Choosing the Perfect Pool Cover

Choosing the perfect pool cover

A pool brings months of enjoyment to families in the form of relaxation, play, and even exercise. One key item pool owners often overlook is the benefit of a pool cover. While many pool cover choices are available on the market, they all have various uses and benefits.

Pool covers can help save money, provide safety, or protect against chilly months. We’ll highlight winter covers, safety pool covers, automatic covers, solar covers, and thermal pool covers and explore their benefits and uses so pool owners can be better informed before purchasing one.

Winter cover

Winter pool covers are what the name implies: perfect to use in the winter months to protect your pool. Winter pool covers have several benefits:

  • Easy installation.
  • Keeps the pool clean of debris, leaves, and sticks.
  • Inexpensive.

It’s important to remember that although these pool covers have the name “winter” in them, they are not very durable and don’t protect against heavy snow, rain, or items falling onto the cover. Also, their lack of durability makes them unsafe to protect against children and animals falling in.

Safety cover

Safety covers are another form of pool cover, and they have several benefits:

  • Very sturdy and can support thousands of pounds of weight.
  • Low maintenance and application.

While there are great benefits to safety pool covers, there are a few disadvantages. For example, they are usually more expensive, and initial installation requires quite a bit of labor.

Finally, safety pool covers come in two different forms: mesh and solid. While mesh covers are lighter weight and allow rainwater into the pool, they allow sunlight to access the pool, which can promote algae growth. Solid safety covers are heavier in weight and block out all algae growth and debris from entering the pool.

Automatic cover

An automatic cover is exactly what the name states: automatic to where the cover can be moved by a crank or with the push of a button. This form of cover is installed on your pool and has great benefits for owners, such as:

  • Safe for children or pets to walk on. 
  • Efficiency and speed of taking the cover on or off.

Although those benefits are great, the cost of automatic covers can be pricey. They are also not made for all pool shapes because the automatic cover requires two parallel tracks on either side of the pool. Pools with elevation or curves might not be able to have this kind of cover.

Finally, these covers might not be the right option for pool owners in locations that receive heavy amounts of snow. Although the cover can support weight, it cannot carry the weight of heavy snow.  

Solar cover

Solar covers use the UV rays from the sun to heat the water in a swimming pool. These pool covers are said to resemble bubble wrap, with bubbles on the surface of the cover, which are placed poolside down. There are several benefits of solar pool covers:

  • Increased water temperature by 10 to 15 degrees.
  • Decreased water evaporation, which in turn decreases the amount of water and chemicals that need to be replaced.
  • Extended swimming season.
  • Decreased energy costs compared to heating pools with gas or electricity.
  • Cheaper than thermal pool covers.

While these are all great benefits, solar pool covers are not a permanent pool cover option that can protect against winter months or prevent children slipping and falling into the pool. Solar pool covers are good to use during the typical swimming season as a cost- and time-saving alternative.

Thermal cover

Similar to solar pool covers, thermal pool covers are use UV rays to heat your pool’s water. There are other benefits of these covers:

  • They last much longer, typically up to 10 years.
  • Thermal pool covers are made of a foam-like material that insulates and heats the pool better.
  • Decreased water evaporation.

It’s also important to note the downside of thermal pool covers. Although they are similar to solar pool covers, they cost almost twice as much. These covers are also not good to protect against children or pets from falling into the pool.

While pool covers are important, it’s best to weight the pros and cons of each to determine which is best for your family and pool life. To talk to our team at Blue Haven Pools about pool covers or to purchase yours, contact us today.