How do you go about cleaning your solar cover?

[Ticojpunk]

How do you go about cleaning your solar cover? What do you use to clean it? And where/how do you lay it out so it doesn't end up taking grass and dirt along with it?

Struggling a bit with my 21' cover right now.

 

[SecoSteve]

I would hang it over the edge without it hitting the ground and take a hose to it, then spin it and repeat until most of it is cleaned. The middle may not get fully cleaned, but who cares, it won't get in the pool.

Or put it on your deck and clean it up there.

 

[Ticojpunk]

The hang over the edge method probably best for me. My pool deck it's smaller than my pool by a lot.

 

[SecoSteve]

The hang over the edge method probably best for me. My pool deck it's smaller than my pool by a lot.

You could hang the cover over the railing of the deck and get quite a bit cleaned at a time.

 

[Ticojpunk]

You could hang the cover over the railing of the deck and get quite a bit cleaned at a time.

Good point! Thanks.

 

[Ticojpunk]

Hanging over the deck edge worked pretty well.

The kicker yesterday was after I was done cleaning the cover, vacuuming and brushing the pool, and going for a quick swim, a nasty wind storm kicked up and blew leaves and sticks all over the cover and into the pool. lol. Had to clean all over again! That’s how it goes sometimes!

 

[Newdude]

How bad is it ? I only felt the need to clean my cover once or twice in 5 years. Lol. (I did so on the grass so I could walk on it without popping bubble).

But I swept my cover alot with the pool brush. I'd drag any crud to an area I could reach then scooped it off.

Thinking out loud right now, if you had any particularly bad/dirty spots, I'd dump chlorine down a pipe/conduit to reach any areas in the middle, while on the pool. Then I'd brush well and hose it into the pool.

 

[CeltiaK]

We made some U-shaped PVC pieces and zip-tied them to the metal supports on one end of the pool. That's where we put the cover when it's not on the pool. I didn't want a rolling type because we get a lot of crud and debris on the cover and I don't want the clean bubble side touching the exposed/dirty side.

We manually pull a few feet into the brackets, then manually pull a couple more, fan folding with each pull.

This makes cleaning super easy. Bring over the hose, and with each pull, blast the cover well, wipe it with hands or a sponge, repeat. I've never used a cleaner or any chemicals.

When we had an 18' round pool, same procedure with the fan-folding. We used 5 U-brackets on that pool.

For minor dust, some people will flip their cover, contacting the smooth side to the clean pool water. Probably best on a cloudy day, and definitely best to boost FC to take care of increased organic load.