Plastic solar cover/heat blanket questions

[jbeaulau]

Hi Everyone,

We have a medium size kidney shaped pool that does not have a cover, and I had a few questions on
the plastic solar cover or heat blanket that resemble large bubble wrap.

1. Do these covers reduce the loss of chlorine from the sun, especially if they are a dark color?

2. Can we reduce the amount of time the pump is on for filtering if using one of these covers like a pool with a heavy cover?

3. And I guess do they actually work well heating the water?

Thanks
-John

 

[reebok]

there have been lots of threads on solar covers. there is a google search in the bottom left hand corner of every page that works pretty well. here are a few links:
solar-cover-clear-or-no-t11432.html
solar-blanket-which-one-works-best-t12447.html
help-with-buying-solar-cover-or-solar-rings-or-other-t12012.html
basically, yes they reduce fc loss, they don't really heat the water so much as prevent what heat is in there from escaping, though there are some conflicting opinions on that, and I wouldn't reduce my pump run time based on a solar cover. you can read this article if you think you are running your pump too long. pool-school/pump_run_time

 

[PaulR]

reebok beat me to it but the answers are basically

1. Yes; frustratedpoolmom has a particularly dark cover and noticed a distinct lower FC loss. I noticed some reduction with my light-blue cover.
2. No.
3. It's more that they reduce heat loss (from evaporation, mostly) rather than increase heat gain.

--paulr

 

[jbeaulau]

Thanks for the quick feedback.

I'll check out those links reebok, and Paul your just over the hill in Cupertino. Finally we have a decently warm
day in the Bay Area today that's fine for swimming.

-John