Liquid Solar Covers - Do they work?

[chem geek]

I think you didn't get any response because Natural Chemistry® COVERfree™ is much newer than Flexible Solutions Heatsavr™ and not that many people reporting on this forum use these products. I think you are just going to have to try it out and see for yourself and then report back -- you are the pioneer.

 

[RickstersPool]

Anyone know what's in CoverFREE?
It's said to last a week and seems "thicker" than heatsaver.

I've been making the magic ceteryl alcohol mixed in isopropanol as found on google.

I always wondered if there was a way to dissolve more ceteryl and make something "thicker" that didn't need to be added so often.

The fish/balls must have something stronger as they last a month.
Anyone know the secrets to those?

 

[chem geek]

I suggest you look at the Heatsavrâ„¢ patent where you can see that it is more than cetyl alcohol (sometimes in combination with stearyl alcohol) since calcium hydroxide is used both as a carrier and dispersing agent. Propanol would be an additional carrier which evaporates. Without the calcium hydroxide, the cetyl alcohol may not disperse well into a monolayer and may stay too bunched up.

You really don't want the final surface layer of protective substance to be "thicker" since that is more likely to be objectionable when collecting onto skin when you get in and out of the water.

 

[rcy]

I used Cover Free last year. Don't know if it helped or not, but I got the bottle for free. Natural Chemistry will push their 'phosphate free' aspect of the product if this matters to you. I don't worry about phosphates anymore. I didn't do any testing of the Cover Free, but prior years I used a fish of some sort that had a battery and electric pump in it - lasted a month. A friend in the same neighbourhood also owns a pool and was using a bubble cover. We did some comparisons and IIRC, overnigh temp loss for him was 1-3 celsius, while I was losing 5-7 - without the fish I was losing 10.

One thing about the Cover Free I noticed was that it was much thicker than the fish stuff. I left mine in a shed, which got pretty hot during the day, and I noticed it seemed to get even thicker in the heat and required a really good shaking to get it flowing out of the spout. If I use it this year, I might keep it inside the house.