I am happy with our solar panels, much happier after I added the Solartouch. They definitely add heat to the pool. I'm trying to do a little better at tracking temp this year. Pool was 61 on 3/15, it is 77 on 3/31. No cover. I check temp around 6pm, we get 4 degree 24 hour gains pretty regularly. Rain and cold fronts in the 40s overnight have set us back a few days. For the most part the pool has stayed at or slightly above the daily high temp as a general comment. Our pool gets sun about 6 hours, but full sun on the whole pool less than an hour. The other good thing solar panels did last summer was help recover from rain, rain can cool a pool in a hurry.
We only have 5 panels on a small roof by the pool, I am considering adding more on the house. I am also considering adding a heat pump. Not really interested in gas, I think that is too inefficient. For us I think a heat pump would probably be better. But, I think adding 6 or 8 more panels on the house would add a ton. We will see how the experiment goes with what we have this spring.