I live in the Northeast and we have had major snow and ice loading during the winter at times causing home and store roof cave ins to occur. I started with a cover pools auto cover with below deck rigid rails and water levels at mid skimmer level. Heavy snow melting and refreezing into ice was a very bad experience with this auto cover. Almost lost a $15,000 auto cover. Had to get emergency crews to remove the heavy snow on top and then to chop up the ice underneath it and remove the ice chunks by hand hoping the sharp edges of the ice chunks would not tear the vinyl auto cover. Some vinyl cover running bead tears pulling out of the aluminum tracks had to be repaired after this disaster. Obviously an auto cover cannot survive the weight such heavy snow melting and refreezing into ice even with the pool water supporting it at mid skimmer level. It seems the weight of the snow pushes out the water under the cover thereby dropping its level. Next I tried a spring loaded mesh safety cover supported again by a high water level plus the springs. Same problem occured and I had to release the springs that had bottomed out from the huge snow ice load to save the spring loaded safety cover which was quite hard to do with the severe tension. Some springs just popped off on their own from the brass anchors from severe stress. Next I am going to try the newly designed 2019 auto float inground pool winter cover from asiaconnectionllc that has numerous foam flotation sewn into the pool cover to make it float wherever the water level is left at and anchored with water filled plastic hold em downs on concrete decking. Not sure what the sewn in foam flotation will do with thousands of pounds of snow and ice on top but at least it can be left not attended if on vacation in the winter without major tears, rips, and damage and at worst the entire assembly will just be pushed down into the pool without major damage and can be salvaged intact later when someone is home. I have read on this forum that others just leave the pool open during snow blizzards and heavy ice forming but again this demands someone be home to uncover the pool from whatever cover was put there. So I ask you what is the best solution if these winter conditions occurs and no one will be home. Is a plain winter cover with maybe some useless flotation and anchor bags or hold em down water buckets the easiest way to get thru a bad winter without catastrophic damage to the cover or pool?
pool winter cover for heavy snow ice loads
- Thread starter mitzie
- Start date
I have a 20X40 and live 45 mins East of you. My loop lock has handled 3ft blizzards with a 5 ft drift running right across the pool no problem. At the moment it is snowing and the approx 2 inches has my cover pulled down to the water level at the bottom of the skimmers. (About a foot). The material stretches when wet and the springs do the rest. Maybe your springs are either not working anymore, or the cover is too tight which won’t allow the springs to do their job.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 52,229
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
60 miles west of you and my Meyco pool cover has survived the last 20 years of winter. Once snow and ice is on the cover I do not touch it. It has handled over 3 feet of snow on it. At times the weight of the snow and ice and water has bowed the cover down a lot and I leave it alone.
If your springs are popping off the anchors then the anchor are not properly placed or screwed high enough.
If your springs are popping off the anchors then the anchor are not properly placed or screwed high enough.
My guess is you didn’t have enough water in the pool to support the safety cover. You just shouldn’t see a load on it heavy enough to bend springs with water our ice underneath it.
If You are in an area that experiences heavy snow loading before freeze up you have two options. Remove that snow so that the forming I’ve can support the next snow fall or remove the cover before snow season, I actually have several clients where I do this, I then put cover on again in the spring to keep the maple buds out of their pools. Of course you need to clean up the fall leaves once the cover is off.
If you got a 5x5 mesh cover and not a 3x3 it offer less support.
If you got a 5x5 mesh cover and not a 3x3 it offer less support.
I don't get it either. I live not far from the other posters here and once the loop lock goes on its good by Charlie till the spring. Make sure the spring tension is somewhere in the middle so the springs can still move some. If the springs are completely tightened with no possible movement that will exert more pressure on the cover and the posts the cover is hooked on to.
Thank you all for your feedback's. It seems safety covers with 3X3 grids are hard to find, custom made, and not standard build. Will follow your advise on use of the standard mesh 5X5 safety cover. Since some of you are in my area, maybe you can tell me if mobs of Canadian non migratory geese are invading your pool during winter like where I live near a body of natural water, with the geese pooping on the pool winter cover and tearing up and killing grass with the roots. I would hate to use a solid safety cover just to keep out rain mixed with geese poop. I may be wrong but Its seems to me the goose poop is not getting thru the mesh even when dissolved with the rain. I use a pool cover pump even with the mesh cover and clean debris whenever I am home. The mess left by these goose gangs on the pool deck, pool cover, and yard is beyond belief. If the pool is open during the summer I would often find them swimming in the pool water like they are right at home. In winter they still walk and poop on a dry winter cover. It seems that drinking pool water with boric acid at 50ppm doesn't affect them one bit.
I don’t have the geese. You must be along their route going south. I’ve heard many horror stories from people in the same boat. Ankle deep goose poop. Ick.
A couple of reviews specifically say it worked for their geese. The owls and inflatable bird eye things supposedly were no good for geese.
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A couple of reviews specifically say it worked for their geese. The owls and inflatable bird eye things supposedly were no good for geese.
I found orbit yard enforcer which is a water jet sprinkler with a motion detector and a sweeping fan jet blast action is very effective. These sprinklers have to be drained before every night otherwise they will be a $60 loss each, once the plumbing freezes and cracks the plastic. Geese hate shepherd dogs which will chase them till the end of time. Stringing wire between stakes about one foot off the ground is another technique. The most costly is the goosinator plane drone robot that constantly fly's into and chases them. I have been here 30 years and have only seen them stop migrating to Canada and to south US since global warming around 2013. The local airport personnel actively reduce their numbers with town staff when they pose a risk to aviation safety getting sucked into plane engine turbines and stalling their engines. Hotel and golf courses report loosing business as the poop has toxic bacteria.