Pool Cover

An uncovered pool loses most of its heat overnight through the surface, and loses water to evaporation all day. A cover stops both, and while it is on nothing can blow into the water. There are two ways to put one on, and the difference between them is not the cover — it is how much effort it takes to use.

Manual Pool Cover

An insulating sheet that floats directly on the water, wound on and off a roller at one end of the pool by hand. One person moves it in a couple of minutes. There is no motor, no wiring and nothing to service, which is why it is still the most common cover on a domestic pool — and why it fits any pool already built, with no change to the shell or the coping.

• Insulating bubble sheet, cut to the shape of the pool
• Aluminium roller on castors, wheeled aside while the pool is in use
• No power supply, no controls, nothing to service
• Retrofits to any existing pool

Automatic Pool Cover

Rigid slats on a motorised shaft, opened and closed from a key switch or a handset. Because the slats are rigid the closed cover carries its own weight across the water and stays flat in wind, and it takes the surface load of a person who steps onto it by accident. The roller either sits on the deck at one end or is hidden in a submerged pit below the water line, where it disappears entirely.

• Polycarbonate or PVC slats on a motorised shaft
• Deck-mounted, or concealed in a submerged pit
• Key-switch or remote operation, with travel limits set at commissioning
• Designed in on a new pool, or retrofitted to most existing ones

Choosing between them

A manual cover costs less and asks for two minutes of your time each way. An automatic one costs more and asks for nothing — which in practice is the difference between a cover that goes on every night and one that does not. On the water they do the same job.