Double mesh cover?

[Enumjon]

Greetings to you all. We are in the tail end of summer, but I am planning for winterizing. This will be my second year winterizing this pool, and I wanted your take on an idea I had. Our pool is kidney shaped, in ground, plaster. It has an old loop-loc mesh winter safety cover that is full of holes-bigger holes than it is supposed to have. I put on the cover last year and it worked OK, but quite a bit of gunk made it through the holes. So I wanted to improve things this year, but there are a few factors playing into my decision.

-With a kidney shaped pool a replacement cover is custom, to the tune of $4500.
-Our fill water is very hard (CH 600, TA 460) so I want to keep as much of the winter snow as possible
-I have a pool fence, so safety is already taken care of

My thought was to put up the existing mesh safety cover, but then put another cheap mesh cover on top. My thinking was the loop loc system will help support both covers (I will add water tubs to keep the new cover in place), and I should have a much cleaner pool in the spring this way. I will still get the benefit of natural precipitation in the pool, and save over $4000. Does this seem like a good idea, or is there a better solution?

 

[Oly]

I think this would work just fine.

 

[Adamphotoman]

I have patched a few holes that were about the size of a 25 C piece.Some of us believe high winds allow leaves under the cover. I did think about using water filled tubes. A double mesh cover should work just fine. I do know that fine dust and dirt gets in no matter what you do.

 

[1Sammy]

Why do you drain so low that you depend on the snow to bring the level back up? Once the snow sits on the 2 covers the water bags will move inwards from the pressure BUT will not come back so you will need to pull them back to the deck. The amount they move in will depend on the water level.

 

[Saturn94]

It should work fine.

I use a ”double cover” setup, except I put a solid tarp over the mesh safety cover (we don’t have water hardness issues). It makes spring cleanup much easier.

 

[Homebrewale]

It should work fine.

I use a ”double cover” setup, except I put a solid tarp over the mesh safety cover (we don’t have water hardness issues). It makes spring cleanup much easier.

Why don't you just get a solid safety cover?

 

[Saturn94]

Why don't you just get a solid safety cover?

The pool came with a mesh safety cover. The mesh cover is still in good shape and covering it with a tarp is MUCH cheaper than a new solid cover. When the mesh cover wears out, then we’ll switch to a solid cover.

 

[Homebrewale]

The pool came with a mesh safety cover. The mesh cover is still in good shape and covering it with a tarp is MUCH cheaper than a new solid cover. When the mesh cover wears out, then we’ll switch to a solid cover.

That sounds good. My mesh cover lasted 13 years. This winter, I will be using a solid cover for the first time. I understand waiting for things to wear out.

 

[Enumjon]

I am a very new pool owner, so there is a very real chance I am doing things wrong. I discovered TFP Last winter, so this is my first pool closing with all the excellent advice this site gives.

I have very hard water, so I want all the pure rain/snow I can get. Last winter the snow my pool filled about 12 inches. That is why I want a mesh cover, and why I drain the pool down quite a bit.

 

[Enumjon]

I am starting to re-think getting a second mesh cover due to the feedback here. It sounds like all the dirt will still get through, and many of the needles will still slip under the side. There are no leaves where we live, just plenty of pine needles. The needles are a pain to get rid of, but do not actually break down in the pool.

This spring I learned my lesson on the needles. I threw the robot in to suck them up-not the way to go. I need to pull out the old school vacuum on a pole first to get rid of most of the junk, then switch over to the robot.

So if the second cover will not make that much difference, I think I will put the money towards a better pump-my current one will be replaced before next year.