P.S. has anyone tried these 'Pool Coolers'? For $30 it might be worth a shot.
http://www.poolcoolers.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Pool Coolers

Leslies markets the GLACIER COOLER for $2699. A bit cheaper than a solar system which if run at noght will cool the pool.

How well would just putting a $30 fountain in one of the returns work if I ran the pumps at night when its cooler out?

I just had pool school today and the guy set our pump to run from 8am to 5pm. He said that if we keep the water circulating all day it will be cooler. I've read just the opposite on this forum...to run it at night to circulate the water as it cools. Hmmmm...which is it?

Our pool was 92 today because it hasn't rained for 2 days, so we put the solar panels on the cool down cycle this evening. We got it down to 91 which was fine for night swimming. But, during the day it isn't very refreshing.

Running your pump overnight with water features on will cool your pool. Last summer in all that heat (with NO rain) in TX, I could drop my pool temp from about 90 or so to the mid-80s. At that time, I ran the pump 6 hours overnight and another 6 hours throughout the day (before I realized electric bills could be that high!).

This year, we haven't had all the heat so I'm just now moving some of my pump time to the overnight hours. My pool's also been 90 the last couple of days and has been dropped down to 85 with 3 hours run time overnight. As we get more heat, I'll move more hours from daytime to overnight as needed.

I think it was someone on this forum who actually calculated how much ice it would take to drop a given volume of water one degree. When extrapolated to an entire pool and the temperature drop desired, it was an extraordinary amount of ice...more than anyone would want to buy.

There are also supposed to be combination heat pumps/chillers. In my next lifetime when I have all the money in the world...

We bought a "pool cooler" last year, and it did not work for us -- when it was attached to one of our returns the water column never got higher that about 1/3 of the way up the pipe, and is just sort of oozed out the holes, instead of being sprayed out. After a few emails to the company, they decided that our pool has "too many returns" and we needed to cap some of the other returns so that the water pressure would be higher in the remaining returns. we capped just one return and there was no improvement, and that was where we decided to end the experiment.
we did have great success lowering the water temp by running our waterfalls/weaping rocks at night for a few hours.

We were just talking about this at lunch yesterday. One of my friend's said there is a pool cooler at Costco. No clue if it's the same as mentioned above or about the cost.

Caltropic, Too funny! I have a 3, almost 4 yo son who is also a nature boy. Although he will get in the pool with clothes on, ALL of them! *lol* He is a water fiend!

Glacier Pool Coolers sells a great product (which could be the contraption you were speaking of above). You can purchase one directly from the manufacturer. It will drop your pool at least 10 degrees overnight!! OH, and they're on sale for around $1499!

I can buy a whole lot of ice for that much money!

I spoke to someone the other day that spent $500 on ice to cool her pool for a July 4th party, and it didn't even work that great. Ice isn't that cheap after all. I would much rather spend the money on a Glacier Pool Cooler. We can cool the pool whenever we want. Now we actually want to swim in the pool during the summer, which isn't that why you buy a pool? We love ours. In Phoenix it's a neccesity.

I have an "L" shaped fountain that screws into the the return that I use just for this purpose. It got the temp down to 88 after a couple of days from 92. I run it from 5 to 9 am, and again in the afternoon. It does make the water evaporate quicker, but it is definitely worth it. Don't expect a huge difference though.

I built a "poolcooler.com" type device for $5 with parts from Home Depot. No cutting required! Jury's still out on if it works, initial results are indeterminate. Also, it's half the length, but I don't think the water column would get up much higher. They must have one heck of a pump on that picture...

Parts:
One 1 1/2 inch 90 degree adapter, male threaded on one side, slip female on the other.

One 1 1/2 inch pre-cut 2 foot length of pipe.

One 1 1/2 inch cap, NOT threaded.

I've got PVC glue lying around - if you don't have any, a small jar is about $2.50.

Build, drill holes, install!

Bubba, can you post pictures? It's hard to visualize.

We just got our pool filled two weeks ago. I noticed the first week, it was HOT-- we were running the pump at night at the beginning. When we started running the pump in the day, it cooled off slightly. Then we had a couple days of afternoon storms-- cooled off even more! Right now, it's downright refreshing... but I realize this can change with a few days of no rain.

I'm in Florida...

Here's an image, sort of. (See link below!) You'll need to go to www.poolcoolers.com to get an idea of how it works, and how to drill the holes.

On the website, they don't have any close-up pictures, and I'll bet it's because it'd be too easy to figure out how to do this. They're literally buying PVC parts for less than $5 and selling them for $50 - I don't blame them! And to be honest, if I wasn't so... 'value conscious,' I'd probably spend the money. It's just too easy to make.

