In ground pool, 15x35, located in east bay California. (Contra costa county). Broken heater, no solar, no cover, nothing at the moment.,
Married, kid less than a year old. Wife and I like to host and will want to use pool on weekends. Maybe the occasional dip during the week. A bonus would be to go in connected spa at night or even in colder seasons, but that’s just a bonus and would only be a couple times a month at most.
My options seems to be…
1 - get a solar cover
And/or
2 - replace heater
3 - get solar panels
Seems like getting a solar cover is something I should do regardless of whether I want to replace. Especially with spring and summer coming, where it’s consistently 90’s, sometimes 100’s, a cover would help bring up the temp and negate the need for a heater/panels.
I’m thinking I can just start with that and come late Oct when things start to cool, I can figure out what I want to do then? Wife and I will of course just have to be ok with no spa till we figure out whether we want to do heater / solar panel (or neither).
Questions:
- is it realistic to expect a solar cover to be able to warm / keep warm the pool to around 83-85 degrees from April to October?
- are reels my most compromising option between costs and conveniency? Other extremes being manual vs automatic.
- are there any other considerations I’m missing with deciding to a) just stick with the solar cover or b), deciding between heater and panels if I were to get one of those?
- is there some magical formula or website where I could get a rough idea on what gas might look like in both swim and off season? If I were to go with a heater?
Thanks so much in advance.
Married, kid less than a year old. Wife and I like to host and will want to use pool on weekends. Maybe the occasional dip during the week. A bonus would be to go in connected spa at night or even in colder seasons, but that’s just a bonus and would only be a couple times a month at most.
My options seems to be…
1 - get a solar cover
And/or
2 - replace heater
3 - get solar panels
Seems like getting a solar cover is something I should do regardless of whether I want to replace. Especially with spring and summer coming, where it’s consistently 90’s, sometimes 100’s, a cover would help bring up the temp and negate the need for a heater/panels.
I’m thinking I can just start with that and come late Oct when things start to cool, I can figure out what I want to do then? Wife and I will of course just have to be ok with no spa till we figure out whether we want to do heater / solar panel (or neither).
Questions:
- is it realistic to expect a solar cover to be able to warm / keep warm the pool to around 83-85 degrees from April to October?
- are reels my most compromising option between costs and conveniency? Other extremes being manual vs automatic.
- are there any other considerations I’m missing with deciding to a) just stick with the solar cover or b), deciding between heater and panels if I were to get one of those?
- is there some magical formula or website where I could get a rough idea on what gas might look like in both swim and off season? If I were to go with a heater?
Thanks so much in advance.