When taking care of a pool, the right cover can make all the difference. Finding the right cover can be a bit tricky and will depend upon a variety of factors; including your pool shape, size, and of course, what you need the cover for. The guide below should help you identify just the right cover(s) for your in-ground or above ground pool.

Solar Pool Covers: A very common pool cover, solar covers utilize the suns energy to generate heat for your pool. These covers float freely on your pool surface and are designed primarily for heating your pool and prolonging your pool season. They are not the most efficient covers for keeping debris out of your pool and should not be consider a safety cover.

Solar Rings:While designed to provide heat for a pool similar to a standard solar pool cover, solar rings have a few unique benefits. Due to their design, solar rings are very adept at passing heat to deeper parts of your pool. They can also be turned over when the pool temperature is ideal, enabling them to act as barriers to sunlight that will evaporate water and precious pool chemicals. Solar rings work well with automatic pool cleaners.

Leaf Nets: With these covers the name says it all. Leaf nets are basic covers designed to keep leaves and other larger contaminants out of your pool. Simply place the leaf net over the pool and watch as the leaves fall harmlessly onto your net. If you have a lot of leaves to deal with every year, it may be wise to remove this net multiple times to clean the leaves off. Leaf nets are often used in combination with a heavier winter cover. Be sure to remove the leaf net before the first snowfall. Doheny.com sells both in-ground leaf nets and above ground leaf nets.

Winter Pool Cover: These heavy-duty pool covers are designed to protect your pool from debris as well as other unwanted pool contaminators. While many winter covers offer features such as thermal protection or coloring to help guard against algae growth, they do often vary in weave thickness which can be a determinate in the durability and overall quality of the cover. As mentioned above, winter pool covers can be used together with leaf nets. It’s important to note that both above ground winter pool covers and in-ground winter pool covers are not necessarily considered safety covers.

Safety Covers: Swimming pools should always be places of enjoyment rather than heartache. Unfortunately that’s not always the case as they pose a serious risk to children and family pets. Pool safety covers are available in a standard net/mesh form, as well as solid covers. Safety nets are designed with gaps too small for a child to fall through, but too big to allow efficient balancing or movement. Solid safety pool covers are heavy covers that are designed to be anchored down and keep everything from loose debris to kids and pets out of your pool.

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