Need help with choosing Loop Loc cover

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tpcorr

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Jun 6, 2008
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Hi guys, we've had a solid winter pool cover , the type held down with water bags, since we had our pool built in 2001. I'm tired of replacing leaking water bags and moving around the cover pump all winter. My boys are tired of removing the tons of leaves that accumulate on the pool cover too. Our current cover is beyond repair, and I've decided to bite the bullet and get a Loop Loc type cover. There are a couple of different types available, a mesh cover which lets water and light through, and 2 solid covers, one with mesh panels to let water through and one with a cover pump. I'd love to hear from folks that have these types of covers, what do you love about them and what do you hate about them. I have pavers around my pool, a slide, a deep end ladder, and a diving board.

1. For those with pavers, did you experience any cracked pavers due to the installation process?
2. For those with mesh covers, is the pool water very swampy upon opening?
3. For those with the solid covers, do you need to move the pump around frequently?
4. Does it even make sense to get a solid cover with the mesh drain panels?
5. With a mesh cover, how do you prevent rain/snow water from overflowing and getting behind the liner?

Thanks,
Tom
 
In all my years of cover installations, I think I have had one crack.

As long as the drill bit is sank between two pavers, they won't crack. An anchor must be set in a paver pipe, not set in the paver.

To prevent swamps in Spring, I recommend to my customers with mesh covers that they wait till the water drops below 60 at closing time and rises to near 60 at opening. Algae has a tough time then and goes almost dormant.

Sometimes a late heat wave comes and causes a temp rise in the pool. Some pay for an additional blast of liquid chlorine and 60% polyquat algaecide to be added and, using one of my pumps, since theirs is winterized, circulate the water for a spell to distribute it in the pool.

A properly adjusted solid cover should not need the cover pump moved. Some large pools may require two. Those pools with raised surfaces such as a waterfall or centrally located raised spa may also require a second pump or additional drain panels as a proper installation with these features will often cause a tenting effect.

Solid with mesh drains work great! The drains don't let much light or sediment in. For those pools with tiles lines, a step pump set just below the tile is strongly suggested. This keeps the pool water off them when freezing weather comes and removes water level rises due to displacement in times of a developing snow load.

Come Spring, after the threat of lasting periods of freezing weather has passed, unplugging the pump will allow the Spring rains to refill the pool. This usually fills the pool to the maximum it can hold, so any sediments or algae blooms can be vacuumed to Waste after raising the chlorine, thereby lowering the water and cleaning the pool without gunking the filter.

Liner pools can only float the liner if the water table rises above the water level in the pool or develops a strong flow underground. If the pool did overflow, that floating situation would be difficult to attain.

Pools built in areas where the water table is high should have had, when built, an appropriate drainage solution put in when the pool was built.

Liner pools and fiberglass pools that don't have tile will typically slowly drain from the concrete extension collar. They are held in place by a couple nubs that meet the top of the skimmer body. They are almost never glued and the space between them lets the excess water slowly drain.

Don't go with the cheap covers. Loop Loc, Merlin, and Meyco are the better safety cover brands. Lesser covers typically don't have the durability or strength.

Scott
 
Thanks for the informative post, Scott. Which type would you recommend to a customer? The most expensive cover type is only about 30% more than the least expensive, so you can take cost out of the equation. The company I'll probably go with uses Loop Loc.

Thanks

Tom
 
Flat paver deck around pool, 5 feet minimum width, no tile. 2 dogs, 3 kids , aged 17-23. Just the yard is fenced, no walls. Lots of deciduous trees. And I wouldn't dream of instaliing it myself.

Tom
 
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