Solar bubble cover

[Jean-ji]

We are heading into our first cooler weather season in SWFL. The PB gave us a thick solar bubble cover for the pool, it is iridescent blue on top and brown on the bottom and cut to fit the pool. Do we wind it up during the day so the pool gets sun or leave it on all the time unless we use it? I’m guessing I should roll it up to add chemicals and to run the sheer descent and therapy jets everyday to circulate the water through them, is that correct?

We have a heat pump heater to use. Our pool is small which should work to our advantage for heating. It can get down to upper 30’s during the winter, but that’s only a few nights each year. I’m thinking we will heat it up occasionally to swim. Do I need to keep it at a certain temp all the time and then heat it to what we want to swim in? Any and all advice would be appreciated from those in warmer winter areas.

 

[Brentr]

Hi Jean, we put on our bubble cover when the day temps start dipping down into the mid 70's. I use solar heat and then use heat pump to boost it to 90 degrees. The bubble cover must be kept on especially at night so that you do not loose the heat you gained during the day. I also just roll back a corner to add chemicals. Hope this helps

 

[Arizonarob]

Jean, you want to keep the cover on all the time. You can remove it when you go for a swim, and you can run your water features at the same time. Like Brent said above, you definitely need to keep it covered at night.

 

[scdaren]

We are heading into our first cooler weather season in SWFL. The PB gave us a thick solar bubble cover for the pool, it is iridescent blue on top and brown on the bottom and cut to fit the pool. Do we wind it up during the day so the pool gets sun or leave it on all the time unless we use it? I’m guessing I should roll it up to add chemicals and to run the sheer descent and therapy jets everyday to circulate the water through them, is that correct?

We have a heat pump heater to use. Our pool is small which should work to our advantage for heating. It can get down to upper 30’s during the winter, but that’s only a few nights each year. I’m thinking we will heat it up occasionally to swim. Do I need to keep it at a certain temp all the time and then heat it to what we want to swim in? Any and all advice would be appreciated from those in warmer winter areas.

The higher the water temp, the more efficient your heat pump will run. So overall it's more efficient to set your desired temperature, and have the heat pump maintain that temp all the time. However, if it's usually going to be a few weeks between swims, you may be better off letting it cool down then heating all the water back up when you want to swim. This was my first year with a pool and heat pump. I quickly discovered that I needed a solar cover, and that it is not very practical to heat it all the way back up (takes like 15 hours to go from 70 degrees to 85) -- maintaining the temp is much easier, and requires much less planning ahead when you might want to swim.

 

[Jean-ji]

Thanks for all the input. We brought our cover out after finding a roller for it on Amazon. We deployed the cover and rolled it up a few times to see how it worked. Next year the roller will break down to store in the garage easily. Temps are in the 90’s this week so, water temp is 83 without any help from the cover.