Need advice on best winter pool cover

[Janelle]

Hi all,
I am beginning my research on the best options for a winter pool cover. This will be my first winter. When we bought house in April, pool was covered with a vinyl pool cover secured by ropes, logs and cinder blocks. By this time, the pool cover had literally sunk to the bottom of pool as at opening, we found 4 of the large blocks had fallen in, along with a ton of leaves. Due to this, I may be under the wrong impression that a vinyl pool cover is not a good choice. We priced out the solid security cover that can hold a small elephant, which is what my husband is leaning towards because like me, due to our pool opening nightmare, may be unfairly judging vinyl covers, however, if I can find another good valued alternative cover/method, I'd be happy.


I have a 27,000 gallon kidney shaped pool surrounded by trees, and live in Michigan.
Thanks!

 

[n8henry]

I'm in Michigan too. If you have trees you will need to clean the leaves out before winter hits or it will end up a green mucky mess. That being said, it should not get into the pool unless the cover is in bad shape. You will also have to drain rain/melted snow off the cover.

I've always used a standard tarp type cover with water bags and haven't had a problem with debris in the pool at opening or with the cover falling in.

If I had the extra money I would love a safety cover. I think they look much nicer.

 

[chiefwej]

Well the title of your thread says you are looking for the "best". A custom made safety cover may set you back a couple thousand dollars. If you don't want to deal with manually putting a cover on, for even more money you can add a retractable cover to the pool.

Honestly if you can afford it, the safety covers are great. I had a LoopLoc cover on my previous pool and it looked good and worked well. Since I never close my pool where I now live, I have no need for a cover. If I did close the pool, I would buy one in a minute.

 

[Janelle]

We've got a long laundry list of house projects demanding $. I'll check out the LoopLoc cover.

n8henry-How or what do you use to drain the snow/rain off of the cover. How often do you typically need to do this over the winter?

 

[Speedo]

I have a Wayne transfer pump that I use. I wish I had gone with the bigger model, since the small one takes a long time. Usually I remove water once or twice while the pool is closed, but in Michigan you might be looking at more. Maybe 3 or 4.

 

[zimm]

I just ordered a loop-loc solid with mesh drains. Dealer says it's the best of both worlds. Blocks all light and tree junk, but allows enough water to filter through the vents to not require a sump pump. It takes a few weeks to have made so you should work quick if you want one for this winter.

 

[chiefwej]

I just ordered a loop-loc solid with mesh drains. Dealer says it's the best of both worlds. Blocks all light and tree junk, but allows enough water to filter through the vents to not require a sump pump. It takes a few weeks to have made so you should work quick if you want one for this winter.

I had a similar one when I lived in New England. It was great. Not cheap but it sure beats tarps, water weights, masses of wet leaves, yuck! It also keeps thing looking nice an neat during the long off season. I had a small submersible pump that I just left at the bottom of the pool all winter with the discharge hose and power cord coming out. When we exceptional rain a couple years it let me remove a bit of water as needed.

I tend to forget all that now that I live where pools stay open year-round.

 

[Janelle]

I appreciate all of the replies. I am narrowing down on my decision but am realizing that I will need to customer order due to the shape of my pool. My pool is about 19x40. It's sort of kidney shaped but not quite. The edges are more of a soft rectangle with a kidney-like cut out on one side. Instead of doing a custom order for my odd shapped pool, is there any strong reason why I couldn't just order a simple rectangle shape, whether is be a regular vinyl or safety cover?

 

[chiefwej]

I had a custom made one. It was no big deal. They provided instructions for measuring and I ordered online. I installed it and it fit perfect. I think it only cost about 20% extra for the custom one.

 

[n8henry]

I just use a sump pump with a discharge hose attached a few times during the winter/spring.