What is the best pool cover?
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If you are searching for an answer to the question "what is the best pool cover?" then you are in luck...the answer is easy - pool safety covers are undoubtedly the best way to cover your swimming pool. Tarp and water bag covers were the industry standard for many decades but safety covers (of both the mesh or solid variety) have been slowly taking over for some time now.
The earliest generation of safety covers as we know them today came in 1957 from Fred J. Meyer, Jr. however the transition from tarp cover systems to mesh safety covers is something that caught on slowly. When I installed a 20' x 40' mesh safety cover on my family pool in 1994 we were still one of the only houses in our area to have one. Early adapters to safety covers are out there but it was not until the 2000's that the popularity of these covers exploded. Now pool safety covers are the most popular winter cover system in use on inground pools and most likely will one day be the only cover system used. Seldom is a product so superior to previous options that it takes over and dominates the market - and that is precisely what has happened with safety covers.
There are some geographic areas where safety covers are not as popular as other cover systems however these areas are getting smaller and smaller. Affluent areas and new pool installations almost exclusively utilize a mesh (or solid) safety cover for covering the pool during the winter months.
Are Pool Safety Covers Good?
If you are on the fence about buying a new safety cover for your pool but are struggling to justify the costs associated with this type of cover then you will be happy to know there are actually a number of advantages of using this type of pool cover system. It is with good reason that safety covers have become so popular and they go above and beyond simply covering your pool.
Enhanced safety - The first and most obvious advantage to a safety cover is, obviously, safety. Other forms of pool cover systems all lack the same feature which is the ability to restrict access to the body of water. In fact, not only do tarp covers lack the ability to restrict access to the pool...they are deviously designed to actually be extra dangerous to anyone or anything that falls in. Any person who has fallen onto a tarp pool cover (or foolishly tried to walk across) quickly learned that the tarp instantly envelops you as you are dragged below the surface of the water. The other most common style of pool cover, a bead lock cover, will most likely not envelop you if you were to fall in but the water on top of the cover can still be a few feet deep with snow melt and rain. A pool safety cover, either mesh or solid material, physically limits the access to the water itself. No system is 100% bullet proof and "safe" for unsupervised children to be around but there is most certainly an increased security in having a safety cover versus any other of pool cover system.
Long term savings - Anyone who owns a tarp cover for their pool knows how cheap (and thin) these covers are manufactured these days. Sure the cost of the cover itself is not too much money, but you almost need to buy a new one every year or two as they rip from branches, animals and debris that falls into the pool. Even dragging your cover off your pool to the driveway to clean it is more likely to rip the cover than anything else. Often people do not consider that with a tarp cover you must also buy water bags which also suffer from being too cheaply manufactured. As soon as a squirrel with sharp nails walks over your water bag you are likely to develop a leak. A 20' x 40' pool would need close to 150' of water bags to cover properly (including overlap) which is going to cost you more than the cover itself. Every year you will need to buy a few more to replace the ones that develop leaks over the season. If too many water bags develop a leak then your cover will end up blowing into the pool one windy day which will drag the cover into the pool and dump all the debris from the cover into the pool. With a pool safety cover you will certainly save over the long term. Pool safety covers (in general) are built to last and made from very durable materials. Barring any specific damage from insects or environmental factors you can get 10 to 20 years or more out of your safety cover. The one that I installed in 1994 on our demo pool is still in use yearly, other than a repair that was made to two square segments after a tree fell onto the pool. If you maintain these covers well, and buy from a reputable manufacturer of safety covers, then you can also get many, many years of trouble free service. When you factor in the longevity of these covers they are actually substantially less expensive than any other pool cover system.
Cosmetic value - The cosmetic value of a safety cover versus any other pool cover (other than a very expensive automatic pool cover) is a huge step up. Every safety cover owner comments about how much better a safety cover looks when compared to a dark, swampy, mosquito filled isolation pool cover. Pool safety covers not only eliminate the dark, standing water, but when used effectively they also help to eliminate leaves and falling debris. When the safety cover is installed and drawn taut across the pool it is lifted above the pool water level. This means that any falling debris does not fall into the water where it stagnates...the leaves simply sit on the pool cover until they dry up and blow away. Combine this with the many color options you can choose from these days for your safety cover and you can drastically improve on the cosmetic value of your yard during the off season.
