How to deal with leaves on your winter pool cover

For most of us in Barrie and the surrounding communities in Simcoe county, autumn has come to an end and the leaves have fallen from our trees. If your pool has been covered for winter, there are likely leaves, twigs and other debris that can still be removed, before our next hard freeze.

In-ground pools with safety covers don’t have many issues with leaves – they blow on, they blow off, as the cover is drum-tight and water drains through. Solid covers however, manage to collect leaves in abundance each fall.

There are several efficient ways to remove leaves from a winter cover and it is often helpful to pump off some of the rain water / snow melt if you have a solid cover. Once you have removed most of the water from your in ground pool cover, here are a few simple ways to remove the leaves:

Leaf Blower Method

• If your in-ground pool cover is fairly dry, blowing the leaves off with a leaf blower is a simple method. A large leaf blower can blow leaves from one side to the other, and from there you can blow them off the cover completely. Note that if the leaves are wet, a blower may not work so well.

Pool Brush Method

• Use a pool brush to push the leaves from one side of the pool cover to the other side, from there they can be easily removed with pool leaf rake, or even with a lawn rake. Note that you should use only rakes with plastic tines, nylon bristle pool brushes, to minimize risk of puncturing your pool cover.

• A pool leaf rake is a large skimmer net with a deep bag. If you have lots of water on your in-ground pool cover, use the leaf rake the same way you would to remove leaves from your open pool.

• Pool leaf catchers are sturdy leaf net covers that you lay on top of your regular pool cover. Underutilized, they are the simplest leaf removal option if you do not have a safety cover installed on your in-ground pool. Once all the leaves have fallen, one person can easily remove every last leaf, in minutes! It is too late to install one now unfortunately, but a great option to think about for next year!