I guess the climate where you live affects how much of a benefit you'll get. The "swim season" in the northeast is so short that adding a few weeks in the spring and fall is a big plus.

Now that the weather has been consistently warm, I leave the solar blanket rolled up with the white cover over it until the nights start getting cool again. When the day temp is in the 70s but the night temp is only in the 50s, I think the cover makes a huge difference.

Actually the debris issue gives me an idea - make a solar cover with say a 10 ft wide fine mesh collector with one side tied to the solar cover and the other side has a float along the top so that all of the debris falls into it as you roll your cover off. If your reel is outside of the pool, then you dump the collector after the whole thing is rolled up.

Peter