Mesh cover vs solid cover

[pat82]

I am in the process of opening my pool for the the fourth year. I have a mesh cover (came with the pool when we bought the house) and naturally I have followed TFP's advice for cleaning it and turning into a sparkling oasis, which takes a lot of bleach and about a week. But I have a friend who just informed me about that her pool is always crystal clear when they open it because they have a solid cover. This never occurred to me for some reason. Soo I'm thinking I really want a solid cover when I close this fall. I found this article which explains the pros and cons of each http://www.swimuniversity.com/mesh-vs-solid-choosing-the-right-pool-safety-cover/.

So my question to TFP is, isn't it a no brainer to get a solid cover this fall for my pool? How much do they cost? (I'm willing to spend money to save time and money on opening the pool but I have no idea if they are like 500 bucks or 5,000 bucks). Can a solid cover use the same anchors as the mesh cover? Do solid covers really keep the water crystal clear?? Anything else I should know?

 

[toofast]

Well I have a mesh cover and opened to a clear pool..

Remember with a solid you have a lot of work to get the water off the cover. Depending on your pool it could be $2-$3K. Even if you use 15 gals of bleach in the spring, the ROI is many a year.

Perhaps you are opening up a bit too late? What is your water temp when you opened ?

 

[chrisexv6]

I have a mesh safety cover and have *never* opened to a perfectly "clean" pool.

The water is crystal clear when I open....I can see all of the algae on the bottom of the pool as clear as day. Its a little better if I open sometime in mid-April (Im located in CT), but sometimes mid-April is too cold to even bother thinking about the pool.

I think your best bet is a newer mesh cover....one that has a tighter mesh but still allows water to drain thru (albeit slowly). I have two family members that have fairly recent covers (2 years old) and they both open to crystal clear water AND no algae on the bottom. The only difference between them and I is the cover....we close pretty much exactly the same way.

My cover is older (~11 years) so it is "old technology" in cover speak. When I need to replace it, Im going to stick with a mesh cover but one of the newer ones that advertises 99% or higher sun blockage.