ISO recommended winter cover brands

[jspector]

I'm going to purchase winter cover for my 20'x40' in ground pool. I have an automatic cover but after 2 winters of watching snow and ice weigh it down I want to get a separate winter cover to 'save' the automatic cover in hopes it will last longer. I'm leaning heavily toward mesh cover and am looking for recommended brands. I've narrowed down to Loop Loc, Meyco, Blue Wave, and Water Warden. And am open to other recommendations.

Also, our pool deck is not concrete - it's made of pavers dry-laid in sand & stone, so the deck tubes/cover anchors need to be secured in the sand/stone ground mix. I think that means interlock stakes would be needed. Any advice about this type of deck installation is also appreciated.
Thank you!!!

 

[kimkats]

No ideas but here is a bump to get it in front of my eyes.

 

[Catanzaro]

Jspector:

Welcome to the forum and can you please add your signature. Maybe some pictures of the area would be helpful. If your pool is fenced in, and possibly children (if any) are grown, maybe just a regular large tarp with water bags would be sufficient. You can also use aqua block instead of water bags (but tie straps are best to keep the lids from blowing off). Total cost out the door would be abut $200.

The safety cover, with anchors would be anywhere from $2,000 +. In addition, you would need to somehow anchor as mentioned before. Even if you create a 1' deep 6" concrete barrier, this would be a lot of work. I have seen anchors through the pavers, but assuming that would also be costly as well and have no idea if there is any other type of support to hold the paver down, etc. You could even be up over $3,000 +, not sure.

Considering you have used the automatic cover for 2 seasons, maybe a regular tarp would be best.

 

[griffths]

I purchased a 20 x 40 Water Warden cover from Amazon two seasons ago for about half of the current selling price and couldn't be happier with it. All I was really looking for was a cover to keep leaves and other assorted junk out of the pool over the winter and thought that a cover that is anchored down vs. water bags, etc. would be less likely to have any problems over the winter.

Safety was a second consideration although I figured that any company selling a safety cover would be concerned with liability so it would most likely perform as advertised.

It took my dad and I about two hours to install the anchors in the concrete deck and about another hour to adjust the tension springs for the initial installation. This year I had my cover on and tightened down in about 15 minutes!

Forgot to add that I believe you will need these anchors based on what I gather from your post so these will add to the overall cost of the cover but still would recommend over a simple winter cover.

 

[bmoreswim]

Our Merlin Smart Mesh cover is the equal of a LoopLoc for sure but probably not any cheaper. My build thread in my signature has some cover discussion in it. We too have an autocover.

 

[jspector]

Thanks all for the input. Very helpful!