Lengthening the swim season: Using liquid pool covers to reduce evaporation and conserve heat

by brittney_cutler_2 | January 23, 2022 8:00 am

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By Alicia Stephens

With so many new pool owners excited to get the most out of their new investment, liquid pool cover products are quickly becoming popular as a way for service technicians to open pools up earlier in the spring and extend the swimming season into the fall. Regardless of the temperature outside, liquid pool covers allow pool professionals to open their clients’ pools sooner, so homeowners can start swimming but still reduce evaporation and conserve the heat in the water.

Why should liquid covers be offered to all clients?

Industry professionals can offer consumers options that will make their new pool ownership experience very satisfying. The idea of getting a pool is to enjoy it, not to labour over it. Today, more than ever, pool owners are looking for products to help them do just this. Liquid covers are one of many products that can help improve the pool enjoyment process. These products can make a pool professional seem like a hero in the eyes of the pool owner as they realize they can enjoy their pool much earlier and later into the season, while reducing maintenance costs at the same time.

What is a liquid pool cover?

A liquid cover is an evaporation suppressant that creates an invisible barrier at the surface of the pool to help trap heat and reduce evaporation. These products create monomolecular layers, or barriers, primarily composed of cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, or ethyl alcohol (ethanol). The product is added to the skimmer with the circulation system running to disperse the monomolecular layer on the surface.

When explaining how these products work to customers, pool professionals can use the analogy that it is like putting a lid on a pot of boiling water. The layer is a single molecule in thickness and creates additional surface tension. It contains fatty alcohols that readily float on the surface to block direct interaction between the air and the pool water. Dispersants are also used in the formulas to spread the material across the surface of the water.

This type of technology was originally tested and applied in the drinking water reservoir industry. From its use in this industry, it was learned the combination of both cetyl and steryl alcohol was highly effective at reducing evaporation. In fact, both ingredients are found in numerous cosmetics and detergent products, as well as being used for food preservation.

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How does a liquid pool cover work?

When liquid covers form the monomolecular layer on the pool water, extra surface tension is created on the water, helping to prevent the release of water vapour into the atmosphere. While the surface tension is broken when swimmers are present, the tight molecular arrangement of the layer causes it to quickly reform.

The beauty of using a liquid solar cover is that it is always above the water. The number one difference between a physical solar cover and a liquid cover product is a physical cover does nothing if it is sitting bunched up in the backyard. If someone forgets to put the solid cover on when the temperature drops on a cool night, there will be considerable evaporation loss. On the other hand, liquid solar products are always in the water if they are added consistently according to dosage instructions.

Can liquid pool covers be better than traditional pool covers?

The traditional solution to heat loss and evaporation has been to use a solid pool cover, which significantly decreases energy consumption and heat loss through evaporation. According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), solid covers can prevent water loss due to evaporation as well as reduce a pool’s energy consumption by 30 to 50 per cent.

Traditionally, solar bubble blankets are sold to new pool owners as they are especially great at the beginning of the season to help heat the water more quickly. There are, however, some downfalls to using a solar blanket that some pool owners may not realize until they are wrestling with it, trying to remove it to use their pool or put it back on when they are finished swimming. They can be bulky and tough to move, not to mention the additional dirt and debris that may be inadvertently introduced into the pool as a homeowner drags the cover across their yard.

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“When a client returns home from work and looks out at a 5.5- x 11-m (18- x 36-ft) solar blanket, the thought of grappling with it to try to remove the cover so they can go swimming can be daunting—especially if they are alone,” says Kathi Belcourt of Aqua-Tech Pools, Spas & Bath in Winnipeg. “We’ve had customers call to thank us for selling them a liquid pool cover simply because the product has allowed them to get so much more swimming and enjoyment out of their pool.

“I gave an elderly customer a free bottle of liquid solar cover because her husband had injured himself and I knew she wouldn’t be able to remove the cover by herself which would prevent her from inviting the grandchildren over to swim,” says Belcourt. “She called back two weeks later thanking me for helping her spend more time around the pool with her family. The client was so grateful she emailed me photos of her grandchildren in the pool.”

For irregularly shaped pools, covers need to be cut or modified to fit properly for effectiveness, which can also add to the frustration when attempting to put it back in place. Some consumers also unintentionally find they damage a portion of their lawn or surrounding garden when a solar blanket is accidentally placed in a garden or simply left on top of the grass for extended periods of time.

Further, if a bubble solar blanket is left on the pool for too long on hot days, it could even overheat the pool and lead to cover damage, as well as create a chemical imbalance in the water. Using a liquid solar cover can help avoid these issues.

