for anyone questioning the impact of a solar cover

[Hawksnestbay]

Hello- I live in M***achusetts, where it was about 80 degrees on Saturday. At 8 AM on Saturday, my pool water temperature was 68 degrees. I turned on my propane heater, and at about 2 PM it was 78 degrees, 5 PM it was 80 degrees, 8 pm when we left the pool it was 81 degrees. At that time I turned the heater off {not down}.The air temperature overnite went down to 53 degrees.

This morning {Sunday}, at 8 am, the pool water temperature was 78 degrees!
Today, at 2PM, the temperature in the pool was back to 81 degrees, without ever turning the heater back on. We swam until about 4:30PM.

I have not used my Solar Cover since the first Summer I got it 3 years ago, because, after observing the above type of heating/cooling cycle, and for the minimal amount of heat loss or gain that occurs, I also found that I dislike the crud that blows onto the cover, which would normally be collected in my skimmers, I dislike the reel because you need two people to do it right, and I dislike the circulation in the pool if you turn the eyeballs down.

So my lovely Blue Solar Cover sits at the ready up against the fence at the deep end of the pool, waiting to get called into the game.

[tenax]

interesting..what the air temp was during the day for you...on the hot summer days i could see that..now that it's like 68-70 for a high with the cover on the temperature has maintained but not gone up..i know what you mean about the crud on the cover, but i prefer that to in the pool..i have my solar reel rigged with ez-grabbits on the one end so it really is a one man job..if i had a bigger pool, i might not say that (mine's 15 x 30 inground kidney shape)

[Hawksnestbay]

I know what you mean about the crud. We kept dumping it in when the wind blew as we were rolling it up. My skimmers {2} are very well placed for collecting off of the surface water.
The pool itself is 20 x 44 lazy ell with grecian ends. A very clumbsy dimension for the cover.

By the way, Sunday night the air temperature went down to 52 degrees. At 8 AM the pool water was 72 degrees, a 9 degree loss. My theory is that the pool structure below the water acts as a bit of a heat sink. Once the gas heater is turned off, the structure begins to return its heat to the pool water, slowing the heat loss. But it certainly does lose heat faster over time than with a cover. Under the above conditions, we probably will only swim in the pool one more time before we close it.