Automatic Pool Safety Covers: Coverstar

We do automatic safety covers with Coverstar. The case for one is short: it is a safety barrier over the water, and it is the single best thing you can do for your heating bill. Those two usually get argued separately, but they are the same purchase.

The part that matters most is the part nobody talks about. A manual cover is a chore, so it does not get used. An automatic cover is a button, so it does. A cover that stays open protects nothing.

A Real Safety Barrier, Not a Solar Blanket

An automatic safety cover is a solid cover that runs across the pool on tracks set into the deck. It is not the floating blue bubble blanket, and it is not a mesh winter cover. Closed, it is a barrier across the water.

Coverstar covers are built to meet ASTM F1346, the American standard for safety covers on pools, spas and hot tubs. That standard is what separates a safety cover from a cover that merely covers. If a cover is not built to it, it is a debris cover, whatever the brochure calls it.

A cover is not a substitute for a fence, for the rules you set, or for watching kids around water. It is one layer. It is a good layer, and it is the one that is in place at 11pm when nobody is thinking about the pool.

It Pays You Back Every Night

Most of the heat your pool loses goes straight off the surface, overnight, into the air. It is the same reason a cup of coffee goes cold on the counter. Put a lid on the pool and you keep the heat you already paid to make.

Latham, who own Coverstar, publish figures for what a cover saves on heating, evaporation and chemicals. We would rather you hear it as a rule of thumb from us: a cover does more for your running cost than choosing between a gas heater and a heat pump does. If you are heating the pool at all, the cover is the thing that makes the heater affordable. The savings on water and chemicals come along with it, since what does not evaporate does not need replacing.

What to Know Before You Order One

Covers are one of the few things on a pool that cost far less to plan than to retrofit, so it is worth knowing a few things before you decide.

Shape decides most of it. Automatic covers want a rectangle, or something close to one, so a freeform pool with curves and a rock waterfall is not a candidate. If a cover matters to you, it has to influence the shape of the pool itself, which means deciding now rather than in year three.

The mechanism does not have to be ugly. It can sit under the deck or in a recessed housing instead of in two boxes at the shallow end, and that is a design decision that is far easier to make while the deck is still a drawing. Two other things worth hearing now: an automatic cover is not a winter cover, so ask us what closing your pool actually looks like before you assume it is handled, and it can be tied into IntelliCenter, which makes closing the pool part of shutting the backyard down for the night.

If you are still choosing between pool types, this is one of the quiet arguments for a rectangle, and it is worth reading alongside fiberglass vs gunite.

We do automatic safety covers with Coverstar, whose covers are built to meet ASTM F1346, the American safety cover standard.

Covers We Install

All indicated Pentair trademarks and logos are property of Pentair. Coverstar is a trademark of Latham Pool Products, Inc. All other brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners. Hydroscape Pools & Landscape Construction is an independent contractor and is not an agent of, or affiliated with, these manufacturers.

Proudly Providing Services Throughout the Mid-Atlantic United States

From building a brand-new pool to keeping an older one in great shape, we offer a full range of pool and outdoor living services across the Mid-Atlantic. One team handles all of it, start to finish.

Inground Pool Design & Installation

Custom inground pools built in fiberglass or concrete, designed around your yard and how your family wants to use it. We handle the design, the permits, and the full build with our own crew.

Spa/Hot Tub

Inground spas, spillover spas built right into your pool, and standalone hot tubs, with the jets, heating, and controls to match.

Pool Renovation

Is your older pool looking tired? We handle resurfacing, new tile and coping, deck updates, and equipment upgrades to bring it back to life.

Pool Heating

Gas heat to stretch your season into April and October, or a heat pump to hold temperature through the summer for less money to run. We install Pentair, and we run the gas line and the electrical ourselves.

Pool Automation & Smart Controls

Pentair IntelliCenter, standard on every pool and spa combination we build. Start the spa, run the lights and check the pump from your phone instead of walking out to the pad in the dark.

Pool Water Features

Natural stone waterfalls and waterfall and slide combinations from Advanced Waterfall Systems, plus spillover spas and bubblers on a tanning ledge.

Automatic Safety Covers

Coverstar automatic safety covers, built to meet ASTM F1346. One button closes the pool, which is the whole reason an automatic cover actually gets used.

Pool Equipment Repair

Pumps, filters, heaters, salt systems, and automation. We diagnose, repair, and replace the equipment that keeps your pool running right.

Pool Maintenance & Protection

Keep your pool clean, balanced, and ready to swim, with regular care plus seasonal openings and closings handled by our own team.

Landscape & Outdoor Living

Patios, walkways, plantings, and complete outdoor living areas that turn the space around your pool into a backyard you actually want to spend time in.

Outdoor Kitchen Installation

Built-in grills, bars, countertops, and full outdoor kitchens, with the gas and electrical handled in-house.

Pergolas & Shade Structures

Pergolas, pavilions, and shade structures that keep your patio and pool comfortable all summer.

Patio & Hardscape Construction

Patios, pool decks, walkways, retaining walls, and fire features, built to last.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Brand of Automatic Safety Cover Do You Install?

Coverstar. Their covers are built to meet ASTM F1346, the American standard for safety covers on pools, spas and hot tubs.

Is an Automatic Cover the Same as a Safety Cover?

A Coverstar automatic cover is a safety cover, built to meet ASTM F1346. What it is not is a solar blanket or a mesh winter cover. Those are debris and heat covers, not barriers. The word “cover” gets used for all three, which is where the confusion comes from, so ask which one you are being quoted.

Does a Cover Replace a Pool Fence?

No. Treat it as one layer of several, alongside your fence, your gates, your alarms and your own rules about who goes out back and when. Your township will have its own barrier requirements, and we will build to them. The honest value of an automatic cover is that it gets used, because it is a button rather than a chore.

Will a Cover Really Cut My Heating Bill?

Yes, and it is the biggest lever you have. Most of a pool’s heat leaves through the surface overnight. Cover the surface and you keep it. If you are putting in a heater, put in a cover, or you are paying to heat the sky.

Can I Put an Automatic Cover on Any Pool?

No, and this is the one that catches people. Automatic covers need a rectangle or close to it. A freeform pool with curves, or one with a rock waterfall in the way, generally cannot take one. That is exactly why we ask about covers during design instead of after, because it is a shape decision more than an equipment decision.

Can You Add One to a Pool You Did Not Build?

Often, if the shape cooperates. The tracks and the mechanism have to go somewhere, which on a finished yard can mean deck work. Send us photos and rough dimensions and we will tell you whether it is straightforward, whether it is deck work, or whether the shape rules it out.

Automatic Pool Safety Covers in PA, NJ, DE & Northern Virginia

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