Anyway. This stuff is cheap. Check out what kind of fittings your pool returns are - you'll most likely have to unscrew them. They're most likely threaded and 1 1/2 inch, like ours. If so, just get the parts in the image. If not, well, improvise. I'd be cautious about gluing inside the pool, though. If I had to glue it into the pool, I'd think about doing something else.

Get an idea of what you're looking for, and head over to Home Depot, Lowe's, or your local hardware store. In Home Depot, there's a whole aisle of this stuff. You can play with it in the store, and halfway build it up so you can see what you're doing. Don't be afraid to try it - just don't seat anything in too far - sometimes they can stick pretty good, but can be separated with tools as long as it's not glued.

Don't forget the pipe. Home Depot sells 2 foot segments of 1 1/2 inch pipe precut, at least they do in my area.

Once you're home, you'll want to do a dry run. Assemble the pipe and the 90 degree fitting *with no glue*, and make sure that you can install the thing. There are returns in my pool that I can't do this with without a lot of extra turns. Once you've determined that you can get it installed - take it out. Glue the pipe into the 90 degree fitting, and glue the cap onto the other end of the pipe. Now, the fun part - power tools!

Drill some staggered holes on the pool side of the pipe. I used three columns, I think maybe 8 or 10 holes in each columns. If it helps, walk the undrilled part over to where it'll be installed, and hold it up to visualize where the holes will be. (yea, I did this!). Also, you probably don't want any holes below the waterline. I used a fairly small drill, not sure what size. You can always drill them bigger if you need to.

Let the glue dry for a bit (it sets almost instantly, but I was leery of dipping the uncured glue into my pool!), and install. Adjust as necessary.

It's kind of fun. Don't be afraid to try different sizes of pipe, you might try running a long horizontal pipe with lots of holes if your pool allows.

You could also use this to make a 'shower' water feature for the kids to play in - my 5 year old loved it!

And, as I said above, the jury's still out on effectiveness. My second option would be to tap into one of the return lines outside of the pool - I'd use the weeping wall lines on mine - and set up some sprinkler heads to spray into the pool. Not sure about the flow rate yet, and I've yet to head to Home Depot to see what kind of spray heads are available that would work. And I really don't want to cut into the plumbing if I can help it, although PVC work is easy.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:2048181}}

Bubbapool, you should have your own DIY show!

Follow up!

I've now tried two versions of a homemade "pool cooler," like the one that's for sale for $50 on-line. I've updated our Pool Website with some pics and text (also added pics with the lights on) so you can see how it's built and how it looks running. Here's the upshot (copied text off the site), if you don't want to look at the pics:

Here I duplicated a "Pool Cooler," which you can buy on line for about $50. I used about $7 in parts from Home Depot. You can see how its built, and those are 1/16" holes, by the way. And Home Depot has a better selection of PVC fittings than LoweÂs, and theyÂve also got pre-cut 2Â lengths of pipe. ThatÂs standard Schedule 40 1 1/2" pipe and fittings.
I made it in two parts so the Âbottom part could be screwed into the return fitting, and then install the vertical part. This was necessary to get around some stonework. You could make the bottom, "L" shaped part any length you desire, to get around any stonework you might have.
Not too successful. I didnÂt notice any real decrease in temperature of the pool, but our pump runs on low speed most of the time. You can see itÂs not real impressive at low speed...
I do think it could work if you had maybe three of them, running at high speed for 5 or 8 hours / day. Maybe if I had a dedicated pump, or a water feature that I didnÂt need for the hottest part of the year. Maybe you could build into the pool a second pump and three or four extra returns, with the intent of installing something like this. If I did that, I might consider actually putting this outside the pool, say in the landscaping, spraying into the pool - like its own water feature.

I wonder about a geothermal system. I'd think it'd be pretty easy to drop in a run of geo thermal tubing when installing the pool. Ground temps 4-6ft down are in 50's to low 70's depending on area of country.

There are newer air conditioning systems that make a big chunk of ice at nite when electric rates are lower and air is passed over the ice chunk during the day. That may have a good application.

I doubt I have to worry about cooling my future pool here in MN though.

Well, I ended up buying a $20 PVC return thread-in fountain online and it seems to have helped quite a bit. We run the pumps only at night and the fountain throws the water up in the air cooling it. I feel it's helped bring it down at least 3F.

Russ,

I've seen arguments that the best time to "cool" your pool is often the during the hottest time of the day....

often the hottest time is the least humid, and the night is the most humid.

not an issue at my place right now, but back in august, i was "cooling" mine during the afternoons, and it was quite effective... just a thought for you.

good luck!!

The best way to cool pool water is the run your filtration system at night, and install a pool cooler that can help cycle the water through its pre-drilled holes. The result is pool water that is cooled by up to 10-degrees F. It genuinely works. And as of this month, there is a new type of pool cooler from mist cooling that doesn't require you to dismantle a return to insert it. Just take out the eyeball and slip it into the return opening. It really works. Mist cooling Pool Cooler