Intex Heavy Duty Solar Above Ground Pool Cover Reel Aluminum Adjustable with Locking Mechanism for Rectangle Frame Pool, Cover Not Included

I love this pool reel! It was super easy to install. You place each Of the end pieces over the pool frame and manually tighten the two screws for each side. One side is a lockable reel, and the other side is an end piece. Next, you insert the adjustable poles to determine the correct width to fit between the ends.A tip is to measure across the pole to evenly space out the six cords that will be clipped and punctured through your solar pool cover. I attached my first cords 12” from each end to give the solar cover some space to adjust and not get caught on the ends as you reel it up. Then I divided the remaining space by four to place the other four cords. The first 20’ of length worked really well. The last five feet had a little resistance from the sheer volume of the solar pool cover 12’x25’ and catching a little bit on the ends.My daughter helped me to insert the pole, add the puncture clips to the solar cover, and reel in the first time. Now, one person can easily wind it up or unwind it. I always leave about a foot wound up just so that I don’t need a second person to help me to wind it back up.This reel is designed for a rectangular pool. I didn’t realize that my pool is not perfectly rectangular, until it arrived. My pool has rounded corners, which doesn’t work well with the design. I simply placed the reel and end on the last straight part, opposite each other, before the curve started. I lost about one foot from my pool, but it still is worth it to me.I was concerned about ordering something made out of plastic. I don’t know how long it will last, and I hate to add more plastic to our environment. However, it is super thick. It’s at least 1 1/2” thick in the narrowest areas.I’m tired of rolling up my solar cover to use my pool. I’ve been manually rolling it up for 16 months. I finally decided that I was worth the price of making it easier for me to use my pool. I’m so happy that I treated myself! This reel is so easy to use! I use it nearly daily.

Product arrived quickly at a good price. Ez to put together with no tools. Heavy duty aluminum shafts enclosed to create whatever length you need . Snap on pool cover leashes aren’t the greatest , as they tend to unsnap from the pool cover often. But I needed a low profile, low width pool reel for my 7x25ft pool that I could store away without a monster set of wheels attached! The screw down sections meant for attaching to the edge of an above ground pool can be replaced with a couple of 2x4 short blocks or equivalent to act as “feet” to use the reel at ground level! Works great! NO wheels. It’s already light weight to lift and store away.

Before buying this product I had the fun of pulling off the solar cover completely and having to find a place to lay it until later that day and putting it back on when finished. Not a fun process with a 16x32 pool. This solar cover roller instantly changed that. It was super easy to put together, just a few snaps and a few turns. I definitely recommend getting assistance putting it on the pool to make the process much easier. After that rolling up the solar cover and rolling it back out is such a breeze, I can do both solo (although having another when rolling up the solar cover is nice in case the solar cover starts to roll unevenly). I love that the bar clamps to the frame without damaging it or needing to alter the frame.Now my complaints to warrant why I gave it only 4 stars:- The clamps used to hold the solar cover are cheap and they keep popping open on me.- The solar cover clamps require you to puncture the solar cover.- The handle has to be in a specific location to lock the rolling bar. This is an issue if your solar cover does not have the perfect roll to make it sit at that specific position. Many times for me the solar cover unrolls a bit (not a lot) into the pool when the wind blows a bit and unravels it because the solar cover end is sitting directly on top of the roll for me instead of being able to hang down a bit.- The roller clamps rotate on me sometimes when I am rolling the solar cover in/out making it cause an uneven roll the next time I go to use it. The clamps that clamp the actual roller bar need to be more snug to be prevented from turning.

This thing is a dream. It was very easy to put together and works great. It's so convenient to pull back the solar cover without any trouble. One person can do it all. Only thing I would say is to be careful when attaching the tabs to your solar cover as they will come off if you don't put them on tightly.

So easy to cover pool and remove it

Does anyone know if you can buy the clips separately?

I’ll give this a 4.5 star review since the clips that attach to the pool cover could allow for more room between the cover and where the clip engages. I had a much cheaper roller previously and this roller is built much better.I wanted to post this review to give people an idea of an alternative mount idea. As you can see in my pictures I mounted 2 4x4’s to hold the mounts to move the roller up and away from the pool since if you mount it to the pool you loose valuable space. I did drill holes into the mounts (voiding warranty without a doubt), how I did that was I first removed the underneath plate that is held in by 4 or 5 screws. Once the screws are removed you need a flathead screw driver to unclip it from the 2 sides, I just put my screw driver in by the clips and twisted the screw driver and it came right out. Once you have the cover off you can see how the plastic is molded for support and I just drilled 2, 3/8” holes in between the support structure, you need to make sure the holes are wider than your 4x4 so when you mount it to the base you can bolt it underneath. I used 2 6” zinc plated bolts to mount them to the base I screwed into the 4xAlso added a couple of pictures for the modification I did to the attachment clips that started to fail after seeing a lot of sun and warmth. I used 1/2” screw post since that’s what was in stock but 3/8” would be perfect, I also added some blue loc-tite to the screws. Hope this helps.

Used this with the solar cover and was easy to use. Set up is like 30 seconds. Strong material.