Is a clear or blue solar pool cover better at passively heating pool?

Answer 1

Black - Blue - Clear. In that order.

But the differences between black and the other types are not very great, so many people make their choice based on other factors: - appearance (some people don't like the look of a black pool cover) - cost (some retailers charge different prices) - availability (some retailers only stock certain colors).

I would say that Blue is probably the most common.

Hope this helps ...

The greatest heat loss in any pool is from water evaporation. Any pool cover will reduce evaporation. Generally, the thicker, the better. Most high end pool covers are extruded instead of laminated. The extruded cover will last about two times longer than any laminated cover. As far as the sunlight is concerned, heat can be retained from the sun similar to the greenhouse effect. The more sunlight that passes through the cover, more heat is retained in the water. Example, if you were to paint the bottom of your pool black, more sunlight would pass through the clear cover to be absorbed into the black bottom of your pool, transfering that energy into heat. Please realize that I am getting quite technical here but I am trying to explain the physics involved. There are not very many pools with black bottoms!

Bottom line is this: The greenhouse effect to retain heat is very minimal. Therefore a clear cover may have a very small advantage...but....chloring is also broken down by sunlight. A clear cover will allow more sunlight to enter the pool, therefore shortening the cholorine life. Just my thoughts. Hope this will help. I have decided to try an extruded, clear cover this time. Matthew Milford, MI

Answer 2

Hmmm, have not seen too many clear solar covers in my neck of the country. Did not know they were even being sold for that purpose. The only clear plastic we know of is visqueen which has other uses. It does not have the ultra violet light inhibitors in it that pool covers have. The answer would be NO.

Answer 3

Clear is better. It allows more solar light thru to do the heating than blue.