Easier openings - The worst part of opening your pool is simply to scooping of endless leaf sludge. A safety cover completely eliminates this whole negative aspect of opening a pool. With a mesh cover your pool will already be full, if not overflowing, come the spring season. This means that you simply remove the cover and plugs and start your pool up all on the same day. In fact, if you choose, you can actually pull the plugs while the cover is still on the pool and start up your pool system a few days or a week before you officially open the pool and remove the cover. With a tarp cover you will have to pump off the snow melt and rain that has developed on the cover over the winter. This water on top of the cover displaces water from within the pool which means that once you pump off the cover the pool water level will now be too low to start up the system. With water conservation becoming a greater concern being able to start your pool without filling it manually is a significant improvement. A safety cover is secured to the pool deck using brass hardware instead of water bags so the entire opening process is less messy, less wet, and takes way less time that draining and cleaning 150' of water bags and a gigantic tarp cover.
Serviceable parts - Even if you have a problem with your safety cover most of the parts and pieces, including the cover, can be serviced or repaired. This is important since the only real disadvantage of a safety cover is the purchase price. Most commonly the mesh and the strapping will have strong warranty protection against early failure. The springs and hardware however is less covered by warranties and more likely to require service or repair. Older safety covers tend to develop problems with the brass and stainless steel anchors that are installed into the deck surrounding the pool. These coarse thread brass screws and anchors can get filled with sand and debris, as well as develop an oxidized layer which can make working with them difficult. If you were to blast out each grommet with compressed air and apply a silicone lubricant
As you can see the reasons for getting a safety cover are convincing to say the least. It may have taken a few decades from inception to mainstream acceptance, but it is clear that safety covers are simply a superior product within a market of limited competition. Combine this with the safety-minded nature of our modern day culture and pool safety covers emerge as the decisive winner of the race...at least until the next greatest thing is invented, or the cost of automatic pool covers comes down substantially.
What Are The Negative Aspects Of Pool Safety Covers
No system is perfect and pool safety covers have some negative aspects for sure. One of the first things that you will learn when shopping for a safety cover for your pool is that not every pool is a great candidate to have one. There are a handful of technical requirements that you need to have. Not having these technical requirements is going to either cost you more money, or exclude you from the potential for installing a safety cover on your pool.
Deck around the pool - Since a safety cover is installed into the deck surrounding your pool you will, you know, need a deck surrounding your pool! If you do not have a deck around the pool then you will need to buy special hardware for installation based on what you do have around your pool. Concrete is the standard pool deck material, followed by natural stone and tile as well as wood. Some pools have landscape planters or grass and garden area directly adjacent to the pool. In all of these cases you can customize the installation to accommodate for these alternate deck materials, but it will complicate the installation somewhat as well as substantially increase the hardware costs associated with your cover over and above the standard brass anchor
Cover inclusions - In an ideal world your pool would be perfectly rectangle, square or round and have wide open concrete in every direction within three feet of the pool edge. Most pools are not like this. Every alteration that needs to happen to the cover will make it cost more than a standard rectangle cover. If your pool has a set of steps that also need to be covered then these will cost extra and need to be measured carefully. If your pool is anything other than a straight walled pool then your cover will need to be custom measured and manufactured to fit your pool just like a pool liner. This substantially increases the cost of a safety cover versus a generic off the shelf shape like a rectangle. If you do not have three feet of clear deck area around all sides of your pool then you will need to have alterations made to the cover to accommodate for this. For example if you have slide legs that are near to the pool edge then these will need to be built into the cover design to allow for a secure and safe fit on your pool. If you have a permanent waterfall, water feature or raised wall of any kind in your pool then this also will increase the cost and installation difficulty of the cover system. When someone comes to your home to give you an estimate of how much your pool cover would cost it is these cover inclusions which they are looking for. A single alteration to the cover is not the end of the world, but if you have multiple alterations needed on a custom cover with a waterfall, two sets of stairs and a slide that needs cut-outs then you will find that the price of your cover quickly starts to add up. Even more so when you consider the increased hardware costs that certain decking materials require.
Damage from pests - By far the biggest problem I have encountered with pool safety covers in the field is the total destruction of covers from pests like mice, rats, and even ants! If you do not store your safety cover properly when the pool is being used then you could find yourself in a bad situation come the fall season. With shocking regularity pool covers will be made into mouse nests and in doing so the mice burrow to the center of the cover for maximum protection. Given that the cover is folded over on itself multiple times when in storage this amounts to big chew holes through half or more of the panels on the cover. This can be a disaster for safety cover owners who were expecting decades of service life from their investment only to have it ruined by pests completely in a single season. Storing your cover in a safe and pest free space during the summer is a very smart decision. If you simply have no good place to keep it other than the pool shed then it is recommended that you hang the cover in the bag it came in elevated off of the ground. My personal favorite is to store it in a strong storage bin
Learning to use the cover (tool) bar - If you work around swimming pools and safety covers you will develop a proficiency in dealing with the spring loaded anchors and straps that you connect the cover to the pool deck with. To the average pool owner this must look like wizardry. There is a definitive learning curve to learning how exactly to use the installation and removal rod
Seized, stripped, damaged or broken anchors - It is not uncommon to find older, lower quality or poorly maintained deck anchors that are no longer functional. They can break and be sharp, or they can simply seize and become stuck in either the up or down position. Unfortunately repairing anchors like this is a little bit of a hassle with not a lot of great options for a pool owner looking to take care of this on their own. The average household, at most, might have an easy out extractor
Screwing the anchors - The only real pain in the butt with pool safety covers would have to be the aching back you will have after winding all the anchors up or down using the hex key
There are some things can potentially go wrong with your safety cover that can require repairs or replacement parts however these would be few and far between when compared to tarp pool cover systems. If you buy a safety cover for your pool, unless you beat the odds, chances are you will get many years of faithful service from your investment...just keep the mice away from it!
