Pool Covers & Pool Care

Pool owners across the country agree that the number one pool product for peace of mind is a quality pool cover. A quality pool cover saves work, money and energy.

The primary function of any pool cover is to keep things out of the pool. These unwanted entries can include everything from dirt and debris to pets and people. There are two basic types of pool covers. First is the everyday, in-season cover that is deployed and retracted frequently. The second type is the winter or off-season cover that is stretched tight and remains in place until the pool is uncovered at the beginning of the next swim season.

Automatic Pool Covers

The selection of pool covers available today is vast. If convenience, work, savings, free time to enjoy your family, are high priorities, then an automatic pool cover should be high on your list.

Basically, an automatic pool cover consists of a reinforced fabric that runs inside a track on opposite sides of the pool. An all-fluid hydraulic drive motor opens and closes the cover with a simple turn of the key. Automatic covers can be installed to fit a variety of pool shapes.

Automatic cover manufacturers boast water, chemical, electrical and heat savings. These covers also have the ability to prevent unwanted entry into the pool—whether purposeful or accidental. The auto cover will keep your pool free from leaves and wind-blown debris. In a heated pool, an automatic cover helps raise the water’s temperature quicker and then conserves the warmth

Ninety-eight percent of the time, customers buy an automatic pool cover for the safety it provides. They know that because it’s automatic and eliminates the labor of unrolling and rolling by hand, they’ll use it regularly. It’s only later that they realize that their chemical use is reduced, their pool heater runs less and they don’t spend much time cleaning the pool. When you add up the savings, these covers actually pay for themselves in a relatively short time. The information comes straight from the US department of energy.”*

More than a safety feature, automatic covers help reduce chemical usage, conserve pool water, heat and help keep the pool clean.

In many parts of the country, cold weather follows the swimming season. Safety covers provide a good answer to many of winterization’s most crucial questions:

  • How do I keep debris out of my pool?
  • How do I protect the pool from the ravages of winter exposure?
  • How can I feel better about safety around the pool during winter when we are not watching it?
  • How do I minimize trouble and expense of opening the pool and maximize my investment in outdoor recreation?

Using a pool cover that has been designed as a “safety cover” and meets the demands of ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards can answer all of these concerns. They are developed to help eliminate the days of labor associated with springtime pool openings. A cover makes it so leaves, twigs and other debris cannot enter the pool. They are either blown off by the wind or swept away by the pool owner. With proper winter chemical maintenance, springtime pool openings are quick and painless.

Automatic Pool Cleaners

Automatic pool cleaners today range from the high-tech robotic type to the low-tech teenage son type. If you want to avoid the whining and the work, there’s only one choice: an automatic pool cleaner. Automatic pool cleaners come in many variations but they all have one thing in common. You hook them up to a power source and walk away. The cleaner does all the work.

Whether powered by electricity or attached to the pool’s pump or filter, automatic cleaners propel themselves along the bottom and walls of the pool and are tireless workers. Some patrol the surfaces of the pool and sweep or vacuum it clean of dirt, leaves, twigs, sand and hair. How often or how long to run an automatic pool cleaner is entirely up to you.

Manufacturers do provide a suggested frequency and duration for different sizes and shapes of pools. These recommendations are a good place to start. After you become familiar with the operation of your chosen model, you can increase or decrease cleaning times depending on the results you get.

Having an automatic pool cleaner do the work goes a long way in reducing pool maintenance and also gives you more time to swim, relax, play, exercise or just plain enjoy your pool.

 Chlorine Generators

With any pool, water quality is of paramount importance. Achieving and maintaining the perfect level of purity is exactly what you can look forward to with an electronic chlorine generator.

A chlorine generator automatically converts common table salt into pure chlorine. Since the salt doesn’t wear out or evaporate, it is used over and over again.

The swimming pool is adjusted to handle one teaspoon of salt per gallon of water. The water is then circulated through the pool filter and the electronic chlorine generation system (where the chlorine is actually produced). After this, purified water is automatically circulated back into the pool. Once the pool water is purified, the chlorine converts back to salt and the process begins again. An automatic chlorine generation system makes and adds chlorine whenever your filter and pump are running, so the worry of running out of chlorine is a thing of the past.

Owners of electronic chlorine generators point to crystal clear water like they’ve never seen before. Algae and bacteria disappear leaving an unmistakably smooth, soft, silky feel to the water. All the negatives normally associated with chlorine, like dry skin and red eyes, are eliminated.