solar_covers
family,  homes

Solar Cover Tips – Keep Your Pool Clean and Toasty

Solar cover tips can help you keep your pool warm, clean and efficient. The “tips” part is important. You can’t just go out and snag a solar cover. Well, you can, but you’ll be flying blind. Which means you won’t get as much effect as you would if you knew exactly how to use it. We recently had to get another solar cover. Our last one fell apart in September and we needed a new one to replace it.

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Thanks to the folks at Pool Supplies Canada, we have a great clean solar cover to keep our pool clean and warm. The following solar cover tips will help you get the most out of your solar cover season in and season out. You can check out the simple installation video I posted on my Inkscrblr Youtube channel.

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The Before Picture. This was a big delivery.

Solar Cover Tips to Maximize Effectiveness

Solar covers are designed to do two things: keep the pool clean and keep the pool warm. Both of those are super important to my family. My husband hates having to do extra pool work, and we all cringe at a cold pool. I like my pool to be nice and warm. So we almost always have a solar cover. In fact it was one of the first things we purchased for the pool 3 years ago, our first summer in the new home. Sadly, my first cover worked to heat the pool well, but it deteriorated fast.

I’m declaring this the year of the backyard pool because frankly this year the pool is in great shape after two years with some big maintenance and repairs. We are ready to swim and happy also to be saving money because the new cover works brilliantly.

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In the spring we had to replace the roof of our home and also the pool heater. Last year we had the pool liner replaced. That meant it has been a brutally expensive season. Pools can be expensive, but they are worth it. So I started hunting for money saving options for pool supplies for the summer months. That’s how I found Pool Supplies Canada.

Pool Supplies Canada has some incredible prices and their service is excellent. My order was placed on a Monday afternoon and the delivery took place on Thursday. Two weekends ago, as some of my followers and friends know, we were at Sherkston Shores. We took the weekend away after installing the cover. My husband turned the pool heater off entirely and left just the new cover on. When I returned we made a point of checking the pool temperature immediately. It was 88 degrees Celsius after one weekend! Like swimming in a hot tub.

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This year, Pool Supplies Canada has graciously agreed to help me keep my pool in order, and the first step for me was replacing our worn out solar cover with a nice new, CLEAR cover. I’ll cover why clear is great in a second. So without further ado, let’s look at some solar cover tips to maximize our solar cover ROI.

Clear Solar Covers are Best

In my opinion, clear solar covers are the best covers. You can buy covers in blue or clear ones. Clear covers allow the most light and heat to penetrate the deepest into the pool water to maximize the heating properties of the cover. I got a Premium Clear Sun Blanket for our pool. It’s super durable with a 14 mil thickness and features the best heating capacity of any blanket.

Reduce Cover Deterioration

Cover deterioration is a natural process which cannot be completely avoided, however, if you ensure that your pool chemicals are balanced properly, it can help prolong the life of your solar cover. Your warranty guide will advise you on how best to take care of your cover.

Size Up with Freeform Pools

Freeform pools come in all shapes. They have curves. In short, they’re not easily measured like a rectangular pool. When ordering a solar cover for a freeform pool, get it one size larger so it can be trimmed to fit.

Solar Cover Reel System

One huge point on the list of solar cover tips is getting a solar cover reel. They are key to ease of use. A reel allows for easy rolling and unrolling of the cover and reduces the amount of debris that can fall into the pool. Our reel is in dire need of replacement soon too. But one thing at a time.

Protect Your Cover from Super Chlorination

Super chlorination can contribute to the early retirement of your solar cover. Always keep your solar cover off of the pool for at least 24 hours after super chlorinating.

Solar Cover Tips for Long Lasting Protection

Solar covers don’t last forever. That’s just a fact. BUT these solar cover tips can help you ensure that your cover lasts as long as it possibly can. If you follow these tips and consult your solar cover professional, you should have a solar cover that lasts a good long time. And my last word is this. Talk with a solar cover professional at Pool Supplies Canada. So far, I’ve had a wonderful experience with them from start to finish.

I received product for purposes of this post. My opinion is all my own and it is also truthful.

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.

25 Comments

  • Tamara Bowman

    We don’t have a pool but I had one growing up. I remember our solar cover! I don’t know what kind it was, but it made a huge difference. Our pool was FRIGID without it. I always remember that being a little rough in the beginning.
    We certainly have the land so should we ever get a pool, we’d need a solar cover for sure.

    • Paula

      The chemical balancing is the challenging part of this one anyways. Opening and closing and repairs are costly but I will say the first 18 months of this house and this pool we had no extra costs – maybe a $400 to heat for the summer with chemicals plus opening and closing – maybe another $400 total. $800 for about 4 months – that might seem like a lot but we swam almost every day and I love that the kids can have their friends here to hang out and all the kids want to swim always so that’s kind of nice too.

  • Monica

    We don’t currently have a pool at our house, but we are in the process of moving and and are looking for a new home. A house with a pool would be an amazing. If we did have a pool I would certainly want a solar cover on it and it’s good to know that clear is the way to go. Swimming in an 88 degree pool certainly sounds very inviting!

