Which Solar Cover Is Best for Your Pool?

In the following sections, we’ll talk about the importance of choosing the right cover for your needs. There are several factors to consider before making your purchase. We will discuss each of these in detail, as well as the many features you will benefit from by investing in a solar pool cover.

How Thick Should a Solar Pool Cover Be?

The thickness of a solar pool cover goes a long way in providing for your needs. If you’re trying to retain as much heat as possible and keep your pool warm, a thicker solar cover is recommended. For this, anything between 12- and 16-mil should serve nicely.

Depending on your needs, a thicker cover might prove to be more beneficial. If you are wanting to cut down on chemicals bought during the swim season, a blue 16 mil cover will offer the best protection. Your chemicals will last longer and be more effective in their use.

If your main goal is to simply get the warmest water possible, you’ll find that an 8- to 12-mil cover will provide the best heating properties. And if you go with a clear solar cover, sunlight will have a better chance of penetrating the cover and warming your pool.

Regardless of which color or thickness you ultimately choose, one thing is certain: you will see a big difference in the temperature and chemical need in your pool water. A solar cover is an excellent investment that often pays for itself many times over throughout the course of its use.

Benefits of Solar Pool Covers

Solar pool covers work to not only heat your pool water, but they also help reduce how often you buy chemicals. You see, whenever you use a solar pool cover, evaporation in your pool is greatly reduced. When evaporation is prevented, your chemicals last longer and are more effective in their use.

You therefore won’t have to buy them as often throughout the swimming season, effectively lowering your chemical budget. Any pool owner can attest to the costly prices of chemicals. By implementing a solar cover, your pool should have less of a need for additional chemicals.

Another huge bonus is the fact that solar pool covers act as a protective layer over your pool water. Tired of fishing out insects and debris during the swimming season? With a solar cover in action, you can spend more time swimming and less time on maintenance.

Solar covers will catch the vast majority of leaves, grass, bugs, and any of the other countless debris that finds its way into our swimming pools. Solar covers are one of the best ways to keep pools clean.

And lastly, perhaps the most common advantage to owning a solar cover is its ability to warm up your pool. Many solar covers are able to raise the temperature in your pool by as much as 15 degrees! That’s a sizable difference. And in doing so, you’ll be able to enjoy your pool a lot longer.

What’s more, you won’t have to wait nearly as long for your pool to warm up after the solar cover has been on for a couple of days. This is because pool covers are designed to trap in heat, maintaining your pool’s temperature all through the night and into the next day.

Even cloudy days won’t decrease your temperature as greatly. And the thicker the cover, the better heat is retained in pools. The best covers keep your pool comfy and inviting all throughout the season. Pools that use thick covers benefit from much warmer waters.

Things to Consider

As great and effective as solar covers are, it’s important to take a few things into consideration if you want to see the best results. For one, you have to make doubly sure that you follow directions and install the cover accordingly. A tight fit is vital in getting optimal heating and protection.

When installing, you want there to be no gaps between the cover and the pool. The solar cover should rest on top of the water without any room to shift. The reasoning for this is so any heat that has been collected by the cover will remain trapped underneath.

The longer that heat stays locked under the cover, the longer your pool water will stay warm. This will ensure that you are getting the best use out of your new investment.

You also want to take the location of your swimming pool into consideration. If there are trees and other greenery around your pool, you may want to invest in a thicker cover to ensure that it can withstand debris. Your best bet for pools surrounded by vegetation is to implement a durable cover.

And if your pool is susceptible to winds, you might want a thicker cover, as well. It will be less likely to blow away, and its higher durability will ensure it holds up. Pools that get high winds are better off with a thick cover, as it provides the best protection.

Does a Liquid Solar Cover Really Work?

Absolutely. A liquid solar pool cover provides the same benefits as traditional solar pool covers. However, they don’t last nearly as long and need to be used quite often to get the same results. If you’ve never tried a solar heating option before, you might want to start with a liquid pool cover alternative.

This will help you get a feel for how they work and the results they provide. You will likely need to purchase more than one bottle to get started. This is especially true if you have a large swimming pool, as you will need more product to cover more surface area.

For optimal results, you should run your pump while applying the liquid solar pool cover. This will help to better distribute the formula in your swimming pool. We found that pools get better results from liquid covers when doing this.

Are Clear Solar Pool Covers Better?

If your main reasoning for buying a solar pool cover is to heat your pool, then yes, clear is better. Since sunlight penetrates clear covers more easily, pools warm up faster than if using a blue solar pool cover.

With that being said, if you are more concerned with prolonging the life of your chemicals, a blue solar pool cover is better-suited for the job. A blue solar pool cover also works to retain heat longer than clear covers. However, they take a bit longer to warm up the water in your pool.