Wind under winter cover. Help?

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da_guy2

0
May 26, 2013
68
Ottawa, On, Canada
So the past couple years I've had a heck of a time with our 27' above ground pool's winter cover. Before and after the pool freezes wind gets underneath the winter cover, pushes all the water to one side of the pool, and puffs it up like giant balloon. I've already started seeing damage to the cover in areas that are being buffeted the most, so I'd like to solve it this year.

In the past I've tried:
-Jugs of water inside the edge of the pool. Turns out the wind was strong enough to toss them out of the pool.
-Plastic wrap around the outside of the pool. Didn't stop the wind and blew off in the middle of the winter.
-Air cushion in middle of pool. I was hoping it wold prevent the water from moving around... but it didn't.

My only other idea is to line the inside edge of the pool with water bags, but that's going to cost >$50 and I don't even know if it's going to work.

Does anyone anyone have any suggestion or advice?
 
My local pool store makes these out of flexible spa hose with one union and a t fitting for filling this ring up with pool antifreeze that goes around the entire inner circumference of the pool on top of the pool cover. Last year was my first winter with it but it worked fantastic. The weight of the antifreeze all the way around really keeps the cover down before the snow and ice keeps it in check. My pool is very much unprotected from those strong winter winds. I have a little pump to extract the antifreeze back into the jugs to reuse year after year.Cover Ring pic.jpg
 
SASOakMan said:
My local pool store makes these out of flexible spa hose with one union and a t fitting for filling this ring up with pool antifreeze that goes around the entire inner circumference of the pool on top of the pool cover. Last year was my first winter with it but it worked fantastic. The weight of the antifreeze all the way around really keeps the cover down before the snow and ice keeps it in check. My pool is very much unprotected from those strong winter winds. I have a little pump to extract the antifreeze back into the jugs to reuse year after year.View attachment 33157
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HMM ok interesting idea.... I think i might modify it though. I'm thinking of getting a 50' backwash hose, a few fittings, and fill it with just water. As long as I don't over fill it the water should be able to freeze and expand without bursting the hose. Once filled I'll zip tie the hose in a few places to keep the water from moving around inside the hose, and tie it to pool cover tensioning wire to keep it from moving around. I bet it'll be a lot cheaper than spa hose and antifreeze, and a lot easier to store in the summer.
 
da_guy2 said:
HMM ok interesting idea.... I think i might modify it though. I'm thinking of getting a 50' backwash hose, a few fittings, and fill it with just water. As long as I don't over fill it the water should be able to freeze and expand without bursting the hose. Once filled I'll zip tie the hose in a few places to keep the water from moving around inside the hose, and tie it to pool cover tensioning wire to keep it from moving around. I bet it'll be a lot cheaper than spa hose and antifreeze, and a lot easier to store in the summer.
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That might work...if you try it, please let me know how that works out. To note on your concerns...mIne actually coils up to less than a four foot diameter coil and I simply hang it on the garage wall during the offseason. The main benefit of the spa hose is the weight factor. The weight of the hose plus the antifreeze is what helps keep the cover from flapping around.
 

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HeidiP said:
In Ottawa wondering if you ended up going this route! Thanks!! :)
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No, unfortunately, it didn't work. The fitting for the backwash whose leaked and within a few days, most of the water was gone from the whose.
That said I did find a different solution that's worked OK for the last couple years. I have a giant roll of polypropylene twine that I crisscross over the pool multiple times making a sort of a spiderweb of twine over the pool. It doesn't stop the wind from getting under the cover but it keeps the cover from flying up and whipping in the air (which is what damages the cover). I was given the twine so I don't know how much it actually costs but I can't imagine it's very expensive.
 
putting water on top of the cover helps keep the cover weighed down and helps stop a lot of the flapping.

I've seen a product similar to plastic cling wrap that you find in your kitchen. The idea is that it seals the top of the tarp and doesn't allow the wind to get under the cover. That coupled with the water on top is supposed to help. I will say that I've never tried this plastic wrap so I cant comment on it's effectiveness.
 
Teald024 said:
putting water on top of the cover helps keep the cover weighed down and helps stop a lot of the flapping.

I've seen a product similar to plastic cling wrap that you find in your kitchen. The idea is that it seals the top of the tarp and doesn't allow the wind to get under the cover. That coupled with the water on top is supposed to help. I will say that I've never tried this plastic wrap so I cant comment on it's effectiveness.
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I've tried both and they don't work. The plastic wrap does nothing. Complete wast of time and money. The water on the cover works great if you strech the cover fairly taught, however up here where we get lots of snow you can't keep the cover taught or your pool will collapse uner the weight of the snow. Without the tension if there's enough wind (and it really dosn't take much) all the water gets pushed to one end of the pool and ends up doing nothing.
 
da_guy2 said:
I've tried both and they don't work. The plastic wrap does nothing. Complete wast of time and money. The water on the cover works great if you strech the cover fairly taught, however up here where we get lots of snow you can't keep the cover taught or your pool will collapse uner the weight of the snow. Without the tension if there's enough wind (and it really dosn't take much) all the water gets pushed to one end of the pool and ends up doing nothing.
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Our pool is also in an open exposed area that gets a lot of wind. I used 2 pillows on my oval and didn't have the cover taught. There were a couple of times when the wind did blow the water to one end and allow the leading side to pillow up and blow around. Once the water froze, there were no issues. Allowing the cover to sit on the water removes the concern of collapsing the walls with rain, snow, ice buildup. then the weight will help keep it down and not blow around as much.

I had thought of tying ropes across the top to try to stop the cover from blowing around. In the end I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I was trying to fix something that wasn't really an issue (to me anyway).
 
I've also had the best success with putting ropes across and over the top of the cover, similar to a spider web type pattern. It seems to help a lot with keeping the wind from getting under the cover and pushing it up. The only problem I had was at the point where ropes cross over the side wall and down the side it tends to wear a rubbing spot on the cover. I would recommend putting some type of padding in that area to prevent it from rubbbing through the cover.
 
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