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Micro Mesh Cover?


Don

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Hey gang,

I am new to the forums, I was doing some searching on the net and came across this forum and thought I would probably benefit greatly from it. I am a fairly new pool owner, my wife and I bought our house in the fall of 08, and it has fairly small ( 18x36 ingroung pool. I have come a long way from knowing absolutely nothing about pools, to where I am today. Back in the spring I had the vinyl liner replaced, and it looks much better.

Anyways, to my question. The first fall/winter , I left the pool open and running. Have a tree line about 25 ft behind the pool area, and fishing the leaves out about killed me. Last year, I paid to have the pool winterized and closed up, with a cover over the top. Worked ok, my wife was not too fond of the looks of the cover with the water tubes though.

So this year, I decided to try something different. I ordered a micro mesh cover from here: http://www.poolsupplies.com/Covers/mesh-covers.asp

It was my understanding, this cover would allow rain water to drain through it to the pool, while catching all the debris, namely leaves. While it shows it on an above ground pool, I called and they said it would work fine on an inground with the water tubes to hold it. My thoughts were to leave it on during the leaf falling period, and remove it and have the open pool the rest of the winter. My wife would like that as well :).

So I put the cover over , with the cover laying across the surface of the water, and water tubes to hold in place. I have left the pool running.

Well it has rained pretty good a time or two since, now I seem to have a small lake laying on top of the cover. It has been about 7 days since it rained, and the water is still there on top of the cover.

Should this water eventually seep through the cover into the pool, or is my understanding incorrect? I have a small sump pump, and can pump the water off if need be, but was hoping I would avoid having to do that this year?

Any feedback greatly appreciated,

Don

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[quote name='Don'

So I put the cover over , with the cover laying across the surface of the water, and water tubes to hold in place. Well now I seem to have a small lake laying on top of the cover. It has been about 7 days since it rained, and the water is still there on top of the cover.

If you laid the cover across the water, what makes you think that any water landing on top of the mesh will seep through the mesh? It will just lay there with the debri on top of the water. What you needed to do was lower the water level in the pool and allow the mesh cover to not lay on top of the water. Then when the leaves fall and it rains, the leaves will remain on top of the cover and the rain water will go through the mesh. Then at the end of the leaf falling time, remove the cover and get rid of the leaves.

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Mesh covers are not designed to be put on with water tubes. Mesh covers should have anchors in the concrete deck around to pool, and springs on the straps. That way, the cover is held tight above the water as shown in these pictures from loop-loc.

bubbles.jpg

10B.jpg

http://www.looploc.com/

http://www.meycoproducts.com/PoolCovers.htm

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Mesh covers are not designed to be put on with water tubes. Mesh covers should have anchors in the concrete deck around to pool, and springs on the straps. That way, the cover is held tight above the water as shown in these pictures from loop-loc.

bubbles.jpg

10B.jpg

http://www.looploc.com/

http://www.meycoproducts.com/PoolCovers.htm

Absolutely. And Don, I also have a mesh safety cover, and if you get enough fall/winter precipitation the water level will rise, eventually topping the pool - at which point you'll see standing water in the middle of the cover. That's because the water level is way up. A simple, easy way to drain the level back down it to siphon using an ordinary garden hose. You need to lay the hose out to your preferred drainage point (don't worry about residual chlorine or any other chemicals - including salt or algaecide - they are very dilute, and your lawn is dormant). Peel up a corner of the cover and determine how much water you want to drain (e.g. 2 feet). Measure (e.g. 2 feet) from the end of your siphon hose and mark w/ a piece of duct tape or the like. Connect another hose to your outside faucet and direct it into the pool end of the siphon hose until you're sure that the siphon hose is full of water (having a spotter at the drain end of the siphon to confirm that water is coming out helps). Very quickly place your thumb over the pool end of the siphon hose, then lower it into the water until you reach the depth mark. Hoses can stiffen in the cold, so be sure to bend it a bit. I have learned to connect a couple of cut-offs onto the pool end of the siphon hose - the weight keeps the hose in the water. The siphon will stop on itself once the water level has drained down to the end of the siphon hose. I have done this several times over the past two seasons, and it works like a charm. Takes about 5 minutes to set it up, then you can start the siphon and forget it. Be sure to measure your desired drain depth. If you just drop the siphon hose into the bottom of your pool it will - well, drain the entire pool!