Comparing Safety Covers VS. Other Pool Covers
Having a safety cover is different than other pool cover systems. Most notably, as pool owners are made aware, the schedule for opening and closing your pool yearly should likely change a little bit. With a safety cover ideally you want to close your pool as late into the year as possible as well as open as early in the spring as possible. The reason for this is that the cover allows some sunlight through and during the warmer months (of the winter season) this can result in algae growth. It is not entirely uncommon to open a pool with a safety cover to find impossibly bright green water. It can happen. If you care for your pool and balance the chemicals before closing the pool for the season then most likely all you will have is some silt at the bottom of the pool along with perhaps some cloudy water. Having a safety cover does not guarantee that your pool will be green in the spring but it does increase the potential for this versus a traditional isolation cover that segregates the water dirty water on top of the cover from the clean and chemically treated water in your pool.
Safety covers are generally much cleaner than tarp covers that hold stagnant water for months at a time. Since most of the debris dries up and blows away with a safety cover you will find that there is just not all that much to clean on your cover come spring time. Most pool owners with safety covers do not even wash the cover instead simply hosing it off which on the pool is usually enough to keep it clean and ready for use again at the end of the season. The material that the cover is made from is both very durable as well as being very resistant to staining.
Mesh Safety Covers VS. Solid Safety Covers
In the world of pool safety covers there are quite a few material options that you will have to choose from. Primarily it will be either mesh, or solid material. Either your cover will allow water to pass through it, or it will not. This is a defining difference that actually changes quite a bit about how you will interact with the pool and how difficult it will be to put the cover on and take it off the pool.
Light duty mesh - Light duty mesh is the industry standard for pool safety covers and the vast majority of the ones installed on pools in your area will be this specific material. Some manufacturers provide thickness of the material, where others specify the amount of light that they allow to pass through. Ultimately you will likely be presented with either light duty or heavy duty mesh as your two options. I have no problem endorsing the light duty (and more cost effective) safety covers as they work exceedingly well and the light weight material makes the installation and removal of the cover an absolute breeze.
Heavy duty mesh - Heavy duty mesh covers are substantially heavier in both weight and physical thickness than the light duty mesh covers. These heavy duty mesh covers block more sunlight from reaching your pool than the light duty mesh covers which will help to limit the potential for sunlight to stimulate algae growth during the warmer months of the off-season. The light duty mesh cover is a great choice to cover your pool and you would only really need to upgrade to the heavier mesh if you are very concerned about load bearing on the pool cover from snow weight or large animals that might frequent your property.
Solid safety covers - At the top end of the (non-automatic) pool safety cover market you have solid covers. The material that these covers are made from is not actually solid, but instead this refers to the fact that both water and sunlight will not pass through the cover. This makes for a substantially stronger and more secure cover, but also one that is substantially heavier and vastly more difficult to install and remove. For the most part I consider solid covers to be overkill, and perhaps simply not a good idea if you live in an area with appreciable snow loading in the winter. I have seen many solid covers over the years with damaged hardware and stretched out springs due to the immense load these covers take. With a mesh cover much of the weight passes through the cover as water where a solid cover will require periodic pumpoff to prevent the weight from on top of the cover to damage something when it becomes too much.
For my money the light duty covers get the job done, cost the least, are the easiest to install and remove, stress out the hardware the least and all around serve the purpose they were built for. You can upgrade if you see value in a thicker mesh or solid cover but if you want to buy the entry level mesh cover then you can be confident that it will work well, as advertised, on your pool. (assuming it is installed correctly)
Common Questions About Pool Safety Covers
There are some common questions that pool owners tend to ask about safety covers. This is probably due largely to misinformation or under informed salesmen trying to sell more pool covers to ill-informed pool owners. Regardless of the reasoning, when talking about pool safety covers these questions seem to come up over and over again.
