winter safty covers(solid or mesh)?

[blue_steel]

I use a regular solid cover on our pool, but we have two friends who had the mesh safety cover. Both switched to a solid cover by their 2nd or 3rd season. They said they hated opening the pool and having it very dirty from the fine dirt and pollen that made it's way through the mesh cover.

[rbonin]

We use a mesh cover, but put a 10-mil black plastic "cover" underneath sitting on the water. A pump sits on the inner cover to keep water out. Best of both worlds.

~Rick~

[CarlD]

I use a mesh safety cover and have no problems. I never open to a green pool, always clear, and no more leaves get in than do in a solid cover. There is a lot of silt that accumulates on the bottom but that vacuums up easily.

My maintenance is checking the level of the water once a month and syphoning it off if it's high.

[rqbanerjee]

I use a mesh in the Boston suburbs. I may try the Mesh on top of solid this year.

Mesh Pros: Keeps leaves out, Keeps ice from forming on top.

We used to have to clean the solid cover at least 3 times during the winter - november, february, and april.

Mesh Cons: Lets TONS of dirt in. In the spring, the pool is filthy and green.

[MarkC]

I have a mesh cover. Only downside is I have to remove some water from excessive rainfall during the winter. I open early, close late so it's not green yet.

[DaveInPA]

Several people speak of draining water several times during the winter from their pools with mesh covers. If you are plugging the input to the pool and plugging the skimmer, why do you need to drain the water? Is it that it might otherwise overflow the pool?

[tenax]

i've read that too..given my water gets drained down about 2.5 ft against a 4ft shallow end, don't think i would ever run into the situation where my pool gets that full..unless the issue is more so getting so much water that the net doesn't sit properly on the water (need to pull it out further to take up some slack) we get pretty heavy snow on and off from january to march, but never that much. now, if i was still living in sask..that would be 3 months of solid snow..then again, i'd never have a pool in sask where it got to -85C with the wind chill the morning i flew to calgary for my job interview..that was great motivation to get the hell out of dodge!

[JohnT]

Several people speak of draining water several times during the winter from their pools with mesh covers. If you are plugging the input to the pool and plugging the skimmer, why do you need to drain the water? Is it that it might otherwise overflow the pool?

Mine would easily overflow if I didn't drain it. Also looks funny once water gets so high. The cover starts dipping into the water, then sags when it's wet. Dropping the water lets the cover stay flat.

[mbar]

This was my eighth opening with a mesh safety cover. It is still in great shape. I usually open to some dirt and leaves in the pool, but generally clear water. However, last season I opened to a swamp - didn't drain the water down so the cover sat in some water - we had a lot of hot days, so I had stringy gren algae . This year, I drained the water down, and opened yesterday to a very green dirty pool. We did have some warm days. Next year I am going to pull the cover back and put in some chlorine, or else open earlier. It is amazing how a swamp can go to a light green in 24 hours with mega doses of bleach I think when I need a new cover I will go with the solid with the drain, unless they come out with something better.