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Thanks gang, I am still fairly new to this :}

The micro mesh cover I got is not a safety cover, and the place I ordered it from told me that is how I should do it.

Makes sense though, I was wondering how the water was going to go through it with it laying on the surface of the water.

I doubt the water tubes would hold it above the water level, so I guess it is not going to work in how I had hoped it might. Apparently to

do what I had hoped I would need a much better cover and anchoring system.

I may just pump the water off the cover like I did with the one last year.

Thanks,

Don

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It sounds as though the mesh cover is working as it should. The mesh fabric lies on the surface of the water, and water will pass thru as it rains, but you will see water on the top of the cover, since it's lying on the water for support and a small amount of water will seep thru from below. The water bags are mainly to keep it from blowing away & the water surface supports the weight of the mesh & debris accumulation. Since you're not winterizing the pool, just catching leaves, this is okay. If you drain the water down, as is typical for winterizing, the water bags would not be strong enough to support the weight of the cover and debris. In this case, you would need the straps mentioned earlier.

This kind of installation is very typical in southern regions, where we don't close & winterize pools, but some do get covered to catch leaf drop.

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Ok thanks, sounds like I probably should leave as it is then.

Didn't know if I should be concerned with pumping any of the water off the top of the cover or not.

I am in the southern region, southeast actually, and all I really want to accomplish is keep the leaves out of the pool during the leaf falling season. Once all the leaves have fallen, I will be taking the cover back off.

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The only thing I forgot to mention, is to remove the leaf accumulation occasionally, as the weight will eventually grow to to the point that it can pull the cover & accumulated debris into the pool. You can do this by hosing or netting the debris off the cover while standing on the deck beside the pool. It's a real pain to pull the cover out of the pool & then cleanup.

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My goodness I just don't think this is working out quite like I had hoped.

Just went out there, and the cover is now down in the pool water a good foot to foot and a half. Just spent some time fishing all the leaves out that I could, and have now hooked up a small sump pump and have it in the water on top of the cover, to drain some of that water off the top of it. I certainly don't recall having this problem last year, with the solid cover I had over it. Me and my big ideas :).

I also tested the ph and chlorine, ph looks fine, chlorine is pretty high. I just have the small test kit you put the drops in the vial of water, and it was not just yellow but like amber to orange.

I have turned the chlorinator to the off position. Ever since putting this Rainbow chlorinator in, even on the lowest setting it would always seem to put too much chlorine in. I had it set to like 1 mark past the off position. Going to leave it in the off position a few days and see if the chlorine comes down. I guess with the cover over it, the chlorine is jut not escaping like it used to. I certainly do not want to do any damage to the liner, as I just had the liner replaced in April.

I think the person I spoke with on the phone on these micro mesh covers, may have not really known how it would work in my case, and looking back if I had of used common sense I probably could have figured that out myself.

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Ever since putting this Rainbow chlorinator in, even on the lowest setting it would always seem to put too much chlorine in. I had it set to like 1 mark past the off position. Going to leave it in the off position a few days and see if the chlorine comes down.

You should not leave a tablet feeder in the off position. Once the tabs get wet, they will continue to dissolve and create a dangerous buildup of concentrated chlorine and chlorine gas in the feeder. When you open the feeder valve again, the chlorine will go into your pool anyway. If you open the feeder after it has been closed for a while, you could get gassed with chlorine gas.

If the chlorine level is too high, then you need to remove the tabs from the feeder and dispose of them. Allow the feeder to run with the valve open about 75 % for about 10 minutes to clear out the concentrated chlorinebefore turning off the pump and opening the feeder.

Once you remove the tabs, allow them to dry and place them in multiple zip loc bags, one inside the other. Do not put them back in the bucket with the dry tabs. Call your local trash service to inquire about proper disposal of the tabs.

If your chlorine level is unmanageable, then you are putting too many tabs in the feeder.

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