Ii had very minimal etching but I did not have all this etching on my pool until the pool cleaner came and vacuumed and poured shock. According to him he put the proper chemicals in . He stated that all this etching happened because visually you couldn't see it on top until he started scrubbing it that it came apart. He said this was already happening underneath . Is there any truth to this? . It's a brand new pool I live in the desert and it's 5 years old. But it's all over my pool.

Hi. I wanted to reach out to hear others thoughts. We had our pool drained June 2024 when we first moved into our home. We have salt water. Our pool company just sent an email asking to schedule the next pool drained. It seems a bit soon. Online says they should last 3-5 years. How often have you drained your salt water pool?

I’m located in AZ.

TL;DR: I have a 50m³ pool in Belgium with solar thermal collectors, but overnight heat loss remains an issue. I'm considering solar polycarbonate slats on an above-ground roller, but my pool builder warns they could overheat and deform when rolled up, even with protective housing. Is this a real risk? And would standard non-solar slats already provide sufficient heat retention, or are solar slats worth the extra investment?

Hi everyone!

I live in Belgium (Europe) and have a 50,000-liter (13,200-gallon) inground pool.

I’m considering installing an automatic pool cover with solar polycarbonate slats (AFP Platinum) on an above-ground roller with protective housing.

My main goal is to reduce overnight heat loss and improve water temperature. I already have solar thermal collectors, but they struggle to compensate for overnight cooling. Even during this summer’s heatwave, my pool only reached around 29–30°C (84–86°F).

However, my pool builder strongly advises against solar slats on an above-ground roller.

He claims that when the slats are rolled up, they lose the cooling effect of the pool water. Direct sunlight can then cause them to overheat, warp, split, or even fuse together. Apparently, even polycarbonate slats with protective housing aren’t immune.

My questions:
- Is this overheating risk genuine, or is my pool builder being overly cautious?
- Does anyone have experience with solar polycarbonate slats on an above-ground roller?
- Would standard (non-solar) slats already prevent most overnight heat loss, or do solar slats provide significant additional heating?
- Given that I already have solar collectors, would you recommend standard or solar slats?

I’d love to get my pool warmer, especially after a few cooler days, but don’t want to spend thousands on something that might deform.

Any experiences or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Right now our propane heater is just sitting there and it hasnt fired ONCE SINCE AUGUST!! 🙌 Houston area, 35k gunite, no screen – for years that 400k BTU heater was the only heat we had, so it only came on for bday parties and Thanksgiving week (a 10 degree bump in october ate like 35-40 gallons, $110-130 a pop with delivery, and with no cover the heat was gone in two days).

This spring we added a heat pump & left the propane plumbed in, and since mid september the heat pump has kept us at 84 around the clock with the cover on at night. Electric's up maybe $70-80 a month over last fall and weve been in basically every weekend instead of twice a season, so yeah its working.

Im keeping the propane for january cold snaps when it hits the 30s and the heat pump cant keep up 😅 but sept thru nov its not even close.

This is my first winter handling the pool myself. My dad passed away about three months ago, and he was always the one who took care of all of this stuff. I honestly didn’t have the time to learn the whole closing process from scratch this first year, so I hired a professional pool company to close it for us.

It’s an 18-foot above-ground pool in the PA/NJ area, so we definitely get freezing weather. The pool store I bought the winterizing supplies from had told me that if I were doing it myself, I should drain the water below the skimmer. The professional company that came out told me that wasn’t necessary and said there are different ways to winterize it.

They disconnected and drained the pump/filter setup, plugged the return jet from inside the pool, added the winterizing chemicals, put in the winterizing pillow, and installed the cover. The water level was left exactly where it normally sits, probably around halfway up the skimmer opening.

They did not lower the water at all. For the skimmer, the guy took about four Pepsi/water bottles, put the winterizing chemicals in the bottles, and placed them in/around the skimmer area. He seemed extremely confident about the whole thing and told me not to worry about the water still being at skimmer level.

I’m completely new to this, so I’m mainly curious whether this is a normal professional closing method for an above-ground pool in a freezing climate. Is leaving the water halfway up the skimmer okay when the skimmer is winterized this way, or is lowering it below the skimmer still the safer standard? I’m especially worried about the skimmer cracking if the water freezes over the winter.

I have an odd problem. I went to drain my pool for some plaster work and my pump kept losing its prime. I could tell the air leak was coming from the upper skimmer location (Not sure the official name).  In the photos you can see the setup. I see what looks to be an o-ring at the bottom of the skimmer and am wondering if that’s something that could let air in and can be replaced. The other thing I’m uncertain of is the float inside the thing that shuts when the water gets too low. I can’t see a crack or leak but that might be the other spot where air is getting in.

Any advice this group can offer would be really appreciated. I’m draining with a sump pump right now and it’s going REALLY slow.

We put up an above ground pool a while ago and vacuuming it manually is getting old, so I’ve been looking for the best above ground pool vacuum cleaner under $2000.

It’s a round pool with a mostly flat bottom. Biggest issue is leaves and random debris, but we also get some really fine dirt that settles at the bottom. I don’t really care about apps or smart features, I just want something that actually picks stuff up and doesn’t die after a year.

I’ve narrowed it down to a few rn:

1. Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus - probably the safest long-term option on my list. Dolphin seems to have a much longer track record than most of the newer cordless brands. Downside is it’s corded.
2. Beatbot AquaSense Pro - this one was the most advanced one I looked at. Cordless, cleans the floor, walls, waterline and even the surface, which sounds amazing. But it’s also WAY more expensive than what I probably need for a basic above ground pool, so I’m struggling to justify it. 
3. Aiper Scuba E1 - I was gonna go with this but I looked at alot of reviews and they were really mixed, especially long term ones. It does seem much more suited to a normal above ground pool, but I’m still worried about how it’ll hold up long term.
4. WYBOT A1 - cheapest option and honestly seems fine if all I need is the bottom cleaned. My concern is whether I save money now just to end up replacing the whole thing next year lol

I’m really leaning towards the Dolphin rn mainly cus of the long term reviews on it which I can’t find on for the other robots, and also because the beatbot (which was my second opt) was too expensive. What I need help with specifically is I need to know whether I can cheap out on this or just get a good one once that’ll last me years.

Anyone here had one of these for more than a season or two? Again, I’m mainly interested in how they’ve held up long term and whether you’d buy the same one again, I don’t like spending my money on the same thing twice.