A solar pool cover (or solar blanket) can raise the temperature of your pool, reduce energy costs, minimize water loss, and even decrease chemical needs.
💦 Get 10% off our pool maintenance video course and ebook by using the promo code VIDEO: https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-care-handbook/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description'>https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-care-handbook/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
⏰ Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction to Solar Pool Covers
01:03 - How Solar Blankets Work
01:58 - Do Liquid Solar Covers Work
02:27 - How To Use A Solar Pool Cover Properly
05:03 - How To Save Money And Energy With Your Pool Heater
05:33 - Pool Care Video Course
06:19 - How To Buy The Right Solar Pool Cover
07:06 - How Long Will Solar Covers Last
08:11 - How To Cool Down A Pool
🏊♂️ Our Favorite Pool Maintenance Gear: https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-maintenance/'>https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-maintenance/
📺 Subscribe to our channel if you want more information on swimming pool and hot tub maintenance: https://www.youtube.com/swimuniversity
Swim University®️ has made swimming pool and hot tub care easy for more than 10 million homeowners. And each year, we continue to help more people with water chemistry, cleaning, and troubleshooting. We know taking care of a swimming pool or spa can be difficult. And it’s hard to find a trusted source of information. We get it! This is the reason we created Swim University®️.
😎 Visit our website for more in-depth information on swimming pool maintenance: https://www.swimuniversity.com/
💦 Get 10% off our pool maintenance video course and ebook by using the promo code VIDEO: https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-care-handbook/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description'>https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-care-handbook/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
⏰ Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction to Solar Pool Covers
01:03 - How Solar Blankets Work
01:58 - Do Liquid Solar Covers Work
02:27 - How To Use A Solar Pool Cover Properly
05:03 - How To Save Money And Energy With Your Pool Heater
05:33 - Pool Care Video Course
06:19 - How To Buy The Right Solar Pool Cover
07:06 - How Long Will Solar Covers Last
08:11 - How To Cool Down A Pool
🏊♂️ Our Favorite Pool Maintenance Gear: https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-maintenance/'>https://www.swimuniversity.com/pool-maintenance/
📺 Subscribe to our channel if you want more information on swimming pool and hot tub maintenance: https://www.youtube.com/swimuniversity
Swim University®️ has made swimming pool and hot tub care easy for more than 10 million homeowners. And each year, we continue to help more people with water chemistry, cleaning, and troubleshooting. We know taking care of a swimming pool or spa can be difficult. And it’s hard to find a trusted source of information. We get it! This is the reason we created Swim University®️.
😎 Visit our website for more in-depth information on swimming pool maintenance: https://www.swimuniversity.com/
You can heat up your swimming pool and keep it heated all season long for around a hundred dollars. No, you don't need an expensive. You know gas pool heater. All you need is the power of the Sun, a solar blanket and an effective tips on how to use it properly.
So, let's do it all right, quick disclaimer when it comes to pool care, everyone does it differently and at some University this is just how we do it. So if I missed anything, I apologize just leave a comment. All right. There are three different types of solar pool covers out there and they are solar, blankets, which looks like the bubble wrap.
There are solar rings which float on top of your pool. They're, like little rings we'll get into that, and then there are liquid solar covers. All of them do basically the same thing, which is they don't actually heat your pool up. They just keep the heat that naturally comes in from the Sun in your pool.
Now, the way they do, that is we'll talk about solar, blankets, so solar, blankets or solar covers they look like those giant pieces of bubble wrap and they lay on top of the pool bubble side down, helps to float what you're looking for. If you want to actually aid in the heating of the water is a very light blue, an opaque light, blue cover or a clear cover, and if you have, you find a clear cover with some silver on the bottom. That's gon na help keep more heat in the pool that is attracted from your solar cover, but generally what's gon na happen is the solar cover is not gon na actually heat up the pool, it's just gon na reduce evaporation and keep the heat in your pool. The same thing goes for solar rings, and liquid solar covers solar rings are basically just little tiny solar covers that float in your pool, so solar rings are easy, they're just little discs you throw them in and they work basically the same way keeping heat and keeping The evaporation from happening and then thus keeping the heat in the water liquid solar covers are the ones that I get asked about.
The most do liquid. Solar covers actually work. Yes, if we're talking about reducing evaporation, which is keeping heat in the water, will they attract heat to your pool? No, they will not do that. That's there, it's a what, like a very small molecule, thick layer.
That kind of just keeps everything from evaporating, so that is what a liquid solar cover is again, not gon na heat, your pool, but it's going to help reduce evaporation. Now we're going to talk about how to do this effectively. How do you use a solar cover? So that it actually keeps the heat in the pool, this is gon na sound weird, but the Sun comes out during a day. We all know that right.
