Using more than one air pillow to keep water off?

[Stressed_era]

My pool is 18 round and was thinking of using 2 4x8 pillows this year and not draining below skimmer. The idea is to keep water from pooling on and subsequently leaching through the cover.

I bought a brand new (not cheap) solid cover last year and water still leached through. So I was pumping pool water off the cover all winter and had to add A LOT of water around February.

Last year I drained below the return. The year before I didn't drain. Both times I lost pool water to pumping the cover, but obviously the water level was much lower last year. This just seems stupid. There has to be a better way.

I thought about building a frame out of light PVC (maybe electrical conduit) that could test on the pillow and extend onto the pool rails to create a tent-like frame. Then lay the cover over it. But could possibly get the same results using extra pillows.

So what should i do? What could the problem be with this idea? Heavy snow? That's the only one I can think of but I'm not sure if it would be a problem.

 

[Mdragger88]

The pillows will likely not prevent water from pooling on the cover which will then need to be pumped off. It just won’t pool in the locations of the pillows.
Their actual job is to provide an expansion point when ice occurs to prevent stress on the pool walls kinda like a gizmo for the pool water & cover water.
With a solid cover I just try to keep it pumped off w/ a siphon style pump as it rains. These have holes in the top.
To prevent from pumping water through the cover (draining pool water) you can try putting a frisbee or bucket lid underneath the pump.
I am toying w/ the idea of cutting a drain in my cover this year that is plumbed to one of my returns & just uses gravity.

 

[Stressed_era]

The pillows will likely not prevent water from pooling on the cover which will then need to be pumped off. It just won’t pool in the locations of the pillows.
Their actual job is to provide an expansion point when ice occurs to prevent stress on the pool walls kinda like a gizmo for the pool water & cover water.
With a solid cover I just try to keep it pumped off w/ a siphon style pump as it rains. These have holes in the top.
To prevent from pumping water through the cover (draining pool water) you can try putting a frisbee or bucket lid underneath the pump.
I am toying w/ the idea of cutting a drain in my cover this year that is plumbed to one of my returns & just uses gravity.

I have the siphon style pump as well. Have you tried the bucket lid idea? I never considered that it was sucking water through the cover, rather that the weight of the water was forcing the cover down and water was seeping through. I don't understand how the lid will prevent it.

 

[Mdragger88]

I’m sure its a little of both but i find if i always pump when it rains the cover never gets heavy enough for the water to seep terribly. I have some more worn parts of my cover so i try to keep the pump off of those directly. This is one of the reasons i wanna try the gravity drain to really keep the water off all the time (not just when I remember) - my cover is older anyway so I don’t feel so weird about cutting a hole in it. I think it will put less stress on the cover if it stays dry. Not to mention reduce the mosquito population.