I'm trying talc.
While headline verdicts might give the impression otherwise, in general use, talc is not a carcinogen and is still available for sale. There is concern for miners and processors of talc and, of course, prolonged use in the female genital area. There's also concern for asbestos contamination. However, in this application where almost all of the tiny amount of talc is confined to the rail "pocket" should be well outside those areas of concern.
The short story is that I have to take it down each year. Some years, by as early as the 2nd week of September, the water temperature sinks to under 70˚F and always by late October the pool becomes painfully cold. I really don't trust myself to maintain the water properly and especially given the recent infestation of Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito) and Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito) anything less than a perfectly maintained pool is a nuisance. As for leaving it up and dry, that's also not an option. We can depend on having strong, continuous northern Santa Ana winds for days at a time. Gusts over 50mph are not uncommon at which point the cover is history and the pool flaps violently like a flag. In fact, there was one year where I assembled the pool and before I had a chance to fill it there was a wind incident. The pool literally started to blow away and only the fence stopped it.
I am considering building some sort of enclosure for the whole pool using corrugated polycarbonate but I only have some rough sketches. And I doubt that I could get a building permit for it. And it would still need to withstand those Santa Anas.
