Can Snow Hurt My Pool Cover?

By now you’ve winterized and covered your inground pool for the winter. If you haven’t installed a pool cover, it’s not too late. Give us a call and we can help you out. We recommend pool covers from Anchor Industries.

Winter pool covers are designed to prevent debris, animals, and small children from getting into your pool over the winter. They serve a two-fold purpose – providing safety so no animal or child falls in, and helping to keep your pool clean and free from debris.

Pool covers come in two basic types – mesh pool covers and solid pool covers. Mesh covers keep debris out, but let water (rain or melted snow) into your pool. Solid covers keep everything out, including liquid.

Snow can be heavy, and if you don’t take the proper steps, the weight of it, or the weight of the water as it melts, can indeed damage your pool cover.

The Amount of Snow Matters

A dusting of snow or even up to two feet of snow is generally nothing to worry about. Most pool covers can handle that, as long as the water level has not dropped. Winter pool covers use the support of the water to stay taut. If the water level falls to more than 6 inches below the skimmer level, solid covers can tear or fall into the pool.

More than two feet of snow can cause trouble. The strain of the heavy load can cause solid and mesh pool covers down into the water. The weight can also cause straps and springs to fail.

Removing Snow from Pool Covers

If you have a sturdy pool cover and less than a foot of snow, don’t worry about it. You might want to clear a path around your inground pool, however, to help the snow melt drain away. If you have a cheap plastic pool cover, you will wat to clear any amount over two to three inches as soon as possible.

As the snow is still coming down, you can use a push broom to push/pull snow off of your pool cover. You may need to do this several times during the course of a snow storm. You can also use a leaf blower if it is light, fluffy snow and you start early.

NEVER use anything with sharp edges such as a metal shovel to remove snow from a pool cover. You could puncture or rip the cover.

The Importance of a Pool Cover Pump

Just a little bit of sun can cause snow to start melting. This is why it’s important you have a pool cover pump hooked up. Automatic ones are the easiest to use, because they turn on and start pumping when they detect a certain amount of standing water. They act like a sump pump in that way. They pump the water out through an attached hose, and away from your pool.

Just one inch of water per square foot weighs 5.2 pounds. Multiply that by several inches, and it really weighs down the cover. So whether it’s a heavy rain or melting snow collecting water on your pool cover, you will want to remove it. Get that pump working to protect your pool cover.

So the next time we get a heavy snow here in Maryland, you know what to do!