Concerned About Water on Pool Cover – First-Time Pool Owner

[wolflikeme]

Hi everyone,

I’m a first-time pool owner, and the pool came with the house. It’s a 24ft above-ground pool, and I’ve noticed that water keeps accumulating on top of the cover. I pumped the water off the cover, but within an hour or two, more water shows up. The cover is made of tarp material and was left by the previous owners. I can’t see any obvious holes, but I’m worried that by pumping off the water, I might be draining the pool itself.

I live in upstate NY, so we get some harsh winters. Should I be worried about the water on top of the cover during winter? I don’t want it to cause damage to the pool. Any advice or tips would be really appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! The pump is good to have, but you have a lot of play (sagging) in that cover. Even with something underneath trying to provide elevation, it's not doing it's job well enough. I would suspect a better cover that is able to be secured more tightly would help. That, or, once all the leaves are gone, just leave the cover off completely.

Let's see what @Newdude might do.

 

[Newdude]

Hey Wolf and Welcome !!!

Tarps are woven so few are water proof, and those don't usually stay that way for long.

In a way some water up top is a good thing because it keeps the cover from blowing around in the wind. If it stops filling the top once the tarp is covered, it's fine, but remeber not to pump too much off when rain starts accumulating.

Replace it next year.

 

[raysaint]

I live in Ontario Canada and had our pool for a couple years. It's getting close to pool cover time as winter approaches, probably the end of October to cover it. Here's what I have done after the cover goes on.
I leave a bit of water on it to hold it down in strong winds. After any rain or rains, if it starts to get deeper, I'll pump some water off until there's a bit left.
Once the temp starts to freeze, that bit of water becomes ice and that's Ok. Then as snow accumulates on the cover, I may take some of that off if it's not too heavy, if not, the weight seems to OK. I have a long telescopic rubber snow pusher/puller that I pull snow to the edge and then scoop it off with a shovel.
If we have any real warm spells during winter and some of the snow turns to water, I may pump it off just to reduce the weight, in anticipation of more snow and more weight.

 

[wolflikeme]

I live in Ontario Canada and had our pool for a couple years. It's getting close to pool cover time as winter approaches, probably the end of October to cover it. Here's what I have done after the cover goes on.
I leave a bit of water on it to hold it down in strong winds. After any rain or rains, if it starts to get deeper, I'll pump some water off until there's a bit left.
Once the temp starts to freeze, that bit of water becomes ice and that's Ok. Then as snow accumulates on the cover, I may take some of that off if it's not too heavy, if not, the weight seems to OK. I have a long telescopic rubber snow pusher/puller that I pull snow to the edge and then scoop it off with a shovel.
If we have any real warm spells during winter and some of the snow turns to water, I may pump it off just to reduce the weight, in anticipation of more snow and more weight.

Thanks for this. This is very helpful. I was worried that the cover was just going to keep filling up with pool water. I didn’t want to keep pumping out pool water. I initially lowered the pool water 4 inches below the skimmer opening and have been keeping an eye on the level. Doesn’t seem to have change significantly so hopefully we’re good. My fear is I pump too much water and the pool collapses or something crazy during the winter months .

 

[VinnyinNJ]

You can expect to get 3 or 4 years out of a Winter cover. The first year it may be water tight but being exposed to the elements it starts seeping water or may get holes in it. Water on top of the cover is OK as long as it doesn't become a mosquito breeding ground. You've gotten great advice and basically it's what I do. Start off with no water but as it gets some water on it leave it or if it gets too high drain it. Be careful as was said to not drain too much water if you notice the level of the pool water going down; I once had a brand new cover ooze water through it and didn't realize the level was going down.

Something that seems counter intuitive ... in the winter if it gets warm enough you may have to drain the cover at times. Being in NJ, I may have to go out there 2 or 3 times to drain the pool when it gets hovering around freezing; the darker cover gets a bit warmer and the ice starts to melt. It's not a big deal if it's a inch but it could be like 6 inches. Also try to get the leaves off the cover early in the season as it makes the water on the cover really nasty. It'll get nasty anyway but at least you get rid of the rotting leaves!

 

[Mdragger88]

I put a frisbee under my cover pump to prevent it pulling water from underneath.
If your cover is more than 1 season old it very well may be seeping. If you hold it up and can see light through it this is probably the case.
It might not be a bad idea to get another one ordered incase that one gives you more trouble.
As mentioned they are pretty much 1 hit wonders- 2 seasons if you’re lucky- 3 if you’re into gambling
I think the loose part Tex was referring to is actually your leaf net which doesn’t really need to be tightly secured to function so you’re ok there.
You’re wise yo be concerned with the water level of the pool.
Before any freezing weather comes be sure to re- evaluate the water level and add more if needed. You don’t want the level in the pool to be so low that the cover will pull on the walls/rails once precipitation is on top of it. The cover should always be supported by the water in the pool.
Better to just go without a cover if it becomes a problem and you don’t have a replacement.

