Auto cover question

[poolgirl10]

Hi all- thanks for all your help as I am only a few months into the BBB!

When we put our pool in a few years ago, we were told that the auto cover needed to be off at least 4 hours a day, I think to "off gas" or chemical release? Anyway, as the last two summers in the midwest have been really hot we had ours open as much as possible, so the water stayed cooler.(still close to 90 degrees)

Curious to know what auto cover people do as far as how much it is open, and is the 4 hours necessary? It has not been opened that much lately as it has been cold.(now only 72 in pool)

thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Bama Rambler]

It only needs to be open a little to let the sun help burn off the CC's. If you swim once in a while that's probably more than enough open time.

I suspect Chem Geek keeps his closed 90+% of the time. It's more important to keep the chems balanced than to worry about opening the cover a set amount of time.

 

[chem geek]

Our cover is closed for all but around 1 hour every day during the week, though longer (2-4 hours) on weekend days. Even a few hours during a week should be enough since, by implication, the pool isn't being used much so there's not much in the pool that needs to get handled. In other words, the same cover that blocks some UV from sunlight is also keeping leaves and other organics (and people) out of the pool as well. During the winter season when the pool is not used, we do not open the cover at all except to add more chlorine about once every 2 weeks since the water is so cold.