Wind, snow and ice and will soon be on its way, and for an aboveground pool, this can be particularly worrisome. Mistakes with any of these three and your pool or pool cover can suffer serious damage.
We’ve talked about the winter cover accessories for inground pools here, and today we turn our lens on above ground pool cover accessories, all designed to save you time, money, and worry.
Dealing with Debris
In a perfect world, every above ground winter cover would be dry and clean, but in the real world, Mother Nature and Old Man Winter will make a mess of the cover in just a few weeks. Two essential cleaning accessories for above ground pool covers are leaf rakes and leaf catchers.
Cleaning your pool cover regularly protects your cover and your pool water. A small hole in a winter cover can contaminate the pool water, or rip into a much larger hole. And removing the worms, berries, bugs and nuts that attract birds and squirrels, protects your cover from sharp beaks and claws.
Pool Leaf Rakes
A leaf rake is a bag shaped skimmer net that attaches to any pool pole. Push or pull the pool Leaf Rake gently across the pool cover to scoop up leaves, twigs and other debris. Oversized bag holds large amounts of leaves to quickly dredge any solid cover efficiently.
Leaf Net Covers
An easier method for sure – if you have large trees around the pool, spread a leaf net cover over top of your winter cover until all of the leaves have dropped. Then remove all of the leaves from the pool cover at once, and easily take the bundle of leaves to the curb or drag-off into the woods.
Rain Water & Snow Melt
Keeping water pumped off of your pool cover is important to prevent the cover from tearing – just 100 gallons of water weighs over 750 lbs, stressing the walls and the edges of your winter cover. And when rainwater freezes solid, sharp edges can form while the massive ice sheet thaws, which could puncture some pool covers. Cover pumps are a cover accessory that nearly all above ground pools will need.
Pool Cover Pumps
Electric submersible pumps, manual or automatic, allow you to easily remove rain water and snow melt from the pool cover. Just attach a garden hose, and plug it in. Manual pumps should be unplugged when done, but automatic cover pumps will safely turn themselves on and off as needed.
Gravity Cover Pumps
We also have gravity-fed, siphon pool cover pumps, that work great with above ground pools, such as the siphon pump cover drain, permanently installed into an above ground pool cover, to drain out of the wall return.
Snow? It’s best to leave it alone, to avoid damaging the pool cover with a sharp snow shovel, but if it gets over 12″ deep, you can either carefully use a plastic shovel to take off the top 6 inches, or spray the snow with warm water, and then pump off with your cover pump.
Winter Winds
High winds can wreak havoc on an above ground pool winter cover, tearing and ripping the edges as heavy winds get up underneath. In addition to the cover cable and winch used on above ground covers, there are a number of cover accessories made specifically to combat high winds.
Cover Seal
This is like a giant roll of Saran Wrap™ – only much stronger! Once your above ground pool cover is installed, wrap around the pool 3 or 4 times to block wind and prevent your cover from rubbing on the top rail of your pool. A reusable cover seal pool cover wrap can be rolled back up on the spool in spring.
Cover Clips
Pool cover clips hold your pool cover to the top rail of your above ground pool, to help stop winds from getting under the cover. Use 2 cover clips for each vertical upright in your pool (between wall panels) after tightening your cover cable. Sold in 5, 10, 20, and 30 packs for all pool sizes.
Wall Bags
Vinyl bags that you fill with water and hang on the cover cable, or they can also lay up against the pool wall, on the inside of the pool cover. Reusable for years and years, pool cover wall bags are the classier option to hanging milk jugs half-filled with water!
Spider Cover Saver
This solid center disk attaches to 5 spots around the pool edge by use of thick bungee cords and heavy hooks. The web holds covers in place during high winds, and Spider Cover Saver also helps keep air pillows from drifting to the side of the pool.
Ice Dangers
Not a friend of above ground pools, ice expands nearly 10%, putting pressure on pool walls and skimmers. Of course, there are above ground winter accessories to help you deal with the damaging effects of winter pool ice.
Air Pillows
Place an air pillow in your pool before you button up the pool cover. The pressure of the pool cover pushes air pillows down into the water, preventing a continuous ice sheet from forming across the pool, which can damage pool walls and skimmers. Use more than one pool pillow for larger above ground pools.
Skimmer Guard
Dual purpose Gizmo™ like device plugs your skimmer line tightly, and the raised plastic cylinder absorbs ice expansion from water inside the skimmer, which can quickly crack it into pieces. Reusable and very durable, threaded Skimmer Guard screws right into any above ground pool skimmer.
Skimmer Plug
Works like a Lid’l Seal™ or the Aquador™, with the big exception that you don’t need to replace your skimmer faceplate. Just push it into the front of your skimmer, and Skimmer Plug makes a water tight seal, keeping water out of the skimmer, all winter long. No need to lower the water to winterize!
Old Man Winter and Mother Nature will be certain to throw a lot of weather at your swimming pool during the off-season. Fight back and protect your pool with these smart above ground pool cover accessories to prevent damage from debris, water, wind, and ice!
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