 

[raysaint]

I do things a bit different. I just put my leaf net on a few days ago, after a good vacuum, no cover yet. Allows me to keep the pool open, I skim the leaves and maple seeds off every 4 or 5 days. Being the water is cold, these things aren't likely to cause any algae. I maintain chemical balance. In a couple weeks, we remove the net, I'll add winter chlorine/algaecide, to slam level, let it circulate overnight, next morning I'll vacuum and cover it.
As far as water seeping up thru the cover, my father had that problem; he pumps water off the pool cover and his pool water level keeps going down. Seems strange because as pool level goes down, it's not touching the cover. I looked at his cover and I see seams in the cover. I looked at mine, I don't see seams. I pump water off mine and it never has lowered the pool level that I can tell.
Maybe I'm imagining things, it's just how things seem to be with my AGP.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

I do things a bit different. I just put my leaf net on a few days ago, after a good vacuum, no cover yet. Allows me to keep the pool open, I skim the leaves and maple seeds off every 4 or 5 days. Being the water is cold, these things aren't likely to cause any algae. I maintain chemical balance. In a couple weeks, we remove the net, I'll add winter chlorine/algaecide, to slam level, let it circulate overnight, next morning I'll vacuum and cover it.
As far as water seeping up thru the cover, my father had that problem; he pumps water off the pool cover and his pool water level keeps going down. Seems strange because as pool level goes down, it's not touching the cover. I looked at his cover and I see seams in the cover. I looked at mine, I don't see seams. I pump water off mine and it never has lowered the pool level that I can tell.
Maybe I'm imagining things, it's just how things seem to be with my AGP.

It seems that if you have large enough holes or the weave of the fabric gets loose the water seeping can lower the pool water. I tend to drain after rain or snow melt so I usually don't have an issue with water lowering except for that 1 time. I have trees in my yard and surrounding yards and I have found branches that have pierced the cover to cause most of the holes. I tried a leaf net years ago ... I probably used it wrong. I now use a leaf rake to get the leaves out of the pool and deposit them into the area behind my back fence.

 

[isee]

With any type of cover that has any holes or is more of a mesh you need to pull the cover tight enough so that it does not touch the water remaining in the pool, including the pressure the cover pump puts on it. Otherwise you are simply draining water from the pool.

 

[phonedave]

I consider covers disposable items (which really bugs me from an environmental standpoint. I hate throwing out that much plastic). I buy the cheapest one I can find, and use it for two seasons. I have bought some really expensive ones - and they last about 2 seasons.

I put a 5 gal bucket lid under my pump. I also put a hardware cloth surround on the buck lid to keep any leaves out of the sump pump.
Diligence early in the closed season by removing leaves and water, means then when fall is finally over, and it is colder out, you can let water / ice / snow collect, and in the spring when you open there is a not a mess of rotting leaves on your cover.

Covers will eventually leak. For me, I use a solid cover not to seal in my pool water, but to keep out sunlight. I often have some FC left in my water when I open. I attribute this to running my FL up high when closing, cleaning the pool well, the colder temps, and the blocking of sunlight by the cover.

 

[Mdragger88]

I also put a hardware cloth surround on the buck lid to keep any leaves out of the sump pump.

Genius!

 

[dereksanders]

I also put a hardware cloth surround on the buck lid to keep any leaves out of the sump pump.

I can’t visualize this. I’m not familiar with what a hardware cloth is.

 

[phonedave]

I can’t visualize this. I’m not familiar with what a hardware cloth is.

Hardware cloth is like chicken wire. But where chicken wire has large octagonal holes, is twisted together, and is pretty floppy, hardware cloth has smaller, square holes, is typically welded, and is much stiffer.

My sump pump goes in this. The weight of the pump submerges this about 10 inches below the level of the cover. The lid stops the pump from sucking to the pool cover (and sucking pool water though the cover) and the hardware cloth stops any leaves and such from getting to the pump and clogging it up.

 

[dereksanders]

Thank you very much. Makes perfect sense now.

 

[Mdragger88]

My pump has a guard on it that does a pretty good job - sits right nicely on top of the upside down frisbee.

 

[dereksanders]

I’m currently using a pump siphon which works but is slowwwwwww.

 

[phonedave]

I’m currently using a pump siphon which works but is slowwwwwww.

I used to just use my pool hose as a siphon. That was FAST, but the problem is, once you loose the siphon, you have to restart it, and when getting the last of the water off of the cover, you are constantly loosing siphon.

 

[Mdragger88]

I used to just use my pool hose as a siphon. That was FAST, but the problem is, once you loose the siphon, you have to restart it, and when getting the last of the water off of the cover, you are constantly loosing siphon.

I did too and had to rig it with heavy things and brush the water towards the dip to keep it going. It was such a pain that I just didn’t worry about a little water left unless I was about to remove the cover. The worst part about depending on that method is when the freezing weather starts - here its fine in the day but freezing at night or great one day & frigid the next (our weather is shifty)
so I was constantly trying to “beat the freeze” & having to re winterize my hose bib and get all the water out of the hose.

My little $20 siphon one like derek mentioned worked great until one day I just couldn’t get it going anymore. Such a simple device- not sure what went wrong with it as there was nothing obvious.
Thats when I decided to spring for the real deal automatic pump with my 25% off HF coupon. Best choice ever. It’s been a workhorse the last 3 years & I also use it to drain my hot tub real quick! Had an issue with some seed pods and thought it was dead but nope- just needed some flushing out. I think the frisbee helps keep them out a little too.

 

[dereksanders]

My pump has a guard on it that does a pretty good job - sits right nicely on top of the upside down frisbee.

Found it at Harbor Freight and picking it up after work today. My cover is full with more rain expected this weekend.