Pool Solar Heaters, Covers, and Blankets
In our northern climate, summers can be fairly cool at times. And wouldn't you know it? The first year we have a pool we have a summer that is nearly the coldest on record! But even so, our 15 ft above ground Intex metal frame pool is "swimmable" at temperatures of about 75 or higher. To help things along on days with cooler temperatures, we bought a clear solar pool blanket desiged to capture additional heat from the sun. I chose the clear cover as it will allow more sunlight in, and was recommended to me over a blue color. After searching around a bit, I found clear pool covers (like the one I bought) to run about $60-$90 ( shipping included). We got ours at poolcenter.com for about $59 (shipping included) and it included a 5 year guarantee. A photo of the cover we bought is shown below. These pool covers look almost like shipping bubble wrap, but they are more heavy duty (See http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4699727_bubble-wrap-heat-pool.html ). Also, it would cost a lot more than $59 to make a homemade solar pool heater - I checked!
I searched around quite a bit to find something less expensive, but the only thing I could find was a similar cover at ebay for about $10 less. This cover only seemed to offer a 2 year warranty along with what appeared to be an 8 year extended warranty. I thought we have an easier time getting a replacement with the poolcenter.com option if needed. There is a slightly less expenive solar cover available at Wal-mart, but it is blue, not clear.
UPDATE: We had this cover on during a sunny but fairly cool and windy day where the temp only topped out at barely 70 degrees. At about 5:30PM we took the cover off and took a swim (68 degrees out) and the water was nice -This solar heater cover works! Ironically, on cool clear dry days, the solar blanket heater works even better than on warmer days that are less clear - on dry days the sun can really heat things up. On another day it was down to 48 the night before and only got into the high 60's during the day (but it was clear and sunny), and by 5:30PM the water was nice!
Note: You should put the cover on with the bubbles down.
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