We are in the beginning of swim season, and while i can heat up the pool, i can't do anything about the cold chill in the air.
I started thinking about this at the end of last season...yesterday i was cleaning out the autocover pit and scrubbing the cover down and decided to try real quick and see if it would work. I inserted a length of 3" PVC through the skimmer, then stuck on a 45, sealed it with wet towels, and took the blower too it. Took about 3 mins to inflate. Stayed inflated for about 4 mins before it had significantly deflated.
I've looked at pool domes, would be in the $5000 range to cover my pool with one. Another grand if you wanted to heat the air inflating the dome to 70 degrees. Possibly one could put the blower in say a basement, not sure how long of a run of pipe you could have between the blower and dome.
Blown up there is about 20" of room between water surface and autocover, It would be like swimming in a underwater cave. Of course the big issue would be how do you get in the pool? I figured i could open cover to reveal steps, then i would need a piece of wood that stretched the width of the pool, attached to it would be some plywood that extended just below the surface of the water. The plywood would be touching the end of the cover providing the needed seal.
Then there is the keeping it inflated issues. I've got a spare skimmer cover that could have an opening cut into it, and i've got a blower motor for a small bounce house. Not sure how loud it would be under cover with motor blowing.
Anyways I'm heating up the pool for the coming 80 degrees days so one night this week i'm going to try it out since i basically have everything to rig it up. If it works, not to loud, then maybe i could make the sealing wood piece nicer.....
I started thinking about this at the end of last season...yesterday i was cleaning out the autocover pit and scrubbing the cover down and decided to try real quick and see if it would work. I inserted a length of 3" PVC through the skimmer, then stuck on a 45, sealed it with wet towels, and took the blower too it. Took about 3 mins to inflate. Stayed inflated for about 4 mins before it had significantly deflated.
I've looked at pool domes, would be in the $5000 range to cover my pool with one. Another grand if you wanted to heat the air inflating the dome to 70 degrees. Possibly one could put the blower in say a basement, not sure how long of a run of pipe you could have between the blower and dome.
Blown up there is about 20" of room between water surface and autocover, It would be like swimming in a underwater cave. Of course the big issue would be how do you get in the pool? I figured i could open cover to reveal steps, then i would need a piece of wood that stretched the width of the pool, attached to it would be some plywood that extended just below the surface of the water. The plywood would be touching the end of the cover providing the needed seal.
Then there is the keeping it inflated issues. I've got a spare skimmer cover that could have an opening cut into it, and i've got a blower motor for a small bounce house. Not sure how loud it would be under cover with motor blowing.
Anyways I'm heating up the pool for the coming 80 degrees days so one night this week i'm going to try it out since i basically have everything to rig it up. If it works, not to loud, then maybe i could make the sealing wood piece nicer.....