Side by Side Comparison of: Solar Sun Rings

These are great passive heating

I love these. They keep the water level in the pool up and the need for chemicals down.

Work very well once you have the suggested 80% coverage.

Everyone says these don't work. Well, mine worked perfect. No curving up and keep the pool warm. Much better than a pool cover. But if you have a large pool it can get expensive. I have a medium size pool and it took 9 rings.

First I was not sure about these solar rings because of 50/50 reviews but i wanted to give them a try. I have a 16000gallon inground pool 400sq...I ordered 13 of these and covered 90 percent of the surface. And i also ordered hooks and put four hooks on my side yard so i can store them while not using. After one week my pool water temp up about 10 degrees and before i was losing 5 degrees overnight and after the rings now i am losing 2 degrees a night. I am also using liquid pool cover too in addition to solar rings. Now my pool water is about 85 and wife is happy!!! I am cleaning these ones a week with a garden hose.... It is not very easy to use but pool cover is way worse.... What i got is the latest model so be careful with what you order....one last note is we had two days of winds gusts up to 35miles per hour and they stayed where they are :) i recommend it if you don't want to spend your money on a heater....

We bought four of these last year and noticed that our pool was warmer because of them. In fact, we left them on and could even tell that the water directly under them was warmer than the water elsewhere in the pool, so they definitely have an effect. We bought two more this year to fill in the gaps since we were happy with them. These are marketed as a new and improved design, which consists of making the outside ring larger. This looks nicer than the previous one and makes the float better, but also has the negative aspect that they collect more debris and it is harder to spray it out than the previous version. Overall, we are happy with them.

very happy with these

I have had this type of solar rings before and I like them. You do have to be careful when filling with air to not overfill them. If you overfill the outer and inside ring they will not lay flat. The first time we overfilled and they looked like tacos, but once we got the correct amount of air into them they lay flat. It really does not take very much air to properly fill them. They cover our pool well and help warm the water, so we can still swim later in the year. I do like the pockets that fill with water to keep the rings in the pool when the wind kicks up. I do not use them everyday, only when I know I will not be swimming for a couple day. It is a pain to have to pull them out of the pool everyday. The last solar rings I had only lasted two and half years before we need to replace them, but everything about a pool is expensive. I am will to pay the $$ just to be able to have a private swim whenever we want morning, noon, and night; Sunday thru Saturday. Not only do they warm the water, but I noticed that there is not as much evaporation so the auto-fill is not running as much. A little lower water bill is nice.

It worked better than expected

We've been using these for our 12 x 24 above ground pool for several years. Can't beat 'em for the price. They do a decent job of retaining heat. Sure, you have to take them out and put them back in and so on, but pools are work no matter what you do, and this is an affordable alternative to full pool covers and such.Life of any unit depends on a lot of things. We've only had to replace 2-4 of these over the years, and we require about 7-8 of them in our pool (if I remember correctly). You do have to blow them up. It can take a little time.The price has gone up since we first started buying them but still worth, IMO.

Seem to work. I do recommend that you get the second model with the fins that prevent fly-aways.

I have bought 20 of these in the last several years and have seen the impact on my water bill and as well it is easier to warm up my pool for any event. The material is easy to clean. The negative is they get pin wholes very easily and will fill with water and get caught up in your sweep. I have bought 10 more than I should have but that is because the pin wholes are not alwasy in areas you can fix. such as the cracks or crevices or seems. I still believe these are great products and improved Rim but pin holes or cracks will happen

If you live in a windy area you will need to tie some weights to the eyelets. Mine blew out of my pool daily until I added weights. I used 3 1 Oz crimp on fishing weights and about 4" of 3/16" nylon cord tied to each eyelet. The magnets help but are not enough in a windy environment. We had one blow out of the pool and hit a sharp palm tree and punctured it on the second day. They do warm the pool as advertised if you can get them to stay in it.

