Micro Bubble Solar Covers?

[Nate4429]

Anyone heard of these micro bubble solar covers? Deheny's is claiming it will absorb 25% more warmth from the sun for your pool. I'm here in the NW and 25% more would be great! I can't find any reviews on google about them so I'm thinking its a new thing so I thought I would ask where people actually know what they're talking about. Thanks!

Nate

 

[Newdude]

They are just regular solar covers. Which do in fact work to reduce the evaporation that makes up 70% of your heat loss. Most people will retain 5-7 degrees above the average temperature of the week. (Highs and lows). One day doesn’t swing much but after a couple days it does. If it’s a 60 degree overall average that week, the fact that your pool is 67 will be moot. If it’s a 71 week and the pool is 77..... that’s a whole different ballgame and they are worth their weight in gold.

you don’t have a heater but for the people that do, it’s an absolute must if they don’t want to throw handfuls of cash into the air.

 

[Nate4429]

Yeah I have a regular bubble cover I was just curious if the Micro Bubble Solar Cover really makes a big difference. I never did know about the 5-7 degrees above the outside temp...I’m going to keep an eye on that as that means I can “somewhat” predict pool temp by outside temp. And I mean “somewhat” ??

 

[Newdude]

It seemed that brand/store were trying to set themselves apart with ‘micro bubbles’ but they were regular old covers. They are bubbles, and fairly micro compared to the overall size of the cover. Everybody always looking for an angle......

 

[Nate4429]

Thanks ?

 

[mas985]

Deheny's is claiming it will absorb 25% more warmth from the sun for your pool.

The last thing you want a cover to do is to absorb heat. What you really want the cover to do is to be completely transparent to solar radiation so the water can absorb it. The primary objective of the solar cover is to first stop evaporation which almost any plastic cover can do. Anything that covers the surface will stop evaporation. Secondary, if the cover has bubbles or other type of insulation, it can reduce convection and radiation losses which are lower than evaporation. Now one can claim that they might be able to make is that the R-Value of the cover is larger than a standard cover which is not all that high (~1.5 ft2·°F·h/BTU ). The smaller bubbles might have a higher R-Value although I am not convinced it would. If the R-Value is better by 25% or ~1.9 ft2·°F·h/BTU, it would hold heat slightly better than the conventional cover. How much better? Not much. Maybe a fraction of a degree higher water temperature.

 

[msears101]

I recently purchased one of these. It was the "high quality" 3200 version at Doheny. The short answer is pass this one by, and find something else.

I am an avid user of Solar covers. I track both my pool temperature and the amount of Sun exposure (Incoming Solar radiation /Isolation) that the pool receives (both ambient weather devices). This is a serious endeavor for us to try and extend our season as long as possible. This cover is billed as "better". It is not.

I use the cover for three reasons, letting the sun light in to heat, minimizing evaporation/chemical usage and keeping the water warm when the sun is not shining. It is ok for minimizing evaporation. The other two, I am not impressed. I have years worth of data to compare to. My older 12mil cover that was replaced and was losing bubbles was working better than the new doheny micro bubble cover it replaced. I compare amount of sunshine I received and I can convert that into degrees the water will increase. Doheney does not measure up. It does not get the same heat gain, and gets more heat loss, even though the temperatures have been WARMER.

I will see how bad it is this fall and it will likely be replaced next spring.