Comments On Thermal Cover Or Blanket?

[blake]

Does anyone have any experience with the floating thermal covers or blankets? I know some are on the cheap side like bubble wrap and some are more heavy duty.

I am considering buying one to use under the foam cover. Do they work? Are they a big hassle? Any good or bad brands? I have a big spa on order 93x130 - 800 gallons, so even in Houston I would like to conserve as much heat as possible during our winter MONTH Probably will not use or need it during the summer months.

[wireman]

Can't see someone wanting to mess with one myself.

[IlliniFan]

We put one on ours. It was not expensive. When we open the cover, snow will accumulate on the cover without melting. We live in central illinois so anything to help with heating. Weighs next to nothing, just lay it over the cover.

[TonyF]

We have had one for two different spa's and love them. They really do help with heat loss and sometimes when it is really cold ( 10 degrees or less), we take the spa cover off, but leave the buble blanket on and just pull back the area by the seat we are using. It even is enjoyable to just get under the spa blanket when face and ears get cold. So yes, it is worth it.

Tony

[tony]

After five years of not owning a blanket, I have been using one for the past couple of months. It has been only slightly more inconvenient to use the spa with one. I cannot tell yet if there is any reduction in electric use, but my water temp always seems to be at set temp with the blanket on so it seems to help hold heat in. Another benefit is the protection of the underside of the cover. IMO, don't bother with the bubble type and go for the foam type if you decide to use one.

[Nightop]

I am going to go against the flow here. We bought one for our tub and it is now being used under the outdoor carpet. While the do seem to work as advertised on keeping the heat in and such, I found that mine hindered the cleaning cycles. We have some trees that seem to always be spitting something. There are these small leaf type things that get in the tub and if we left the bubble float on they never seemed to get cleaned out by the skimmer. The blanket just seemed to hold them all in place.

I will say however we had the same type thing on our above ground pool, for it it was called a solar blanket. For the outdoor pool it worked very well at retaining heat, and maybe even aided in heating the pool.