Can you walk on a pool safety cover? - Pool safety covers, despite how they sound, are not actually intended to be walked on. As many pool owners have discovered, if you try to walk on a safety cover it will bow under your weight and you will end up wet to the knees or more if your try to walk fully across. Add to this that the footing is very uncertain given the slippery material as well as the slope the cover will be on when you step out on it. Walking on a pool safety cover is not advised, and it can cause damage to your pool. When they get used like a trampoline by neighborhood kids then this usually results in some of the stainless springs stretching out. Heavy snow load can also cause the same problem with the spring hardware.
Can I use a rectangle shaped cover on my non-rectangular pool? - No you should not do this. An off the shelf rectangle pool cover for super cheap sounds like a good idea however the cover material will fail early from dragging across the deck. Manufacturers of safety covers warn strongly about not doing this specific thing so avoid using an oversized cover and instead have one made that fits your pool perfectly.
Do I need to have a section added to the cover for my steps? - If you have pool steps on your pool then these need to be included with the plan and measurements for your cover. Installing a safety cover that does not cover the pool completely is a lousy way to save a few dollars. Do you want a safety cover or a mostly safe cover on your pool? I suppose you could span the steps with a strong plywood board, as I have encountered this in the field many times, but the cover is no longer safe and the warranty may not be supported by the manufacturer.
Can I install a safety cover without hiring a professional? - The answer to this question will depend entirely on your technical and construction skills and experience. Depending on the type of deck you have and the shape of your pool you will need to be able to take long measurements within 1/4" accuracy as well as use a large concrete hammer drill for 3/4", 7/8" or 1" diameter holes that you need to drill into the pool deck. Installing a safety cover is not all that hard and professional installers can do two or three installations per day. If you want to know more about how to measure and install a safety cover for any shape of pool you can read this article: How to install a pool safety cover
Can I use standard brass anchors on an interlock stone deck? - Do yourself a huge favor and do not do this. When safety covers were first hitting the market this was pretty common for novice installers to do. At the time the better hardware for interlock and grass installations were not as readily available. Now the only reason you would attempt to do this would be to save money...or attempt to save money. There is a reason why interlock installation stakes exist and you should spend the extra money for the upgraded hardware if this is the pool deck material that you have.
How long do pool safety covers last? The one on our demo pool is at least 24 years old as of this year and most certainly still has a few more years left in it. This is an extreme example and more an indication of how long a cover could last. Pool safety covers should easily last to, and beyond, the ten year mark. Take care of your anchors as well as prevent pests from getting at your cover when in storage and you will likely double this time frame.
What size grid pattern do I need for my safety cover? - Most manufacturers will offer two different grid spacing sizes which are usually three foot or five foot grids. What this means is how many straps, in total, will the cover be made with. Certain simple shape pools, like a rectangle for example, can get away with less straps overall and still perform well. This allows for some basic shaped pool covers to be made for less money and sell for cheaper. The concern is that the larger the grid spacing, the more likely the cover will sag instead of spanning flat across the pool like it should. A three foot grid will cost more, but I consider this to be a good investment towards longevity versus how much extra it costs.
Automatic Pool Covers
You could not have an article about which is the best pool cover without at least mentioning the Cadillac of pool covers - an automatic pool cover. Automatic pool covers are the best, easiest to use and one of the safest ways to physically restrict access to the pool other than a fence around the pool. The only real downside to an automatic pool cover is simply that it is a very expensive upgrade (for an average pool owner) and one that is really best when built directly into the design of the pool from the beginning. Sure there is an automatic cover aftermarket where you can retrofit auto covers on existing pools, however this is not ideal as you will end up with both the track guides as well as the motor and roller assembly visible on the pool deck. When designed into the pool with a recessed cover roller pit, and with the track guides mounted on the underside of a cantilever coping, you basically do not even see the cover until it is on the pool.
Automatic pool covers will cost you between $5000 to $15,000 depending on the size, shape and style of your pool. When built into a new pool design in total it could cost you upwards of $20,000 to $25,000 by the time you install the recessed cover pit and poured concrete slab cover stones to hide the pit. This is, of course, a lot of money however there are many $100,000 to $200,000 pools that get installed these days and when compared to a large construction budget such as that the automatic safety cover is a drop in the bucket...especially when you consider how quickly, easily and efficiently they work. Turn a key and the pool is covered and locked out in less than 60 seconds. If you have a freeform shaped pool, or pretty much anything other than a rectangle, then your only option for an automatic pool cover might be with a folding style (slatted) cover which is much more able to accommodate unconventional or asymmetrical pool shapes. A slatted pool cover can cost 50% to 100% more than a similar sized roller and lead bar style automatic pool cover. This is the end of the line for commercially available pool covers. The very best (and most expensive) pool cover that you can buy is a slat style pool cover but to the average pool owner looking for the "best" pool cover for the winter your best bet will be a mesh safety cover.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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