Mesh or solid cover, pillows or no, leaf net or no?

[joseywales]

One thing I've come to realize with forums, hobbies, etc., is that the advice is only as good as it pertains to "my" circumstances. So below is best as I can describe it.

1 - more leaves coming down now, than when we first opened 5 years ago. Not my trees, nor on my side, so nothing I can do about it. I get leaves.

2 - My pool was a mess when I opened it this year. I used a mesh cover and the leaves on it turned into a green mess, which no doubt made its way to the water. For 4 years, this was never an issue, but as I said, leaves are worse now.

# 2 could have been avoided if I reacted during the off season. However, I think the bigger issue is that I didn't use the mesh cover properly. I just bought a solid cover, but now am thinking I made yet another mistake.

Should I have done, do, this:

1 - get a new mesh cover

2 - use pillows, or rafts, to raise the cover.

3 - clear leaves from edges of pool as necessary.

I also bought a leaf net, but am thinking that might have been a waste, as I don't see how that will work with the mesh cover, if I go back to the mesh.

Thoughts?

 

[linen]

With my mesh cover, in the spring once it is not longer frozen to the water surface, I hang weights (I use old water filled bleach jugs) from the cable assembly that holds the cover onto the pool, and these weights slowly pull the mesh cover off the water surface allowing the leaves to dry and then they blow off or I can brush them off the mesh cover. The weights may take awhile to get the cover off of the water and you might have to "encourage" it by pulling going around the pool and pulling on the jugs occasionally.

Also, I do not close my pool until the pool temp is consistently below 60F (actually mine is more like below 55F), and I open before the pool temp goes above 60F.

These two approaches above had keep my spring cleanup minimal. I get a lot of leaves in the fall.

I don't do this, but if you want extra insurance, then use a polyquat60 in addition to raising your pool to the SLAM (shock) level.

I have considered pillows, but I like the fact that my cover is "glued" to my ice in the winter. We can get some significant wind in the winter.

 

[joseywales]

Thanks. I kept a lot of my jugs from this season to do exactly that. Somewhere along the line I got distracted and forgot my plan, then bought this solid cover.

I'm going to go back to the mesh cover. I have a net on there now and will probably use that with the mesh cover as well.

 

[danpik]

I have a solid cover on my 18' above ground with a plastic 55 gal drum as a float. I tried a pillow once and it deflated durring the course of the winter. I too get a lot of leaves in the fall. I skim them off of the cover once or twice per week durring the fall to keep the mess to a minimum. In the spring, I pump off the water and shop vac out the small amount of residue that is left over. A couple of times I got lucky in the spring and with the water pumped off of the cover the wind cleared the debris for me.

 

[joseywales]

Hmm...thanks danpik. That might be an option .