Looking for the best way to heat up your pool, there are three types of pool heaters that can help. One is solar heating options, two diy options and three traditional pool heaters. So, let's dive in and check out the best ways to heat your pool quickly and efficiently check it out before we continue. If you're looking for help keeping your pool clean and clear throughout the season check out our free pool care cheat sheet at swimuniversity.com cheat sheet.

It's a totally free easy to use guide to help you keep track of taking care of your pool now, no matter which kind of heating method you use your pool's heat time depends on a few things. What type of pool you have how much water it holds, whether it's insulated or not, and how much sun you get speaking of sun? Let's start with solar heating, the sun is nature's free pool water heater. An average pool will heat up about 0.7 degrees per hour under the noontime sun, but the downside to that sun is evaporation and evaporation can cause the same pool to lose five degrees fahrenheit for every quarter inch of water evaporated. So here's where solar pool covers come in solar pool covers aka solar.

Blankets are large sheets of insulating plastic that look like bubble, wrap and lie on top of your pool water. They not only capture the energy from the sun. They also help keep the heat in by reducing water evaporation, especially at night. A lot of the heat, your pool gains during the day is lost at night and solar blankets keeps some of the heat from dissipating and cuts evaporation by about 95 percent.

When water evaporates from your pool, you also lose the chemicals in that water. A solar blanket can prevent 35 to 60 percent of your pool water chemicals from disappearing into thin air. Depending on where you live. A solar cover may not keep the water as warm as an electric or gas heater, but it can still reduce water.

Evaporation to help retain heat now, which color solar cover is best clear. Solar covers allow more of the sun's heat to penetrate the water and can increase the water temperature by about 15 degrees and prevent up to 95 of pool water and chemical evaporation. Dark blue solar covers, on the other hand, are great for heat retention. So if you have a gas heater or a pool heat pump, your heater won't need to run as long with a dark blue cover.

Now, if you have a large pool - or you swim very often, removing the solar blanket can be a bit annoying. You can cut the solar blanket into smaller panels and remove the pieces one at a time or it might be worth investing in a solar cover reel. Now there are also liquid solar pool covers you can't see it, you can't feel it and it's safe to swim in and helps prevent evaporation, and if you want to see a liquid solar pool cover in action be sure to check out our other video liquid. Solar covers are easier to use than solar, blankets, but solar blankets are about 25 percent more effective at keeping heat and water in the pool.

Now whether you use a liquid or a blanket solar cover, they both help retain heat and stop evaporation, especially at night. Now, let's talk about some next level: solar heating options. If you have an above ground pool, you may want to consider heating the pool with a solar dome. A solar dome collects the sun's rays and circulates the pool water through warming channels before returning it to your pool.

Solar domes can raise the temperature of your pool up to 10 degrees, especially over several sunny days. They can be a bit more challenging to install and require some extra connectors if you're trying to position it where there's more sun they're, also not cheap, but aside from the initial cost, it runs on solar, which means completely free heat for your pool. If a solar dome is a little out of your budget or you're feeling handy, you can try making your own cheap, solar, heater with black irrigation hose and a sump pump. A diy solar heater is the same concept as a solar dome.

You pull the water out of your pool through a sump pump and into a large coil of black irrigation, hose the water warms up in the black hose and then returns to your pool. If this option sounds interesting to you, there's a lot of great diy channels on youtube, showing you how to build your own black hose solar heater for under a hundred dollars. Finally, let's talk about heater systems. These are the most expensive pool heating options, but they're the most powerful, a gas pool, heater uses natural gas or propane to heat.

Your water pool water passes through your heater while a combustion chamber burns and warms the water before returning it to your pool. Gas heaters are probably the most powerful heating option, they're very efficient and will heat your pool quickly, especially if you live somewhere where temperatures are cooler. However, it's not a cheap system to install and you have to pay for gas to keep it running. Pull heat pumps, on the other hand, draw in warm air from the atmosphere and use that air to heat your pool.

It's a low energy process that relies entirely on your outside temperature. So as long as the weather is warm enough, around 40 degrees or higher pool heat pumps can be a good option. And if you want to check out our favorite gas, heater and heat pump brands check out our pool heater comparison guide at swimuniversity.com and regardless of how you heat your pool, we recommend getting some type of surface protection like a solar cover, so that you don't lose Water and heat at night, if you have any more questions about pool maintenance, go check out our free pool care cheat sheet at swimuniversity.com cheat sheet, and if you found this video helpful, please leave a comment hit the like button and subscribe for more pool maintenance tutorials Throughout the season, that's it thanks again and happy swimming.