puzzled about pool temp.

klh66 · Jul 18, 2008

I am looking for some opinions on why my water temp. is so low. I live in central Florida on the east coast, so it is always warm here. We built our pool May 2007 and our water temp. has never been above 83 degrees. The pool is 9200 gallons and we do have an enclosure but it has at least 6 or 7 hours of sun a day. When we built, I never imagined that we would have a problem with water temp., and I only like to swim when it is really warm. We have heard other opinions that it could be the enclosure or it could be the water table. Didn't know if anyone would like to weigh in.

We also tried a solar blanket but it only raised the temp. by 3 degrees and it is very hard for me to take on and off everyday.

I tried posting in "what is your water temp", but got no responses. I wasn't too sure where to post.
Thanks.

JasonLion · Jul 18, 2008

Is your enclosure glass or screen?

frustratedpoolmom · Jul 19, 2008

Does your pool have an autofill feature?

klh66 · Jul 20, 2008

my pool has a screen enclosure and no autofill feature.

JasonLion · Jul 20, 2008

That is curious, I would expect higher temperatures. Do we have some other Florida pool owners who would like to comment?

duraleigh · Jul 20, 2008

A screen enclosure blocks a surprising amount of heat energy from the sun. It is very common for screen enclosed pools to require a heater in central Florida.

A heater and/or solar cover are the most practical ways folks bring their pool temps up to normal.

klh66 · Jul 21, 2008

Thanks for the input.

dschlic1 · Jul 21, 2008

I live in west central Florida (Tampa Bay). I was told by my pool builder, and did verify it for two months, that an unheated pool in our area would be the same temperature as the Gulf. As the Gulf temperature is around 85 right now, I would say that you have the same situation. Temperatures of large bodies of water should closely track the dew point temperature. They should be only slightly higher. This is the reason that pools in Arizona are cooler in the summer than in Florida, even though the Florida air temperatures are much lower.

Being in the Sunshine state, I would recommend a solar heater. We have one and it really keeps the pool at a nice temperature.

tcpiii · Jul 23, 2008

Also, you might want to check the accuracy of your thermometer. It's not unusual for pool thermometers to be off by 2 to 3 degrees. Perhaps your pool is really 86 but the thermometer reads 83. (BYW, my pool thermometer is off the other direction, reading about 2 degrees high).