He recommended them for people with very young or mentally-handicapped children. He only advocated putting an automatic cover on a pool for safety. Who wants to spend all that money and not see the water when you look out the window. He stated that the cost and mechanical problems increase significantly when used on larger free-form pools as the cover width increases. They are expensive, even for a simple rectangular pool. It makes a poor winter cover because the snow can't be left on the cover (will pull cover from tracks) and the cover will become very dirty, requiring a big scrub down in the spring - more hassles. The leaves and other junk must also be removed before the cover is fully retracted. I'll need a pump to remove rainwater from top of cover, which adds to hassle factor. Will result in increased chemical usage, as covering the pool during the hot weather will keep the pool warmer which increases need for chemicals and reduces their effectiveness. Will not reduce pump run-time because the water will still need sanitized. We are installing a vinyl-liner diving pool in the Cleveland area (lots of snow). This suprised me, considering he would make more money if we included it in the build. During a visit with my wife and I at our house, a very well established pool builder (30+ years) strongly recommended against an automatic pool cover.

Replacement automatic pool cover prices