50'x26' pool cover reel needed

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M

macdee

0
LifeTime Supporter
Jan 17, 2013
50
Southern CA
Hi, anybody have a suggestion for a reel that would work on a huge pool cover?
Thanks Lisa - lots of old posts and suggestions!
But anybody have experience with a reel that will accommodate a large, thick cover that will have to fold over first due to the irregular shape of my pool. I guess it would have to be one that sits up higher and can be moved out of the way.
Here's a pic of the "fun" of the initial use - but it's a blob of a nightmare to take off and put back on.
 

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You might want to consider cutting the cover into 2-3 pieces -- I cut our 36x18 cover into 2, and it's pretty manageable without a reel. I pull it onto the deck about 3 feet, then pull it out 6 feet at a time accordion style. Then on the deck I fold it 3-4 feet at a time to end up with a reasonable sized square that I can either just slide out of the way and cover, or carry somewhere. Covering is reverse, unfold each section to length then pull on the corners to un-accordian it into the pool (keep the folds on the deck). The key is that a 10-15' long section will sort of lay itself out in the water as you pull from a side; a 35-50' section will never do that. Having gotten it down I can take it on or off myself in 3-4 minutes without going in or getting more than incidentally wet. A reel might be nice but I don't really have a good place for it to go.

I tried making an ABS pipe roller as described in a thread here, but it didn't work well -- I think I need to trim the cover so it's an inch or two smaller than the pool (it goes up the sides a bit now, so it wouldn't roll on the pipe properly) and try again, but then I'd still be left with long rigid rolls to carry/put somewhere instead of a 4' square pile. I'd think 3 sections for your pool would make it much more manageable.
 
Thanks for your suggestion jm. Do the pieces get blown around out of place?- we have a lot of wind here. Our pool is exactly 50' long and it actually fits really nice. Just hate to cut it and then it starts shifting around- in our case, blown/drift onto the beach entry.
 
If the whole thing is trimmed to fit the shape of the pool, so that the edges are resting on water (protected by the coping/sides as opposed to flapping around on the deck), then it shouldn't blow around much. At the beach entry where the edges aren't as protected, perhaps a couple of bricks on the edges?

Worst case, if you cut it and then decide to do a single reel, it should be possible to put grommets and tie the sections back together. YMMV, not responsible when you wake up with your house covered in bubble wrap, etc :)
 
Oh- you're in CA too- I'd forget the cover if it didn't reduce evaporation by 95%(so it claims)- kids don't need to swim in 84' water anyway :)
Might have to try cutting into pieces if reel search doesn't work out.
 
macdee said:
Oh- you're in CA too- I'd forget the cover if it didn't reduce evaporation by 95%(so it claims)- kids don't need to swim in 84' water anyway :)
Might have to try cutting into pieces if reel search doesn't work out.
Click to expand...

But *I* need 84+ degree water to swim, preferably 88 :) The cover makes a huge difference here in Sacramento -- our pool is at 86-87 degrees right now, while others I know without covers are below 80 (we haven't had a lot of really hot weather yet). While it gets hot here in the summer (average mid 90s, often 100+), it also cools off a lot at night (average low is in the high 50s even in July), and the cover helps the pool retain that heat overnight. Didn't get it until August last year, when the sun was already lower -- I might end up leaving it off some nights in late June/early July if the temp goes too high.

Evaporation and chlorine usage reductions are just side benefits (and obviously if you are using the pool most days, the cover will be off and you'll get less of those benefits).

I'd like to see the site have a "cover challenge" video series, where people show their various reels, pipe rollers, manual folding, etc techniques, and we can see how they work in practice. "TFP Olympics" :) It'd help people determine whether other solutions are really more or less hassle than what they're doing. Maybe I'll start by videoing next time I do mine.
 

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