Impressed by solar cover now that I took it off.

[texasdad]

Please excuse my fat fingers typing on a small iphone screen

Last fall I bought a solar cover mostly to keep out leaves. It has been on all winter - we've been in the pool a few times this spring but I just dug it to the side and didn't get it all the way off. With the cover on my Stenner pump has been perfect at keeping the pool at 5 ppm chlorine.

On Saturday we had guest swimming so I took the cover off right and folded it up in the shed. My water temp was 88 Saturday afternoon. I thought I was putting the cover away until fall

I just checked the pool and my water has dropped to 79 and my chlorine is less then 1ppm.

I just turned the run time up on the stennar. I didn't realize ow much chlorine I was saving with the cover on, and 9 degrees in two days is much more then I expected.

Maybe the cover needs to come ack out until school is out and summer really starts. We can pull it to the side until then. Or maybe I need to buy a good reel to it so it isn't a project getting or all the way off.

 

[mpacheco72]

I made the mistake of leaving mine on over the winter and it decomposed. I don't know how many little blue dots I vacuumed out but it was toast. But they make a huge difference.

 

[woodyp]

OK------------what color, (i.e. opaque/blue/clear) and brand are we talking about? Mine has been holding 82 for 3 or 4 days by 1 p.m. or so without a cover. Pool is pretty much in full sun till almost 5.

 

[texasdad]

OK------------what color, (i.e. opaque/blue/clear) and brand are we talking about? Mine has been holding 82 for 3 or 4 days by 1 p.m. or so without a cover. Pool is pretty much in full sun till almost 5.

The cover is blue and was bought from in the swim.

 

[gullzway]

Your lucky, I'm in Tulsa,OK. Had My blue solar on for a month now, water is 70°. Granted it only gets sun for about 4 hours a day.

 

[brajgreg]

So if I want to keep my chlorine consumption down, but I'm not interested in raising my temperature at all, would a dark blue tarp be ok? I bought a house with a pool and they didn't have a cover apparently, but I own a pretty large tarp. I'm just wondering if that's not a good idea for some reason. My pool gets pretty direct sunlight for about 9 hours a day right now, and that's only going to be increasing as the days grow longer!