Jennifer...I so feel your pain. Got the same blue one last week to warm my water although it really hasn't. However since I put it on over a week ago it has rained every single day. Only thing it has done is saved my chlorine which at least is a good thing. I don't have a reel and have yet to figure out what the heck im gonna do with the thing when I take it off. I have nowhere to put it other than lay it on my brand new pretty deck.
I just opted for the clear colored one 12 mil (in transit here). the last 8 got me one winter but I left it off the last two winters.
I install it during the spring after a good warm/hot day to keep the heat over night. during the first winter it froze solid and never kept the water warm.
I had thought of getting a reel, but reading on here someone with a similar pool cut his into sections.
I did that into 1/2 and 1/4 again. the smaller sections did allow me to remove and reinstall it by my self,
just roll it up after lifting about 1/3 out of the water. just north of you my pool was at 75 degrees with
the dark rain clouds...looks like a few days more of it to come. I have no heater other than my filter
with the hottest auto paint on it which does warm the water up 3 degrees in bright sun. I remove the
cover during bright sunny days and keep it covered during the cloudy ones and at night when the temp
drops.
my pool is in ground with a concrete pad around it, plenty of room to leave the several sections there.
the next cover coming it is heavier and I will try to cut this one into 5 sections. blue dots are popping off
the old one. just expendable covers, all that they are. I thought the clear might not absorb the sun
as much and deteriorate as fast. time will tell...
about the sun, my concrete around the pool in bright sun is already heating up to 104 degrees. when you
take the cover off during the day all that heat goes into the water, the cover maintains it over night.
it may take several days of that sun to warm up the mass of concrete behind the pool vinyl liner and
get to the point of swimming temp. just thinking my pool was frozen in early March during that last
cold spell. I use a $15 infrared temperature gun from amazon to watch temps. my blue cover never
gets but 2 degrees warmer than the pool water most of the time.