Early adapters to safety covers are out there but it was not until the 2000's that the popularity of these covers exploded. These are brands, products and services hand selected by Steve for endorsement. The only real downside to an automatic pool cover is simply that it is a very expensive upgrade (for an average pool owner) and one that is really best when built directly into the design of the pool from the beginning. A single alteration to the cover is not the end of the world, but if you have multiple alterations needed on a custom cover with a waterfall, two sets of stairs and a slide that needs cut-outs then you will find that the price of your cover quickly starts to add up. In all of these cases you can customize the installation to accommodate for these alternate deck materials, but it will complicate the installation somewhat as well as substantially increase the hardware costs associated with your cover over and above the standard brass anchor inserts for concrete that are generally included as "standard" with a safety cover purchase. If you are searching for an answer to the question "what is the best pool cover?" We pride ourselves on our customer satisfaction. Shop Inground Winter Covers & Accessories.
When you remove the cover in the spring, prepping your pool for swim season will be a snap! In the world of pool safety covers there are quite a few material options that you will have to choose from. 
- Pool safety covers, despite how they sound, are not actually intended to be walked on. You could not have an article about which is the best pool cover without at least mentioning the Cadillac of pool covers - an automatic pool cover. We have thousands of items eligible for next day shipping! This means that any falling debris does not fall into the water where it stagnatesthe leaves simply sit on the pool cover until they dry up and blow away. If you have a permanent waterfall, water feature or raised wall of any kind in your pool then this also will increase the cost and installation difficulty of the cover system. There are some geographic areas where safety covers are not as popular as other cover systems however these areas are getting smaller and smaller. Often people do not consider that with a tarp cover you must also buy water bags which also suffer from being too cheaply manufactured. - Swimming Pool Steve, Copyright 2021 - All Rights Reserved - www.SwimmingPoolSteve.com, How to measure and install a pool safety cover, How to measure and install a vinyl pool liner, Common mistakes made when closing a pool for the winter, Video series discussing how to winterize each part of a pool. Combine this with the many color options you can choose from these days for your safety cover and you can drastically improve on the cosmetic value of your yard during the off season. 
My preferred method to deal with this is to take any standard screwdriver bit and simply turn it around backwards and put it in my cordless drillperfect fit. When winter weather sets in, your pool is subjected to damage from rain, snow, debris and even sun. Heavy duty mesh - Heavy duty mesh covers are substantially heavier in both weight and physical thickness than the light duty mesh covers. Choose a mesh winter cover for your inground pool if you are looking to minimize the amount of debris that enters the water while allowing rain and melting snow to pass through the cover, eliminating the need to pump water off of the top. Dohenys. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. The light duty mesh cover is a great choice to cover your pool and you would only really need to upgrade to the heavier mesh if you are very concerned about load bearing on the pool cover from snow weight or large animals that might frequent your property. They carry everything from chemicals to replacement pumps to entire pool kits, with free shipping options and more "in stock" items than any other Canadian online retailer. 
