How do you manage pool covers?

[zapados]

My AGP is freezing! I have a solar pool cover, it's opaque, that I can use to help heat the pool.

My problem is the thing is a PITA to manage. Once you take it off you have a huge wet sheet of plastic that you can't leave on your grass to dry (doh, tried that, NOT a good idea unless you like crop circles of dead grass).

What do you guys do? Where do you dry it? Do you just toss it in your basement sopping wet? All folded up and stuff, I don't think it'll ever dry.

 

[ping]

For daily swimming, I have a reel next to the pool that I wind the cover onto. There is no need to dry it off as it goes back on the pool each night.

For long term storage, you need to dry the cover and store it out of the weather.

There are members with homemade reels, try searching the forum to get some ideas.

 

[pooldv]

Here is the local favorite diy solar cover roller.
DIY Solar Cover Roller

 

[DanielJ]

I think that most agree that the solar cover is a pain with an above ground pool. It's harder to use a reel unless you've got a whole lot of deck around the pool to put the reel on. I have no personal experience with them, but I do see that they sell smaller solar covers that you can use multiples of to cover your pool. That way, they are easier to manage when they are off. I have a neighbor that has these for her inground pool and she drapes them over her fence when they aren't on the pool. It kind of creates a privacy fence out of her aluminum picket fence.

http://www.intheswim.com/p/solar-sun-rings