I'm writing this review (my first ever Amazon review) as an endorsement of solar pool heating in general because I'm sure other similar products would perform the same. My experience so far with this particular one has been stellar, but I can't say whether or not it's any better or worse than other manufactures with similar designs. When I researched this, this one seemed to offer the best value. We had an inground pool installed in January and February of 2014 in Atlanta, GA. The pool is in sunlight for only a few hours a day, from noon until around 5:00 PM. More shade in the winter as the sun is lower, but that's of little consequence when it comes to water temperature. Last year, I actually seriously regretted putting in a pool where I put it, because it was COLD. The pool has a 406k BTU gas heater, and we were only able to swim throughout the year with only enormous amount of gas use. Even in mid-August with temps consistently above 90, did the pool temp reach 80 degrees unheated, never warmer unless I ran the gas heater. I'm completely satisfied with 78+ degrees, as are my children, but my wife and other friends consistently complained that it was too cold. Therefore, we used the heater for hours prior to every swim, which was not only expensive, but inconvenient to plan to turn on the heat in advance of swimming, so we really didn't use the pool a fraction of what I had anticipated. I installed four of these panels (two purchases with two per purchase) onto the sunroom roof nearest the pool equipment. At less than 100 square feet of panels, this is less than half of the recommendation that you do at least half of your pool surface square footage. My pool is 550 sqft, so I would have needed 10 or 12 panels to reach the recommendation, but my only option would have been to go a storey higher to the top of the house, and that would have been 24 feet of lift for the pump and I didn't foresee that working well. The results - my pool has been 82+ since mid-April. We were swimming in mid-March (sans wife) in 72 degree water, where last year the pool was still in the 50s at that time. Today's high was 76 degrees and the pool is 83, uncovered. The gas heater has been used three times total this year, and that was just to bump the temp up to 84 for a few pool parties ("playdates") following several days of rain and overcast skies. Even after our pool is in shade in the evening, the roof is exposed to full sun, and it is noticeable that the water entering the pool is significantly warmer than the pool water. On a couple of early May days when the air temp was in the upper 80s, the pool water reached 85 and I actually shut down the flow to the solar collectors because the pool water was beginning to be less refreshing and a little too warm for swimming laps and vigorous horseplay. I can imagine that in the hot summer months, we'll be looking at a pool getting close to 88 degrees (that's a guess though, because evaporation will start to keep that at bay). In summary, because of this product, I have heard more "it's warm!" than "it's cold!" this year, and we are still in mid-May. It has been an unusually warm May here in Atlanta, but it's nowhere near as hot as the weather seen last July and August, and the pool water is at least 6-8 degrees warmer. Last May at this time, we still had unheated pool water below 70 degrees. I spent more on pipes and fittings and valves than on the actual panels, but that was with the expectation that these will not last more than a few years. To be honest, if they needed replacement every year, it would still be well worth it, because I have already saved on my gas bill more than the upfront cost of the panels. I installed a Heyward automated valve actuator that can be set to the desired pool temperature. I have not wired the actuator in yet, but that will be necessary as it gets hotter and my pool will eventually get to be too warm - a concept that was completely foreign to us last year. In all honesty, I'm disappointed that my pool builder talked me out of solar and into purchasing the gas heater. My end result is that my pool is dual heated, which is great for cloudy Spring days, but when the gas heater needs replacement, I'll probably test out a year without it, with only solar. Apologies for the rambling review, but I cannot say enough that this setup has completely transformed our swimming experience from everyone avoiding the pool and it just being eye candy in the yard, to something we use every single day. Oh, and on pool covers. I bought a bubble wrap style pool cover last year and never really saw much benefit from it. I've toyed with it this year and I just don't see the point. On a day when the pool gets up to 83, I've covered it overnight and the water was 80 the next morning. The next day, under the exact daily highs and lows, I let the pool get up to 83 during the day and I left it uncovered. 80 the next morning. So save your money on the cover and get solar heat!
