I am looking to buy a Solar Reel and cover for a 16x34 pool. I have been reading the posts on the covers, but little or nothing about the reels. Are there reels to just stay away from because of construction and materials? Is there a consensus on a reel or reels that do the job as advertised?
Solar Reels. . .Pros and cons
- Thread starter Guffey Guy
- Start date
I bought a cheapie reel from a discount pool supply website last year. It works fine; my biggest complaint is that it's an eyesore on my deck, and the solar blanket doesn't seem to make much difference in my water temp.
Thanks for the reply. I have a sungrabber solar panel on my roof that is used to heat the pool also so what I'm going to try to do is use the liquid heatsaver product for the season and see if that does the same job. I think I got between five and seven extra degrees last year from the solar panel. If heat saver can give me another 4 or 5 I'm fine with that.
The reel and cover package was almost $600 which is at this point not necessary. I'll just figure it out at the end of the season see which way I must go
The reel and cover package was almost $600 which is at this point not necessary. I'll just figure it out at the end of the season see which way I must go
Having a solar blanket on a night can/should make a big difference. Most of it due to reducing heat lost due to evaporation.karmazrevenge said:
On my pool, somewhere around half of my heat gain is due to using a cover a night and the other half is due to using solar panels.
$600 is crazy! A cover should be <100, and a half-decent reel maybe 200. The Rocky's ones are nice, but the less expensive ones are fine too.