Hi,

We have finally gotten out pool working (it is about 50 years old, hand dug by previous tenants) after 8 years in our house in not so sunny North of Scotland !

My pool is about 8 X 4 X 1.5 metres, has a dome pool cover and it heated using a stand alone gas combi boiler to a heat exchanger by the pool. Thermostat is set to around 28 degC.

My kids are at school so apart from the school holidays the pool is mainly used at weekends only and maybe the odd hour or two during weekdays after school.

I have no knowledge about solar covers but given my details above wondered if anyone could recommend a suitable cover.

The pool is a very unusual figure of 8/kidney bean shape so I think I will have to cut it to shape and install it by hand. IS an alternative to keep the cover in a rectangular shape and let it over hang over the side of the pool (or does it need to be a snug fit if you know what I mean).

Another problem I have is that there is a leak somewhere below the skimmer and return pipe. I think I know where it is but wondered how I can confirm the leak before I use the marine filler to seal it.

Many thanks in advance

Welcome to tfp, Colshandy

I am not understanding entirely what you are looking for. It sounds like you have a covered pool? If it is, I am not sure that adding a solar cover will help you much since it's main purpose is to prevent evaporation, which might already be done by your dome?

Some people use food coloring applied close to the suspected leak, the color should migrate towards the leak. If that does not work or is inconclusive and if you are fairly confident that the leak is there, you could measure how fast your pool is leaking using the bucket technique (see:http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/leak_detection) then "fix" the suspected leak and rerun the test.

The only other way that I know of is to let the pool leak down until it stops, you then know at what level you leak is. Be careful with draining you pool too far, plaster pools can pop due to high ground water and if it is a vinyl pool the liner can lift if the level get too low.

Hi, cheers for the welcome Yeah the pool is covered but still get evaporated water condensed on the inside of the cover so wanted to prevent evaporation further and also slow down heat loss from the pool (and increase heat gain into the pool if solar covers would help achieve this).

Will give the food colouring method a go as I think the leak is right at the bottom of the pool

Cheers

Covers don't do much to heat pool, but they do stop evaporation which is the biggest cause of cooling and insulate just a little (a small factor). If the current cover/dome is "sealed" mostly to the pool, it might act much like a solar cover. If there is a lot of air exchange then less so. Could you post a picture?

Let us know how it goes.

okay, will do.

the cover is fairly well sealed. It has plastiv/material flaps at the bottom on both ends. Like this:

http://www.babydome.co.uk/baby-2-klasik-b.html

Wow, that is quite a dome! It does look fairly well sealed to air exchange so I would guess a standard solar cover is not going to help you much.

okay, thanks for that.

Cant remember if I said it earlier but I am also considering solar panels to supplement my gas boiler/heat exchanger.

Any idea on best type of solar panels to use available in the UK) would be appreciated also.

Cheers