stick with it for a while.
Just checked my temp and I am at 82 down form 84 last night before I left for work. I did manage to get to 91 on the fourth other than that I advridge 85.
Steve

[waterbear]

I lve in N. FL and find the solar cover does a great job of extending my swim season in the coolor months. I have a heat pump to heat my pool and spa and without the solar covers on I lose about 10 degress overnight and only about 3 degree with the covers on. I only put the covers on at night to retain the heat and talk them off during the day so the sun can heat the water. They also cut way down on the evaporation that occurs when the pool is warm and the outside air is cold. I don't use them during the summer. (And the heat pump only heats the spa then). If the weather is warm enough to swim I get about 10 months of swimming in this way.

[gonefishin]

Since I don't have the second tier of my deck done...I have to live with a pool fence around the whole pool. Having only one small opening where the ladder is. This is WAY to much of a pain to try and pull the whole cover out of this small opening.

What I did, which made it much more manageable, is cut the solar cover into quarters, dividing it into four (pie shaped) sections. It's much more manageable now...But I also plan on adding some noodles (that I have slit down length ways) on the sides of the quarters to add stability and to make them "push" better in the water.

I'll have to see how the noodle idea works...it seems like it should work well.

good luck,
dan

[ShelleyAnn]

Gone Fishin - Love the idea of quartering the blanket. Might get up the nerve to try it myself. Cut your noodle need in half by putting only one section right down the middle of each piece and not on both sides. You only need the point in the middle to push, the sides will follow. Less bulk, they would roll up nicely, and you'll have one left over to float on.

Shelley

[matt4x4]

This may be a dumb question, but after you install your noodles, how would you roll/store each quarter, they would have to lie flat thus taking up all kinds of space, or you would have to install/remove noodles all the time - sounds like more work than rolling the thing up....

[gonefishin]

Hi Matt,

What I planned to do was install the noodles in two section, on each side. Between each of the two sections would be a break, allowing enough room for the noodled cover to fold on top of itself. This way it would be able to fold very similar to the way I fold my quartered pieces now. Multiple times on the outer curve and once in half on the radius length.

But after seeing the suggestion from Shelley...I think I may head in this direction. (thanks for the ideas Shelley).

It did take alot of nerve to cut a brand new 24' solar cover. But I figured...as it is now...I'm not using it at all. And pulling the entire cover out of a 30" opening simply was not working! I could see being even more hesitant to cut the new cover if I had a large decked surface to pull the entire cover onto...but I didn't.

happy swimmin',

dan

[JimSentry]

Those Solar Rings seemed like a good idea until I read about having to inflate/deflate, then where to store them when its taken off.

I think I'd prefer the liquid fish.

I also have an automatic cover but it looks like crap after just a few seasons. Worst 6K investment I've made.

[prh129]

I guess the climate where you live affects how much of a benefit you'll get. The "swim season" in the northeast is so short that adding a few weeks in the spring and fall is a big plus.

Now that the weather has been consistently warm, I leave the solar blanket rolled up with the white cover over it until the nights start getting cool again. When the day temp is in the 70s but the night temp is only in the 50s, I think the cover makes a huge difference.

Actually the debris issue gives me an idea - make a solar cover with say a 10 ft wide fine mesh collector with one side tied to the solar cover and the other side has a float along the top so that all of the debris falls into it as you roll your cover off. If your reel is outside of the pool, then you dump the collector after the whole thing is rolled up.

Peter

[day1]

You can have mine!! I used it for a few days last year for the helluvit, (since it came with our package), and it caused cloudiness under it. Not sure why, but I rolled it right back up and stuffed it back in the box. Well, most of it made it into the box. I want to figure out how to use my winter cover to shade our pool...with 101 degree days, ours feels like a warm bath! I'm thinking a huge tarp going from the roof edge to the 8' fence on the other side of the pool! It's ridiculous!

[pool newby]

day1,

check your PM.