The savings are huge... between the money that you're spending on water to refill the
pool after evaporation loss, the amount of chemicals that you need, and time.
Welcome back to the Pittsburgh Stone & Waterscapes Education Series. Here at Pittsburgh Stone and
Waterscapes, we're dedicated to changing the way our customers view the construction industry.
Not only do we educate our crews on the latest techniques and products,
we want to ensure that our customers understand both what we're doing, but more importantly,
why we do it. In this episode, we're going to talk about automatic pool covers.
While they're known for their safety, they do so much more than that. Here's josh, our pool
specialist, to tell you more. A lot of people want a swimming pool, they want to enhance their lives
with, you know, having a body of water in their backyard for their family to enjoy,
um but the the thing that people don't really look about is how much time that's really going to be
taking just keeping that pool water fresh and, you know, everything working properly. So an automatic
pool cover goes beyond being a blanket over top of your pool. It reduces your maintenance,
how much you're vacuuming the pool, brushing the pool, it'll also help with keeping your chemical
costs down and also the big one safety. So, when they are making the pool, they put in the pool
walls they pour footers um just to lock those in and then i come in with the auto cover first phase
is what we call it and that's the polymer housing and the encapsulation that runs along the pool
wall.
For me to install the cover it has to have water in the pool
so, in the case of family fun pools, they have to plaster and get it filled.
The cover is supported by the water as it is going over the pool. The further away from the mechanism
the cover gets as it's operating the heavier it gets and so without water the mechanism would
never be able to pull the cover all the way across the pool or, for that matter, get it off of the
pool. So that is why it is always important to maintain your water level when you have an auto
cover. I would say just about every week for a pool that is open you're losing probably an
inch to two inches of water. You're having to put all of those gallons of water back into your pool
but the cover will hold all that in. It keeps the evaporation from getting out and so you just you
don't have hardly any water loss. An auto cover that costs $15,000-20,000 is gonna pay for itself
within seven years. I have a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering with WVU, but I install
automatic pool covers [laughs]. I know the science behind it, I know the physics behind it, and
it's... auto covers are pretty cool on how they operate. So we utilize a hybrid cover. We utilize
parts from both Cover Pools and CoverStar to be able to produce our products. There are strengths
and benefits from each, so we utilize the strong qualities from each manufacturer to produce the
highest end product. Any auto cover system that's out there on the market I can do work on and
it's very specialized like you're not really going to find someone like me just anywhere and,
along with the engineering perspective, I know why it works and if a customer has any
questions I can always explain it. With an automatic pool cover, when the pool is not
in use, the family's inside going to sleep for the night, that cover is closed. So no small animals,
varmint, neighborhood kids would be getting into the pool so being able to go on vacation
taking that key with you that locks the cover with the switch and they can't get in the pool.
So besides safety, which is the most important thing, is chemical maintenance. So it reduces
how many chemicals you'll need throughout the season to be able to keep the pool water balanced.
So, during cold nights, the water temperature will drop so the heater will have to constantly
fire during nighttime hours when the pool's not in use which equates to dollar signs. An
automatic pool cover acts as a solar blanket being able to trap the heat inside the vessel at night.
So also what comes with every automatic pool cover is a cover pump. So when this cover is closed
you know there's going to be rainfall with in the forecast over the night so you'll just take
this cover this pump will just sit on this all night as and that pump is on a sensor
so as water is filling the automatic pull cover this pump will get the water away from the pool.
This is the winter cover. So you still can have a safety cover on the pool, this cover would then be
stored back in the box just roll it back into the box and then the safety cover can go over top. An
auto cover is a mechanical system. We typically recommend once a year that a technician comes out
and just takes a look at your system just to make sure everything is functioning properly.
It's a small expense but it helps protect your system in the long run just so you don't have any
costs that may happen because of negligence as far as maintenance goes.