Will This Swimming Pool Solar Cover Really Help Warm the Water?
Written: Jul 29 '09 (Updated Aug 02 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Does a great job at its intended purpose
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: This cover does a good job of helping to keep your water warm, also reduces evaporation, and decreases chlorine use. Lengthens your swimming season as well.
It was about three years ago when we purchased one of those blue inflatable ring type Intex pools that are fairly common in the backyards around here. After owning the pool for just a short time I also decided to pick up the 18' Intex Solar Pool Cover to see if it would help keep my pool water a little bit warmer.
The Intex Pool Solar Cover comes in a variety of sizes, when purchasing one all you need to know is the size of your pool to pick out the appropriate cover for your needs. I picked of mine on sale at a local store for about $30.00 which was what I thought to be a good price. I've seen them selling for up to $100 or more so it really does pay to shop around.
This solar pool cover, like all the rest that I have seen looks pretty much like nothing more than a giant sheet of bubble wrap. There are also holes cut into it that are about the size of a quarter. These holes allow rainwater to flow off the top of the cover it into your pool.
A common question about a swimming pool solar cover is if you should place them in your pool with the bubbles facing up or the bubbles facing the down. The answer is that you should place your solar cover with the bubbles facing down into the water.
To use it all you need to do is place at on the surface of your pool and let the sun work its magic to heat up your pool water. One side of Intex Solar Pool Cover is smooth, while the other side has literally thousands of tiny air pockets. As the sun beams down upon your solar cover it heats up the air bubbles in the cover, thus warming up the water in your swimming pool.
My experience with the Intex Pool Solar Cover is that works pretty darn good. I'm glad I bought it, as I live in Wisconsin and the extra heat that the solar cover provides really extends the swimming season at my house for weeks compared to my neighbors, who don't have a solar cover for their pool. As a matter of fact, this thing works so good that one day this summer the temperature of my pool was 96°! The water was so warm that it wasn't even refreshing, needless to say I decided to keep the cover off for the night to let it cool down a bit.
Besides the fact that the solar cover will help keep your pool water warm, it also does a great job of helping to keep out leaves and other kinds of dirt that may get into your pool. Water evaporation is also reduced by use of a solar cover, and also the amount of chlorine and other chemicals needed to maintain the proper levels in your pool.
One word of caution though, make sure that you always take off the cover before you get into the pool. When I was a kid I jumped into a friend's swimming pool that still had the solar cover on it thinking that it might be fun, and almost drowned as I was enveloped by the solar cover!
My overall experience with the Intex 18' Solar Pool Cover is that it is pretty good product and I would highly recommend it to anybody that is looking to add a few degrees to their pool water temperature, or if you're looking to extend the swimming season in your backyard.
Thanks for reading my swimming pool solar cover review, Hddan.
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