Daisy Pool Covers and Rollers

Do your research , had a “daisy quality” stainless steel pool roller installed with our new pool , after one month in place stainless steel is already rusting , , I would suggest going elsewhere , see photos Show details

Don’t go picking Daisy’s! – Imagine that your sparkling, inviting, aquamarine pool – for all of the time that it’s not actually in use – is covered with something that looks like a stained, bleached out old tarp! That’s how our Daisy pool blanket looks in 2024 after installation in February 2021. The practicalities of pool blankets in terms of various economies is the only… Read more

thing going for them. For short pool use they are inconvenient to roll-up and roll-out. You’ll choose not to use the pool rather than go to the trouble of rolling up the blanket…then pulling it back the length of the pool by hand after use…and because they are heavy they are not age-friendly. They are labour intensive to keep clean; and going by the very many reviews on other forums, they commonly and very quickly become ugly. Of course all the advertising pictures you see of pool blankets are all brand new blankets.

The pool is professionally cleaned and water balanced every month by a one of a well-known certified pool maintenance national franchise. Interestingly one of the guys who did one of our monthly pool cleaning services recommended leaving the blanket off during the day because ‘the water looks nicer than the blanket.’ Sure does!

Our Daisy pool blanket is supposed to be the top of the range – 525 micron pool cover TG (Titanium Green) plus the ST Roller. It was recommended by and installed by our monthly pool service people in 2021. By October 2022 we were already seeing some degradation in the bubbles: holes and discolouration. We sent a photo to the seller/installer and were advised that it was ‘typical’ wear.

Typical wear?! Daisy sales blurb insists that “Exclusive to Daisy, the UltraDomeTM technology (note this) completely eliminates weak points in the bubble which can eventually wear and break down. Daisy’s advanced manufacturing techniques use super toughened polyethylene containing the maximum antioxidants, tougheners and UV inhibitors to resist salt, sun and chemical. Together, these factors mean a stronger cover that will last longer.” (Longer than what?)

In addition to the ‘bleaching’ in an increasing number of the bubbles, the ‘widgets’ (spring-loaded adjusters) that connect the string to the blanket are dropping off in the pool and leaving the string that connects the blanket to the roller dangling. When this problem was raised with the seller/installer the ‘solution’ has been to run the string straight through the eyelet on the blanket. Why? Those spring-loaded adjusters must be included for a reason?

The 525 micron pool cover is sold with an “up to” 10 year ‘pro rata’ warranty. A warranty is NOT not a guarantee of product lifespan but it reasonably implies that the product will not degrade in just a couple of years; that you could optimistically, cost-wise, expect a bit closer to 10 years rather than under five. By September 2024 we were wondering how the blanket would make it out to even five years of the ‘up to’ 10 year warranty period. This is where the ‘pro rata’ bit of the ’warranty’ part comes in. We found that Daisy will ‘credit’ the time between the specified warranty period and the time you decide to dump your first worn-out blanket against the cost to you of a brand new replacement blanket…but THEY get to decide what the ‘rata’ rebate of your new blanket to the buyer is. From what we’ve read, the ‘pro rata’ is calculated very much in Daisy’s favour. It’s a so-called warranty that does look to us to be a very cunning sales tactic designed for repeat sales for Daisy – so a bit more Pro ‘rorter’ than ‘pro rata.’

We clean the blanket by rolling it onto the roller progressively while cleaning it by hand and then hosing it off. It’s a two-person job – one at each end of the roller, each person moving from the roller into the centre with a cloth and then hosing the blanket. This ensures that the accumulation of mud that builds up in the joins of the blanket (particularly after rain) can mainly be rinsed over the top of the roller into the garden behind the roller instead of creating a floating brown cloud in the pool water.

We went directly to Daisy by email with our concerns in September 2024. In November the Area Manager for Daisy came out and inspected the blanket. He said it ‘wasn’t the worst he had seen.’ (True. We’ve seen a lot worse in photographs in various other reviews.)

He also told us incidentally that the white over-cover supplied with the blanket must be fitted over the blanket EVERY TIME it is rolled up – even if it’s only rolled up for a short time! We don’t recall receiving any documentation with the product or other warning of that. We ventured that perhaps that was something somewhere on the Daisy web site - the logical go-to for product care and maintenance advice? The Area Manager said there was ‘a lot’ of PDF material there.

Indeed there is a lot of documentation relating to sales and specs, but finding care and maintenance information requires a lot of exploration. We finally found some info – in dribs and drabs in drop-downs in the FAQ section…

“…the white over-cover supplied every time you recover the cover. It must never – not even for a few minutes – be left in the sun when folded…the heat generating effect of the cover is magnified immensely…it will very quickly self-destruct. There can be so much heat created that the air expansion creates sufficient pressure to force the lamination of the two sheets apart, causing the bubbles to join and form lines of larger bubbles…the cover can get so hot that it becomes molten and welds itself together – completely ruining it.”

It's odd that this information is not provided somewhere clearly and obviously – at time of purchase. In very big letters. Even our pool people who roll up the blanket to clean the pool, winter and summer, don’t seem to be aware of this critical necessity. They've never asked us to leave the over-cover out for them to put over the rolled up blanket while they do the monthly vacuuming, cleaning, water testing and chemical balancing.

The Area Manager acknowledged that there was no evidence of the sort of damage that would’ve been related to heat damage to a rolled up blanket. We got lucky in that respect at least.

He also pointed out that a pool cover exists in a very hostile environment of extended hot sun and exposure to chlorine. That's probably pretty obvious to anyone. What other conditions is a swimming pool blanket going to be exposed to? According to the Daisy web site, ‘Daisy Pool Covers are Australia’s original and best, …all Daisy Pool Covers are Australian made and designed to withstand the tough Australian conditions.’ There’s those naughty copywriters at it again. In real life, their Area Manager has told us that their product is actually stressed and potentially degraded by those exact conditions.

There has been no further communication from Daisy since the Area Manager’s visit, despite his parting assurance “I’ll see what we can do…” We cc’d Daisy Sales in to an email we sent to our pool service people a couple of weeks later, (the sellers and installers of the product) summarising the Daisy Area Manager’s visit. That didn’t initiate any contact from Daisy’s either. It will be revealing if Daisy post a placating ‘public’ response to this review as well. They have our email, phone and address for direct contact…as they would have to have for all customers! It shouldn’t take a bad review for a business to then ostensibly appear to have attempted resolution.

Daisy might be the best known Australian solar blanket manufacturer but is their claim of ‘Best’ quantified somewhere, somehow? Or is it just more unsubstantiated and misleading copywriting? We can’t judge because we still only know this one brand – recommended by our pool service people. We should have read the many very bad Daisy reviews and we should’ve done our own sourcing. We now find there are other Australian solar blanket manufacturers like Abgal and Sunline, both accredited with ISO 9001. In a non-aligned industry review, Abgal are ‘best known for the durability of their premium pool covers and liners’ and Sunline are ‘best known for developing the world's first breathable pool cover.’ They are both reviewed favourably. Whether or not it’s in any way significant, in the same review of pool covers, Daisy was covered third – after those two.

When we replace (upgrade?), which will have to be sooner rather than later to preserve the aesthetic of our property, we won’t be buying into the hazy Daisy warranty gamble – because we won’t be picking Daisy’s!