Pool cover help

[yesjenks]

Hello All,

This will be the first season with my new pool/house. There is an electric pool cover that surprisingly worked. When the pool was opened last week, I closed the cover and all was working well. Some background, I have 3 young children and installed a pool fence around the pool. This cover added redundancy. In addition to redundancy, I was excited at the prospect of using it as it would save me $ on heating, and keep junk out of the pool.

When I closed the cover, I walked on it to see how sturdy it was, and held me no problem. Just guessing, I assume the prior owner's haven't used this cover in 2-3 years.

It's been raining in my area for the past few day. There was a decent amount of rain water on the cover, but nothing crazy. Yesterday, I pumped the water off and opened the cover. It got stuck half way. Upon further inspection, I noticed a big tear on one side. On that same side where the rope meets the track, the cover detached from the rope. Essentially nothing is holding a section of the cover to the side. I tried to monkey taping the rip so I could close the cover, but no dice. I think I'm just gonna open the cover and leave it be until I can afford to replace it.

Does anyone by chance know the maker of this cover? I want to find out what it would cost to replace the tarp/cover.

 

[wjr75]

Could be a Cover Star but you don't need to replace it with one of their covers. We had a original Cover Star cover but replaced it with a Automatic Pool Covers, Inc cover which was about $1k cheaper than the Cover Star replacement.

 

[yesjenks]

Ok, thank you!! Have you had your cover for a long time? In your experience, is it worth the cost?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Mine is by Pool Cover Specialists, and looks about the same.

(I always suggest folks *not* walk on the cover. Even though theoretically it will hold them, I just personally feel that's a lot of extra stress on the cover and tracks that is best avoided...just in case)

Do a Google search on replacement covers and I know there are businesses in Utah that sell them for homeowner replacement.

 

[Summer help]

The components in the picture appear to be Aquamatic brand (out of California). You should be able to contact them directly to find a dealer/installer. In my area of the country (east) replacement covers cost roughly $3-$4/ sq. ft. and are $5-$6 with freight and labor. As was mentioned, you can also buy replacement covers online, you just want to make sure the cover you are purchasing will work with the track and hardware you have.

 

[Honey Badger]

That is an Aquamatic cover but most of the companies can make covers for all of their competitors. While you could install the cover yourself I would not recommend it without seeing it at least once. There are many small tricks to get the cover working correctly. The white dacron that you have wears out faster than a heat sealed webbing. I always recommend Coverstar because the use the better webbing and instead of just stitching it on they heat weld it. This is a little more expensive though. I know that all of the companies offer the stitched webbing. There are many claims on the strength and lifetime but everyone uses almost the same stuff and a realistic life of a cover is 5-8 years. Some last longer but they are not the standard. Make sure to shop around a little.