Do solar covers need to cover all water to work?

[flippinGeo]

Hello all - I'm getting prepped for the upcoming pool season, and I'm in need of replacing our solar cover. I have a question though for all of you experts...

We have an odd shaped pool. It is a rectangle and oval in one, with a love seat extending out to one side. The cover I purchased previously was a rectangle (20x40) and I cut it to shape. This worked, but was a real pain to deal with on a daily basis to pull on and off and it would get caught on the rect edges and started to tear.

I was wondering if I got an oval cover to fit the oval shape of the pool and left the rectangle edges and love seat exposed (not covered) would that be effective? With the previous cover, I did leave the love seat exposed and everything still worked well (warming pool and reducing evaporation). This decision would leave even more water surface exposed so I'm just wondering what everyones thoughts are on that.

Certainly it will leave more water exposed for evaporation, and may reduce the heating function of the cover, but, as you can see our pool gets almost full day's light and we often do not use it beyond the first month and again at the end of the season because the water gets too warm.

Anyway, before I ordered another cover/reel, I wanted to get some thoughts on this.

Thanks in advanced!

gumbalskip

 

[woodyp]

I think you're good to go as long as you cover 80--85% of the water surface.

 

[pooldv]

A solar cover really isn't very well named. It doesn't contribute heat to the water it stops heat from leaving the water. A solar cover's primary function is to stop evaporative heat loss overnight or on windy days. The more coverage the better. I agree that 80 or 85% coverage is pretty good.

 

[flippinGeo]

A solar cover really isn't very well named. It doesn't contribute heat to the water it stops heat from leaving the water. A solar cover's primary function is to stop evaporative heat loss overnight or on windy days. The more coverage the better. I agree that 80 or 85% coverage is pretty good.

Good point. I'm going to give the oval cut a try this year. By mid-June our pool is too warm to use the cover anyway. Using the custom cut cover was just a real hassle, so I'm hopeful to get decent results with the smaller cover and ease the cover/uncover process.

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[GoGrabTheNet]

Good point. I'm going to give the oval cut a try this year. By mid-June our pool is too warm to use the cover anyway. Using the custom cut cover was just a real hassle, so I'm hopeful to get decent results with the smaller cover and ease the cover/uncover process.

Thanks for all of the help!

Nice pool! Mine is of a similar shape--rectangular with half-circle ends. I'm in need of a new solar cover, but when I decide to buy and cut it to shape, I plan on NOT making it fit exactly. It was difficult to roll on the roller as it dragged on the sides.