Our pool is a funky shape as well, I avoided getting a cover last year but it's just tearing me up that we're getting temps in the 80's this week but the water is too darned cold to swim :-) I've read many reports about solar covers here and over on TFP and pretty much everyone agrees that they do work even though they are a bit of a hassle. Reports are that the clear ones work better than blue or silver at warming the water (increases of 5+ degrees are typically reported) and all work equally well at retaining the heat at night (the biggest temperature losses are at night when the air is cool and the water is evaporating, so just about any type of cover will prevent that evaporation/ cooling process from happening).

The cover doesn't have to fit exactly, but it won't be as effective if any areas are uncovered. With a freeform pool you buy a rectangular cover, set it over the pool for a couple of days to let it "relax", then trim it to shape with scissors.

I just ordered a cover earlier today (from www.solarcovers.com as suggested by a few people here), so in a few weeks I'll be able to report on how well it's working for us. If I can get the pool into the low 70's (currently 66) I'll be swimming versus staring, haha!

Solar cover or bubble covers work very well - the more sun exposure the better. They are very good at preventing heat and evaporation loss during the evening. Buy a cover that extends over your irregular pool and cut/trim the cover for an exact fit. They are a HUGE pain to remove even with a roll up reel. Someone should invent a motorized version for EZ on/off but so far the attempts have failed.

Yes, they work. We also have a free form shaped pool. Just do what tresw mentioned above. Also, we cut ours into 4 sections, so it's a lot easier putting in/taking out of the pool.

Thanks for the great info. What's the difference between the bubbles and diamond shape? The Solar Cover website seems to say the Diamond is better, but doesn't last as long.

Just a follow-up .... I've used solar covers for over 20 years. The length of service depends on the thickness. I've had blue, silver, green and even "aluminum threaded" covers. They all heat the same and last 2-3 years if kept out of the sun when off the pool. Prices vary dramatically. Search the Internet for the thickness you desire and you can find the best deals which can include free shipping.

"The Solar Cover website seems to say the Diamond is better, but doesn't last as long."

Well, the logic is that the diamond shape has less flat area between the bubbles resulting in more "air cushion" area and therefore better insulation. While this is technically true, I doubt there's much of a real-life performance difference between the diamond pattern and round bubble pattern. But I'm no expert on covers :-)

Longevity is better on the 16 mil versus 12 mil covers. But, the extra thickness also means extra weight which means more of a struggle getting it on and off the pool. It may not be a big deal if you're planning on using a roller or if a burly dude is the only one that will be handling the cover. As burly as I personally am, my wife is a wuss so I went with the 12 mil. Don't tell her I said that, she'll beat me up 8^D

I bought a clear bubble 16ml cover last year from solarcovers.com and loved it. Search the posts for a discussion on them. I have a 16 year old pool and have used at least 5 of them, all blue, one was silver. This clear one heats the water much faster. It is heavier than any I have had, but I use a roller with an irregular shaped pool, it is just a bit heavier for me to roll, not at all too difficult for my 100 pound body with the roller. We just drained the pool today and it is refilling, running 60 degrees water temp. I will post a weather report and water temp this week so you can see how it heats with no auxillary heater, I'm in Vegas. This is by far the best cover we ever had so far, its only a year old and looks to be in good shape after a winter outside, covered with a white plastic sheet we purchased separately. Stand by for a temp report this week. Hope this helps, Barb

I bought the 12 mil diamond pattern from solarcovers.com back in the end of February. Went with the 12 mil due to weight and what I read, they all break down eventually so why fight the added weight for a little more longevity.

Like others have said, the night time heat retention is a huge plus. Last year was my first year of the pool and I tried a couple of times to use the heater, but found any small gains from my electric heat pump were thrown away with 50-60 degree night temps. My pool was at 72 the other day with the solar cover and low 70 outside temps. Kicked the heater on for 6 hours each of the past few days and it is now at 80 and holding well with the cover. Also starting to get in the 80's and full sun, so that helps.

Pulling it on and off is a pain, but worth it to be swimming in April. I also pulled it a few times to give it a hose down as the pollen was pretty brutal this year.

Our cover should arrive Tuesday, I wish it was here already! Our water jumped from 66 up to 74 thanks to a warm snap. Swam for the first time Wednesday and again yesterday, but dang that 74 degree water feels coooold! If the cover can raise it 4 or 5 degrees I think it'll be a lot more comfy.