Doheny's is a registered trademark of Doheny Enterprises, Inc. All other registered trademarks belong to other owners and their appearance here does not indicate their approval or endorsement of Doheny's formerly at WaterWarehouse.com, our pool supply store is now online at Doheny.com., Free Next Day Delivery applies to qualified products only and varies by region. Most pools are not like this. The one that I installed in 1994 on our demo pool is still in use yearly, other than a repair that was made to two square segments after a tree fell onto the pool. If you do not have three feet of clear deck area around all sides of your pool then you will need to have alterations made to the cover to accommodate for this. www.PoolPartsToGo.com The reason for this is that the cover allows some sunlight through and during the warmer months (of the winter season) this can result in algae growth. In fact, if you choose, you can actually pull the plugs while the cover is still on the pool and start up your pool system a few days or a week before you officially open the pool and remove the cover. No system is perfect and pool safety covers have some negative aspects for sure. If you reside in the next day delivery area served by our Pleasant Prairie facility, order in-stock products and place your order by 3 PM Local Time you should receive your order the next day (except Saturday or Sunday). Most commonly the mesh and the strapping will have strong warranty protection against early failure. If you were to blast out each grommet with compressed air and apply a silicone lubricant every year then you would probably never have a problem with a stripped or broken grommet for the life of your cover. Income generated from these links helps to keep this pool and spa resource available for everyone. Next Day Delivery Service does not mean Next Day Air, but simply that your qualifying products will be shipped from the warehouse closest to you resulting in delivery the next day. The very best (and most expensive) pool cover that you can buy is a slat style pool cover but to the average pool owner looking for the "best" pool cover for the winter your best bet will be a mesh safety cover. The material that these covers are made from is not actually solid, but instead this refers to the fact that both water and sunlight will not pass through the cover. Affluent areas and new pool installations almost exclusively utilize a mesh (or solid) safety cover for covering the pool during the winter months. Sure the cost of the cover itself is not too much money, but you almost need to buy a new one every year or two as they rip from branches, animals and debris that falls into the pool. . By using this website you are agreeing to the terms and conditions. Seized, stripped, damaged or broken anchors - It is not uncommon to find older, lower quality or poorly maintained deck anchors that are no longer functional. A 20' x 40' pool would need close to 150' of water bags to cover properly (including overlap) which is going to cost you more than the cover itself. Automatic pool covers will cost you between $5000 to $15,000 depending on the size, shape and style of your pool. Dohenys Deluxe Leaf Net for 18x36 ft Rectangular Pools, Hi-Tech Micro Mesh Winter Cover for 16x24 ft Rectangular Pools, Dohenys Pro-Tek Winter Cover for 12x20 ft Rectangular Pools. Given that the cover is folded over on itself multiple times when in storage this amounts to big chew holes through half or more of the panels on the cover. For my money the light duty covers get the job done, cost the least, are the easiest to install and remove, stress out the hardware the least and all around serve the purpose they were built for. Were pool people and we want you to be happy with your purchase. Concrete is the standard pool deck material, followed by natural stone and tile as well as wood. We do have a shipping charge of only $9.99 for orders under $100.00. With a mesh cover your pool will already be full, if not overflowing, come the spring season. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. When built into a new pool design in total it could cost you upwards of $20,000 to $25,000 by the time you install the recessed cover pit and poured concrete slab cover stones to hide the pit. Not having these technical requirements is going to either cost you more money, or exclude you from the potential for installing a safety cover on your pool. If too many water bags develop a leak then your cover will end up blowing into the pool one windy day which will drag the cover into the pool and dump all the debris from the cover into the pool. How long do pool safety covers last? This can be a disaster for safety cover owners who were expecting decades of service life from their investment only to have it ruined by pests completely in a single season. - The answer to this question will depend entirely on your technical and construction skills and experience. This is a defining difference that actually changes quite a bit about how you will interact with the pool and how difficult it will be to put the cover on and take it off the pool. Cover inclusions - In an ideal world your pool would be perfectly rectangle, square or round and have wide open concrete in every direction within three feet of the pool edge. Installing a safety cover is not all that hard and professional installers can do two or three installations per day. Cosmetic value - The cosmetic value of a safety cover versus any other pool cover (other than a very expensive automatic pool cover) is a huge step up. The Pro-Tek Winter Cover is backed by an amazing 20 year warranty and can be purchased with or without bags. Tarp and water bag covers were the industry standard for many decades but safety covers (of both the mesh or solid variety) have been slowly taking over for some time now. Pool safety covers should easily last to, and beyond, the ten year mark. Depending on the type of deck you have and the shape of your pool you will need to be able to take long measurements within 1/4" accuracy as well as use a large concrete hammer drill for 3/4", 7/8" or 1" diameter holes that you need to drill into the pool deck. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. inground When you are ready to remove the leaf net, just fold it up and drag it away to dump all of the leaves and debris away from your swimming pool, leaving you with no mess. www.ClearComfort.com Learning to use the cover (tool) bar - If you work around swimming pools and safety covers you will develop a proficiency in dealing with the spring loaded anchors and straps that you connect the cover to the pool deck with. If you have large rips in your cover then you will need to do the same but if you have only a tiny hole you can now buy safety cover patches that you can simply stick on over the damaged area. Regardless of the reasoning, when talking about pool safety covers these questions seem to come up over and over again. The average household, at most, might have an easy out extractor with a reverse thread that you could try to see if you are able to pull out the anchor. Visit doheny.com for a full list. If you are on the fence about buying a new safety cover for your pool but are struggling to justify the costs associated with this type of cover then you will be happy to know there are actually a number of advantages of using this type of pool cover system. For the most part I consider solid covers to be overkill, and perhaps simply not a good idea if you live in an area with appreciable snow loading in the winter. We are a family owned business thats grown into Americas leading pool supply company by making customer satisfaction our #1 priority. All rights reserved. It can happen. Can I install a safety cover without hiring a professional? Our volume discounts guarantee the absolute lowest prices on all of our products: swimming pool supplies, chemicals, equipment and more. Primarily it will be either mesh, or solid material. These coarse thread brass screws and anchors can get filled with sand and debris, as well as develop an oxidized layer which can make working with them difficult. Damage from pests - By far the biggest problem I have encountered with pool safety covers in the field is the total destruction of covers from pests like mice, rats, and even ants! In order to keep this resource about pools and spas available for free to all readers I earn commissions for purchases made through links on this page. Even dragging your cover off your pool to the driveway to clean it is more likely to rip the cover than anything else. Whether you need a solid cover, a leaf net, or a mesh cover, we carry a range of sizes to fit any inground pool. When you factor in the longevity of these covers they are actually substantially less expensive than any other pool cover system. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. If you want to know more about how to measure and install a safety cover for any shape of pool you can read this article: How to install a pool safety cover Other forms of pool cover systems all lack the same feature which is the ability to restrict access to the body of water. If it is loose in the deck then you might be able to get it but if the friction fit is still strong then you will need to pry it out of the deck somehow which will usually cause at least a little bit of cosmetic damage in the process. Please note that these endorsements can include monetary compensation, affiliate links and referral fees to Swimming Pool Steve, however there is zero additional cost to you should you use one of these products or services. Automatic pool covers are the best, easiest to use and one of the safest ways to physically restrict access to the pool other than a fence around the pool. Because next day delivery is not guaranteed for standard service and residential deliveries are made only Monday through Saturday though Saturday delivery is not guaranteed, there is a chance that our product will not arrive the next day. I strongly endorse the use of Basecrete products to all concrete pool owners. Pool safety covers not only eliminate the dark, standing water, but when used effectively they also help to eliminate leaves and falling debris. When someone comes to your home to give you an estimate of how much your pool cover would cost it is these cover inclusions which they are looking for. Do I need to have a section added to the cover for my steps? (assuming it is installed correctly). If you have a grass or lawn area then you will find the lawn anchors are less heavy duty and made from aluminum instead of stainless steel however they are typically much longer than the stainless ones used for interlocking stone and tile. Doheny's is not responsible for inadvertent price or text misprints or errors. With shocking regularity pool covers will be made into mouse nests and in doing so the mice burrow to the center of the cover for maximum protection. This is an extreme example and more an indication of how long a cover could last. - Swimming Pool Steve In fact, not only do tarp covers lack the ability to restrict access to the poolthey are deviously designed to actually be extra dangerous to anyone or anything that falls in. Dohenys Deluxe Leaf Net is woven from super durable material and has a reinforced binding for extra strength. They can break and be sharp, or they can simply seize and become stuck in either the up or down position. reef tank pool Designed from super fine, ultra durable mesh and coated with a reflective silver compound, this cover will catch debris and quickly melt snow and ice. A safety cover completely eliminates this whole negative aspect of opening a pool. Inground Winter Pool Covers & Accessories. Turn a key and the pool is covered and locked out in less than 60 seconds. The concern is that the larger the grid spacing, the more likely the cover will sag instead of spanning flat across the pool like it should. With a tarp cover you will have to pump off the snow melt and rain that has developed on the cover over the winter. While we try our best, unexpected demand can cause products to occasionally be out of stock or create a warehouse backlog that also can prevent shipment the day of the order. When safety covers were first