We all know that so the Sun comes out. It's heating up your pool, whether you have a solar cover on it or not. It's gon na heat, the water at night. However, the Sun goes away.
It gets a little cooler out because there's no Sun and that's when all the evaporation and heat loss happens. It all happens at night, so when should you put a solar cover on your pool? When should you put the solar rings on your pool at night? Ya know it sounds counterintuitive and make sure the filters not running if you have a solar rings or if you have a liquid solar cover, because the the water movement will break up the the rings and allow heat to escape. Now there are some benefits over one. Another so for solar, blankets, you know the actual big piece of bubble wrap that you lay over the entire surface of the water. What that's gon na do is it's actually gon na help keep chemicals in your water cuz the sun's not going to be able to burn them off. You're not gon na lose any through evaporation and it's gon na keep leaves and other debris out of your pool because you have a cover on your pool. So if you want to keep it on during the day - and you know you you don't - are not going to be swimming in it, that's fine! You should keep it on at night when it's all collecting stuff it'll collect on top of the cover, and you know when you remove it, you can shake all that stuff off. You don't need it now.
If you have a solar blanket and if you find it hard to take on and off your pool, what you can do is actually cut it into smaller, more manageable pieces and have it fit together like a puzzle in your pool or you can invest in a Solar real, which will allow you to just roll it up and then unroll it when you need it now for solar rings, while they might be easier to get off, and that is certainly a pro. They are easy to take on and off your pool, but that you know the thing is: is that there's gaps? There's are gon na, have gaps in the water where it's gon na be able to evaporate so they're, not as effective as a solar blanket. So if you're gon na use liquid solar covers the biggest pro of a liquid solar cover, is that you just kind of add it to the pool and it works. But the con is that you have to not run your filter system at night, which you know some people like to do, because it saves the money by running your filter system at night because of like at the electricity.
But if you're gon na be using a liquid solar cover, it's gon na work really really well at night. Now, if you have a gas pool heater, a heat pump, something that costs a lot of money to actually heat the water in your pool. I have good news for you if you want to save some money on your gas bill on your electric bill. Whatever you use, you can use a solar cover, solar rings or a liquid solar cover to actually keep the heat in the pool that you generate through the gas pool heater or the electric heater.
Thus, saving you money all right. Let's answer some questions now. These questions are sponsored by the pool care handbook and video course, which is how we keep the lights on here at some University. It is our complete pool, maintenance video course with over, like 35 different video lessons all on how to take care of your pool, including solar cover and solar heating options. That's all covered in here, plus we have an extensive 300 plus page, fully Illustrated ebook and it all comes together in one product. So, if you're watching this video, thank you very much for watching this video. You will be rewarded with a 10 % off coupon code. Just use the promo code, video when you are at checkout and you will get 10 % off okay sponsorship, / promotion, /, let's get to the questions.
All right Wayne asks I'm in the market for a new solar cover. I asked my local pool company about them. They say they are two different options. When it comes to solar blankets, they say both are great, but the thicker one will hold the heat in better.
Is that true, I'm confused? I need some guidance. My last solar cover only lasted three years and totally disintegrated. Last auguste well wayne. I want to say that, yes, your cover will last longer.
If you get a thicker mill. No, it will not heat your pool any better if it's thicker, in fact it's just gon na be harder to take on and off your pool. So yes, invest in the thicker mill. If you want to keep it longer three to five years sure, but you can get away with a thinner mill and it's still gon na do the same thing as a thicker mill.
It's just not gon na last. As long all, right speaking of how long are these covers, gon na last have another one from Jay who says what is the life expectancy on a solar cover? I've noticed that I've been finding little blue round discs in my skimmer basket, and my robot is picking them up as well. Is this normal after a few seasons, or is it because when you have it rolled up and it gets too hot, or could it be a chemically related issue? Well, it can be both of those things. It could just be a cheap cover.
It could be that it's sitting out in the Sun and drying out it could just be from chemical use. It could just be old all those things which I recommend it to wane, get a thicker mill, get a more if you want to. If you want it to last, a little bit longer invest in a nice thick mill, solar cover, and it should last you long. It's gon na deteriorate.
Those things are gon na happen. There is a lot of wear and tear on them. But again, if you get a thicker mill, it'll last you a good while they make a bunch of different males, you can get four mill, you can get eight mill, you can get twelve mill and you can get sixteen mill which is really thick and that should Last you about five years, hopefully - and maybe even more so a 16 mill is like that's the one to get okay last question: I have the opposite problem. My pool is too hot.