I have purchased these both instore and on Amazon. 25% of the ones I bought instore were defective and wouldn't stay inflated. 50% of the ones I bought on Amazon the first time were also defective. The second time I purchased them on Amazon, they were of a much lesser quality compared to the first time. The inflatable ring is smaller and thinner and the quality of plastic is thinner. I wish they were better quality and would stay inflated. I'm not pleased with the product but don't see many other options. they do, when they work, help heat the pool and keep it from evaporating.

Out of 17 of these two have failed in the first month. One due to my dog and the other got a mysterious tear in the outer tube so I would say the build quality is not at fault. I gave it a mediocre rating because we have tested the pool with and without the rings and the temperature seems to be about the same. They do keep water from evaporating as much which is good in the drought. In 80-90 F temps the water is 78 F with or without the rings.I think they should be square for better coverage.

I got these instead of a custom solar cover because I couldn't imagine getting a large cover on and off on my own. When they are inflated properly, these sun rings adhere pretty well to the water's surface. Unfortunately our weather turned unseasonably cool after they arrived, so I'm not really certain how well they work. I think they are doing something, though, because the pool's temperature rarely drops below 65, although air temps have regularly dropped to the lower 40s in the evening. I'm looking forward to seeing how they will help in the spring. I'm only giving 3 stars because one of the 13 that I ordered arrived with a leak that I can't--for the life of me--locate. Even though that ring's center area is mainly filled with water, not air, it continues to float so I just keep it on the pool anyway.

I bought 10 of these for my 10,000 galon kidney shape pool. It's not enough to cover the entire pool. I probably need 3 more to completely cover it but the description said you just need to cover 70-80 percent of the pool.I don't have a problem with this product curling up etc. as from some other reviewers. Just follow the instruction and don't inflate the middle section too much. It said give it 2 big puffs of air. Whoever can do that must have a really big puffs because I have to probably give it about 4-5 long puffs before I can roll up and separate the middle section. However many puffs you give it, just don't over inflate it; make sure it's just enough to keep the 2 layer separated and that's it. Next, inflate the outside ring and you're set to go. I had it for about 1 month now and I did have to re-inflate them once already. It's not too bad to re-inflate them as they only need maybe 2 puffs on the outside ring and 1-2 puffs on the inside. The only thing is I'm not sure if it helps heating up the pool. My pool was around 78 degree when I got this on. We have not had too many sunny days this summer in the sunshine state (Tampa, FL) last month but when we did have 2-3 days of mid 90s. My pool only measured at close to 80 degree. I'm not sure if it would've been the same if I don't have it on.At any rate, it is easy to use and maybe it does help a little. But don't expect too much out of these.

We live in NJ and need to heat our pool in order to swim from May through September. We previously used a solar blanket, which was very effective but a royal pain to put on and off. The blanket also corroded quickly (despite several different types and grades) and was cumbersome to store in the off season. The solar sun rings are very easy to use and help maintain pool temp. They're clearly inferior to a solar blanket in heating power, but I think the ease of use trumps the other modality. I have concerns regarding the quality of the manufacturing as one of our rings was broken from the start and needed to be replaced immediately. Also, I'm not sure how long they will last, but the good thing about the individual rings, is that you can replace one at a time as need be. The jury is out as to whether this will be a good long term solution for heating our pool.

I have had these a while, so I've given them every opportunity to do what I expected which was heat the pool during the day and keep in the warmth at night. The first expectation never panned out and I think it is because we have a pool cage, so the sun doesn't heat through the solar ring as maybe it would without the pool cage. The second expectation was not met either - perhaps it helps a little in keeping in the heat at night but there are still many "holes" where heat can escape, Mainly they are just a pain in the neck to store, clean, and I'm really tired of dealing with them. Will be putting an ad in Craigs List soon to get rid of them.

Would not recommend. They get holes in rings easily and did not move temperature up in pool by more than 1 degree.

