fine mesh winter cover

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Diver

Diver

0
May 5, 2011
482
South of Boston
Hi!

I have a standard tarp like winter cover. After I close the pool, it starts to accumulate rain water and leaves. I clean the leaves out periodically, treat the water and move it under the cover. Which is PIA to do.. The cover is old and has plenty of holes, so I always open to a green pool.

Since I will need a new cover, I was thinking about switching to fine mesh in hope to ease the pain, but I want to check if it indeed would do what I think it's supposed.

It's supposed to let the water thru and keep the derbies out. As the water hits the cover, does it simply sips thru and allows the cover to float up? I assume the cover is not stretched above the water line, but instead just sits on the water. In which I doubt the water would just go thru the cover.. Am I missing something here?
 
I have a mesh cover and have opened to not a green pool but it’s not crystal
Blue either. The mesh is great cause it lighter easier to store and easier to put on. It does not keep all debris out. Some does get in there. Your pool is drained quite a bit to allow fur winter precipitation to seep through. A heavy snow or ice storm will cause the cover to stretch from the springs on the side and once it hits the water it balances out. You can adjust the straps to allow more of the cover to slip down. I like the cover and have a loop loc
 
I have a mesh cover. It does not keep all debris out. Leaves and plants parts blow under and I usually get about 5lbs of dead worms come spring. With the rain and snow we get all winter, I still have to drain pool several times durung off season. I don’t think there is such a thing as maintenance free.
 
We have mesh safety cover that keeps the pool relatively clean but like others there is some debris but there has never been algae. We have to watch the pool water level and drain sometimes. Better than having to pump/clean a pool of water and wet leaves off the cover in my opinion
 
I have a mesh cover. I’m happy with it so far 2 winters in. I have pumped water out of the pool 3 times already. I try to keep my water 6 inches off my tile till the water freezes so I have room to spare staying away from the tile.

Last spring I opened to clear water that did not need to be slammed. We vac’ed the worms and dirt up and was good to go.

Its been an overall positive experience so far.
 
I have a mesh cover, and used to open my pool each season to what I thought was a green swamp. It wasn't! The bottom gets very dirty with fine particles: pollen, leaf debris, dust, etc. This makes the water look murky even when it isn't. Lots of vacuuming and good brushing usually clears the pool up in a week.
 
Just ended my 4th season of pool ownership. I have tarp and bags/boxes hold downs. Never been green yet. I close late and open early compared to my neighbors. Algae isn't a concern below 60 degrees. A variable speed pump keeps the extra weeks of runtime lower. I also prefer the appearance of open water vs tarps and holddowns.

I do minimal above tarp water level management. In fact, I open right after the toads get done laying their eggs in my "pond" on top of the tarp. I scoop them out and relocate to the lake, then open the pool.

I'm seriously considering moving to a safety cover, but I will have to give up my frog sanctuary, know I will have dirtier water at opening, and keep a closer eye on water levels.
 
Diver said:
Wait... so the mesh cover is supposed to be stretched just like safety cover? it doesn't sit on top of the water?
Click to expand...

Mine is stretched and attached with deck anchors. I could walk across it and not get wet. When wind blows it does lift however and I always get leaves blowing under it and into the pool. That can be mitigated with water weights on the edges, which I do not have.
 
I was assuming you were talking about a safety cover. I have used a leaf cover on top of my tarp (it is not fine mesh). It freezes/thaws with the water on top of the tarp throughout the winter. It is handy for the moment you want to mass clean the large debris from the top of the cover. I also put my cover pump under it so debris doesn't clog it.

I never dump my tarp cover water into my pool water. I pump off the tarp water if it gets too high. Not using this water requires more fill water at opening, but doesn't introduce a bunch of broken down gunk into the pool that has to be dealt with.

If the goal is to switch to a mesh cover from a tarp to not open green, I cannot see how that would help.
 

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I wasn't sure if fine mesh was the safety one or not, hence my confusion. I had a leaf net before – completely useless for me. My pool is large enough, that I can't stretch it tight over the tarp cover, so it was sitting right on top of me tarp cover.

I keep the water clean on top of my tarp cover from leaves and anything else. I put the sump pump into skimmer basket as additional filter against any junk and treat water on top of the tarp before pumping it in.

When I open the cover there is basically zero junk in the pool, but it's robust green color  it was like that first few seasons when I didn't pump the water in, so it doesn't seem like cover water affect it. But it saves about 6k gallons of water (my jets are low) and hours and hours of refill in the spring.

My pain is with needing to move the water and keep it clean before pumping. If the water would just go thru the cover it would just leave me with some lighter clean up. But it seems like for that I would need safety cover..

I 2" pvc pipes filled with concrete and connectors as cover weights and it works perfectly for the cover that sits on top of the water. Feels like short of buying safety cover, I will need to buy new tarp ones to open to clean water…
 
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I took this photo to capture the high flows in the Schuylkill River but you can see the mesh safety cover on the pool. Wind causes it to billow. If water in pool is too high the cover sits on top of the water. We pumped water levels down about 1/3 since we have been getting so much rain and afraid the water would reach the skimmer. Hoping this isn’t too low
 
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