Do you have some ideas on how to cool it down a little? It's too expensive to buy bags of ice every day. Yes, it is too expensive to buy bags of ice every day, and so there are three things that I know you can do for sure one you could not use a liquid Solar cover, a solar, blanket and solar rings and then run your filter at night, like We said before, if you want to keep the heat from escaping, you want to not run your filter at night and add either the solar blanket solar rings or liquid solar cover. But if you're, trying to make heat escape from your pool, run your filter at night break up the surface water and move any landscaping, that's around your pool. If you have any landscaping, that's blocking the wind from blowing over your pool. That's a great way to you know, just get rid of that, and the wind will blow it across your pool and let that heat escape, and the third thing you can do is install a fountain anything that breaks the surface tension and gets that water moving, especially At night is gon na allow that heat to escape. Alright, if you think I missed anything in this video, please tell me in the comments that would be great and we have plenty more information over at Swim University comm be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to hear more about pool maintenance and that's it so happy swimming, you.
Thank you! And what about the immersion heaters? My above-ground pool is just 14' round, 4 ' deep. Will that be sufficient?
I had to get a cover for my pool after I discovered a dead critter floating in my small Intex quickset pool. Gross. At least it's small enough to drain, sanitize and refill. Will never be without a cover again.
Good vid !
What is your opinion on the transparent blue solar covers vs the ones that are blue but have a grey/silver under layer making them a little more opaque. I have read the grey layer reflects the heat and keeps it in your pool but also doesn't let sunlight thru and creates a darker environment for algae to grow. Thoughts?
Great videos. What do you think of the blue covers with the aluminum heat shield underneath. You briefly mentioned this in the video but I find the ones I have found on amazon don't look very translucent, they almost look solid. Would this create too much of a barrier or do you like this style of cover. Thanks
Will a solar blanket work if you use another cover over it?
Solar covers do heat the pool up… We had 5 95+ days and I had left cover on… The water was HOT.. I mean HOT… the pool I have in vegas does not have a solar cover and the temps will be above 100 for more than 5 days and the water is never hot like my pool in chicago with the solar blanket !
Do the covers help to keep algae from forming once you get it under control? Also, where do you stock up on shock? I feel like it was very hard to come by this year and right now (in Michigan) I'm having a hard time finding it to kill my algae problem that won't go away.
Any difference between a blue solar cover vs a clear/white cover?
In Ottawa Canada – my clear solar blanket is a god send. We get our pool water into the 90's for much of the summer, and almost never turn on the heater. Of course, it also keep the crap out of the pool water, given we live rural… so leaves and such.
I'm skeptical that the clear cover doesn't help heat the water… I mean, sit under that cover in the sun and see how hot it is.
I have a rectangular in ground pool, and when we moved into this house we discovered the pool heater, a really old Pentair model, drops a code indicating that the blower motor died. The ONLY replacement I could find online was a $350 old used unit on ebay. So I started researching active solar heaters. I was thinking of going with something completely independent of the existing heater, as the only pool maintenance company in town is… more than a bit flaky. Put a submersible pump in the water, run a hose to the inlet of the heater, set the heater on the concrete on the side of the house, as the previous owners had a big RV in there so lots of unused concrete that gets sun all afternoon and today, up until 9pm.
However, this might be an even simpler and cheaper solution.
When I roll my cover up it has all the filth on it and it goes in to my pool. I guess I assumed this was going to happen but what can I do?
My pool is crystal clear at night and fogy in daytime why?
Great video very informative but didn’t cover a problem I’m having with my solar cover. I find after a good rain the water stays on top of my cover and gets gross in a day or two. Is there an easy passive way to keep water from pooling on top of my solar cover? Also I have noticed increases algae growth in my pool after using the cover for one season how do I keep that from happening?
Does the water heat up with a solar cover on during the day? Should you take the cover off during the day to heat the pool? Service area Ottawa??
Can I use a solar blanket and a liquid solar blanket together
Can I use the liquid solar liquid and the solar blanket? Service area Barrhaven??
Solar covers deteriorate in high heat and they get hotter when rolled up out of the water. Try covering with white plastic sheet to make it last longer.
Great advice! Thank you so much Are you in Orleans ?
Good job dude
Do I put the 4oz liquid cover in the skimmer basket ?
regarding getting rid of heat….fountains are great as evaporation effect…
Great video. We have a 12×24 inground pool. We bought a couple of Intex solar covers to cover most of the pool. After a week, we found a bunch of very tiny bugs with wings both on the covers and in our pool. We have a screen enclosure, too. Do the covers prevent the skimmer from taking these little creatures out of the pool?
