solar Heating pads

[pigeon]

I'm trying to find out more about solar heating lily pads for swimming pools, I've seen them used by someone in a magazine

so has anybody any info on them.

[chem geek]

If you are referring to solar rings, then a search on [url=http://www.troublefreepool.com/]Trouble Free Pool[/url] yielded [url=http://www.troublefreepool.com/search.php?keywords=solar+rings&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search]these hits[/url] where the consensus is that they do not work very well (it was OK for a couple of people), certainly not as well as a traditional bubble-type solar cover.  If you are looking for the advantages of a solar cover but not having to reel a large cover, some people have cut their cover into strips that are more manageable (see [url=http://www.ellerbach.com/Pool/Solarcover/]here[/url] for example), but in windy areas the strips can overlap which is one of the problems with the solar rings (the rings also don't insulate as well as most bubble-type covers).

[Kathy]

I have 6 of these for my pool, it is only small. They raise the temperature about 2 degrees. I bought them from America so they were half of the cost that I have seen them advertised in Europe, they are obviously not as good as solar heating but serve their purpose.

[The Ps]

Pigeon

As the Chem Geek link suggested, some people get on ok with them but most don't.   We always try to trial everything before we sell anything and we found them to be extremely difficult so withdrew them from sale.    There are better alternatives around in our opinion and the traditional solar cover is probably the most effective on cost versus benefit; though I have no information on the lifetime costs of solar panels etc.

The problems we found with these pads are as follows: -

• You have to spend an inordinate amount of time setting them up with the inner rings inflated in just such a way that it is almost impossible to achieve and it is the same with the outer rings.

• You have to be very careful to make sure all of the magnets on each pad line up otherwise they can be:-

  • Sucked into skimmers - causes air to be drawn into the filtration system

  • Get blown away - unless you have the water anchor type (which have their own problems)

  • Wrinkle up into pile at one end

• They take a long time to remove and put back on

• They have to be stored correctly when removed for long periods otherwise they develop pockets of algae

• Because you don't have full surface coverage they have little benefit in keeping dirt etc out

• If you use the type with a water anchor we found they contributed significantly to algae growth and increased use of sanitisers to combat this.

  • What happens is the anchor, which is like a plastic pocket, fills with water to hold the rings down

  • The plastic pockets, being just on the underside of the ring, get full of very hot water heated by the sun

  • However, because it is a pocket, there is little or no movement of water, hence the increased algae problem.

There are many users of the solar rings and as already stated, some are more successful than others.   However, the above is a true account of our trial over three months.   The only positive is that they did increase the overal water temperature by about 4 or 5 degrees (which helped the algae in the pockets brilliantly).   We sold our last stock to a woman who seemed to want nothing else so we went to great lengths to tell her of our concerns.   She still wanted them so we sold them to her at cost and we have not heard from her since as to how they were.   It may be that she is very happy with them; we don't know.

[pigeon]

Thanks for all the info, looks as though I'll have to revert to plan B whaterver that is!