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Why should evaporation reduction and heat/chemical loss be promoted?

New pool owners are especially apt to crank up their heaters, so they can get into the water sooner. That said, the last thing a builder wants is for the new pool owner to call and complain about their energy bill, or the fact they must keep adding water and chemicals into the pool. Therefore, it is important to remind clients when the air temperature is cooler than their pool water temperature, invariably, steam will begin to rise off the surface of the water. When this happens, it is not just the pool water evaporating into the atmosphere—it is also the heat and the money the homeowner will need to spend to rebalance their water chemistry upon introduction of new source water. That said, many pool owners—new and old—may not realize heat loss and evaporation can be quite expensive. Preventing water evaporation is one of the most cost-effective ways a homeowner can reduce unnecessary top-offs, chemistry adjustments, and heat loss. Further, with the many supply chain issues and shortages of chemicals, both homeowners and pool professionals should be doing everything they can to conserve chemicals and keep pool water balanced. Recommending an easy-to-use liquid cover solution is also one of the simplest methods pool professionals can suggest to their clients to help them save water, money, and energy.

Belcourt says liquid solar covers can do wonders with respect to preventing evaporation and, in fact, has several customer testimonials to support this claim.

For example, one of her clients who had success using a liquid solar cover product was one who had a cottage with a vanishing edge pool which was fairly remote and required water to be trucked in to fill it.

“This client hated having to put a solar cover on her pool because she had it built to enjoy its visual esthetic in her yard,” says Belcourt. “She told me it depressed her to see the solar blanket on her pool, but without it she would lose about 25 mm (1 in.) of water a day to evaporation and she couldn’t afford to keep trucking in more water.”

Belcourt sold this client a liquid solar cover product and, as a result, by simply adding it once a week the client was ecstatic, as it allowed her to enjoy the visual appeal of her pool all summer long and she did not need to add any water for more than eight weeks.

What is the best way to sell liquid covers?

Understanding what liquid covers are made of and how they work are an important part of selling this product. This is mainly because the customer is being sold a cover they cannot see.

Often, the best way to sell clients on using a liquid cover is by describing how it can help to lower their utility costs by retaining heat in the pool water—which is especially important for those pool owners who are cranking up their heaters this winter and early spring, as they plan to stay close to home and use their backyard as a getaway.

Most industry professionals agree pool owners are willing to try these products when the benefits of preventing water and heat loss are explained. Some pool professionals even include the liquid cover with the sale of a heater to ensure customer satisfaction because heating a pool—especially during the colder months—can be expensive.

Pool professionals can also consider including a liquid cover product as part of their start-up packages and explain to the customer how they can incorporate it as part of their weekly pool maintenance routine. It can even be a product to provide as a bonus for signing up early for their scheduled pool opening service.

Maintenance technicians can also include these products as a part of their service call offerings. This can be an easy sale if one knows the customer plans to use their pool over the course of the winter and into early spring.

Some pool professionals even quantify the benefits of a liquid cover product with their clients by explaining how they pay for themselves. When using these products, the cost per swim becomes much less because of its ease of use in comparison to a physical bubble cover and the pool owner’s ability to swim more frequently.

Depending on the client, Belcourt feels traditional solar cover blankets can keep some homeowners from enjoying their pool, both esthetically and from a usage perspective.

“At first, we thought liquid solar cover products would be a tough sell because it’s simply added to the water and there’s nothing to see,” says Belcourt. “But eventually, it’s the fact the client can’t see it that really makes it an easy sell. A liquid pool cover fixes the ‘problem’ of the traditional solar cover—because it detracts from the beauty of the backyard.”

In most cases, the pool is the centrepiece of the landscape and by covering it, the client cannot enjoy the beauty of the sparkling water in the sunlight, adds Belcourt. In fact, she has heard from many clients about how using a liquid solar cover has allowed them to enjoy their pool more from an esthetic point of view.

Keeping these benefits in mind, pool professionals should consider adding liquid pool covers to their product offerings in 2022. As an industry, everyone wants new pool owners to really enjoy their backyard investment to the fullest. Using a liquid pool cover product can be a great way to increase the customer’s overall satisfaction with their pool.

Alicia Stephens is the education and training manager for Biolab Inc. In her 20 years with the company, she has focused primarily on education, training, and development, as well as technical support and new product research and integration. Currently, Stephens supports all education and training initiatives for the Biolab Pro Dealer division. She can be reached via email at alicia.stephens@biolabinc.com.

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/features/lengthening-the-swim-season/

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