Where do you find a solar cover with a silver lining?
I have a question, hopefully I can have an answer even tho I am watching this video 1 year after was published.
I am considering a pool cover not to keep my pool warm, but because I live in Florida, and it rains almost every day, I want to protect my pool from all the rain water and debris that comes with the rain. What types of covers you recommend best for rain?
Great videos! New unground pool (16Kgal) homeowner here and moving in within 30 days, so learning from you!
Will running a filter at night while a solar cover is on reduce the heat that is trapped?
From the video when you were answering questions it sounded like this is the case, but then was wondering when would be the opportune time to run the filter and still maximize heat in the pool?
I don’t think electricity is cheaper at night in the US is it?
Do you need a solar cover if you already have a normal cover that comes with your pool??
Awesome video! 2 quick questions, how do you use a pool cover with an irregularly shaped pool and second, how do you use a cover with a waterfall feature? We have an attached spa that overflows into the main pool as a waterfall. Which makes me think of another question, would it be worth even getting a cover with a waterfall (bc evaporation would be high.) Are you in Barrhaven ?
I have a solar pool cover for my I ground pool… what should my skimmer settings be set to? When uncovered I usually keep it between 60/40- 70/30… I have a pool cage but get a lot of tiny gnats. So when covered should the main drain be on higher? Thanks
I put a cover on my pool for 3 days when I remove it for fathers day weekend I was shocked there was alge ever were it has taken me 3 days to get it cleared up I've srub it and vacuum it and it's been hard to remove. But it's looking better.
I want to use the liquid solar cover. So you said you cant use the filter on at night but will it be okay during the day to turn it on?
You have the best videos! I wish you could go back and remake all your old videos this way…. most of the old ones are really hard to watch but you have SUCH good information and are really good at educating! Are you in Kanata ?
Great explanation of solar covers. I played with them a couple years on my 17×33 in ground. Gave up on them just because I didn't see enough of a benefit (Northeast US) for the trouble.
But what I understand about them, and you alluded to it a couple times, was the evaporative loss, because that's when the pool cools. Just as when you sweat you cool off due to the evaporative effect. I'm sure a highschool physics student could explain it better but the heat loss is directly related to, and due mostly to, evaporation.
Also I'd like to have seen how much surface area remains exposed with those solar rings, seems like simple geometry to calculate and I'm betting you only cover 60-70% if you an optimum number of rings arranged in an optimum pattern.
And liquid pool cover? Ugh, who'd want to swim in that? Sounds like an oil of some kind.
Are solar covers noticably more efficient at retaining heat than debris covers?
Much to the surprise of my skeptical disbelief, I found the liquid solar cover to not only prevent evaporation but actually retain heat. Heated water from the daytime of about 80°F used to decrease to 70 or less overnight, but only went down to 75 to 77 with the liquid solar cover, remarkably enough.
Otherwise, fine video. Only one thing: Solar covers definitely have a greenhouse effect, letting light in as well as keeping the heat in. Service area Nepean??
What if I don't have a pool….what should I do?
I have an oval 12×24 semi inground swimming pool, looking into heating pool with solar cover.. pool is in the sun pretty much the whole day but its always cold, I do not want to invest in a pool heater because its not a big pool. Whats your recommendation ?
Are pool cover that has mini bubbles any different vs normal ones? Are you in Nepean ?
I can only find solar covers that are a bit bigger than the size of my pool. Will it affect the working of the solar cover if i just cut it to the size of my pool?
Good video, but I have to state the obvious: It's called a "solar" cover for a reason. It does heat the pool by amplifying the sun's rays and retaining that heat in those little bubbles. Certainly, it also keeps the heat in overnight, and that may actually be the more effective aspect of it, but to say it doesn't actively heat the pool is ridiculous.
No one has mentioned the pink algae the Solar Covers create!? I had one and just hated the pink algae it created! So work to put it on, work to take it off and then scraping and vacuuming the pink algae? Why isn’t there a mention of the algae these covers create?? Service area Orleans??
Will the solar blanket be less effective when there's some water sitting on the solar blanket?
"My pool is too hot" I wish I had this person's problem
Can you use a combination of a solar cover blanket AND the liquid solar cover? Raise the temperature with the blanket, but then also reduce evaporation when using the liquid cover. The blanket works really well, but it can be a lot of work… Thanks for your time!
THESE DO NOT WORK IN CANADA
Blue vs clear cover? What is the difference?
Do you use a solar cover to heat your pool?