Why are blankets so popular with swimming pool owners? What are their benefits? Are they worth the investment? And can they look good? Find out everything you need to know about pool blankets and watch Kate show you opening and closing of a hidden blanket.
Pool blankets for heat retention
Do I need a blanket on my swimming pool? Once again, a really popular question we get asked. Now, the answer is two fold. A lot of people think they need a blanket on their pool because they’re worried about maintenance. If you’re building a pool with us and it’s either a logic pool or a in-floor cleaning pool, then we would say no, you don’t need a blanket on your pool due to maintenance because the pools are so well circulated and so easy to look after that they’re not needed for that.
To use a blanket for heat retention is obviously important, because if you put a blanket on your pool, you will only lose sometimes only one or two degrees overnight. They do work really effectively. If you’re using your pool and you’re maintaining heat, be it with an electric heater or a gas heater, or even if you want to capture the solar heat from the day so that the next day it’s still there, then you need to put a blanket on your pool.
However, if you are looking at your pool all the time, for example, this pool here is part of this Alfresco, indoor/outdoor living, the clients a lot of the time don’t like using the blanket because they want to be able to see the beautiful water. This is where sometimes the use of a blanket, when you need it and when do you not need it, it can get a little bit gray and you can get a lot of conflicting information. Yes, you do need a blanket to keep the heat in. When we talk to customers over a long period of time, they tend not to use their blankets a lot. They do use them, but when they’re using their pool.
Minimising water loss in your pool
Do we need to use a blanket due to water loss? Once again, the answer is, if you have a blanket on your pool, it does certainly reduce, almost eliminates a lot of water loss. The answer is yes. However, when we build a pool here at Compass Pools Melbourne, we’re very passionate about circulation. Now, if we just have the two eyeball returns, so we’re returning the water and the sun is heating the top and the skimmer box is taking that top water, taking it to the pump and filter and bringing it back, that top level of water does get very warm, so they do tend to lose a lot of water due to evaporation. Really, you would probably need a blanket on your pool for water loss.
When we like to build pools, we like to build either the logic system or the in floor system. Now, because of this, we actually take that top water that’s warm, but we return it through the middle down to the floor or the floor itself, so we don’t maintain that really hot level at the top. Now, because of that, we don’t experience that same level water loss, so you don’t need a blanket in that case as much as you would as if you did have the two eyeball returns. That allows you to keep looking at your beautiful pool, rather than looking at a blanket.
Hidden blanket as a visually more attractive option
Blankets are popular here in Melbourne, but they’re not very popular from a visual point of view, so we tend to find the hidden blankets more popular. Though they do cost a lot more money to build into the pool, where we actually build the roller itself hidden into the landscape, it does mean that when you do use a blanket for purpose, as in you only bring it out when you actually are wanting to maintain that heat, then you will find the use and having a blanket a lot more enjoyable. A lot of people do not like looking at blankets and rollers, so by having the roller hidden into the landscape, you can see how easy it is to use, but also more importantly, how you can always have it there ready to use whenever you want it and not having to worry about visually looking at the roller there when you’re not using it.
That’s one of the real benefits about having the blanket hidden into your landscaping. This here shows you what a roller would look like for a similar sort of blanket setup if you didn’t have it actually hidden in the actual landscape. For most people, they tell us that they’re just a little bit too busy to move the blanket and roller in and out of the pool area all the time, so most people would just leave it near the pool. However, as an eyesore, most people don’t like to look at it.
