1st time newbie pool owner, have questions on clear solar cover

[Eric_yang]

Hi I live in San Jose and thinking of buying a clear solar cover (bubble wrap) to help maintain my pool temp over night and block exessive evaporation. Did some research on web but still have some details cannot figure out;

1) My pool is in kidney shape. Should the solar cover be trimmed to fit the pool and floating on the water, or I just leave a rectangular cover as is, which results that the edges of the cover on the deck?

2) I have a in ground spa which is about 2 feet higher than the pool and forms a waterfall when the pump runs. Should the solar cover also placed on top of the SPA or just to end of the pool and leave a hole for the water fall and expose the spa? Would the solar cover still be effective with a "large hole" on it due to the spa opening?

3) I'm currently running the pump 4 hours per day with the cleaning robot 1 hour during filtering. If the pool is covered with floating clear cover, should I stop the pump/filter and cleaner and only run them when the cover is off?

Thanks.

 

[Richard320]

I cut my cover to fit. If you don't, wind will catch the edges that stick out and blow it off.

I left my filtering schedule the same. It doesn't skim with the cover on but it still mixes and filters the water.

I notched the cover a little where the spa spills just so it wouldn't run all over the top. The cover will settle pretty snug against the water and the pool surface will be absolutely flat, so it covers a lot before it runs off an edge somewhere. And it takes every leaf with it.

 

[Eric_yang]

Hi Richard,

Thank you very much for the answer. BTW, may I run my robot when it is covered or not?