Fitting solar cover

[mskovrinskie]

How snug should a solar cover fit to the pool?

I have an irregular shaped (coral or amoeba) pool and a cover on a reel which works well, but occasionally we have problems with very high winds that end up blowing one end of the cover over the reel and then the entire reel falls into the pool. I'm wondering if trimming the cover more might help to preven this or not.

It seems that the cover stretched over time and now it folds up on the sides in some places (not over the concrete coping). Should the cover be smaller than the pool dimensions, the exact dimensions, or slightly larger?

 

[JohnT]

It's better for the cover to be slightly too small, so it floats. Anything that's folded up is likely to catch the wind and peel the cover off.

 

[PaulR]

The same thing happened to me; the cover stretched after a while, got kind of a hump in the middle, then a windy day... after I put it back on, trimmed an extra 3-4" off one end, no more problem.
--paulr

 

[Water_man]

I also have wind issue and here's how I solved it:

1. When the solar cover is covering the pool I put heavy rocks on the cover near the reel side. This prevents a lot of what you described.

2. I attached the reel sides with anchors to the deck to prevent tipping over with the wind. If you want pics I can post.

I made sure that the cover fits snuggly - not to short, not too long.

 

[JasonLion]

Heavy rocks are a really bad idea. Light rocks would also be a bad idea. You do not want there to be any chance of a rock falling into the pool. If you were unlucky, it could damage the pool surface.

Jugs with water in them are a much better idea, there isn't any chance of them damaging the pool.

 

[mskovrinskie]

My reel sits in the middle of the pool and winds in the cover from both sides. The wind is blowing in and lifting the far edge of the cover over the reel and then the added resistance surface (now that the bubbles are up) twists it and pulls one edge or the other into the pool. There is no way that water jugs would hold down the reel and the wind would just flip one side over it anyway since I can't tie down the edges of the cover. I suspect the aluminum spool and the plastic wheels on each end are just too light for the 50+ mph winds we seem to get now and then.

I'll try sizing the cover to fit better in the pool with no edges up on the sides of the vinyl and will report back if this happens again.