A temperature report with the 16 ml clear bubble cover. Pool temp was 60 degrees on Sunday when we put the cover on in late afternoon. This week has been sunny in Vegas, but not hot. Air temp running low 70's on Mon to low 80's today, Wed, nights high 50's. Pool gets 1/2 sun in the morning, full sun for 6 hours, then full shade in late afternoons. The water temp late today is 72 degrees, so 12 degrees in 3 full days is my increase. YEA! For the scientists my control is the thermometer is at 12 inch depth against a wall that stays in full shade constantly. For us wimps who like 85 degree water, this Saturday is looking promising. Love this cover, hope this helps, Barb

Wow Barb, I hope ours works that well! It's been on since Tuesday, but it's been cloudy and rainy every day since then. I'm logging the high/ low air temps and water temps each day so I can report my results after a few weeks. It's definitely holding the temps at night, but not picking much up during the day thanks to the weather. I'm still swimming, but with the water at 74 I start cramping up after just a few laps.

Saturday morning update - water temp is only 74 degrees, but that is 14 degrees in 6 1/2 days. Blanket removed one day for a few hours to clean it. Air temp has been running low 80's during the day, high 50's at night. Not much sun Thursday or Friday, light clouds. Huge wind storms Tuesday night and last night, 30+mph last night all night. Water loss has been less than an inch as well for the week. Normally with a windstorm and no cover we lose at least an inch per night. No swimming today at 74, brrrr but its better than 60. I figure the water we are saving at least part way pays for the cover as well. And we don't have to add cold water to the pool to refill it ! Win - win ! I'm ready for 100 degree days, supposed to get in the 90's this week. Will report again in a few days. Happy swimming, Barb

Monday water temperature report is 80 degrees.We put the cover on late last Sunday, my weather reports are above. Yesterday and today were warm,85 but not full sun,lots of high cumulus clouds. And we got another dang windstorm last night, not as windy as the night before. Water loss has been minimal for the week, less than an inch. So to get 20 degrees of water temp increase just reinforces my love of this solar cover. It is the Ultra Clear with the round bubbles, 16 ml. Should be swimming in a few days, we like the water 84 and air warmer than it has been so far. Due for 90 degree weather this week, finally. Hope this helps those looking into a solar bubble cover, well worth the price and effort.Barb

Totally agree - I'm in Florida and our pool is inside of a screen enclosure - so the sun we get is always "filtered" by the screen, not to mention the oaks all around the yard. Yesterday I checked and the pool was 86 - I'd bet it would be upper 70's without it.

Nobody hates the cover more than I -it's an eyesore and I hate using it. That said, it buys us about six weeks of usability in the fall and spring. And honestly, I feel like a baby complaining, because uncovering is a one person job that takes about 3 minutes; and covering is a 2 person job that takes about 5, or a one person job that takes less than 10. It's just that we frequently leave the pool uncovered because we think someone will be going back in, so it becomes an afterthought. As I'm getting ready to go to bed, I think "damn, I still need to cover the pool"...

Be sure to get a good reel or "solar-roller" or something to make covering/uncovering easier.

JM- We definitely need to get a roller, I think I'll do like you did and get a solar roller since our pool is an odd shape.

Barb- thanks for the data! This will be a good thread to send people to in the future when they're looking for hard data on cover performance.

Wouldn't you know it, ever since installing our cover it's been rainy, cloudy and cold!! We literally have not had sun for the entire week it's been on the pool. We had hurricane force winds blast through a couple of days ago, it's the same storm that destroyed the Dallas Cowboys practice facility if you heard about that on the news. That storm blew the cover to one side of the pool, no biggie considering there were trees and fences down all over the neighborhood! I'm impressed at how well it's retained the water temp's despite the ugly weather. Here are the temps for the last 7 days for reference- daily high and low temps, average of those, then the water temp:

High air/ low air/ ave air/ water

78/ 56/ 67/ 71
76/ 63/ 69.5/ 71
84/ 61/ 72.5/ 75
80/ 70/ 75/ 73
73/ 63/ 68/ 76
62/ 55/ 58.5/ 72
64/ 55/ 59.5/ 74

So despite some cool weather and a lot of rain (over 5" a couple of days ago!) the cover has been keeping the water in the 70's. That's impressive when you look at the last two days, the water is a full 10 degrees warmer than the high air temp for the day! The down side is water in the low 70's is still too cold for me. However, warmer weather is on the way and I'm optimistic the cover is going to work its magic :-) We're supposed to get sunny days with temps in the mid to upper 80's for the rest of the week. I'll report back in a few days!

PS- the water temp's are no warmer than what it was without the cover, but we had been getting warmer temps and a lot of sun before the last week. I'd estimate the water would be in the 65-68 range if we hadn't been using the cover in the last week.