hitting the market this was pretty common for novice installers to do. Take care of your anchors as well as prevent pests from getting at your cover when in storage and you will likely double this time frame. Unfortunately repairing anchors like this is a little bit of a hassle with not a lot of great options for a pool owner looking to take care of this on their own. The other most common style of pool cover, a bead lock cover, will most likely not envelop you if you were to fall in but the water on top of the cover can still be a few feet deep with snow melt and rain. Free Next Day Delivery on 1,000's of items! The springs and hardware however is less covered by warranties and more likely to require service or repair. This is not simply a strength maneuverit is a precision movement coupled with a technical process. If you want to continue learning about pools and spas from an industry expert follow swimming pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Some pools have landscape planters or grass and garden area directly adjacent to the pool. What this means is how many straps, in total, will the cover be made with. Can you walk on a pool safety cover? gerdan covers inground
This makes for a substantially stronger and more secure cover, but also one that is substantially heavier and vastly more difficult to install and remove. Preferred listings, or those with featured website buttons, indicate YP advertisers who directly provide information about their businesses to help consumers make more informed buying decisions. With a mesh cover much of the weight passes through the cover as water where a solid cover will require periodic pumpoff to prevent the weight from on top of the cover to damage something when it becomes too much. If you do not have a deck around the pool then you will need to buy special hardware for installation based on what you do have around your pool. For example if you have slide legs that are near to the pool edge then these will need to be built into the cover design to allow for a secure and safe fit on your pool. This allows for drastically enhanced strength to prevent the anchors from displacing stones and breaking grout lines when under tension. Natural stone and tile decks should not use these smaller brass anchors as was learned back in the early days of safety cover installation where you would see this all the time. Shipping is free when you spend $100 or more. Search results are sorted by a combination of factors to give you a set of choices in response to your search criteria. There does exist an extraction tool designed for this purpose which operates somewhat like a gear puller but unless you can fashion one yourself out of hardware you may find the cost of buying one of these tools not worth the investment. Video series discussing how to winterize each part of a pool A leaf net cover is a simple solution for keeping debris out of your inground pool, helping to prevent staining and save you the time consuming task of scooping leaves and sticks by hand. There are some common questions that pool owners tend to ask about safety covers. Amazon Disclosure Statement - As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Only those items with a Next Day Delivery designation on the product page can be expected to arrive the next day and orders must be placed by 3 PM local time (exceptions include our Texas warehouse by 2:30 PM). There is a definitive learning curve to learning how exactly to use the installation and removal rod to maximum effect. This means that you simply remove the cover and plugs and start your pool up all on the same day.
My personal favorite is to store it in a strong storage bin that has a tight fitting lid to prevent rodents from getting at your cover. If you care for your pool and balance the chemicals before closing the pool for the season then most likely all you will have is some silt at the bottom of the pool along with perhaps some cloudy water. As soon as a squirrel with sharp nails walks over your water bag you are likely to develop a leak. Sure there is an automatic cover aftermarket where you can retrofit auto covers on existing pools, however this is not ideal as you will end up with both the track guides as well as the motor and roller assembly visible on the pool deck. Light duty mesh - Light duty mesh is the industry standard for pool safety covers and the vast majority of the ones installed on pools in your area will be this specific material. This water on top of the cover displaces water from within the pool which means that once you pump off the cover the pool water level will now be too low to start up the system.
The Deluxe Leaf Net from Dohenys is a durable, lightweight and easy to install answer to keeping leaves out of your pool or off of your solid cover during the winter months. This is the end of the line for commercially available pool covers. Every safety cover owner comments about how much better a safety cover looks when compared to a dark, swampy, mosquito filled isolation pool cover. If your pool is anything other than a straight walled pool then your cover will need to be custom measured and manufactured to fit your pool just like a pool liner. Installing a safety cover that does not cover the pool completely is a lousy way to save a few dollars. Raw chlorine is a commodity making chlorine tablets is an art form. For certain products, a freight charge may be applied.
For more information see the full disclaimer page. Add to this that the footing is very uncertain given the slippery material as well as the slope the cover will be on when you step out on it. A chlorine tablets hardness, density and solubility greatly affects the chlorine release rate and is dependent upon the heat and pressure used during tablet formation. A slatted pool cover can cost 50% to 100% more than a similar sized roller and lead bar style automatic pool cover. To put a complex technology simply, if you are looking for the best possible water care system for your pool or spa then you are looking for a Clear Comfort AOP system. Either your cover will allow water to pass through it, or it will not.