Solar Pool Cover vs Solar Blanket: What's the Difference?

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

If you've ever shopped for pool covers, you've seen "solar pool cover" and "solar blanket" used interchangeably — sometimes on the same product page. So which is it? And is one better than the other?

The short version: they're the same thing. "Solar pool cover" and "solar blanket" both describe the same product — a sheet of UV-stable polyethylene that floats on the pool surface to trap heat and slow evaporation. But the terminology hides a much more useful question: how do you actually get it on and off the pool every day?

That's where most pool owners give up. The blanket itself is cheap. The hand-cranking is what kills the routine. This post clears up the terminology and points to the part of the system most people overlook: the motorized reel.

Solar pool cover vs solar blanket: the terminology

Industry-wide, these terms are interchangeable:

• Solar cover
• Solar blanket
• Solar pool cover
• Bubble cover (refers to the air-cell side)
• Thermal blanket (older term)

You'll see Sun2Solar selling it as "Crystal Clear 1600 Solar Cover." Abimars calls it the "16 Mil Solar Blanket." BigXwell labels it a "Heavy 16-mil." All three describe the same category of product: a bubble-side-down sheet of polyethylene with UV inhibitors that floats on the water and lets solar radiation through while trapping the heated water below.

The variation in branding is mostly marketing. The actual specifications you care about are:

1. Mil rating (thickness)
2. Material (clear, blue, dark blue, transparent)
3. Size (cut to your pool dimensions)
4. UV stability rating (how many seasons before the bubbles disintegrate)

How solar covers actually heat a pool

People assume a solar blanket "warms the water from sunlight" the way a solar panel makes electricity. That's only part of the story.

The cover does three jobs at once:

1. Lets solar radiation through. Transparent or lightly tinted polyethylene transmits most of the solar spectrum into the water, where it's absorbed and converted to heat.
2. Slows evaporation. This is the big one. Evaporation is the dominant heat-loss path for an uncovered pool — bigger than radiation or conduction. Every gallon that evaporates takes a lot of BTUs with it. A floating cover stops 95%+ of that.
3. Insulates overnight. Pools lose heat at night through evaporation and radiation to the cold sky. A cover puts a thermal barrier between the water and the night air.

That's why an unheated, uncovered pool in Ohio peaks at maybe 78°F in July. Add a cover that you actually use, and the same pool runs 84-88°F by mid-June and stays warm into September.

Three types of covers (and which one this article is about)

This article is about the first one — the floating solar blanket. The other two have different use cases and different price points.

Mil ratings and what they mean

A "mil" is one-thousandth of an inch (0.001"). Solar blankets come in:

• 8 mil — cheap, 1-2 seasons. Avoid unless you genuinely don't mind buying a new one every year.
• 12 mil — the most common consumer grade. 2-3 seasons in moderate climates. Sun2Solar's standard line.
• 14 mil — premium consumer. 3-4 seasons.
• 16 mil — commercial / heavy-duty. 4-5+ seasons. Abimars 16 Mil and BigXwell Heavy 16-mil sit here.

The thicker the blanket, the more it weighs and the more torque your reel needs to roll it up. Manual cranks struggle with 16-mil blankets after a year of UV exposure makes them stiff. A motorized reel handles them easily — we recommend 12-16 mil for any motorized setup. Our newer L-shaped motor design has 30% stronger torque specifically for heavier blankets.

The missing piece: a reel that doesn't require a crank

Here's the part the cover manufacturers don't tell you. A solar blanket only delivers its $1,000+/year savings if you actually put it on the pool every night and take it off every morning. In practice, most pool owners stop doing that by July because hand-cranking a 20×40 blanket twice a day is exhausting and time-consuming.

That's where a motorized reel comes in. With a motorized retrofit, opening and closing the cover is a 90-second button press — not a 5-minute physical workout. The blanket goes on every night because the friction is gone.

Lux Pool doesn't make the blanket itself. We make the motor kit that turns your existing hand-crank reel into a one-button system. Same blanket. Same reel. Different routine.

What does a solar cover save you?

Real numbers for a typical inground pool in a moderate climate (zone 5b-7a, May-October swim season):

• Heat retention: 50-70% reduction in heat loss overnight. If you're heating with gas, that's $1,200-$1,600 in gas savings per season.
• Water savings: 30-50% less evaporation. For a 20×40 pool that's 3,000-5,000 gallons not refilled per season.
• Chemical savings: Less evaporation means less stabilizer and chlorine loss. Roughly $100-$200/season.
• Swim season extension: 4-6 extra weeks (2-3 in spring, 2-3 in fall) at usable temperatures.

For a deeper dive with a payback-period calculator, see our pool blanket cost savings calculator.

Bottom line

Solar pool cover, solar blanket, bubble cover — same product. What matters is:

1. Get the right mil rating for your climate (12-14 standard, 16 if you want it to last)
2. Make sure it's UV-stable (off-brand Amazon covers often aren't)
3. Have a way to put it on every night without dreading it — which usually means motorizing your reel