How could I get the water warmer?

[SandyO]

We are in Michigan and it hasn't been terribly hot here. But the water temp is only hanging around 70. It seems if I have 3-4 days that are really sunny and I leave the cover on the pool I can get it up to 72. But if not it will drop to around 66-68.

I want to go swimming! What can I do to heat up the water?

(We have a pool heater but it is broken. It won't ignite. The repair guy was here but it is a $300 part to fix it and won't be in stock for "a while")

 

[Swampwoman]

Welcome from another Mitten-gal

Hate to say it, but out if the 4 years I've owned this house/pool, if I wasn't using the heater, the only time the water would have been warm enough for my druthers would have been the July heat wave of 2012

I'd get a second opinion on your heater and/or offer to find the parts online and have them shipped overnight.

My neighbor has solar panels on his roof to heat his pool. His "season" started a mere few weeks ago. Ive been swimming since the first week of May

Fixing your heater will be cheaper, and will help you enjoy the otherwise beautiful summer we're having

 

[duraleigh]

Do you have a solar cover?

 

[f3justusc]

I would follow the advice provided by Swampwoman. BUT, I would also post the heater issue and exactly what it is doing in a new thread that asks for help. There are At least TWO people who are very active on this thread who repair heaters for a living. They are both helping someone repair a Starite heater right now. If you are moderately handy, you might be able to repair the heater yourself and get to swimming. I got tired of waiting for my solar to "get right" this year so I both a heater. The kids and I are very happy!

 

[Yev]

Do you have a solar cover?

It seems if I have 3-4 days that are really sunny and I leave the cover on the pool I can get it up to 72.

xxxx

But for SandyO, during the day on sunny days, take off the cover, but then but the cover back on at night to prevent the water temp from dropping. Solar Covers due to not really make the water hotter, the thing they do best is insulate to prevent chilling when the air temp drops.

 

[jasnovanorder]

Glad to see in not the only michigander with a cold pool. It sure hasn't helped not having very many warm days. Ours hangs around 68-70. On a sunny warm day it might jump to 72-73 and once it even hit 76. Too cold for me but the kids love it. Wife wants a pool heater but I'm not to sure on it. I'll be watching to see what other ideas pop up

 

[pabeader]

There are many diy ways to make solar heaters. Usually it means buying a big spool of black plastic tubing and a small pump. Pump the pool water into the coil, the sun heats the water and it goes back into the pool. In MI you will need a lot of plastic tubing and it will need to be faced properly towards the sun. If you do a search on YouTube you will find many examples of it.

 

[pooldv]

It is much more efficient to use an actual solar panel rather than plastic tubing. Especially waaayyy up north.

 

[chiefwej]

DIY pool heaters don't usually work out very well. For what it cost to make one you can usually buy properly engineered solar panels that will work much better.

 

[pabeader]

how does cost of panel compare to cost of heater compare to cost of DIY?

Found my own answer. DIY is defiantly the way to go if you have any mechanical ability at all; by a factor of 10. Not going to hijack this thread further. Just do the research.

 

[f3justusc]

I believe that the best approach if you get a decent amount of sun is to install solar and supplement it with a propane or natural gas heater. I am not sold on a heat pump based on my experience with the home heat pump. There are times when I get heat instead of cool but, Florida is a bit unusual in that in one day we can go from 32 to 80 degrees.

 

[SandyO]

I'm going to try just having the solar cover on at night then. Don't think I'm handy enough for anything past that yet. I wonder if inground pools stay cooler?

 

[onestout]

What kind of cover do you have? I have a semi clear cover and ordered a clear cover to help warm my pool up more. Even with the semi clear cover and being quite a bit North of where you are my pool is at 82 today and I never get full sun. My shallow end sees 4-6 hours of sun and my deep end never sees the sun. not sure why your water is so cold. Get a clear solar cover and keep it on the pool on sunny days, should pick up 1-2 degrees a day if you get much sun with the cover on.