Best Pool Cover Pump

What rainwater on a cover actually weighs

The reason a cover pump exists is not the puddle, it is the weight of the puddle. Water standing in the middle of a solid cover pulls the whole sheet toward the center, strains every anchor and seam, and on a wall-hung above-ground cover can drag the cover into the pool. The arithmetic is worth doing once.

Every powered pump here will move that water. The differences are in when it starts, when it stops, and how far it can push the water uphill to somewhere you want it.

The two numbers that define an automatic pump

Switch-on depth decides how much water is allowed to accumulate before anything happens. Switch-off depth decides how much stays behind afterward. A pump that starts at 2 inches and stops at 1 inch removes half of each fill and leaves the other half sitting on your cover to freeze.

Read the flow column carefully. WAYNE's 3,000 GPH is through a 1-1/4 inch hose that most owners do not have; Little Giant's 1,700 GPH is quoted at one foot of lift, which is the honest way to state it. Flow through a garden hose to a drain across the yard is a fraction of either figure.

Gallons per inch, for the covers people actually own

The arithmetic above is for one cover size. Run it for the rest and the difference between a pump that stops at 3/4 of an inch and one that stops at a full inch stops looking like a detail.

A pump that starts at 2 inches and stops at 1 inch leaves half of every fill on the cover. On the 20 x 40 that is about 250 gallons, or a permanent ton, sitting on the seams all winter. WAYNE's 3/4 inch stop leaves three-eighths of it and Acquaer's stated 2/5 inch stop leaves about a fifth.

Lift, and why the drain's height beats horsepower

A submersible pump loses flow with every foot the hose climbs and stops entirely at its shutoff head. Little Giant publishes a 21.5 ft shutoff; the others publish no lift figure at all. If the pump sits on a cover at ground level and the hose runs to a drain across a flat yard, lift is a foot or two and any of these will do. If the pool sits below the house and the hose has to climb to the street, the one published figure on this page is the one that decides it.

Horsepower is a poor proxy. Little Giant's 1/3 HP unit and WAYNE's 1/4 HP unit have broadly similar flow on the flat; the extra power shows up as head, not as speed.

The features that keep a pump alive until spring

• **A check valve on the outlet.** Without one the hose drains back onto the cover every time the pump stops, the level rises, and it restarts. WAYNE and Acquaer both state one is included.
• **Freeze and locked-rotor protection.** A leaf or a sheet of ice jams the impeller, and a pump with no cutout burns out. WAYNE states both protections; Acquaer states a temperature cutout against running dry.
• **A strainer base.** It keeps pine needles out of the impeller and stops the pump tipping over. Removable without tools is worth having in January.
• **A retrieval rope.** The pump sits in the middle of the cover. WAYNE ships a 25 ft rope; with the others you tie your own on before you throw it out there.
• **Cord length.** 25 ft is standard on every powered unit here. Measure to the outlet before you assume that reaches.

Solid cover or mesh: decide this before the pump

A mesh safety cover drains through itself and needs no pump at all; the price is that fine debris and sunlight pass through with the water, which is why a mesh-covered pool tends to open greener - see winter leaf control. A solid cover keeps everything out and holds every drop of rain, which is what this page exists for. If you are choosing the cover as well as the pump, that trade is the first decision and the pump is a consequence of it - it is worked through on best winter pool cover.

The picks

Top pick - Set it in October, forget it until April

WAYNE WAPC250 Automatic Pool Cover Pump

Publishes both the switch-on and the switch-off depth, which is the entire specification of an automatic cover pump and the one most listings leave out.

The published figure

1/4 HP; iSwitch turns on at 2-1/8 in of water and off at 3/4 in; up to 3,000 GPH through a 1-1/4 in hose; 25 ft cord and 25 ft rope

WAYNE states the pump activates once water is at or above 2-1/8 inches and deactivates at or below 3/4 inch. Those two numbers are what 'automatic' means: the first decides how deep a puddle sits on your cover before anything happens, the second decides how little is left when it stops.

The stated 3,000 gallons per hour is through a 1-1/4 inch hose. Through the 3/4 inch garden hose adapter most people actually use, expect a good deal less - the maker quotes the best case, as they all do.

A 25 ft pull-to-shore rope is the detail that shows someone has used one: the pump sits in the middle of the cover, and the rope is how you get it back without walking on the cover.

What it does well

• Both on and off depths published
• Stated freeze protection and a locked-impeller protection circuit
• Ships the retrieval rope, a check valve and a garden hose adapter

What it costs you

• Will not self-start below 2-1/8 in of water
• Rated flow assumes the larger hose most owners do not have
• Heavier than the budget units

Skip it if your cover only ever collects an inch of water. It will not start on its own at that depth, and a siphon costs a fraction as much.

$179.99 - View on Amazon

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Pick 2 - A hose that has to climb

Little Giant APCP-1700 1/3 HP Pool Cover Pump

The most completely specified pump here: flow stated at a lift, a shutoff head, watts and amps, all on the listing.

The published figure

1/3 HP; activates in 2 in of water and shuts off at 1 in; 1,700 GPH at 1 ft of lift with a 21.5 ft shutoff; 270 W, 25 ft cord

Little Giant publishes 1,700 GPH at 1 ft of lift and a 21.5 ft shutoff. That pair tells you what the others do not - how flow falls as the hose climbs. If your drain is uphill from the pool, this is the specification that decides it and this is the pump that states it.

It activates at 2 inches and shuts off at 1 inch, so it leaves a little more behind than the WAYNE. On a mesh safety cover that is irrelevant; on a solid cover it means a shallow film stays.

