[kimba01]

Thanks everyone!!!!

[Buzz123]

Honestly, I wouldn't cover the pool as it is just a huge pain in the tush to take care of. We get rain in the winter and lots of wind blowing dirt around. Covers accumulate dirt, leaves, grass clippings, and flying debris like plastic bags and newspapers, and the rain and over spray from sprinklers turns it all to mud. And on the warm days the mosquitoes love that situation. It is 100 times harder to keep a pool cover clean than to just clean the pool. Actually, in winter I'd hire a pool service as you'll freeze your fingers off trying to clean one. But the covers are nasty things that don't stay on very well in our strong winds anyway. The ones on a spool that have fasteners to keep the edges tight are best, but even they are a pain. Besides, if a kid or a dog thinks it's something to walk on they'll drown and you won't even see them under neath. I still have nightmares of the time I was out in the middle of the night trying to use concrete blocks to hold down the edges of my pool cover in a wind storm. The wind took the blocks and hurled them into the pool, cracking the plaster, and it almost hurled me in too. Not to mention how I was freezing my buns off. Next day I retrieved the cover from my next door neighbor's back yard. Some people use propane to heat their pools. I had one in the early '90s with a 500 gal. (or however you measure it; maybe it was $500 to fill it) propane tank but didn't use it much except for the spa now and then. A lot of the new homes around here have natural gas bibs you can hook up to. Even if it is too expensive to keep it heated, it would be awfully handy on nights when the temp goes below 32º to turn it on enough to keep it from freezing. The only time we ever had freezing in the daytime, my pool froze solid, and so did the filter. It was pretty expensive to repair the damage. Pools are a hole in the ground that you pour money into, and twice a year something your friends get to swim in while you clean and clean and clean...and measure chemicals.

[AA702]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

Honestly, I wouldn't cover the pool as it is just a huge pain in the tush to take care of. We get rain in the winter and lots of wind blowing dirt around. Covers accumulate dirt, leaves, grass clippings, and flying debris like plastic bags and newspapers, and the rain and over spray from sprinklers turns it all to mud. And on the warm days the mosquitoes love that situation. It is 100 times harder to keep a pool cover clean than to just clean the pool. Actually, in winter I'd hire a pool service as you'll freeze your fingers off trying to clean one. But the covers are nasty things that don't stay on very well in our strong winds anyway. The ones on a spool that have fasteners to keep the edges tight are best, but even they are a pain. Besides, if a kid or a dog thinks it's something to walk on they'll drown and you won't even see them under neath. I still have nightmares of the time I was out in the middle of the night trying to use concrete blocks to hold down the edges of my pool cover in a wind storm. The wind took the blocks and hurled them into the pool, cracking the plaster, and it almost hurled me in too. Not to mention how I was freezing my buns off. Next day I retrieved the cover from my next door neighbor's back yard. Some people use propane to heat their pools. I had one in the early '90s with a 500 gal. (or however you measure it; maybe it was $500 to fill it) propane tank but didn't use it much except for the spa now and then. A lot of the new homes around here have natural gas bibs you can hook up to. Even if it is too expensive to keep it heated, it would be awfully handy on nights when the temp goes below 32º to turn it on enough to keep it from freezing. The only time we ever had freezing in the daytime, my pool froze solid, and so did the filter. It was pretty expensive to repair the damage. Pools are a hole in the ground that you pour money into, and twice a year something your friends get to swim in while you clean and clean and clean...and measure chemicals.

I use scuba gloves in the winter since the water is 40 or below, my hands do not last with just regular gloves. Its not fun.

[5kingsinvegas]

By the way Kimba, you can get a coupon from Las Vegas Valley Water District to help pay for that pool cover, it makes the cover practically free from what I can recall!

[BUGBULLY]

Originally Posted by 5kingsinvegas

By the way Kimba, you can get a coupon from Las Vegas Valley Water District to help pay for that pool cover, it makes the cover practically free from what I can recall!

It is either $50.00 off or 50% off, what ever is less. The cheapest I saw was at NRS (think that is the name). You can not use the coupons anywhere, they have a list of places where you can use it. Ask AAA702, he may be able to get them cheaper. I know that the filters he could.

[airics]

Actually we are going back and forth whether to spend the $2500 for the heater and gas line... i would think it would be nice just to have the heater when guests come around christmas...figure it takes 5hrs to heat the pool with 400k btu.. so about 20 bucks a day, would be worth it for a couple swims in december... Incidentally we did not go with Renaissance or BlueHaven (total scammers - measured wrong for one), i would have had a tiny pool for 25k (200sf). Ended up at 26k for almost 380sf, waterfalls, pots, pebbletec, led lighting, beach entry).....

[kimba01]

sounds nice, airics!

[AA702]

Heater normally runs about 8 bucks a hour to heat in the winter. The better heaters are the Pentair or Starite. A lot of people use their pools in the winter here!

[airics]

yep, looking at Pentair 400k btu heater.. all equipment is Pentair

[MediocreButArrogant]

I believe in closing a pool up tight for the winter so you do as little maintenance as possible. And after many years of opening a swamp (because all the debris on the winter cover ended up going into the pool by accident, I think I have a plan for this year. I will cover the pool with a solar cover, and then buy some of those air pillows that people who live in freezing areas buy for their pools. I'll float the pillows on the solar cover, and lay the winter cover on top of that, so that the middle is a few inches higher than the pool deck, and water will drain off the cover. Water bags have never worked that well for me only because the dog steps on them and punctures them. I will either use those plastic water troughs, or 4x4s with concrete blocks weighing them down to hold the winter cover down. Whatever you use, you have to put them end-to-end with no gaps, otherwise the wind can get underneath the winter cover and blow it off. In about nine months I'll know how well this plan turned out.