We bought some last month. They took a little time to get to lie flat (and do sometimes blow a bit in the wind)...but we got several degrees of warmth and are losing less heat at night (we wanted these mostly as an alternative to a solid cover - we get a lot of wind and lose a lot of heat at night, these have really helped).

We're fairly pleased with our purchase.

robert 2006,
The rings are a little more expensive than a solar cover. They will do pretty much the same thing and you will find that they are a little easier to store than a solar blanket because of the size.

We also just purchased the product specifically called "Solar Sun Rings". We just got them all unfolded and aired up - and whammo... it started raining.

I hear good things about them, we really only purchased them to hold in the heat during the night that was gained during the day.

We bought them at www.leisureliving.com for $23.99 each.

Aimee

Here is a link that might be useful: Solar Sun Rings at Leisure Living

Thanks for your replies! Looks like I will be buying them. Aimee thanks for the link thatÂs the cheapest I've seen them for so far.

Robert

Just wondered how people are feeling about these after a little further use. I remember someone who had problem with rust?
Boby

There have been several posts about these over the last two years. People said that they worked, but that they started to rust. I don't know if these are the same ones as people mentioned in the past. Maybe others can help you with this.

No rust after several months of use. It's pretty windy at our house though and I get frustrated when they blow around (not out of the pool - but kind of bunched up)...I saw an ebay link here for someone who had a pattern for making their own solar rings - using a flexible tube for the outside ring and then regular solar cover fastened in - looke pretty ingenious - we have the plans and all the parts so we'll make them in the next couple weeks - as soon as we have a few free hours - to see if that solves our problems with the rings (we think it will).

The rings are MUCH easier than a solid cover would be - so we're just testing out the best way to get them to work for us! (I'll post again after we get our home made versions made)

Thanks Jennifer. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I was the one who posted the eBay link. Will be very interested in your results. As I have whined repeatedly, I HATE my solar cover.
Boby

Very interesting.
But it seems to me,you would need a ton of those things
to cover an adicate amount of the surface of your pool?
Obviously you can`t cover the pool 100% like a solor blanket does? What % do the disk have to cover to do
any good?
What is the diameter of the disks?
I hate the covers too.

JR...

They say to cover about 80% of your pool surface and to count the area between the rings as "covered" in that 80%. For our 330 square foot pool we have 9 rings and they work pretty well. The ones you buy are 60 inches in diamater. They've worked really well at keeping the heat in overnight except in the windiest weather - but they do need to be constantly rearranged and reinflated.

We're going to make the ones the guy designed as a DIY plan on ebay - those are 42 inch in diamater and we think we'll need 18...we're making 9 of those to start (that's how much our roll of tubing makes) to see if this version will eliminate some of the design issues we've got with the all inflatable ones.

Boby - I'll definitely post how the plans work and if they helped with the wind (thanks for posting that link!)...it'll be a couple weeks though - I'm heading out of town this morning.

I have them and have not had a rpoblem with wind,yet.They do work well though.They are not the same engineering as the home made ones others are proposing.I will be curious to see how those work out.Please post your findings.The best way to buy them is ebay.

I bought these on ebay in July. At that time I bought a 10 pack for 185.00. I put a link below because even though the rings cost a little more now, they have good deals on packages. They definitely work, but they were a bit of a pain during the summer because I had to take them out and put them back in every day. That didn't last long, maybe a month. Also, you aren't supposed to leave them in the sun when out of water, and my backyard gets full sun. I had no place to store them when they were out of the pool. I guess I'll look into a little shed for next year. Getting ready to try them again, since it is cooler and I'm not swimming as often.

Here is a link that might be useful: Solar Sun Rings