We went way over the top. We had a fence and a pool cover. Our boys are now teenagers so we have gone through 3 covers. We had the solid cover ( the type you can drive a car over ) unfortunately the horses thought they were solid and stepped on the cover whilst walking past. The cover is not warranted for that. After two of those we switched to the net type. I way preferred that type. You can see your water. The dirt does not accumulate on top. When it rains you have to pump the water off the solid covers. The dogs and horses stay off of the net. Why both? When we had parties and the kids were done playing the cover would go on, but the adults are still hanging, eating, and drinking around the pool. We had a two year old come to the hospital, where I worked, who had drowned. Growing up the neighbour's boy drowned. This was during the time we were deciding what to do. It was an easy decision to go with both safety guards. It is amazing how many adults can be around a pool and yet no one is watching the children. We also started having one adult sit by themselves, in turn, watching the kids play.

Many, many years ago we owned a pool in NJ. We had a solid cover with the water bags. It wasnt a disaster and it wasnt pretty! For the most part, the pool was clear when we opened it. If anything when we took off the cover we would get debris in the pool that was on top of the cover. If we had 4-6 people to remove the cover we could have done it without dropping anything into the pool. Neighbors only showed up on the hot days to swim, not on the opening or closing days. The two of us would do our best to remove the cover without letting any of the silt which had settled on top of the cover get into the pool. It wasnt a big deal if it did, we just started up the pool and vacuumed it out. We had a Sears submerable pump we had to use regularly to pump the water off the cover. We were religious about it, any weekend it was above freezing, my husband would be out there plugging in the pump to remove the excess water on the cover, because eventually it would freeze and then you couldnt remove it. We didnt have kids at the time so I didnt have that "safety" issue. It definately requires a lot of attention and does not have the clean lines of the newer safety covers they sell today. We hated the look so much we would leave the pool open until the end of October and open it in April. Its not an easy project, but it does work. All depends on how much time you want to put into it, but it can be done successfully however, its obviously not as safe as the other covers. We are in Florida now, so thankfully, we dont have that issue to deal with.

I have a 20' by 40' kidney pool with side spa and a loop-loc mesh cover. I close the pool in November and open it up in April. Just opened it last week. It takes me about 40 minutes to install the cover and probably 25-30 minutes to take it off. About 10 minutes of that time is spent using the provided hex wrench to raise the anchors out of or lowering the anchors down in to the patio as needed. I do it solo. It's really not hard at all. I've had my cover for 12 years. It's still in great shape. The only damage is a couple of small melt holes due to floating embers from a fire pit we have out by the pool. Patched those with a patch kit. I've only opened up to a green pool twice. Both times due to me being out of town and the pool not being opened up until late late late. Other than that, nary a worry. I drain the pool down in the fall, and snowmelt and rainwater have it filled back up pretty close to where it needs to be when it's time to open in April. I wouldn't ever let my kids use the pool cover as a play toy. Not only is is dangerous to the kid, but movement against the pool patio could abrade the bottom of the pool cover, shortening it's life.

perhaps i am too overly concerned? lol...This is my 1st pool with a solid cover, my last pool had a mesh(tightly woven) Loop-Loc cover, and there was no sag due to rainfall accumulation on cover..This solid cover lets water accumulate and it sags, fairly significant...Part of the problem is the anchors, as 1/2 are in landscape beds, so the "tautness" of cover is not as great as it could be, if all anchors were more secure(the others are in pavers, still not ideal setting)....