Midwest Canvas Clear Diamond 18-Foot-by-40-Foot Oval Solar Cover | 16 Mil | Heating Blanket for In-Ground and Above-Ground Swimming Pools

This is my first cover. I ordered 16mil assuming thicker is better and it may be, time will tell. However thicker is harder to remove and replace. Its heavier, and it is not real flexible. I would not use it without a reel to remove it. Also, I am somewhat disappointed in performance Primary purpose is to prevent evaporation, which is a huge heat loss. It is hard to get the cover on without having water on top of 10 to 15 % of it, and I assume it evaporates and causes heat loss. In any case, I am loosing four degrees each night, and maybe only five with no cover. Not sure it worth the hassel for me, but will alter this review of I find different over time.

Fantastic product

This has been an unusually cold, wet summer, in fact a storm blew down our old above ground pool we had 22 years. We bought this solar cover for the replacement pool and it works great. When I swam yesterday, the pool temperature was 82 degrees, the air temperature was 72. Last night it got down to 48 degrees, and the pool temperature is now 81. We are expecting below normal temps for the next two weeks. I hope this cover extends our swimming time at least til October. We ordered an 18x40' cover but had to do a little trimming to get it to fit our 18x40' pool. This cover is really heavy, especially after a rain. I wouldn't buy it unless you put up a quality heavy duty solar reel with bearings to make it easy to roll up and not sag. The straps that come with it are useful only if the reel is mounted on the pool as they are only about 18" long. I rigged up longer straps and mounted the reel a couple feet above and past the end of the pool so it is out of the way for swimming as I didn't want to have to lift and pivot such a heavy item by myself. I only had problems unreeling it once on a very windy day when the wind caught and unreeled it for me while I was trying to pull it back over the pool from inside the pool. It's also fairly easy to brush leaves and debris over to the edge of the cover to pick them off before they fall in the pool and make cleaning more difficult. This cover did tear where I put a strap for pulling it back across the pool because it is so heavy. Now that I have that strap attached at two points, it is holding up without tearing when I pull it.

really heats up