Monday, 30 Sep 2024
Our pool cover is 8 years old. They last 6-8 years on average. Ours is thin, sun faded, and has pin holes in several places. We ordered a replacement cover about a month ago. Today is install day.
Above are pics of the old cover in both the closed and open positions. Below shows the old cover removed and the new cover still bundled up near the side of the pool.
With the cover removed the area under the drum and retraction mechanism can be cleaned. I vacuum in this area maybe once a year, but usually only at the ends where I have easy access.
And that’s where things stopped. It was very hard to run the guide ropes used to pull the cover closed through the tracks. Normally the new rope is spliced to the old rope and then pulled though the tracks. Then the old rope is cut off. The splice kept breaking. The back side of the tracks was full of grout from when the pool was re-surfaced two years ago. There is evidence where the grout abraided the old ropes. Not good.
The new cover was placed out of the way so the pool could be used until the cover could be fully installed.
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2024
A few days after the install attempt I discussed options with the cover company. I decided to replace the 32 year old rails with the current version. That job was scheduled for today.
The above shows the old rails after being removed. They are encrusted with grout. The people who re-did my pool should have warned me that this could happen. It would have only been about a half hour job to temporarily remove the existing rails before putting in the new tile.
The new rails look to be more sturdy than the originals. The exising mounting holes were used, plus additional mounting points. They are not going anywhere. I didn’t take any pictures of the rails in place.
Cover installed and closed. In the days the pool was un-covered I used a lot more chlorine than usual. The recent heat wave didn’t help. And in spite of the heat wave the heater was on more than normal due to heat loss during the night. Glad that things will now be back to normal.