    • Paula

      Monica – there were a couple of days where I was like Holy smokes this is like a hot tub maybe we should dial it back a bit. LOL.

  • CHeryl

    What a genius idea! I never had a pool and didn’t know this existed. I will have to share with my pool-owning friends and take advantage of getting into warm water 🙂

  • Censie Sawyer

    I am totally jealous of your pool space. We do not have a pool and have to use an inflatable one. I so wish we could keep that water warm too. Wonder if something like this would work for our inflatable one.

  • Heather

    We have a heater on our pool but it would be nice if it would stay warm. I have to look into getting a solar cover. I’m not sure if it’ll work for us but worth an inquiry.

    • Paula

      So yes we are using both but the cover is helping to keep the heat in and to keep us from having to rely too much on the new heater.

  • Ali Rost

    I’ve always been so jealous of people who are able to have a backyard pool. My grandparents do, and we take advantage when we’re able. Forwarding your post along to them. I know they’re always looking for great products like this one. Happy summer swimming!

  • E. smith

    One day, we would LOVE to have a pool and we’d definitely invest in a solar cover. My friend had one growing up and the pool water was always the perfect temperature because of it.

  • Melissa Dixon

    Wow that is such a neat product. I had no idea how well they worked but it seems like it pays itself off almost right away. I would love to go swimming in a nice warm pool right about now, it really helps with my aches and pains. The problem for me is in Iowa it would not get used too much but maybe we could get more time out of it with one of these!

    • Paula

      Melissa – yes it really helps with aches and pains. I find movement helps me and swimming is a good way to move. Thanks for your comment. We usually open our pool in May and swim a little bit then and the June, July and August are solid like you could swim most days and one year we left it open until nearly the end of September – that was way too long but mid Sept or 3rd week is good. That’s a decent amount of time I think.

    • Paula

      MY GIRLS would gobble yours up – they would LOVE that so much. They are so into showing their cousins how to swim and supervising them in the pool while I swim nearby. You are welcome any time you come to Ontario.

  • Kiwi

    Wow I didnt even know solar covers were on the market. Make sense to cover your pool not only for bugs and debris but for temp control. I love the concept of this and will definitely look into this when i get a home with pool!

  • lisa

    First, what an awesome pool and I didn’t even know they had any such thing as a solar cover. Second, we just had a pool installed but I used a tart top for the cover, now I am going to see if I can find a nice solar cover for our pool. It really do make a big difference in the temp when you have your pool covered!

    • Paula

      They really do. I am super happy with how warm it is right now. I am hoping that the electricity bill also demonstrates a savings.

  • Tina Butler

    I don’t have a swimming pool either, but i never realized how important a solar cover for your pool was. I would assume it is hot enough in Texas to heat the pool, but it would be nice for debris.

  • Tami

    I’m clueless; I didn’t know pools required covers, especially solar ones. I am not even sure my neighbor has a cover for their pool. You know I’m going to go look now (and recommend this to them, if not).

    • Paula

      Tami – We find it really helps especially on occasions like I mentioned where we went away for a weekend and left heater on low or off entirely and the cover heated the water with sun to 88 degrees. That is crazy warm and SWEET to return home to. Thanks for your comment.

  • Farrah Less

    I envy you, I would love to have a pool in our house. Summer is a little bit longer here in the South this solar cover is perfect on our location because we get a lot of sun. Hopefully soon we will be able to build our pool. We have a big backyard that can accommodate a big pool and family playground.

  • Lynda Cook

    I love your pool, we do not have one anymore, but when the girls were still at home we had a 18″ ezset pool and that was hard enough to keep clean and the upkeep, they are a lot of work but so nice to cool off and exercise in as well!!

  • Gabrielle

    I hope you do not have a salt system! If you keep your solar blanket on for prolonged periods of time you will prematurely damage/fade that “new” liner of yours with high chlorine levels… Unfortunately, pool dealers seem to forget most pools these days have salt water systems which do not have a chlorine level regulating system –
    therefore creating continuous chlorine. With the prolonged use of a solar blanket, the UV rays cannot not breakdown the chlorine and these levels become too high quickly; damaging your liner and solar blanket. The chlorine gas off between the solar blanket and liner can also remove the pattern adhesive from your liner. This premature fading would NOT be covered under your liner’s warranty! Solar blankets should technically be called lunar blankets (for heat retention ONLY), where the colour of the blanket would be irrelevant 🙂

    • Paula

      I do not have a salt system. Thanks for your comment. We have it off for lengthy periods of time as well. It goes on at night occasionally right now if we suspect rain etcetera. And we are Bromine actually. I wouldn’t say most pools have salt systems these days. In this neighbourhood I know nobody who has a salt system yet. Our pools were installed 12 years ago roughly and I don’t think that was being used much back then. I do appreciate you commenting and warning me about that kind of system however. We have discussed converting actually and it doesn’t make sense for us as there are issues with salt systems too.