Thinking about a Solar Cover

[urbantux]

I live in East Tennessee and we have had some pretty war days already, supposed to get up to 68 today. I was thinking about getting a solar cover for my pool but is it really worth it? Will it actually help warm the water?

Also I don't really want to take up space on my pool deck with a reel, how hard would it be to manage without one?

It would be nice if I could do something to help get the water warmed up...

 

[JasonLion]

Consistent use of a solar cover should get you a roughly 5 degree temperature gain.

A reel is certainly nice to have, but hardly required. If you have enough room on the deck you can just pile the cover up there, or build a framework to pile it onto. Some people even stuff theirs into a bin (though I don't really recommend that).

 

[Patrick_B]

In my experience, they are great at adding a little heat like Jason said, but the big benefit is keeping heat in at night and on windy days. They really help here a lot.

Real or not, they are a huge pain in the neck to me. My pool is about 19X37 and that's a lot of heavy plastic to deal with.