Solar Sun Rings Solar Pool Heater (10)

Last year I bought 10 of these to cover my kidney shaped pool. Because I live in the coastal zone in California where we were in a bad drought, I got a rebate from the city to help preserve evaporation.

The 10 rings covered about 80% – 90% of the pool and did exactly as they said. They reduced the evaporation substantially and warmed up the pool nicely. Because the temperature here is not super hot they did not make the pool too warm but just comfortable, and certainly better than no cover. Also they are easy for one person to take on and off. Much better than a full cover.

The down side was that last year one of the covers lost air immediately and by the end of the summer several more had deflated. I didn’t bother with what I thought would be a hassle in trying to get replacements. This year I ordered 9 more. I inflated and put them on the pool right away. Within 12 hours 2 had deflated. I blew them up and tried again and again they were deflated within a day.

This time I followed the warranty directions and called Solar Sun Rings. A live person answered right away. Within a day of filling in the online paperwork I got the two replacements. They are working beautifully and fill my need perfectly.

The customer service was amazing.

Rings have heated my water up to mid 80’s even with a couple very cloudy and rainy days.
Will probably be able to swim through October if the sun keeps shining.
Have made a big difference to extend the season.

I dont usually write reviews, but thought I’d share my experience with these. My summary would be as follows (with more details below that):

Pros:
– They warm the pool quite quickly
– They dont blow away very easily
– They do help to reduce evaporation

Cons:
– They trap dirt and leaves, and as others have mentioned, stop the skimmer from working properly
– If you have a large pool, the number you need to have make it very time consuming to remove and replace each time you want to swim
– The packaging process means that a large % of rings dont stay inflated, as the air plugs get squashed and so dont form a good seal & keep the air in. Probably 25% of the ones we ordered were faulty although the vendor was quick to send replacements

More Details:
On the whole these are fine and do exactly what they intend – the heat the pool 6-8F on a sunny day and they help cut down on evaporation. We have a large in-ground pool (40ft x 20ft) so I appreciate that we may be an exception, but the number we needed (~30) means that it takes 15-20 mins to remove all of them (making sure to drain all the water out of the anchor sections) before you can swim. Similar times to put them all back in means it very quickly becomes a flaff and we more often than not dont bother putting them back in, as we use the pool almost every day. As a result, to an extent you loose the benefits of buying them in the first place.

If you have a smallish pool, these would be great. For larger pools (I would suggest anything more than 400sq ft) and you’ll be better off with a traditional pool cover as the cost works out to be about the same, but much more convenient.

These rings help to both heat the pool and keep the water from evaporating as much. Easier to take on and off than a cover.

1/2 of these were defective out of the box. 1 of 2 of the chambers didn’t hold air and leaked at the seams on first use on 5 of the rings. One of the 5 didn’t hold air in both chambers. The rings in testing did retain more heat in the pool in 2 successive overnight tests. On average the pool retained 4 degrees more heat with approximately 50% coverage. I didn’t notice any appreciable increase in temperature during the day due to the rings bit it may be due to such a high defect rate. Getting just the right amount of air in the rings is also tricky. They need to be basically underinflated in order to lay flat and too much air in either the ring or middle sections result in a waffled ring that won’t lie flat. This reduces effectiveness and also allows for even a mild breeze to flip the rings in half or on top of other rings. I was very hopeful these would work and had planned on getting another 10 but based on their EXTREMELY poor quality control and finicky inflation requirements I’ve filed for a return on these.

FACT, i live in a windy area, this was not my wisest purchase.

THAT BEING SAID. I put these in the pool on a day where there was barely a breeze. mind you there are days i can’t grill, there are days i can’t see the bottom of the pool because the wind ripples are soooo bad. But on the day i first encountered the issue, my wind reader, showed a 4mph breeze. I could see the bottom of the pool, i was grilling out, i didn’t even realize there was a breeze and these were flying away, flipping over and essentially useless.
That being said. I’ve since purchased 10 more WITH ANCHORS, and i couldn’t be happier. THEY DO hold the heat in, they DO warm up your pool when its warm and sunny. I requested a return from the sender stating they didn’t work and would like to return them or exchange for the rings with anchors & this was the emailed response they sent me pulled straight from the email

” The problem is… we sent out what was ordered and can only have assumed this was checked before ordering. This is a product we cannot return/refund might call the company and see if they might suggest a fix.”
Even though it claims to have a full refund 30 day return policy.

However, oddly when they “closed” the Amazon return ticket this is the language the put on it

Dear (ME)

Pool Supply Warehouse has closed the return request listed below.

Reason for the closure of your request: Solved a technical issue

Seller comments: We do not carry that model. If you do not want these you can send them back to us for a refund.

Thanks

wierd, because their email to me clearly said i was screwed. Way to manipulate the system. Lesson learned, i guess.

Best solar rings love that I can handle them by myself. And the customer service is AMAZING!!!!! One of the rings had a hole and not even a week later had a new ring at my door step.