Mesh Safety Covers - Should They Sit on the Water or Be Pulled Tight?

This past spring, my old in-ground pool cover ripped apart after some heavy snow. I had been lowering the water level below the jets, but several people told me I was doing it wrong because the cover is supposed to rest on the water.

I checked with my pool guy and a company that maintains my father-in-law’s pool. They both said mesh covers shouldn’t sit on the water because they would just sink. They advised me to keep lowering the water as I’ve been doing.

Does anyone have more insight on this? I live in Iowa, and winters can be rough. Plus, I have a lot of trees nearby, so leaves are a big issue. Any thoughts on regional differences or best practices?

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Up until it becomes wet from rain or snow, my cover stays taut and level across the whole pool. After then, it falls and settles on top of the water. According to the instructions, you should keep the pool’s water level below the deck. For my cover, I would have to check the exact distance, but it is in the middle to upper teens of inches.

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In actuality, mesh coverings come with blow-up cushions to place underneath, but only half of the audience realized they were toys.

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Instead of listening to what someone tells you, you should heed the cover manufacturer’s suggestion. In Northern New Jersey, we close over 150 household pools with safety covers each year. We lower the water level in a concrete pool by 18" below the coping’s bottom and ensure that the cover is “drum tight” when it is in place. We tighten it if it sags, usually to the point where the springs are roughly half compressed.

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@CurrentCraze I’m glad to know that. This is a house I moved into a few years ago. I have no source for manufacturer suggestions because the previous owners left no information regarding the pool cover, including the manufacturer’s name.

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My pool man lowers the water level and installs the cover. When fitted, it shouldn’t be submerged in water. When snowfall occurs, the cover will drop below the water’s level, at which point the water will take up the snow’s weight. Some straps may break from the weight if the water level is too low—this is what happened to me the previous winter. When mine did, I believed the cover was destroyed. A strap repair kit was utilized by the pool person. Although the straps and tensioning shackles failed, I mistakenly believed that the cover had torn. There seemed to be a leak in the liner, which is why my water level was too low. I don’t know when or how it collapsed after the pool was closed the previous year, but it was an old liner that I was intending to repair at the start of the season.