270 W and 2.2 A are published, which lets you work out what a wet winter actually costs to pump. Most listings give you horsepower and nothing you can price.

What it does well

• Flow stated at a lift, plus a shutoff head - the honest way to rate a pump
• Removable intake screen for clearing debris and airlock
• Built-in handle and a weighted base for stability on a sagging cover

What it costs you

• Stops at 1 in, so a solid cover keeps a film of water
• The heaviest unit here
• 1/3 HP draws more than the 1/4 HP pumps for similar flow on the flat

Skip it if the drain sits at pool level and the hose runs flat. You are paying for lift you will not use.

$139.99 - View on Amazon

$178.89 · 22% off

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Pick 3 - Draining a cover nearly dry

Acquaer 1/4 HP Automatic Pool Cover Pump, 2,250 GPH

Publishes the lowest stop level of any automatic pump here, and a bottom-suction design that explains how it gets there.

The published figure

1/4 HP, 2,250 GPH; turns on at 2 in, pumps down to about 2/5 in then runs 60 seconds more; bottom suction removes water to 3/4 in

Acquaer states it switches on at 2 inches, pumps down to roughly 2/5 of an inch, runs a further 60 seconds and stops. The bottom-suction intake is the physical reason it can go that low; side-intake pumps cannot.

2,250 GPH is stated without a lift figure, so treat it as the best case at the outlet rather than what reaches a drain across the yard.

A temperature control core is stated to protect the motor if it runs dry, and the strainer base is claimed to come apart without tools - which matters in January with cold hands and a screen full of pine needles.

What it does well

• Lowest published stop level of the automatic pumps here
• Bottom suction, so it does not strand water around itself
• Check valve and hose adapter included

What it costs you

• Flow is not stated at any lift
• A newer brand than WAYNE or Little Giant
• Same 2 in start depth as the rest, so shallow puddles still sit

Skip it if your cover is mesh. Water passes straight through it and there is nothing to pump nearly dry.

$139.99 - View on Amazon

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Pick 4 - Starting in the least water

Superior Pump 92395 2,100 GPH Pool Cover Pump

Starts in less water than anything else here, which is the specification that matters on a wide flat cover that ponds shallow.

The published figure

Up to 2,100 gallons per hour; activates in approximately 1-1/2 in of water

Superior states activation at approximately 1-1/2 inches. Every other automatic pump here waits for 2 inches or more, and on a wide cover 2 inches of standing water is a great deal of weight sitting on the seams.

The listing gives 2,100 GPH but does not state the depth at which it shuts off. That gap matters, because a pump that starts low and stops high leaves nearly as much as it removed.

It is the sparsest listing on this page - one feature bullet. Everything not stated above is genuinely unstated rather than summarized here.

What it does well

• Lowest published activation depth on this page
• 2,100 GPH is ample for a residential cover
• Simple, with little to go wrong

What it costs you

• Shut-off depth is not published
• No freeze or locked-rotor protection claimed on the listing
• Almost nothing else is specified

Skip it if you want to know how much water it leaves behind. Superior does not say; WAYNE and Little Giant both do.

$166.99 - View on Amazon

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Pick 5 - Above-ground covers, with no power at all

Swimline Cover Saver Siphon Cover Pump

No motor, no cord, no electricity beside a frozen pool. It works by gravity, which means it works only where gravity is on your side.

The published figure

Unpowered siphon for above-ground pool covers; once primed it removes accumulated water on its own

This is a siphon, not a pump. Prime it once, hang the outlet below the level of the cover, and it moves water for as long as the outlet stays lower than the intake. On an above-ground pool, where the cover sits several feet above the lawn, that condition is met by default.

With no motor there is no start depth and no stop depth in the sense the electric pumps have. It runs while water is above the intake and the hose stays wet, and it cannot fail electrically.

It cannot lift. On an inground pool, where the deck sits above the cover, a siphon has nowhere to send the water and this is the wrong product.

What it does well

• No electricity and no cord across a frozen yard
• Nothing to seize, burn out or trip a breaker
• A fraction of the price of any powered pump here

What it costs you

• Only works when the outlet sits below the cover
• Needs re-priming if the hose runs dry or freezes
• Slow next to any motor on this page

Skip it if your pool is inground. There is no downhill for the water to run to, and you need a motor.

$23.89 - View on Amazon

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When a siphon is the better answer

An above-ground pool's cover sits four feet above the lawn. Water on it will run downhill through any hose that is primed and stays wet, with no motor involved at all. Swimline's Cover Saver Siphon is that hose: prime it once, hang the outlet on the ground, and it drains rain and melt on its own for as long as the outlet stays below the intake.

It cannot lift, so it is useless on an inground pool. It needs re-priming if the hose runs dry or freezes solid. And it is slow. In exchange there is no cord running across a frozen yard, nothing to seize, and it costs about what a decent net does. On an above-ground pool, buy this first and a powered pump only if it proves too slow.

Setting it up so it works unattended

1. **Put it in the lowest spot.** Water ponds where the cover sags, usually the middle. Use the rope to place it there rather than at the edge where it is convenient.
2. **Run the hose downhill with no high point.** A hose that climbs over the pool wall and back down traps air at the top; a check valve helps, a straight downhill run helps more.
3. **Plug into a GFCI outlet.** A submersible pump on a winter cover is the textbook case for one.
4. **Check it after the first storm.** The first real fill is when a mis-set float or a kinked hose shows itself, while you can still do something about it.
5. **Pull it before a hard freeze unless it is freeze-rated.** Of the pumps here, only WAYNE states freeze protection.

The rest of closing - the chemistry, and the leaves that fall after the cover goes on - is on its own pages. The chemical half is pool closing chemicals.