Solar Sun Rings

[jason48331]

I am wondering if anyone has ever tried the Solar Sun Rings to heat a pool. I have a 40,000 gallon in-ground pool. My wife wants to get the Solar Sun Rings to try to keep the pool warm.

They are expensive, but I don't mind the cost if they work. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you!

[PaulR]

The main benefit of any kind of "solar" cover is reducing evaporation. The ads and salespeople will try to persuade there's a "focusing effect" on the sun's ray's; that part is all snake oil. Evaporation is a (maybe the) major source of your heat loss.

With the rings, if you cram them on, you get maybe 75% of the surface covered. So they do help.

By comparison, with a regular solar cover you should be able to get 100% coverage, or darn close to it. This won't eliminate evaporation completely, but it comes real close. It has been a while since I had my cover off for long enough to notice, but my recollection is that with no cover I had to add water 1-2 times per week in the summer; with the cover, it's once every 4-6 weeks.

I haven't tried the rings, but from what I hear, they are nicer-looking and easier to get on and off than the full cover. (Managing the full cover is admittedly a hassle.) But the rings are more expensive and not as effective at retaining heat in the pool. So it depends on what you value more: ease of use, or heat retention.

--paulr

[waterbear]

It has been reported several times that they blow off in a breeze.

[mikemonster]

New guy here (to this forum) sorry if this is a bit long.

I've been researching solar rings for a couple of years and have the same questions most folks do (ie- how well do they work?)

I found a couple of listings on Craigslist and thought I would finally find out for myself if rings are a good option for me.

My pool is a free form 34'x20 and approx 21K gal. with autofill ( so I can't check for evap)

Cost: They are expensive I've found them priced from $17 - $40 per ring. I was able to negotiate my "used" rings for $10 ea.

The rings- Solar Sun Rings inc. makes them (the ones with the plam tree on the rings) I found there is an old style which features a smaller outer ring and which is more prone to flip in wind 12mph+. The newer style has a larger outer tube and baffles on the underside which trap water and are more stable (I haven't had one of these flip even in 20mph wind.

Number of rings needed: there are tools to calculate this but in the end you will just need to find out. The 2 deals from Craigs got me 24 rings. I had calc'd 18-20 and I used 22. I've seen reference on the SSR web site that you only need 80% coverage but I kept throwing them in until I couldn't fit any more , I'm guessing 90%+ coverage.

I've only had them on a couple of weeks now but here's my observations:

Ambient temp has been low for this time of year so far (inland SF bay area) day time temps are avg 70-80, nights in high 50's mid 60's.

In the AM I check the temp and it's averaging 71deg, by 4 o'clock it's about 78deg. Before the rings it was about 65deg AM and up to 72deg at 4 o'clock.

Before rings I had a few full bubble covers. I found that the first cover (include by the builder) was the best and cheapest. It was the thin mil blue bubble and it would raise pool temp into the mid 90's if I left it on. The second was a silverbacked diamond pattern which really never got the pool up past mid 80's. Last one was a clear bubble which performed like the silver backed cover.

Summary- since I haven't had them on a season I can't really say how they perform yet, however, it does look promissing. I do like the fact that I don't have the cover & reel on my deck and that they are easy to handle.

mike

update: Today was our first 90deg day with the rings. Pool temp at 8:00AM was 74deg, at 4:30pm it is at 81deg .