Protect Your Pool and Enhance Safety with the Right Cover
Pool Cover Installation in Dallas and Fort Worth
Pool covers do four different jobs and no single cover does all four. Some hold a child’s weight. Some hold heat. Some keep leaves out over winter. Only one of those categories is a safety device, and telling them apart is the point of this page.
Clear Blue Pools & Backyards installs pool covers across Dallas, Fort Worth and the surrounding communities, on new builds and on existing pools.
The Importance of Using a Swimming Pool Cover
Which Covers Are Safety Devices, and Which Are Not
A pool cover serves more than just a protective purpose; it plays a key role in maintaining the cleanliness and safety of your pool while also contributing to energy efficiency.
Benefits of a pool cover include:
- Safety covers are built and anchored to hold weight. The recognized standard for them is ASTM F1346. They come in mesh and solid versions, they anchor into the deck, and they are the only covers designed to keep a child out of the water.
- Automatic covers can meet the same standard when the system is specified and installed for it, and when the cover is actually closed.
- Solar covers, sometimes called solar blankets, are not safety devices and should never be treated as one. They are a hazard rather than a neutral item: a small child can slip beneath the blanket and be hidden from view. If you have one, it is worth knowing this plainly.
- Winter covers keep debris out over the off season. Unless they are specifically sold and rated as safety covers, they are not safety devices either.
A cover, even a rated one, is one layer rather than the whole answer. Layers of protection work together, and a pool fence is the other main one. We would rather explain that than sell you a cover and let you assume the problem is solved.
Automatic Covers
An automatic cover runs on a track along the pool edge and closes at the press of a switch. It is the only kind of cover that gets used every day, because it is the only one that takes five seconds.
- It has to be designed into the pool, or retrofitted with the track and housing added. On a new build it is far cheaper and it disappears into the design. On an existing pool it is a bigger job.
- It holds heat well, which on a heated pool is where most of the running cost saving comes from.
- It is a mechanical system. Motor, tracks, ropes and fabric, all outdoors. It will need service at some point, which is worth planning for rather than being surprised by.
- Closed, a rated automatic cover is a safety layer. Open, it is not, which sounds obvious and is exactly how accidents happen.
If you are building, the cover housing should be decided at the same time as the pool coping and the pool deck, because that is where it is hidden.
What a Cover Actually Saves You
Manual pool covers offer a practical and budget-friendly way to protect your pool without compromising on essential benefits. While simpler in operation, they still provide reliable coverage and help maintain your pool’s cleanliness and safety.
Three real benefits, stated without inflation.
- Evaporation. An uncovered pool loses water constantly, and in a Texas summer that is significant. A cover is the only thing that meaningfully reduces it.
- Heat. Most heat loss from a pool is from the surface overnight. If you run a heater, a cover is the cheapest thing you can do to reduce what it costs. If you do not heat the pool, this benefit is smaller than most pages imply.
- Cleaning and chemicals. Less debris in the water means less skimming, less filter work and less chemical demand. This is the benefit owners notice most week to week.
What a cover does not do is heat the pool. If a longer season is the goal, that is a pool heater, and a cover then makes the heater cheaper to run. The two go together and neither replaces the other.
What Our Clients Say
A Cover Is Not an Enclosure
These two get confused more than any other pair of products on a pool.
A cover sits on or over the water. An enclosure is a structure around the space above the pool. A cover reduces evaporation and heat loss and, if rated, forms a safety layer. An enclosure keeps the deck area cleaner and stays up whether you are swimming or not, and does not warm anything. If you are weighing the two, our pool enclosures page covers the other side of it.
Pool Cover Installation Across Dallas and Fort Worth
Clear Blue Pools & Backyards installs pool covers throughout the Dallas and Fort Worth area, including Fort Worth, Dallas, Southlake, Keller, Frisco and Mansfield. The full list is on our service areas page.
Covers are measured and made to the pool, so an existing pool needs a site visit before anything can be quoted accurately. On a new build it is specified alongside the rest of the pool construction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only if it is a safety cover. Safety covers are built and anchored to hold weight, and the recognized standard for them is ASTM F1346. A solar blanket is not a safety device and is a hazard rather than a neutral one, because a small child can slip beneath it and be hidden. A rated automatic cover is a safety layer when it is closed and is not one when it is open. A cover is also one layer rather than the whole answer, and a pool fence is the other main one.
Mesh lets water through, so rain drains into the pool and there is nothing to pump off before opening. Solid blocks everything, which keeps the water cleaner and darker, but rain sits on top and has to be removed. Mesh is the more common choice in this climate.
It is the only cover that gets used daily, because it takes five seconds rather than twenty minutes. That is the real argument. If a cover is inconvenient it stays open, and a cover that is open is doing nothing for safety, evaporation or heat.
Yes, and it costs more than fitting one during a build, because the track and the housing have to be added to a pool that was not designed around them. On a new pool the same components disappear into the coping and deck.
No. It reduces heat loss, which is different. Most heat leaves a pool through the surface overnight, so a cover makes a heater considerably cheaper to run. On an unheated pool the effect is real but smaller than most pages suggest.
Evaporation is the main way an uncovered pool loses water, and in a Texas summer that is a meaningful amount every week. A cover is the only thing that reduces it appreciably.
Yes. It is a mechanism outdoors: fabric, ropes, tracks and a motor. Keeping the tracks clear is most of it. Fabric has a working life and is replaced rather than the whole system. VERIFY: confirm whether Clear Blue services covers before expanding this answer.
