Pool Covers – Are they a good Investment? What are the Benefits of a Pool Cover
The decision to buy a swimming pool is taken with the idea of providing more opportunities to enjoy time at home spent swimming with family and friends. However, while a swimming pool can provide hours of entertainment over the swimming season, it also calls for continued maintenance and upkeep all year round. A pool cover can help reduce the maintenance and upkeep both in time and monetary outlay.
- A pool cover will save you loads of time from cleaning the pool
Pool covers are very effective at keeping leaves and rubbish from entering the pool, some more than others. Some types of covers are specifically designed for this purpose, such as
Leaf and Debris covers. These are a weave type of fabric and are made larger than the pool surface so as to overlap the pool coping around its circumference. Leaf and Debris Covers are fixed at regular intervals around the pool, and even though the fabric is porous, the weave is so fine that only the finest dust will enter the pool through the cover.
These can be put in place at the end of the swimming season and remain there over the colder months, constantly keeping the pool clean and saving the owner hours of cleaning time.
Solar Pool Covers by comparison are very much like thick bubble wrap and although they assist with keeping rubbish out of the pool. Their primary advantage is stopping evaporation and increasing water temperature,however, if they are cut so as to wrap up the coping wall and trimmed to meet the bull-nose coping (if there is one), they can also greatly contribute to keeping the pool clean as well. In both cases the amount of time saved in keeping the pool clean is significant.
It must be noted that an Automatic Pool Cleaner – Suction, Pressure or Robotic will work underneath any type of Pool Cover, in fact we thoroughly recommend using a pool cleaner underneath your pool cover. Your maintenance will practically be eliminated using both of these items. As a rule we recommend the
Zodiac Range of Robotic Cleaners. Which we would be happy to get you a price.
- A pool cover can extend the swimming season by warming up the pool.
Solar blanket pool covers are great at providing and preserving warmth in the swimming pool. Depending on how much sunshine the pool receives during the day, a solar blanket pool cover can increase the pool temperature by up to 8 degree Celsius. A good habit to have is to make sure the cover is on the pool each night so that it captures the warmth provided during the day. In fact, i would strongly recommend having the pool cover on the pool, whenever you are not swimming. Whilst the cover is laid on the water, it is stopping evaporation, reducing chemical loss, warming the pool and keeping out the dirt and debris.
- Pool covers are good for the environment
Solar pool covers can save up to 97% of the water evaporation loss. This then greatly reduces the need to top up the pool during the course of the year. This means that the pool owner is not drawing water from the city supply or harvested rain water stored in tanks to top up water lost through evaporation. A leaf and debris cover’s ability to reduce evaporation is less than that of a solar blanket but still significant. In both types the cover’s ability to stop or greatly reduce evaporation is a great help to the environment and preserving our natural water asset.
- Pool covers also save the owner money
While almost eliminating water evaporation, a pool cover also reduces the amount of chlorine required to keep the pool in balance. If there is an automatic salt water chlorinator in use the amount of time this has to run is also reduced. This is because a pool loses a large part of its chlorine through the action of evaporation. With the evaporation almost eliminated, the loss of chlorine is also greatly reduced and so the cost of replenishment is therefore reduced.
The cost savings extend to the replenishment of the water lost through evaporation which if replaced via the city supply, will come at a monetary cost.
A further cost saving is where a solar heating system (or our preferred measure of external heating an electric heat pump – we’ll explain why a heat pump is far superior to the old technology of strip matt solar pool heating) is employed, pool covers are often used to support the effort of the heating system. A pool cover’s heat retention ability usually means that the heating system does not have to run as long and so also saves power. This also is an environmental benefit as well.
Summary
The purchase of a swimming pool is a large monetary outlay for any home. The return on investment might be measured in the amount of enjoyment the pool provides compared with the amount of maintenance and upkeep the pool requires, measured in money and labour hours. A pool cover can greatly reduce the owner’s maintenance and upkeep commitment and for that reason, is a sound investment.
