Draining Winter Cover

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cottrillj

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Aug 9, 2016
18
Illinois
This was our first year with a pool. We had it professionally closed because our's is sort of an odd-ball situation (part of it is fully buried with a concrete deck and part is out of the ground.) We have a mesh cover as well as a leaf net. Last week, we had 4" of rain and there is now a lot of water on the cover, submerging part of the leaf net which makes it kind of useless. Plus, we used an Aquador and, thus, didn't drain the pool, so 4" is a lot of additional water, I assume?

My pool place said I could pump it off with a sump pump so today I tried that. The pump is heavy so I was afraid to just set it on the cover/net, fearing it may rip one or both. I held it in the water and let it run for several minutes. The pump says it will remove 5 gal/min but it didn't seem like the water level on the cover was dropping so I stopped. Is it possible that the pump was just sucking pool water from under the cover up through it?

I guess what I'm asking is... Is what I tried right (sump pump) and I just didn't do it long enough? Or is there a better way to do this? I have no idea what I'm doing and I don't want to mess it up. Thanks.
 
You might want to look for a specific cover pump...Little Giant and Wayne are two brands that come to mind. These have sensors that shut off when the water on the cover is below a quarter inch or so on the cover so that you don't burn out the motor.
 
Pumping off a mesh cover will always pump pool water since there's nothing to separate the pool water from the rain water.

Your mesh cover should float on top of the water. I suspect your problem is that the cover has been pulled into the pool and something on top of it (leaves) is weighing it down.

How is the cover anchored at the sides?
 
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The cover is anchored with water bags on the concrete. They tied it to gallon jugs of water on the side that is only partially buried. What I don't want to happen is to pump water from under the cover out while the water on the cover stays at the same level and just keeps pulling the cover in, if that makes sense. I saw that exact thing happen on may parents' pool one year when we tried to pump the water off at opening. That's why I'm trying to figure out what to do. I didn't pump enough out for that to happen to mine, because I stopped when it seemed like the water level on the cover was not dropping. Is it possible that the sump pump I used is too powerful; it's only a 1/2 hp pump but it is heavy? So, instead of just taking surface water off the cover it sucks water up through the cover? Maybe a cover-specific pump, as recommended above, would not cause an issue? Or maybe I'm crazy and I just didn't let the pump run long enough, but, like I said, I didn't think the cover water seemed to be dropping. Here are a couple not-so-good (sorry) pics of the covered pool and cover water.

IMG_20161021_112427_960 (1).jpg

IMG_20161021_112824_659.jpg
 
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You can try to start a garden hose sihpon. Put the hose in the water in the deep end cover and and connect the other end to your water spicket and run the water for awhile getting the air out of the hose. Then disconnect the hose quickly from the spicket to start the siphon. If your area where your spicket is lower than the pool it should start to siphon. When we had our above ground pool we actually liked to keep some water on the cover to prevent it from blowing off.
 
cottrillj said:
I assume it's permeable. It's a standard winter tarp-type cover. Nothing fancy

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Both permeable and solid covers of that type are common. The fact that you have a float would make me think it was solid and needs a cover pump.
 
I haven't tried the garden-hose-siphon yet. I figure a leaf or something will just stop the flow over and over again but I may give that a shot.

JohnT- Now you've got me curious as to whether the cover is permeable or not...They more I think about it, the cover looks so much like a big tarp and tarps aren't usually permeable so I guess maybe it's not. I just assumed they were all permeable and it had some water on it the very first day they closed it so I assumed that was coming up through the cover. I guess I need to find out for sure. The float really doesn't mean anything. I purchased it and had the closers put it in the pool because I thought I read somewhere that they were good to use??

So, let me ask you this, if I may.... If it's NOT permeable, then there really shouldn't be any way that I'd be sucking water from out of the pool through the cover instead of just sucking it off the top of the cover, no? And, if it is permeable, it shouldn't be holding that much water on top, right??
 

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cottrillj said:
So, let me ask you this, if I may.... If it's NOT permeable, then there really shouldn't be any way that I'd be sucking water from out of the pool through the cover instead of just sucking it off the top of the cover, no? And, if it is permeable, it shouldn't be holding that much water on top, right??
Click to expand...

Unless there is a hole in the cover, you'd only be draining from above the cover.

Permeable shouldn't hold the water.
 
The garden hose siphon will work with leaves. We use to have a cotton wood tree in the neighbors yard that would dump massive amounts of leaves onto the cover. That is how we drained the cover for over 30 years. Once the water freezes it will not work obviously. It is also slow and may take a day to drain.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I contacted my pool guy, since he is the one who told me to sump pump it. He said it is a solid cover so water shouldn't be coming through and agreed that I should've noticed a difference in water level on cover after a few minutes of pumping. He's gonna send his guys out to look at it. I'll let y'all know what they say for future reference to others or if I don't like their response....

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Been meaning to come back to this... I bought a transfer pump and got the water off. For anyone who has a problem with water on their cover, I highly recommend buying a transfer pump over a standard sump pump.

For those who don't know what a transfer pump is, it is a pump with an inlet and outlet. You screw two garden hoses to it- one goes in the pool, the other goes wherever you want to drain the water to. Therefore, the pump itself does not have to sit on the cover, it's just on the ground.

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I use this one from harbor freight. Put right on top of my Rdiant brand winter cover.

harbor freight water pump - Google Search

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cottrillj said:
Been meaning to come back to this... I bought a transfer pump and got the water off. For anyone who has a problem with water on their cover, I highly recommend buying a transfer pump over a standard sump pump.

For those who don't know what a transfer pump is, it is a pump with an inlet and outlet. You screw two garden hoses to it- one goes in the pool, the other goes wherever you want to drain the water to. Therefore, the pump itself does not have to sit on the cover, it's just on the ground.

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Click to expand...

hmmmmm. Good thinking

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cottrillj said:
Been meaning to come back to this... I bought a transfer pump and got the water off. For anyone who has a problem with water on their cover, I highly recommend buying a transfer pump over a standard sump pump.

For those who don't know what a transfer pump is, it is a pump with an inlet and outlet. You screw two garden hoses to it- one goes in the pool, the other goes wherever you want to drain the water to. Therefore, the pump itself does not have to sit on the cover, it's just on the ground.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


How is is it with the leaves?
mine sucks them right up.
 
doc8404 said:
I use this one from harbor freight. Put right on top of my Rdiant brand winter cover.

harbor freight water pump - Google Search

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hmmmmm. Good thinking

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How is is it with the leaves?
mine sucks them right up.
Click to expand...
It came with a plastic screen for hose that goes into pool. Never clogs and we've got PLENTY of leaves. I also threaded the pool-end hose under our leaf cover

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