Aquamatic cover woes

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jerryk1234

Bronze Supporter
Jan 22, 2018
165
Hayward, CA
So: The new heater is running, life is good...or is it? I went swimming this afternoon. After my exercise, I went to close the pool cover. It made a funny noise, and
only one side pulled out. :(

It's an Aquamatic Hydramatic cover. In general, a great thing. It keeps the heat in, keeps the chlorine in, keeps the leaves and bugs out. And it's approved for safety...no ugly pool fence.
Since the pool is rectangular, the cover simply rolls out on rails under the coping. There's a hydraulic motor that spools & unspools the ropes.

The ropes are on eyebolt-pulleys. What happened is that one of those pulleys broke off from its eyebolt. The eyebolts are - I think - nickel
plated steel, and in the salt environment, they rusted. This made them abrasive, and they wore the hole oval in the alloy frame of the pulley.
The hole got more oval...and more oval.. until the pulley just came loose from the eyebolt. The hole is now a big notch. OH yeah,
and the rope broke too.

I called them, service is coming on the 14th. In the meantime, I need to turn off that nice new heater :(.
And manually close the cover. I might have to unhook the ropes from the spools, get in the pool, and just walk it across. All 60 feet.

They're two weeks out on service appointments. Maybe I can temporarily fix it myself. Sigh.
 
I can relate. They are fantastic. I would do it again in a similar situation. But the repairs, when needed are spendy. I do have a fence, so when my rope broke, I was able to manually opened and left it open until repair.

I hope they fix it up on the first try for less than a grand.
 
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I fixed the pulley - at least temporarily. I had a piece of 1/8" 5052 aluminum plate left over from a radio
project. Cut a square the same size as the broken tab, drilled a hole matching the broken hole ( only not broken, natch ), and epoxied it on with high-strength epoxy. When it cures, I'll drill it and install small stainless
steel screws and nuts to help prevent the repair plate from pulling off.
 
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jerryk1234 said:
I had a piece of 1/8" 5052 aluminum plate left over from a radio
project. Cut a square the same size as the broken tab, drilled a hole matching the broken hole ( only not broken, natch ), and epoxied it on with high-strength epoxy.
Click to expand...
Sooooooooooo. It's Jerry Krigged ?

Well done !!! :salut:
 
20250204_172818.jpg20250204_172808.jpg
Here's the repaired pulley assembly. Before gluing with the high strength epoxy, I scarified the surfaces with rough sandpaper. Then cleaned them with Q-tips and isopropyl alcohol. 5052 alloy is probably ideal for this application; it's commonly used for marine applications. But it just happened to be in the junk pile. The screws are size M3 stainless steel.
 
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Lets see the finished product too. It might help inspire others down the road because this happens to many, given enough time. :)
 
I put it back together. No go. The rope was broken, and I used a marine rope. I couldn't get it into the plastic
slider that it pulls on. So I solidified it by heating it with a torch, and sanded it off till it fit. Put it together and it just broke off. I just ordered 300' of their rope, and a pair of new pulleys. I'll only use half the rope; I'll keep the other half as a spare. And also the pulley that I fixed of course.
 
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New rope arrived late this afternoon. I went out to install it - whups! When the marine rope broke at the slider, it ( the rope ) had retreated about 10 feet down the pool. I had to tease it out of the channel and pull it back to the pool end. No way to do that without getting into the pool. And the pool is stone cold. So I put on a wetsuit and opened the spa. Got in the pool - BRR! Teased the end of the rope out of the channel with a dental pick. Out of the pool, into the spa! AHHH.... OK, back to the pool. Pulled the rope to the pool end. The pool, BTW is 60' by 12' - designed for swimming laps, no deep end. And that side of the pool is a retaining wall. Back to the spa! By this time, the sun was setting...gonna give it heck tomorrow.
 
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OK - it's done. The pool is closed. What a PITA! I installed the new rope both sides. Spent an hour or two untangling the new rope. I had great hopes of just unspooling it - no such luck. I ordered 300 feet - I think they gave me 400 feet. I bet
they had a spool that was almost finished, and just spooled it all off. Pool deck is a mess. Rope everywhere.

There are two eyebolt-pulley things - one for each rope spool. One of them broke, and the other one wasn't far behind. So I replaced both of them.

There's an adjustment gizmo in the middle of the vault. It's got two pulleys. You slide it back & forth to get the cover to open evenly and not be tilted. One of the pulleys was destroyed - frame disintegrated, ball bearings coming out. And the slider was bent up. Luckily, that gizmo uses the same wheels as the eyebolt-pulleys. So I took apart the pulleys that I had
removed, got the wheels out and installed them in the adjustment thing. Took the adjustment frame to my little metal shop in the garage and straightened it out.

It was getting dark by the time I got the second rope in. Went to the keyswitch, crossed my fingers and gingerly turned the key to "close". And the cover closed sweet as you please :).
 
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