Hardly warmed up my pool even with more than 80 percent covered. Two of them could not stay inflated. Disappointed. Cute but not worth it.

These do not stay inflated, making them a pain to maintain. Most of them developed leaks. I had to cut up the air chamber around the outside and insert styrofoam "noodles" to keep them floating. It was a lot of work. That said, they do cut down on evaporation and help the pool maintain its temperature. The pool water may be warming a little faster too, but that is difficult to ascertain.

Didn't make much difference heat wise and the wind tends to bunch them up. I threw it away after a month or so.

We purchased 8 of these solar floats to see how they worked. Because of the huge difference in reviews (some rave, some terrible) we decided to purchase 8 floats first to try out, then if they worked, order the rest of needed floats for our pool. We wanted to love this product so much! It is a great idea, and a wonderful alternative to the bulky huge pool covers. We got the first 8 floats and followed the instructions to a "T." The floats worked great. Stayed on surface of pool, didn't kink up like we saw other reviewers mention. The only issue with the first 8 floats was that 3 of the stems on the floats were smashed down from the way they were packaged, so the valve didn't stay closed at first. After lots of massaging, & manipulating and putting in sun, I got them all to stay closed and hold air. To be honest, I thought other reviewers just didn't follow the instructions and were complaining unfairly (sorry reviewers!!) So, we ordered the 8 remaining needed floats.The second order of 8 had an outer ring that was VERY much smaller than the rings on the first floats. The first floats outer ring was about 3 inches wide, the second batch's outer ring was about 1 inch. The second batch was much thinner & flimsier, and despite only blowing two breaths of air into them, they all kinked up. I followed the instructions again, to the letter, and because of the kinking, tried putting the rings in the sun for 15 minutes (per directions). This helped with 3 of the rings, which now lie flat, but the remaining 5 are still all kinked up. Also, because of the smaller ring on the second batch, the pool water easily gets on top of the floats so they don't float as well and I'm not sure if they will work with water all over the top of them.I am extremely disappointed and feel like I wasted $400 and a lot of time on floats that are not as promised. It's frustrating to see that there are 2 different grades of these solar panels. If you get the FIRST type (with THICKER outer rings) they are awesome. Work great, float great, and kept the pool very much warmer than with no cover at all. If you get the SECOND type (with the 1" skinny ring) they are not good quality and do not work as promised. Product description should differentiate between these two models so buyers know what they are getting. I love amazon.com and order stuff from here all the time, but this transaction is going to be very difficult to fix. I feel like we were sold a product that was not as described. Product picture is the same, description is the same, even reviews are exactly the same, but we ended up with TWO different products, from two different sellers. I now have to figure out if I can get a refund (per their 2 year warranty) or if I am out of luck. VERY frustrating and a pain in the neck.**** EDITED TO ADD- Added 3 photos to product customer photos to show difference in products. Hope this helps buyers.

Half of these pool rings would not hold air they were defective when we finally able to use them. Also the sellers return window was only 30 days so now we can't use them and they won't take them back, I will never buy or recommend them again. Terrible product.

When this was blown up it never would lay flat on the surface, it buckled up. This was an expensive, for what it is, nuisance

Found it to be useless. Doesn't hold air.

Terrible! Save your money. When this product works, it works. In our case, that was only a few weeks before the solar ring started leaking.Save your money. Do NOT buy this product.

More than half developed leaks and the patch kit does not help. Pool temperature didn't change at all.

I previously reviewed this product and after a few days of use gave it a 2 star rating. After a month of use, I had to down grade it to a single star. The negatives expressed by others are all true. Windy conditions flip, fold and toss rings from the pool. They also lose air in a couple of days....I believe due to problematic air valves. On the positive side, when there's little or no wind, they do serve to heat the pool.It would have been nice for the manufacturer to warn / advise potential buyers of problems when used in nearly all windy conditions. I rate this product as a positively DO NOT BUY!