Dog-Bone and Odd-Shape Pool Cover Solutions

By the Lux Pool Team · Published 2026-05-27 · ~10 min read

Rectangular pools are easy. A standard solar blanket cuts to size, a 20-ft reel fits along the short end, and a motor retrofit drops in. Dog-bone pools, kidney pools, freeform pools with a tanning ledge or sun shelf — those are a different conversation.

This guide covers the most common irregular pool shapes and what actually works for covering and rolling each one. The short version: in most cases, a rectangular blanket trimmed to fit beats a custom-shape cover, and a motorized reel handles dog-bone shapes better than people expect.

The five irregular shape categories

The five shapes that come up most often in our support inbox:

1. Dog-bone — rectangle with rounded narrow waist in the middle (popular 1970s-1980s shape)
2. Kidney / freeform — curved organic shape with no straight edges
3. L-shape / lazy-L — two rectangles joined at a corner
4. Rectangle with sun shelf or tanning ledge — mostly rectangular but with a shallow ledge on one end
5. Oversize / commercial — over 20×40 ft, sometimes with a single long axis exceeding 50 ft

Each has its own answer for covering and rolling.

Dog-bone pools

The dog-bone is a rectangle that necks down in the middle to a narrow waist, with rounded ends. Common pool dimension: 16×36 with a 12-ft waist, or 18×40 with a 14-ft waist.

What works:

• Trim a rectangular solar blanket to fit the maximum perimeter. The cover sits on the water and naturally hugs the narrower waist as the floating edges meet.
• Mount the reel on one of the longer-ends — the wider end gives you cleaner roll-up.
• For motor selection: use the L-shaped Lux Pool design if your blanket is 16-mil — the extra torque handles the irregular roll-up better.

What doesn't work:

• Trying to use a true dog-bone-shaped cover. The custom shape adds cost and the rolled-up profile is uneven because the waist gives you less material per inch of reel.
• Mounting the reel at the narrow waist. The shorter axis is structurally fine but the wider edges of the blanket overhang and drag.

Kidney / freeform pools

Kidney pools are the curved organic shapes popularized in the 1960s-1970s and still common in mid-century home builds. There's no straight edge anywhere.

What works:

• Buy a rectangular solar blanket sized to the maximum L×W of the pool. Trim to follow the perimeter, leaving a 6-12 inch tab on one long axis for the reel.
• Mount the reel along the longest straight-ish axis of the pool. You'll need a deck cut-out or a slightly offset position to keep the reel from arcing into the curve.
• Use a manual or motorized reel; the motor works fine on irregular shapes as long as the blanket itself rolls evenly.

What doesn't work:

• Custom kidney-shape covers from off-brand sellers. They look right on paper but the bubble geometry doesn't accommodate the curve and they roll unevenly.
• Trying to cover only the swimming area — the cover needs to span the whole water surface to get the evaporation savings.

L-shape and lazy-L

L-shape pools are two rectangles joined at a 90° corner. The lazy-L is the same idea with rounded transitions.

What works:

• Two separate covers, one per leg. Each leg gets its own rectangular blanket trimmed to fit. Each leg gets its own reel. Sounds like double the work but each cover is small enough that even a manual reel is easy.
• Single L-shaped cover with the reel on the longer leg. The corner section drapes over the inside angle and you accept a small overlap. Works but the cover wears at the corner fold faster.

Most L-shape pool owners we work with end up doing two separate covers and two reels. It's cleaner.

Pools with a tanning ledge or sun shelf

This is the most common modern build — rectangular main pool with a 6-12 inch deep tanning ledge at one end. The ledge changes the geometry of the water surface.

What works:

• Standard rectangular cover sized to the full pool including the ledge area. The cover floats on the ledge water just like it floats on the deep end.
• Mount the reel on the deep end (opposite the ledge). When you roll the cover off, it pulls toward the deep end and the ledge water is exposed first — convenient because that's usually where kids splash.
• If the ledge has umbrella sleeves or bubblers, work the cover around them with hand trims after first install.

Oversize and commercial pools

Standard residential motor kits handle pools up to 20×40 ft (800 sqft). Above that you're in custom territory.

Up to 24×55 ft: Custom build available. Quote individually based on tube length, blanket weight, and motor torque requirements. Send dimensions to 740-495-6832 for a quote.

Larger than 24×55: Commercial sizing. We route these to our custom solutions team because the motor and battery scaling requires different components than the residential kit.

Specifically:

• Rocky's Easy Roller 24-ft+ — special 4-inch SLS PA adapter available, made to order ($183.81/pair)
• HydroTools / SwimLine commercial 28" Truss Base — route to custom solutions

Trim a rectangular cover vs. order custom

Almost always: trim a rectangular cover. Here's why:

The trim-to-fit approach loses nothing structurally because solar blankets are uniform bubble sheets — you're not weakening the cover by cutting it as long as you leave at least 6 inches of margin on each axis.

Where to put the reel on an irregular pool

Three rules:

1. Find the longest reasonably straight axis. The reel sits along that axis. The blanket rolls perpendicular to it.
2. Pick the end with the most deck clearance. You need at least 2 feet of clear deck on each side of the reel tube to set the reel and let it spin without hitting deck furniture.
3. Avoid placement under a diving board or any overhead obstacle. The rolled-up blanket adds about 12-18 inches of height to the reel — same problem with both L-shaped and inline motor designs.

If you're not sure where the reel should go, draw the pool from above and mark candidate axes. The longest one with clean deck on both ends usually wins.