They come in different thicknesses which may help protect them from snags/rips, but does nothing to improve performance. All covers stop evaporation which is where 70% of your heat loss comes from. Tomorrow, it's seen as a 'gain' in temperature, because you lost less with the cover. Solar covers do not create heat, ignore them all claiming so with this one better than that one. Anywho, seran wrap would work just as well as a thick cover if it didn't bunch up. Lol.
No matter the thickness, all the bubbles are the same (flimsy) and is the typical fail point. When you spent double+ on a thick cover but the bubbles popped after a year or two, you'll be miffed you didn't buy a cheapo one.
So we rec thin covers for being easier to manage, and as cheap as you can find, then consider it disposable.
The cover needs to be out of the sun of its going to be off the pool all day, especially in TX. My cover would reel up (wet, obviously) and the water in between the layers would boil and steam on hit days. So find a way to cover for the cover if you don't have a shady spot to store it when it's off the pool. Any tarp or such works fine, or if you're getting a reel, they make specific covers for that too.
Buy the smallest rectangle that covers all your curves and it trims easily to fit with quality scissors or shears.
I had the 'clear' cover and it was hideous IMO. It called my attention from anywhere in the yard, even if I was doing something else like mowing the lawn. There was this big white thing out the corner of my eye that didn't look like it belonged. The blue one will look like water at a glance.