We do have a roller and an odd shaped pool. We keep the roller at the deep end, the shallow end is bumped out on 2 sides so we do have to drag the cover over the deck at the wider points when we roll it up. I can roll and unroll myself, the pool is about 17 x 30 + and takes maybe 2 minutes. The roller is old, but still works and another good purchase. I highly recommend one. If the cover is dirty, I partially roll the cover and hose it off into a planter area, not into the pool. Its a learned technique : ) but another plus in the scheme of things. My DH stands it up in an out of the way area for parties, otherwise we just leave it by the deep end. Hope this helps. Barb

Tres, I bet your water would have been colder too with all that rain. 5" is more than So. NV gets in a year !

Follow up water temp report. After 2 weeks of 60 degree water covered with a clear 16 ml bubble cover, air temps are around 95 the last 4 days, my pool water is 88 degrees. I'm in Vegas and we get lots of wind, only lost about 1 1/4 inch of water as well. Cover is worth the effort in my opinion. Hope this helps. Barb

I've got an update as well. A little over 2 weeks and our pool is holding steady in the 80's despite many cloudy days. We've had a couple of sunny days that upped the pool water and the cover has done a great job of retaining the heat once it's in there. The water is at least 10 degrees warmer than it would be without the cover, maybe more. Last year in May the pool water at it's peak ran the same as the average air temp with a large variation in water temp between morning and evening. So for example, our average air temp right now is around 74. Last year the pool would have been 69 or 70 in the morning and 74 by evening. With the solar cover the pool only loses one degree of temp overnight!! Plus it's holding the temps well above average air and even above the daily high when the temps drop! The cover has far exceeded my expectations, I was thinking about putting solar heat in but now we don't need it!

Here is a continuation of my numbers (picks up where the last ones left off)

High air/ low air/ ave air/ water

79/ 64/ 71.5/ 74 very cloudy
81/ 66/ 73.5/ 76 very cloudy
82/ 73/ 77.5/ 78 some sun
88/ 73/ 80.5/ 81 some sun
81/ 67/ 74/ 82 partly cloudy
78/ 62/ 70/ 80 cloudy
88/ 62/ 75/ 84 sunny
88/ 73/ 80.5/ 84 cloudy
79/ 67/ 73/ 86 sunny

OK, I finally got rid of my ear infection and swam again last night. The whole family was in. The air was 70 and thanks to the solar cover the water was 88!!! It was awesome!! The warm water felt wonderful! I am truly amazed at how effective the cover is, the daytime highs for the last week have been 76 to 80 degrees with lows in the mid-50's. Lots of sun though, and the cover let it all in! I wouldn't have thought it possible that a simple cover could raise the water temp 10 degrees above the daily high temp! Amazing. This time last year the water was running in the low 70's!

We also bought a Solar Roller (link below). It makes removal and reinstallation of the cover a breeze. Now we can handle the cover even when wearing work clothes without getting wet, and do it fast! Works great for freeform pools like ours. I'd guess it takes about a minute to remove the cover and two or three to install it (no kidding!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Solar Roller

Another tip: Get a skimmer float valve and adjust it so your main drain pulls the water and not the skimmer when you run your filter (there really is no need to skim when the cover is on anyway). This will pull the warmer water that's sitting on top down and heat your pool more efficiently.

Thats a cool roller cover. Ours is old, has a stand on each side and is heavy, but it is 15 years old and still works like a charm. My water temp numbers are now skewed as I left the cover off for the night a few days ago and lost too much water. We added 2 inches of water Wed evening and reapplied the cover. Air temps are 95 during the day and low 70's at night, the water temp this morning is 86 again, so it heated all that added water in a day and a night. Happy holiday weekend everyone, enjoy warm water swims ! Barb

Hi
tresw - did you get the clear cover or the blue one? I need to get a new one and am looking for some info on which one would be best. I am also interested in the solar reel since our pool is a funky shape. Right now the cover is cut into 3 sections and it is a major PITA to get on and off.
I am hoping a new cut cut in two pieces with the reel will work better. I wish those solar rings would have worked better - my problem would be solved.

thanks to all of you for posting your info - it is very helpful.

jamas65, we are in the process of building a pool and it will be screened in. I think I will be adding a Heat pump however a solar cover is more affordable right now. We live in Jacksonville, you can see our blog "Our New Pool Build in Jacksonville, FL" I saw a solar cover at Lowe's and was wondering if this is sufficient. It looks like bubble wrap and the cost was under $100. Just wondering how helpful this would be for us. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks in advance