100 and Counting

Ever looked at a pool thermometer? If you are in Lower Alaska, probably not.

Ever wonder why the marks go up to 120°F?  If you are in Baja Arizona, you know.

I think we have learned how to warm the water in the cement pond and, at the same time, keep evaporation to a minimum. The trick is not just covering it with a "solar blanket", it's cutting it to shape.

The pool service guys we hired for the first few years discouraged using a pool cover, as do the guys working the counters at Leslie's Pool. "It won't keep your pool clean," is the typical first response. Well, yes it can. You simply have to skim the debris around the edges when you pull it off, and sweep and wash off the cover every now and again. Granted, it's easier as a two-person job, but hey, Shari and I get along.

For years the problem we had with pool covers was the wind blowing it off. I'd put bricks on the edges, only to find the occasional brick in the pool.

Then we cut the thing to fit; nothing hanging up and over the edge. Between lying below the surface of the concrete apron and the surface tension of the water itself, we've yet to have a wind gust disturb it in the least.

By the middle of April the temperature of the water was in the eighties. Early May it was in the nineties.  Yesterday afternoon when I took the cover off it was 102°F in spots and averaged 100°F when it got stirred up. That's like bathtub temperature. It's particularly soothing at night when the the stars are out and the water is warmer than the air temperature.